Blackburn Railway Station

SD 6827 NW BLACKBURN RAILWAY ROAD (East side)

796- /2/10018 Blackburn Railway Station

II

Railway station booking hall with side offices (etc.). c.1886-8, for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company, replacing an earlier and smaller station building; altered, and the upper floor now unoccupied. Red brick in Flemish bond with fine penny-struck pointing, sandstone dressings, hipped slate roof to main block, glazed roofs on iron framework to front canopy and to side and rear ranges. Long rectangular plan mostly under an axial 3-span glazed roof but with a single-depth booking hall block occupying the centre of the front span and a full-width canopy to the front. Italianate style. Single storey except for booking hall which is 2-storeys and 4 bays with a 2-bay centre breaking forwards slightly. At ground floor the whole range is unified by a high sandstone plinth, a continuous moulded cornice, and a deep continuous canopy to the front. This canopy, supported by cast-iron columns forming 5 very wide bays, has latticed girders carrying 20 hipped glazed roof spans (4 per bay, but the last 9 spans now lacking the glazing) and a continuous fretted wooden valence. Beneath the canopy the ground floor of the booking hall and the single-storey side ranges have broad brick pilasters defining 4:10:5 bays which mostly have (or have had) large segmental-headed windows and doorways with shouldered architraves (except the 4th, 6th and 12th to 15th which have altered openings). Above the canopy the upper floor of the booking hall, with sandstone quoins, a plain sandstone frieze and a prominent moulded cornice, has 4 large Venetian windows, those in the 2-bay centre in modified form with pediments over square-headed centre lights and those in the outer bays with run-out impost bands; and mounted over the centre is a large clock in a pedimented upstand with carved enrichments including monogrammed lettering "LYR" (= Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway). Four tall panelled and corniced chimney stacks. The left return of the left side range has 3 gables and some openings similar to those at the front. Interior modernised except upper floor of booking hall (now unoccupied and inaccessible). Other parts of the station complex, including the station platforms, walls, waiting rooms and offices to the rear of the entrance block are not of special interest.

Listing NGR: SD6848427901