Former Railway Station

Cadw's description

Location

At the end of a short road running SE off Stryd Bangor from the War Memorial.

History

Built 1874 as Port Dinorwic Station, S of the original which was near Halfway House Inn. The new station was larger and accommodated the stationmaster in a flat above the station building, the first to use it being Isaac Jones. The station had a General Waiting Room, Ladies' Waiting Room, Stationmaster's Office, Booking Office, Toilets and Oil-lamp Room. The Bangor to Caernarvon railway line opened to traffic on 10 March 1852 and the station closed in 1969 when the line was closed to passenger trains. The line closed finally in 1972.

Exterior

Yellow brick with red brick decorative detail, slate roofs with terracotta ridges and tall corniced yellow-brick stacks. Unusually large and ornate near-symmetrical front, two-storey, with big half-hipped slightly-projecting cross-wings framing a three-bay centre with two eaves gables and centre small hipped gable. Two tall stacks on ridge frame centre bay. Cross-wings had tall side-wall stacks, surviving only on left end. Gables have punched patterns to bargeboards and terracotta finials. Windows are singles, pairs and triplets with moulded bricks to jambs, mullions and cambered heads. Eight-pane sashes throughout, the top and bottom panes smaller than those between. Flush slate sills. Raised plinths, red brick band at mid-height of ground floor windows and double bands at ground floor window-head height, first floor sill height and also head-height on cross-wings only. Cambered window heads are also framed in red brick and gables have red brick lozenge patterning with crosses in lozenge centres. Hipped small centre gable has yellow brick corbelled eaves. Centre has 2-1-2 window arrangement and ground floor broad double doors under cambered head. Left cross-wing has paired window above, triplet below. Right cross-wing has broad triplet above and three windows below, the outer ones narrower.

Attached each end are single storey wings with half-hipped gables. Left wing has paired window right and full-height double doors left. End-wall blank door. Right wing is similar, but end-wall paired window.

Rear has similar detail, two half-hipped gables projecting, framing gabled centre, but crosswings have ground floor canted bays.

Reason for designation

A railway-station of unusual scale and decorative detail, the decoration integral to the well-controlled composition.