Battersea Park Railway Station

Battersea Park Railway Station was built in 1866-1867 by Charles Henry Driver for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. The canopy over the western island platform (Numbers Four and Five) was removed, probably in 1979. The station frontage and booking hall were restored in 1986 following a fire.

Materials and Construction

The main station building is constructed of pale yellow gault brick laid in Flemish bond with red brick and Portland stone dressings and banding. The roofs are slate covered, although originally pantiled and crowned by iron cresting. The adjoining railway embankments and platform retaining walls are of yellow stock brick. Platform buildings have timber cladding. Platforms One, Two and Three have cast-iron canopy supports with steel and timber canopy superstructure. The cantilevered Platform One has timber decking atop a cast-iron and steel superstructure.

Layout

The station sits between two railway embankments to the south which converge to form a single embankment supporting the platforms. At street level, the station frontage building houses a double-height ticket hall and what was originally the General Waiting Room to the north. From the waiting room, a flight of stairs rises to a timber cross-gallery at mezzanine level, passing through one of the vaults of the embankment. From the cross-gallery, three staircases rise to platform level atop the embankment. The cantilevered Platform One on the east side is now disused (as of 2020). A corresponding cantilevered platform on the west side was removed at an unknown date. There are also two island platforms: Platforms Two and Three to the east, attached to the back of the main station buildings, and Platforms Four and Five to the west.

The frontage building has a wedge-shaped plan and rises three storeys, with accommodation on the upper floors. The double-height ticket area is separated from the waiting area to the north, with its pitched glazed roof, by a colonnade. On either side of the main building, the arches of the converging railway embankments contain additional spaces. Those on the west side originally included a telegraph office (still accessible from a door inside the passage to the west of the front building), lamp room, porter's room, parcels office and First Class Waiting Room. A former coal room below the cross-gallery is accessed via a door to the north of the ticket hall. On the east side of the ticket hall is a modernised staff room (formerly the Ladies' Waiting Room) and WCs.

Exterior: Main Station Building

The south elevation of the Italianate station building is the only fully expressed external elevation due to the building's location between the embankments. It faces Battersea Park Road and is symmetrical, comprising five bays. Stone platbands divide the ground and first floors, and the first and second floors. The overhanging eaves are supported by a stone cornice with dog-tooth decoration and paired brackets backed with red brick corbelling—a detail that continues on the other three elevations.

On the ground floor, a blind arcade of five recessed round-arched openings (the outer ones containing the two entrances) springs from broad, stepped pilasters with foliate stone capitals. The arches have red brick relieving arches and stone hood-moulds, keystones with incised floral decoration rising to the platband, and oversize elaborate carved stops. Windows are four-over-four horned timber sashes with stone sills and cast-iron spear-headed railings. The entrances have fanlights with plain vertical glazing bars and double two-panel doors with brass lions-head doorknobs.

The first floor has recessed square timber windows with wide flared stone surrounds, incised keystones and hood-mouldings with foliate stops. The second floor has two-over-two timber sash windows in recessed round-arched openings with red brick relieving arches and stone hood-mouldings with foliate stops. The arches spring from a continuous stone cornice with foliate decoration. The elevation is adjoined at both ends by the yellow stock brick abutments of the two railway bridges. The western bridge is separately listed at Grade II.

The east and west elevations of the frontage building are blind, sitting above the adjoining railway embankments. The top floor of the north elevation has five window openings with red brick segmental arches and one-over-one timber sash windows, although two of the openings have been partially infilled to create emergency exits. The building has five stock brick chimneys and a hipped slate roof.

Below the cantilevered eastern platform, the first arch of the eastern embankment is infilled with buff-coloured brickwork with a stone hood-mould and gault brick relieving arch. The arch contains three polychromatic round-arched windows flanked by arched red brick niches. The central window arch has decorative ironwork.

