Summary
Built 1826 as an inn by the S&DR to serve the needs of people doing business at the railway’s adjacent coal depot. Depending on precise definitions, this building can be identified as being a part of a very early proto-railway station and potentially the world’s first public house built by a railway company. Flanking the inn are two relatively early railway workers’ houses built in the 1830s, these were formerly listed separately.
Reasons for Designation
The former Railway Tavern and workers’ housing built for the Stockton & Darlington Railway, Bridge House, 50-56 Bridge Road, are included on the List at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a key component of an early proto-railway station, testing the idea of modelling stations (the idea of which was just developing) on coaching inns. Built 1826, it was the first building designed to serve the needs of the public that was specifically constructed as part of the Stockton & Darlington Railway’s evolving Stockton terminus;
* the inn’s restrained but dignified detailing, particularly to its front elevation contrasting with the simpler treatment of the flanking workers’ housing, reflects the Stockton & Darlington Railway’s Quaker influenced approach to architectural design.
Historic interest:
* as one of the few surviving buildings constructed for the Stockton & Darlington Railway in the 1820s, when the railway was highly influential in the development of other early railways both in England and abroad;
* thought to be the first railway inn specifically built by a railway company in England, quite possibly the world;
* for the relatively early date of the flanking railway workers’ housing, built in the 1830s.
History
The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was pioneering: its 1823 enabling Act gave it powers to operate a public railway for the carriage of both passengers and a full range of goods, however it expected to make most of its revenue through the transportation of coal between collieries just beyond Shildon to depots along the line, principally at Darlington, Yarm and at the line’s terminus at Stockton. Poor weather had caused construction delays and mounting legal and other costs put a considerable strain on company finances making the need to start generating revenue critical for the company. Consequently, when the line opened for business on 27 September 1825 not everything was ready: the railway had taken delivery of just its first steam locomotive and facilities were not all in place. For instance, company records from October 1825 noted the need to construct temporary cabins at the Stockton coal depot to provide accommodation for people conducting business there; the siting of its weigh house (see separate Listing, 1139963) was also finally agreed, this not becoming operational until July 1826.
In the mid-1820s the concept of the railway station had yet to be developed. Instead the functions of what later became associated with railway terminus stations either did not exist at Stockton or were scattered across a wide area. The line ended at a series of wharfs along the river close to the town, however the coal depot was built about 0.25km to the south at St John’s Well, to be adjacent to the approach road to the bridge across the Tees. It was here that the railway’s first rail had been ceremoniously laid on 23 May 1822 showing the importance of the site to the company, and it was here that a proto-railway station slowly developed.
The chairman of the S&DR, Thomas Maynell, had privately built an inn next to the railway’s coal depot at Yarm. This did a good trade in serving people attending the depot, many of whom would have travelled a long distance to buy coal. In June 1826 the S&DR agreed to build their own inns at both the Stockton and Darlington depots, the following month borrowing £1305 19s from Joseph Pease to pay for their construction. The inns, together with a third commissioned the following month for the Aycliffe Lane depot, were designed by John Carter, a master mason who had overseen the construction of bridges along the line. A licence for the Stockton inn was duly obtained in September and the building was complete and leased out by the end of the year: the Railway Tavern possibly being the world’s first inn to be built and opened by a railway company. The first landlord was Francis Peacock, the joiner who had been engaged to build the inn. Records show that he used the premises for his joinery business as well as running it as an inn until 1838. The Railway Tavern was first depicted on a simplified plan of Stockton dated 1828, published in Brewster’s history of the town published in 1829. It is first shown in detail on Dixon’s 1839 plan of the railway, by which time the attached workers’ cottages had been added, that to the west linking to the weigh house, the slightly grander house to the east being occupied by the manager of the depot in 1841. This plan also shows the coach station that had been built just to the west in the mid-1830s after the S&DR had taken passenger services in-house at the end of 1833. The Ordnance Survey 1:528 town plan, surveyed 1855, shows the complex in greater detail although it does not show all of the internal divisions creating the separate domestic properties noted in census records. The last landlord, William Suggett, became insolvent in 1861 and the railway gave up the licence, dividing the building into two domestic properties for railway workers, this thought to be when the inn’s front door was converted into a pair of doorways. Census records and directories show that the building (in the C20 identified as 50-56 Bridge Road) remained in multiple domestic use, mainly for rail workers, until at least the mid-1950s. The coal depot and goods station to the west remained in use into the 1970s, but the buildings became derelict. In the late 1980s they were bought from British Rail and converted into a hostel for single homeless people, various alterations and extensions being added to the rear, these generally being sympathetically detailed. The former coal depot was cleared of railway lines and became a storage yard for the local authority’s highways department.
