Summary
A railway junction station comprising two platform buildings, arcades and flanking walls, of 1867 for the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) in Italianate style, of cream and orange brick and terracotta.
Only the 1867 platform buildings, arcades and flanking walls are included in the listing. The Nantwich Road bridge, the booking hall concourse, the platform islands and other structures on them (including the south footbridge), the entire train-shed roof and its supporting columns, the first floor added to the eastern platform building in 1891, and the additions and alterations specified in the details below are excluded from the listing.
Reasons for Designation
The 1867 buildings at Crewe railway station, a railway junction station comprising a pair of platform buildings, arcades and flanking walls, of 1867 for the London and North Western Railway, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* for the design quality of the impressive and well-detailed flanking walls, arcades and platform buildings overseen by William Baker, in particular the mirrored design with bowed projections for the platform inspectors’ offices, the ‘greybeard’ keystones and vivid polychromy;
* it is one of the best pieces of mid-C19 platform architecture designed anywhere on the LNWR network, and a rare surviving example nationally of buildings of a major junction station of this period;
* the buildings have survived well taking into account the extreme intensity of use and the numerous phases of expansion and alteration that have taken place.
Historic interest:
* this phase of the station (as the first junction between more than two mainline railways) is illustrative of an important development in the national railway network, which is manifest in the quality of the platform facades which were and remain the point of arrival for the majority of users.
History
The Grand Junction Railway (GJR) was the first trunk railway, formed in 1833 to create a connection from Birmingham to a junction with the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (which opened in 1830). The railway opened in 1837. This station took its name from nearby Crewe Hall, and the town was largely built by and for the railway. Through mergers, takeovers and privatisation, Crewe station passed from the GJR to the London and North Western Railway (1846), the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (1923), British Railways (1948), Railtrack (1994) and Network Rail (2002).
The first Crewe station was sited to the north of Nantwich Road, and was supplemented with a separate, more modest station building and platform when the Manchester and Birmingham Railway opened in 1842. The station was rebuilt by the LNWR in 1849 to accommodate increased traffic following the opening of the line to Scotland, but as the rail network expanded rapidly and trains grew ever longer and more frequent, the LNWR was compelled to rebuild the station entirely in 1867. The new station was largely to the south of Nantwich Road and comprised two large island platforms with station buildings and three pitched-roofed train-sheds (described in 1980 as ‘low and uninspiring’) over the platforms and adjoining lines, as well as an overbridge booking hall. The cream brick retaining wall to the east of the station (facing platform 1) and the screen wall to the west of the station (alongside platform 11) were also constructed at this time and supported the outer edges of the train-shed roofs; the screen wall also provided some protection from crosswinds. William Baker was Chief Civil Engineer for New Works of the LNWR in the 1860s, and thus responsible for the station, although the design cannot be positively attributed to him personally as the surviving archive drawings are unsigned. A substantial amount of fabric, including the platform buildings, survives from this phase.
Subsequent alterations include the addition of a storey to the eastern platform building in 1891 for Post Office use, and removal of short sections of the western flanking wall to provide access to an island platform built further to the west between 1903 and 1906. The south footbridge was also added in 1904. To the north of Nantwich Road, the eastern flanking wall has been reduced in height to just above the arches, although archive drawings and the surviving section immediately to the north of the bridge suggest that this stretch never had the entablature found elsewhere. This reduction in height probably occurred when the Crewe Arms hotel was rebuilt in 1880.
Electrification works in 1960 included rebuilding of the booking hall, and alterations to the train-shed roofs and columns. In 1962 the western 1867 platform building had its northern end removed and a first-floor office inserted over the resulting space. Extensive works were undertaken to the station in 1984 and 1985 as part of a £14.3M track and signal modernisation programme. This included further alterations to the booking hall, north footbridge and the train-shed roofs, renovating waiting rooms, buffets and toilets, and probably alterations to the doors and windows of the platform building facades, although the western platform building retains some original sash windows overlooking platform 6. This is probably also when the early-C20 steel-framed south extension to the western screen wall had its timber glazing bars removed and glass replaced with polycarbonate. The interiors of the buildings have been largely stripped of historic features during several phases of refurbishment, and the south footbridge has been extensively altered.
