Main Building Of Reading General Station

The main building of Reading General Station, constructed between 1865 and 1867, was designed by Mr. Lane, the Chief Engineer of the Great Western Railway Company. This structure is an enlargement and remodelling of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's original station from around 1840 and features Italianate architectural details.

The building is two stories high and symmetrical, made of buff brick from Coalbrookdale with Bath stone dressings and rusticated quoins. It has ten bays in width, with a slight break in the centre four bays. The façade includes a frieze, a moulded cornice, and a blocking course, with the projecting centre featuring console brackets supporting the cornice and a solid pediment above the blocking course.

On the ground floor, the central break showcases a guilloche frieze and panelled pilasters with wreath caps flanking the windows and doorways. There are cornices on console brackets above the first-floor windows, with triangular and segmental pediments over those in the central break. A canopy extends across the ground floor, and the building has a hipped slate roof, although the chimneys have been removed.

A pleasant central cupola is present, featuring round-headed lights and bracket eaves leading to a pyramidal roof topped with a finial. The canopy also extends over ground floor extensions on both sides of the building, with approximately twelve bays to the left and seven to the right.