Platforms and Platform Structures

Platform One is cantilevered out from the embankment on a superstructure of lattice girders supported by a mixture of cast-iron columns (some with brackets and probably replacement steel shafts) and replacement RSJs. The stairs and cross-gallery have timber superstructure. The platform retains its original timber decking set on a red brick plinth with timber joists with shaped ends. The timber-framed waiting room has a slightly pitched roof and is clad in weatherboarding with timber sash windows. Its canopy is supported on slender cast-iron columns dating from 1866-1867. These have flared bases and octagonal capitals with brackets with foliate decoration in the spandrels. The canopy has a saw-tooth valance. The waiting room is adjoined at its north end, where it extends to cover the access stairs, by a vertically-boarded timber fence which extends along most of the platform length. Beyond this is a modern steel and timber fence.

Platforms Two and Three have a shallow-pitched glazed canopy with flat-roofed glazed awnings on either side with scooped valances. The steel superstructure is supported on cast-iron columns with brackets with plain circles in the spandrels, dating from around 1905-1906. Under the canopy are a weatherboarded waiting room to the south and a station guard's shelter to the north, both with timber sash windows. The head of the access stair has a timber balustrade and gates with richly decorated cast-iron panels and brackets, and fleur-de-lis topped railings, probably dating from 1866-1867. The newels have urn-shaped finials.

Interior: Main Station Building

The ground floor ticket area of the main building is a large double-height space with an enclosed stair lobby, giving access to the upper floors, in the south-west corner. A single-height ticket office (probably dating to the 1986 refurbishment) runs along the rest of the south wall. The entrances to the station are located on either side of the frontage building. The ticket area has a ceiling with a cornice and plaster mouldings and a pair of ornate decorative cast-iron ceiling roses/ventilation grilles, each with large metal light fittings with six glass globes. The waiting area has a pitched, timber-framed, glazed roof. The floor has a chequer-board pattern of terrazzo tiles, probably also dating from 1986.

The upper level of the hall has a series of blind segmental-arched square windows with moulded surrounds and keystones above a wide cornice. On the west side are a series of blind round arches with moulded surrounds—some of these were probably originally open to give access to the First Class Waiting Room and other rooms under the embankment. The east side has the same treatment but with a large undecorated arch at the north end. The north wall has pairs of plain blind arches flanking the arched entrance to the stairs to the platforms. The stairs have a fan-shaped flight projecting into the hall with ornate foliate cast-iron balusters and a wooden handrail. The arcade which divides the space comprises three round arches supported on cast-iron columns (coupled in the central arch), set on plinths, with flared bases with fluting and mouldings, and foliate capitals. In the spandrels of the arches are high-relief, vaguely Roman, female heads set in circular moulded surrounds.

The upper part of the frontage building is reached via a Georgian-style open-string cantilevered stair with stick balusters and mahogany handrail. The stair and first floor are limited to the first two bays of the frontage, while only the second floor occupies the full width of the building. On the first floor is a small triangular room in the south-west corner. All the upper floor rooms have been modernised, with the only original feature, other than the stairs, being a late-19th-century arched register grate in the end room of the second floor.

Cross Gallery and Stairs

The cross gallery and stairs are of timber construction with matchboard panelling (set in timber frames) and ceilings. The gallery has timber floors. The stairs have timber handrails and modern anti-slip surfaces. There are three sets of stairs up to the platforms. The eastern stairs to Platform One have arched glazing on the eastern side; the eastern end of the gallery originally had similar glazing but is now infilled with boarding. The western stair has plain brick walls with a rendered lower section. Originally there was also a stair down to the alley on the east side of the embankment, but this has been removed, as has the corresponding stair from the demolished western platform.

Subsidiary Features

Adjoining the abutment of the eastern bridge along Battersea Park Road is a gault brick arch and a short section of stock brick walling. The round arch has a stone hood-mould and keystone with a cast-iron finial and a timber door. The walling has a plinth and moulded stone capping topped by modern spiked railings.