Redhill Tunnel South Portals (West SPC6 28 and East SPC6 28a)

Two portals forming the southern entrance of Redhill Tunnel, the west portal (SPC6 28) built 1838-40 for the Midland Counties Railway to the designs of Charles Vignoles, and the east portal (SPC6 28a) built 1892-93 for the Midland Railway probably to the designs of J. A. MacDonald.

MATERIALS: the west portal is faced in coursed quarry-faced sandstone with ashlar dressings, and the east portal is constructed of blue engineering brick laid in English bond with ashlar dressings.

EXTERIOR: the west portal is situated at the end of a steep earth cutting, and is expressed architecturally as a classical frame applied to a retaining wall of coursed quarry-faced stone. The semi-circular arch has ashlar voussoirs that return as quoins on the soffit of the tunnel. The arch springs from a moulded impost band which extends across the abutments to form the cornice of flanking pedestals. These support pilasters with plain, squared capitals, which have a picked dressing with tooled margins. Above is a square-profiled string course with the same dressings which forms the architrave of an entablature. The frieze consists of three courses of quarry-faced stone and the cornice has a cyma reversa moulding. This is surmounted by a low, recessed ashlar parapet.

The east portal has a horseshoe arch with four courses of headers stepped in two parts and an outer stone roll moulding. The innermost course of bricks is also rounded as it returns to the soffit. The arch is flanked by two pairs of broad raked piers, the outer piers terminating the wing walls, where they meet the rising sides of the cutting. The portal has a bold ashlar stone roll moulding and a parapet consisting of a single course of ashlar stone.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 05/07/2018