Leamington Spa Station, Including Attached Platform Structures

Leamington Spa Station, including attached platform structures

Main line station of 1939 built for the Great Western Railway. The building is steel-framed, sheathed in brick and faced with Portland stone above a polished granite plinth, with brick to the rear and platform elevations. It features flat roofs with parapets and wooden sashes set in stone architraves. The platform canopies are steel girders supported on cast iron columns. The architectural style combines Art Deco with neo-classical elements.

The exterior comprises three ranges. The entrance range is three storeys tall with nine bays, facing the forecourt. Its ground floor is advanced with a granite plinth and rusticated Portland stone. The main entrance has a granite architrave and a pair of glazed doors with side- and over-lights, horizontal mullions, and 'ENTRANCE' in metal lettering, flanked by three sashes of 6-over-9 panes, all set beneath a glazed canopy. Above this, the five-part facade is organised with a central section of three bays defined by shallow pilasters with stepped vertical detailing, flanked by slightly taller and advanced single bays, then double end bays. The 1st floor has 6-over-9 pane sashes and the 2nd floor has 3-over-6 pane sashes, with a projecting stepped cornice below the parapet. 'LEAMINGTON SPA STATION' appears in sans serif lettering on the parapet above the central three bays. To the right is a single recessed blank bay above the entrance. The right range is single storey, containing a subway entrance with three wide openings outlined in polished granite beneath three blind panels, with canted internal walls to the subway passage.

The left range has a parapet roof above a flat cornice, a banded string course, and a continuous polished granite plinth. Its central bay is slightly advanced with a pair of 4-over-6 pane sashes above an entrance with granite architrave. Two 6-over-9 sashes occupy the otherwise mostly blank first floor, and 6-over-9 sashes to the ground floor with secondary entrances at each end within granite architraves. The far left is advanced with similar windows and a door on the return. Return elevations are stone with brick to the rear and platforms.

The interior features a booking hall and subway tiled above a granite plinth. Stairs to each platform have stick metal balusters, some wavy, and wooden handrails. The balustrade and newels at platform level feature circular and wavy details.

Two primary platforms, designated 'Down' and 'Up' (to London), and two shorter platforms for stabling trains serve the station. The linear platform buildings have brick walls with granite plinth and cantilevered canopies edged with bargeboards and framed with steel girders springing from stone pilasters and stepped corbel blocks. Where the platform extends beyond the buildings, the canopies are supported by paired cast-iron columns. The Down platform contains a former telegraph room with wooden and glazed panelled entrance, a waiting room, buffet, and lavatories. The Up platform has a waiting room and service rooms. Wood-framed glazed doors with metal mullions, handles and curved bars display Deco styling. The waiting rooms are finished with wood architraves to doors and fixed pane windows with overlights to the platforms, blocked fireplaces, coved and beamed ceilings, and fixed wooden bench seating. The buffet is fully panelled in polished walnut with a continuous bar similarly panelled below a moulded edge and back bar. A fireplace to the north features a mirror and panelled overmantle with a fluted band to the top. Lavatories have wooden doors and stone Deco style fireplaces. Some original benches on the platforms retain 'GWR' scrolled into their supports.

This station replaced the 1853 Brunel station, which was demolished in 1935. That station had itself replaced the large Georgian Eastnor Terrace.