Rainhill Railway Station including associated boundary walls, step-retaining walls, western footbridge, and signal box

Rainhill Railway Station is a complex of Victorian railway buildings built by the London and North Western Railway, comprising a main station building of around 1860, a waiting shelter and western footbridge of around 1880, and a signal box of 1896.

Main Station Building

The principal structure is a single-storey classical-style building in red brick with buff sandstone dressings and a Welsh slate roof, arranged on a C-plan. It stands to the north of Station Road on the south platform. A deep modillioned eaves with billeted fascia supports a hipped slate roof. On three sides (north, east and west) runs a substantial canopy formed by nine cast-iron columns with decorative iron brackets and billeted fascia, its soffit timber-boarded with arched spandrels. The canopy terminates in a platform arcade.

The platform elevation comprises three bays, with the end bays projecting slightly. The left bay contains three 2-over-2 sashes (the centre one shorter) and is capped by a corniced ridge chimney stack of stone and brick. The central bay features a 3-over-3 sash, a 2-over-2 sash, a door, two 3-over-3 sashes, a sealed former door, and an alcove. The right bay has a sealed door. All window and door openings have moulded sandstone surrounds and a continuous sill-band. The west end includes a window and two sealed former toilet doorways. The main entrance to the ticket hall and waiting room is at the east end, flanked by a 2-over-2 sash, with a replaced stone surround. The south (rear) elevation contains two chimney stacks through the roof and a doorway leading to the western offices, with two sashes to the left and three further sashes (mixed 2-over-2 and 3-over-3 panes) to the right, all openings capped with sandstone wedge lintels.

The interior retains original features in the ticket office and waiting room, including fielded four-panel doors with architraves, plain cornice, dado rail and panelled dado (partly replaced), and skirting. Late 20th-century lighting and seating have been inserted. The western offices contain a moulded decorative cornice in the first room (probably the station master's office or first-class waiting room), together with a chimney breast whose fireplace has been removed; the platform window here is sealed and an opening has been cut through the west wall. The larger room is partitioned with its platform doorway sealed. The former toilets at the west end have two sealed doorways.

Waiting Shelter

The shelter on the north platform comprises a brick back wall with four corbelled recessed panels and timber walls to either end. It has a hipped slate roof and an open front with five square cast-iron support columns carrying ceiling beams with shaped cantilevered ends. The fascia is a modern replacement.

Western Footbridge

This is a flat lattice-girder bridge supported on brick pillars. The piers are of common brick with corner pilasters and an arched recess to each face, featuring a sandstone impost band and fair-faced brick arch. Seven courses of lighter brick have been added above, supporting the original sandstone caps. The bridge has eastern flights of steps at both the north and south ends, all with lattice balustrades. Both flights originally had extensions and modern additions including handrails and glazed balustrade extensions. The northern flight and the main span retain arched overthrows that formerly supported a roof. The span also has glazed balustrade extensions. The step and deck surfaces are modern.

Signal Box

The signal box is a two-storey, three-bay structure built in 1896, with the ridge line parallel to the adjacent railway line. The brick ground floor (locking room) features three small segmentally-arched windows on the south side, two on the north, and one at the east end, with a boarded door at the west. The first floor (operating room) is continuously glazed on the south side with original small-pane pattern glazing incorporating two horizontally-sliding four-pane sashes. The east gable retains original pattern glazing including a further horizontally-sliding sash. The west end has a replacement uPVC window and door, a modern external staircase, and a small projecting modern toilet extension. The gables have plain bargeboards and spiked finials.

The interior retains its original 1896 lever frame for 25 levers, with twelve LNWR levers still in place plus two additional levers. The operating room has an inserted suspended ceiling.

Subsidiary Features

The platform beneath the main building's canopy is stone-flagged. A sandstone retaining wall borders the station to the south, and a boundary wall to the north, both of squared rubble with stone copings. Two flights of steps from Station Road are retained by brick walls with stone copings and modern railings.