Hexham Railway Station

Railway Station, comprising Station House, offices, rooms and canopies over both platforms, a footbridge, north platform wall, and associated structures on Station Road.

The station was built in several phases. The centre section of the south range was constructed in 1835 by John Blackmore for the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway Company. It was extended in the 1840s and 1850s by Peter Tate, with further substantial additions in the 1860s and 1870s by Thomas Prosser for the North Eastern Railway. William Bell carried out additional work for the same company in 1881 and 1901.

The buildings are constructed in local sandstone ashlar. Later additions feature alternating-block quoins and dressings. Purple slate roofs are topped with stone stacks and terracotta pots; some roof areas are glazed. The platform canopies are of cast iron, and the footbridge is wrought iron.

The earlier buildings are in Tudor style, whilst the extensions of later periods are classical in character but incorporate and blend well with original features. The south range presents a projecting central two-storey house with flanking one-storey ranges. The house was originally one storey and was raised to two storeys in 1881 using the original gable details. It displays two gabled bays facing the forecourt, the right bay being lower. Sash windows with glazing bays sit in chamfered surrounds. Large stacks rise on the left gable peak and in the valley; the latter feature corniced hexagonal shafts. The right return has a two-bay composition with a modern door in plain surround in the left bay and sash windows in a gabled half dormer. The taller right bay contains paired sashes below and a single sash above, with a coped square finial block to the gable. Openings are set in plain stone surrounds. The two-bay left return has a blank right bay. On the ground floor to the left stands a hip-roofed canted bay window with vertical sashes, an original 1835 feature that was re-sited from the right return in the 1850s. A similar square finial block crowns this gabled bay.

To the right of the house is a four-bay booking hall with left pedestrian and vehicle entrances, both fitted with panelled double doors. Two display windows are positioned on the right; the roof is flat. Further right stands a hip-roofed three-bay goods office with twelve-pane top-opening lights in quoined surrounds and a four-panel door with overlight in the left return. To the left of the house are two hip-roofed pavilions connected by short glazed links; both have sash windows in eared and shouldered chamfered surrounds.

The platform elevation shows a five-bay office and booking hall to the left of the entrance. The third bay contains a double door; the booking office door is single with sidelights and is set within quoined windows. A flat-arched vehicle entrance is positioned to the right. The booking office dates from the 1850s and the goods office from 1901.

To the right of the entrance stands a kiosk (the former booking office) and a continuous nine-bay frontage where original Tudor features of chamfered openings with double-chamfered hoodmoulds have been retained or re-used. The projecting left bay, now a waiting room, features a double door and forms part of the original fabric; weathering on the wall above marks where a canopy has been removed.

The present south platform canopy dates from 1870–71 and was designed by Thomas Prosser. Cast-iron columns support open cast-iron panels forming arch braces to tie beams fitted with king and queen posts supporting the roof, which has a glazed centre. A similar but narrower canopy covers the north platform, where only the back wall and a small waiting room remain from an earlier range of buildings.

The platforms are linked at the east end by a typical footbridge of the 1870s. Stairs and deck are supported on two large arches with ring braces in the spandrels. A latticed parapet rail is fitted with console-curved stanchions.

The Ladies' waiting room dates from the 1860s and retains its original fireplace with an arched cast-iron grate and a chimneypiece of polished local crinoidal carboniferous limestone with an overmantel mirror. The room features a dado rail and panelled window bay. A plainer stone fireplace with a square cast-iron grate is found in the general waiting room, which also contains a V.R. letterbox in its wall. The booking hall has two ticket windows of gothic style with roll-moulded two-centred arches and quoined jambs. A modern entrance canopy is not of special interest.