Station Building, Berwick Station

Summary

Railway Station, built in 1846 for the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR). Extended in 1890.

Reasons for Designation

Berwick station building, built in 1846 for the London Brighton & South Coast Railway, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Historic interest: as an early example of a small country station;
* Architectural interest: for its simple and functional cottage style befitting its rural location;
* Degree of survival: largely intact apart from a sympathetic 1890 extension of the booking hall, it also retains its C19 fireplace, panelling and ticket counter;
* Group value: as part of a now rare grouping of country railway buildings.

History

Berwick Station was opened on the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) line from Lewes to Hastings in 1846. The station building was built by the contractor George Wythes and was extended in 1890 by one bay at the east end to provide an enlarged booking office and waiting room.

The station building at Berwick is one of a series of small cottage-style stations, along with Glynde and Pevensey and Westham, built by the LB&SCR in 1846. Their modest, single-storey, vernacular appearance was in contrast to the Italianate style then coming into vogue, and fitted well into their rural surroundings. Berwick was the simplest of the three, its rendered finish, low-set, square window openings and lack of a canopy displaying a deliberately rural, cottage aesthetic. It shows how simple many early stations were. The more ornate stations are more heavily represented among those small stations listed, but such stations were seen as an extravagance by many contemporaries, such as the influential railway writer Francis Wishaw who, in ‘The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland’ (1840), condemned many railway companies for their unnecessary provision of over-elaborate station buildings. Berwick is a rare representative of an alternative school of thought – simple buildings that served a purpose and kept the shareholders happy.

Details

MATERIALS: stuccoed brick with slate roofs.

PLAN: rectangular in plan, of four bays with an additional toilet block with a flat/catslide roof at the western end and another catslide roof to the projecting western bay of the north elevation.

EXTERIOR: the station building is a single-storey building with a hipped roof and two chimney stacks. Windows are paired timber casements with glazing bars set in square openings with low stone sills. The ticket hall is entered via opposing entrances with glazed double doors set in simple square openings. The overhanging eaves have narrow bargeboards.

INTERIOR: the ticket hall/waiting room interior has matchboard dado panelling and a fireplace with a fluted surround at the west end. The ticket window at the opposite end has a timber counter.

Sources

Books and journals
Biddle, G, Victorian Stations, (1973)
Hoare, J, Sussex Railway Architecture, (1980)

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