Watford Station

Watford Station

Metropolitan Railway station, opened in 1925 and designed by the Metropolitan Railway's in-house architect Charles Walter Clark.

The station building sits on an embankment above track level. It is constructed of variegated brown brick with a vitrified brick plinth and clay tiled roof. Windows are timber multi-pane sashes and casements. The building has a rectangular footprint of one-and-a-half storeys, arranged with a central booking hall flanked by shops, railway offices and toilets on the ground floor. Domestic accommodation occupies the first-floor flat above. Stairs to the rear lead down to the canopied island platform.

The exterior displays Arts and Crafts-influenced vernacular styling. A dominant hipped roof rises above the structure with tall brick stacks and three hipped dormers. A polygonal metal canopy on twin Doric columns projects in front of the main entrance, which features part-glazed double doors with an overlight and flanking windows. Small windows flank the entrance with large panelled notice boards beneath. The shops occupy the outer bays, with the right-hand example retaining its original shop-front. The rear elevation, which overlooks the platform, is taller and features large sash windows and three similar dormers to those at the front.

The interior booking hall contains a square central light-well with a projecting cornice and moulded panelling. To the right is sea-green and mauve Metropolitan tiling and a hardwood surround to a former telephone kiosk. A panelled hardwood door leads to the ladies' toilets, which retain their original cubicles and wood-block floor. A single broad flight of steps with moulded hardwood handrails descends to the platform, with extensive original tiling on the flanking walls. The island platform is sheltered by W-section glazed steel canopies on steel stanchions, beneath which stand two free-standing timber signboards. A rectangular brick building contains a waiting room with boarded walls and built-in seating, and gents' toilets behind with original cubicle partitions and signboards.

Clark designed around 25 new and rebuilt stations for the Metropolitan Railway between 1910 and 1933 during the company's electrification programme. For out-of-town stations he developed this distinctive brick-built domestic revival style, intended to evoke the local rural vernacular and set the tone for ensuing suburban development. Watford's branch line, initially planned in 1912, was finally opened in 1925 from Moor Park via a series of cuttings and bridges to serve the town of Watford. The Borough Council's refusal to allow track across the municipally-owned Cassiobury Park meant that the original plan to bring trains through to the High Street had to be abandoned. The line was initially operated as a joint venture between the Metropolitan Railway and the London and North Eastern Railway, though the LNER withdrew within a year. A goods yard to the south eventually closed in 1960. The station itself has seen comparatively little alteration, apart from the installation of Unified Ticketing System barriers, ticket machines and sales windows during the 1980s.