Details
A railway junction station comprising two platform buildings, arcades and flanking walls, of 1867 for the London and North Western Railway under the supervision of William Baker. Italianate style.
MATERIALS: cream and orange brick and terracotta.
PLAN: forming the core of Crewe railway station, which has expanded considerably around these structures. The core includes two linear platform buildings to the south of the Nantwich Road bridge* (the bridge itself is not included in the listing), aligned north – south on separate platform islands* (the islands are not included in the listing), with arcades on the western platform island (one extending northwards from the Nantwich Road bridge, and one extending southwards from the south-west corner of the western platform building), and two flanking walls extending to the north and south of the Nantwich Road bridge (one a screen wall to the west of platform 11, and the other a retaining wall to the east of the station).
EXTERIOR:
The WESTERN FLANKING WALL is approximately 6m high and runs northwards from the north end of a later steel-framed screen* (the screen is not included in the listing), at the south end of platform 11. The wall is well-detailed with a vivid polychrome treatment of its brickwork, and the same appearance to both faces. It is built mainly of cream stock bricks laid in English Bond (alternating courses of stretchers and headers), with a plinth that is stone-coped, entablature, and a parapet with flat stone copings. The wall is divided into bays by rusticated pilasters, which are terminated by the entablature. Each bay contains an arcade of three semi-circular brick arches (the centre one slightly larger), under a continuous terracotta dripmould, with ‘voussoirs’ of bands of cream brick alternating with bands of orange with a central blue course. The arches are supported by slimmer, plain pilasters, setting up an effective rhythm. Brickwork panels fill the arches up to impost level. The panels are of cream brick, recessed within an orange brick surround; the laying pattern is a variable Flemish bond, sometimes with two stretchers to one header in each course, and sometimes with paired headers with two or three stretchers between. The frieze of the entablature is of orange brick, with cream brackets to the cornice spanning its full depth. The wall is interrupted after six bays where the south footbridge* (the footbridge is not included in the listing) extends to a third platform island* to the west of 1903 to 1906, which is not included in the listing. To the north of this it continues for a further 12 bays, the northernmost of which stands beneath the modern booking hall concourse* (not included in the listing) and has lost its entablature. The three bays to the south of this have lower brick panels, and sawn inner faces of the arcade capitals indicate that they once were filled to this level. To the north, beyond the abutments for the Nantwich Road bridge, the wall continues for a further eight bays, curving parallel to the railway track.
To the east of platform 11 is an ARCADE RUNNING NORTH from the abutments of the Nantwich Road bridge for eight bays. This is a true arcade with no plinth between the pillars, but most bays have been infilled* to form the east wall of a later, flat-roofed building*, which also conceals much of the west face of the arcade (the infill and flat-roofed building are not included in the listing).
An ARCADE RUNNING SOUTH from the south-west corner of the western platform building is similarly detailed. It is interrupted by the south footbridge, and to the south of this some bays have been infilled* in cream brick (the later infill is not included in the listing). The eastern face of this section, which overlooks the ramp to the subway to Weston Road car park, is obscured by a later skin of brick*, which is not included in the listing.
The EASTERN FLANKING WALL is a retaining wall and so only the west elevation is described. This runs southwards from a point five bays to the north of the Crewe Arms* (which is not included in the listing), with a further seven bays from the Crewe Arms to the Nantwich Road bridge. It is detailed the same as the western screen wall, but the arches have been infilled with translucent sheet* and the wall has concrete copings* (the translucent sheet and concrete copings are not included in the listing). To the south of the bridge, for around 25m the wall is plain cream brick in Flemish Bond, with four blocked openings, the truncated abutments of a footbridge, and a stone cornice of alternating recessed and projecting stones. Above this is a modern cream brick and stone parapet*, which is not included in the listing. This section terminates in alternating red sandstone quoins. Southwards of this, the wall is again as described for the western wall, with the following exceptions: the pilasters between bays continue above the entablature as pilasters in a stone parapet; the arches are infilled with cream brick, and the central panels of cream brick stand proud of the orange surround rather than being recessed within it. This section continues for 18 bays. Halfway along, the arcaded northern timber gable* (which is not included in the listing) of the roof above platform 1 rests on the cornice, and from here southwards the stone parapet gives way to a later blue engineered-brick parapet*, which is not included in the listing.
