Teddington Railway Station

Summary

Railway station. Built in 1863 by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR). Later additions on the eastern platform and rebuilding of the footbridge in the 1930s.

Reasons for Designation

Teddington Railway Station, an Italianate style station built in 1863, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: as the earliest surviving example of a series of stations built in a similar ‘house style’ by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR). The well proportioned Italianate elevations are complemented by good brickwork and detailing;
* Historic interest: as a survival of Britain's first suburban railway network on a mainline railway, created by the LSWR to provide commuter services to London’s expanding western suburbs;
* Intactness: the station has undergone relatively little external alteration.

History

Teddington Station was built in 1863 by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) on its branch line from Twickenham to Kingston. The company opened its line between London and Southampton in stages between 1838 and 1840, later extending as far west as Padstow in Cornwall by 1899. Various London branch lines were constructed in the south-west of the capital, creating the first main-line suburban commuter network in Britain. The architect of the station is unknown but it is one of a series of very similar stations which were built by the company in the 1860s. Their Italianate style continues the tradition of the 1840s LSWR stations by Sir William Tite (1798-1873), who designed most of the company’s early stations including the terminus at Southampton.

The station was altered in the 1930s with the replacement of the original footbridge, platform canopies and platform buildings. More recently the interior of the booking hall has been modernised.

Details

MATERIALS: yellow stock brick laid in Flemish bond with stucco dressings; slate roof; timber sash windows.

EXTERIOR: the station building is two-storeys high with single-storey wings, stuccoed quoins, window surrounds and a wide string course to the front (south-west) elevation. The shallow hipped-roof has a deep bracketed eaves cornice and six prominent chimney stacks.

The front elevation is of seven-bays with the central three-bays breaking forward slightly. This projection has stucco rustication to the ground floor and a round-arched entrance and flanking windows below a wooden canopy with a timber valance. All other windows have square-headed moulded surrounds: those on the ground floor have eared surrounds, whilst those to the upper floor have bracketed sills. There is an additional entrance, to the station office, in the northernmost bay, which has a plank door and glazed transom. The platform elevation is a simpler version of the main frontage. The south-west return to the single-storey wing has an entrance with a later timber porch. The wings have three narrow, recessed arched windows to the front and rear elevations (those of the platform elevation of the south-east wing are hidden by a modern advertising hoarding). The north-west wing has a flat roof with a low stucco parapet, whereas that to the south-east has a later glazed pitched roof raised on a louvered timber clerestory.

The platform has a full length ridge-and-furrow canopy with cast-iron or steel girder supports and Warren truss which indicate, along with the absence of a valance, that it is a replacement, probably in the 1930s, since other similar stations have flat canopies.

The footbridge to the north-west of the station building, and buildings on the east platform, are not of special interest.

INTERIOR: the booking hall retains its original arched ticket windows and a deep moulded cornice but has otherwise been modernised, although the kiosk opening is probably in its original position. The upper floor was not inspected.

End of official list entry

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