Fulham Broadway Underground Station: former entrance building and trainshed

Fulham Broadway Underground Station: former entrance building and trainshed

This building comprises two distinct structures: an Edwardian entrance building erected in 1905 facing south onto Fulham Road, and an earlier trainshed built in 1880 aligned north-east to south-west, reflecting the original station's orientation. The misalignment between the two creates an irregular cranked plan.

The entrance building is a two-storey structure with a steel frame clad in brick and a brown faience façade. The ground floor contains a central entrance lobby flanked by shop units, with first-floor offices above. Behind this frontage block extends a long single-storey ticket hall which originally had further shop units to either side, and a single-storey wing to the right that served as the original station exit. A narrow two-storey rear wing with offices at first-floor level connects the frontage block to the trainshed.

The symmetrical frontage is designed in the Edwardian Baroque style, comprising three bays in a 2:3:2 arrangement with the central bay breaking forward slightly, plus a lower set-back wing to the right. The ground floor displays channelled rustication and a central entrance with a keyed segmental arch. The flanking shop openings are original, though the shop fronts are modern and of no special interest. The central first-floor bay is framed with Ionic pilasters. Windows throughout have moulded architraves with pulvinated friezes and cornices, with 9-over-9 pane wooden sashes; the central first-floor window is particularly emphasized by a pediment with a fruit festoon above. A dentil cornice and stepped blocking course crown the central bay, above which is a sunken panel from which the station name was erased in the 1950s. The side wing features a keyed segmental arch and a geometrical-pattern wrought-iron gate, with an EXIT sign above in raised lettering adorned with festoon decoration.

Interior

The interior is also clad in brown faience and features six pilastered bays to either side of the lobby and ticket hall. The former ticket office occupies the rear three bays on the left (west) side. The booking hall is lit by a glazed monitor roof with steel trusses and white glazed brick gable-ends; the faience cladding of the walls is more ornate than that of the lobby, displaying a modillion cornice and DR monograms on the ticket office capitals. At the far end stands the three-bay former entrance to the platforms, featuring Doric columns, wrought-iron grilles, and a large segmental Diocletian window above. The shop fronts are 2003 reinstatements based on the original designs; the shop front in the first bay to the west of the entrance lobby may incorporate reused original components. The timber ticket office frontage was restored in 1987, retaining original elements including segmental pedimented windows, bronze downlighters, illuminated box signs, leaded glazing, and a green glazed tile dado. An enamel 'TO THE TRAINS' sign, dating from the 1920s, was originally fixed above the platform entrance. The shops and ticket office contain no interior features of special interest. The first-floor offices feature egg-and-dart plasterwork to cornices and beams, while the rear wing has windows with coloured art-nouveau glazing.

Trainshed and Platforms

The trainshed features brick walls of eight blind arcaded bays, now rendered. The pitched glazed roof is supported by longitudinal wrought-iron trusses with lattice spandrels. The platforms retain a series of 1920s timber sign boards displaying enamelled bar-and-roundel signs, with the station name modified to Fulham Broadway. At the south-west end are stairs with a metal balustrade connected by a landing.

The part of the station beyond the north-east end of the 1880 trainshed is not of special architectural or historic interest.