The principal facade of the EASTERN PLATFORM BUILDING faces west, and is also mainly of cream brick and terracotta, with some orange terracotta. This facade has a similar regular rhythm to the screen walls, being divided into bays which each contain three arches. These arches however are segmental, with frogged voussoirs with orange bands between, and a keystone bearing a bearded face, known as the ‘Greybeards’. Bays (from the left) 2, 4 and 6 are recessed, with projecting bows in bays 3 and 5. Bay 8 does not have arches. In the flat bays, each arch contains an elaborate timber architrave with a large semi-circular central arch and smaller side arches, similar to the screen walls. These architraves are supported in the centre by two slender cast-iron columns with Corinthian capitals, and by corbels at the jambs. Windows and doors are all timber replacements* (not included in the listing) and some window openings have been lowered for doors, but most retain their deep stone sills which rest on the stone plinth. A similar entablature to those of the flanking walls runs across the facade, supporting the train shed roof* (the train shed roof is not included in the listing), which is also supported by columns* (not included in the listing) on the platform island and at the track-side. This entablature is interrupted at the bows, which have flat roofs and a simpler, shallower modillion cornice. The bows have paired windows in each arch supported by a single central column, and there are no greybeards. At the north end some door jambs have cast-iron protectors (painted red), and a granite drinking fountain of Queen Victoria’s Silver Jubilee (1863) is mounted in the wall, with a small semi-circular cast-iron trough below, lettered ‘FOR YE DOGS’. At the right the entablature returns along the south facade which is otherwise largely blind (and partially obscured by an attached retail kiosk*, which is not included in the listing), as is the east facade, which has some intrusions of red and blue banded brick from the addition in 1891 of a first floor* (the first-floor level is not included in the listing), and later alterations. The north facade contains plain doorways with stone wedge lintels and cast-iron jamb protectors, and is splayed on the north-west corner, returning for a short length on the west, underneath the north footbridge, northwards of the principal facade.
The WESTERN PLATFORM BUILDING principally faces east, and is a mirror of the building described above, save that it is truncated to the north of the northernmost bow window. This building retains some timber sliding-sash windows. A retail kiosk* (which is not included in the listing) obscures the three southernmost arches. The south facade is blind. The west facade also has the entablature which continues that of the arcade that projects southwards from the south-west corner. There are three small square windows and three larger segmental-arched windows. The left-hand section was obscured at the time of inspection but appears to include a basement or subway stair protected by a stone plinth and railings. The north facade comprises a C20 retail frontage*, which is not included in the listing.
INTERIOR: the interiors* of both platform buildings are devoid of historic features and are not included in the listing.
*Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that these aforementioned items are not of special architectural or historic interest. For clarity, they are also detailed below:
Outside the mapped area:
The Crewe Arms hotel; the Nantwich Road bridge and the modern booking hall concourse attached to it; the early-C20 platform island to the west, and the steel-framed screen to the south of the western flanking wall.
Within the mapped area:
The platform islands themselves; the south footbridge; the C20 retail frontage comprising the north façade of the western platform building; the interiors of both platform buildings and replacement doors and windows to the platform buildings.
Replacement fabric to the arcade on platform 11, comprising the infill to the bays to the north of Nantwich Road bridge and to the south of the south footbridge, and the eastern skin of brickwork to the south of the south footbridge.
Replacement fabric to the eastern flanking wall, comprising the translucent sheeting infill to the arches, concrete copings, blocking infill within openings, the modern cream stone parapet and the later blue engineering-brick parapet.
The entire train-shed roof, including the arcaded northern timber gable above platform 1 and all the supporting columns.
Later buildings, comprising the red-and-blue banded brick first floor added to the eastern platform building in 1891, the retail kiosk abutting the south wall of the eastern platform building, the retail kiosk abutting the east wall of the western platform building, and the flat-roofed building abutting the arcade on platform 11.