Although the Railway Tavern was the principal structure of what can be seen as a proto-railway station, unlike Aycliffe Lane, the building did not become a recognisable railway station. It was separated from the 1830s coach station by the railway line to the riverside wharfs, so although it may have been used by passengers, it was not conveniently placed for people catching trains from the coach station. The Railway Tavern is not known to have been used as a booking office, although the adjacent weigh house may have been used as such for a time in the 1830s. Passenger services to St John’s Crossing ceased in 1848, with traffic switching to the railway line to Middlesbrough (opened at the end of 1830) stopping at South Stockton (now Thornaby Station), the former coach station, and its larger replacement built 1845 further to the south, being retained for goods.
Details
Former inn, 1826 by John Carter for the Stockton & Darlington Railway flanked by a pair of 1830s railway workers’ cottages, combined and converted into a hostel in the late 1980s with later extensions.
MATERIALS: brick, that to the front (northern) elevation of the inn being neatly laid in Flemish bond, more roughly built elsewhere, generally in English garden wall bond. The inn’s front elevation also has stone dressings - quoins, wedge lintels and two bands. Elsewhere openings generally have flat arches in brickwork, some being neatly gauged. Windowsills are generally stone. Roofing is in Welsh slate, most of the guttering is timber.
PLAN: the inn is a T-plan with the main block, forming the head of the T, orientated to Bridge Road, with a full-height wing extending to the rear containing the main stairs. Since conversion into a hostel, this rear wing has been extended southwards, replacing the footprint of former outbuildings, retaining a carriage arch through the wing giving access to an enclosed cobbled yard to the west. The western cottage is a single depth, three-bay building that has been reconfigured internally. The eastern cottage, also of three bays, was one room deep on the western side, two rooms deep on the eastern side, but has now been extended to the rear. The direction of its staircase has been reversed.
EXTERIOR: Front (Bridge Road) elevation: to the centre is the large, three-bay inn of two stories raised up on a semi-basement, the pair of front doors, off-set to the east of centre, accessed up a flight of seven stone steps. The frontage is framed with rusticated sandstone quoins. There is a broad stone band to the basement and a thinner painted stone string course at first-floor sill level. The window openings have painted wedge lintels and six-over-six sashes. The paired front doors are set in a stepped-pilastered doorcase incorporating overlights with glazing bars forming lozenges, with a frieze and cornice above. The roof is low-pitched and hipped. It has two large end stacks rising from the eaves.
The cottage to the west is roughly-built and set back from the frontage of the inn. It is a low two-storey building with its ridgeline about level with the first-floor window sills of the inn. It is of three bays and has two-over-two sash windows to its upper floor. The off-centre front door may be a post-1980 insertion, the original access perhaps being to the rear. The cottage retains tall end stacks.
The cottage to the east is taller and more carefully built with good-quality gauged brickwork forming the flat arches for the windows. The frontage is symmetrical of three bays except for the step in the ridge line caused by the single depth of the western bay and the two-room depth of the rest of the frontage. The central front door has a simple pilastered doorcase incorporating a large overlight. The roof retains end stacks.
Rear: is more simply detailed and has undergone more alteration, generally with sympathetic detailing and materials. Window openings generally have flat brick arches and stone sills, the rear wing of the inn having some stone wedge lintels. Windows are generally sashes, including some that are two-over-two pane sashes.
INTERIOR: this was extensively reordered when converted into a hostel in the late C20. The principal stair remains in the rear wing of the inn but has a replacement bannister. A secondary stair (possibly dating to the division of the inn into two houses in the 1860s) is reported to survive behind a later partition.
