Green Park Railway Station (Disused)

GREEN PARK RAILWAY STATION (DISUSED)

Railway station, now in commercial use. Built in 1869 by JH Sanders, with the train shed by JS Crossley (Chief Engineer of the Midland Railway). The building was restored and converted around 1983, with former lines removed and the platform well raised to a common floor level.

The station was originally known as Midland station and was built for the Midland Railway, opening on 5th August 1869. The station was constructed by Mr. Humphreys of Derby and the shed by Andrew Handyside of Derby. The Clerk of Works was John Green, and the resident engineer was Mr Turnbull. From 1874 the station was also used by the Somerset and Dorset Railway, which in 1875 became jointly owned by the Midland Railway and London & South Western Railway and was renamed the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway. Following the 1923 grouping, it passed to the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and Southern Railway. The station was closed in 1966 and remained unused until its restoration in 1983. It is now used as a café and shops, with former platforms and tracks serving as car parking and market space.

The building is constructed of limestone ashlar for the front and flank buildings, with cast and wrought iron for the shed.

The plan consists of a grand classical frontispiece with lower wings to both sides, enclosing in part the long train shed, which is exposed to the south on Midland Bridge Road.

The principal front block rises to two storeys with a one:five:one window arrangement. The centre section is recessed and framed by six Ionic columns in-antis to square Doric responds, which frame two-light casements with one horizontal bar in moulded architraves below a sunk panel. To each side are triple casements with central pediments to Ionic mullions. The ground floor has channelled masonry with a pair of panelled doors and transom light on each side, with three eight-pane sashes, all set to a stone-paved landing on three wide steps. The end pavilions have four:eight:four-pane tripartite sashes with wide channelled mullions. All rest on a deep moulded plinth. The ground floor entablature with blocking forms the base to the first floor, which has a deep entablature with dentil cornice and a balustrade in seven panels with dies. The five centre bays are covered by a wide glazed canopy with lattice beams carried on two slender shafted cast iron columns. The returns at each end are plain, with stacks. The inner face to the train shed has triple and two-light casements above triple lights, with three large four-pane sashes between pairs of glazed doors with transom lights.

The lower wing to the right has a canted element with a hipped slate roof containing four eight-pane sashes above a six-panel door, followed by a longer range in two storeys with eight eight-pane sashes above a lower ground floor plinth. To the right is a hipped slated pavilion with a central louvered vent. This range has four stacks and original spearhead cast iron railings on a curb to the lower ground floor area. On the left of the main block is a short single-storey run with a pair of late 20th-century doors to a canted head in channelled masonry, on a quadrant of four steps to a landing. Beyond this is a short canted wall with two eight-pane sashes, then a longer run with eight eight-pane sashes and one twelve-pane sash with a hood on consoles. This range has four stacks.

The entrance and office units have plain interiors. Lying back from the south masonry range outer wall of the main shed are eight bays exposed on a rubble plinth with various openings. Main columns are exposed between vertical boarded panels under a narrow clerestory formed by glazing to a lattice eaves beam. The train shed interior comprises a wide central concourse with an aisle to each side, partly doubled on the north side. It spans fourteen bays with tapered cast iron columns to flared capitals, supporting segmental arched riveted iron beams carrying ten latticed purlin beams and a ridge beam. The roof has a central six-panel fully glazed section in patent glazing, while lower panels have diagonal boarding between trusses and are slated externally. The aisles are crossed by slender latticed trusses in bow-string form, with vertical members extended to carry purlins. The outer end of the shed is segmented and closed with very light suspenders and glazing bars, but without glass.

The inner ashlar walls of the flanking office units have large eight-pane sashes with cornices on consoles, and various doors to segmental heads with bolection mould surrounds. On the north side are nine bays with a double aisle and an extra row of columns, with an extra pitched roof to the bow-string outer end. The end pavilion sets back from the main offices, with a wide pair of doors to a segmental head in a bolection mould surround to the west. The floor level within the shed is now at one level, partly boarded.

Following the removal of the rail bed, the station was abandoned and deteriorated for many years. As part of a planning gain exercise with a major retailer, the building was fully restored and is now used for various small retailing enterprises and partly for car parking. The original architect produced a high-quality design for the unit facing into the city, and the train shed follows the usual forthright pattern with much delicate detailing in the structural ironwork. However, little effort was made to unite the two, and there is a clash where the last truss member meets the inner face of the polite frontage.