Bristol Old Station, Temple Meads

Bristol Old Station, Temple Meads

Railway station, 1839-41, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western Railway Company. Built in limestone ashlar and squared Pennant rubble with a hipped slate roof, the building exemplifies the Tudor Revival style applied to a major Victorian railway terminus.

The complex is axially planned with a three-storey office block facing Temple Way, the engine shed behind, and the passenger shed to the south-east, now linked with Temple Meads Station. The symmetrical frontage is articulated by diagonal buttresses and octagonal turrets with blind panels and lozenges. A raised, crenellated central section dominates, featuring panelled buttresses and a central two-storey oriel window. The ground and first floors contain two- and three-light mullion and transom windows with label moulds and a Tudor-arched doorway set within a half-blind four-light window. A long scroll runs above a drip mould, inscribed "GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY INCORPORATED BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT MDCCCXXXV". The oriel base displays quatrefoil and trefoil panels with shields over the lower windows, and an openwork crenellated parapet. Above the upper windows runs a drip moulding with heads and flowers, leading to a raised parapet with blind panels and a central stepped gable containing scrolls and shields. A range of linked round chimney shafts rises at the left gable. The right-hand Departures gateway is now missing. Shop fronts date from circa 1985 and are set between the inner buttresses and turrets.

To the left stands the two-storey Arrivals gateway, flanked by turrets with a wide Tudor arch beneath a round panel in a square frame for a clock, shields and a worn scroll. Pennant wheel stops and wrought-iron double gates remain. A lower connecting block contains a smaller gateway and blind lancet above.

The Pennant rubble engine shed behind the main offices features a turreted screen wall and crenellated parapet, with a tunnel crossing beneath it at the end. The passenger shed has a central projecting Arrivals entrance facing north with corner turrets, a gabled parapet, and four-centred doorways.

The interior retains significant decorative detail. A Director's doorway opens to a large open-well staircase with crenellated octagonal newels and barleysugar banisters. The panelled ceiling features an openwork vine-leaf cornice and a central pendant of openwork mouchettes. The Board Room is panelled with a large fireplace.

The functional spaces beneath the sheds comprise a semicircular-vaulted undercroft. The engine shed contains cast-iron stanchions supporting a top-lit drawing office above. The passenger shed is a fine aisled space with a cantilevered timber roof featuring false hammer beams, carried on an arcade of Tudor arches resting on cast-iron columns.

Historical context: The Great Western Railway line to London was completed in 1841, with the Bristol terminus opening at that date. The original design separated Arrivals and Departures on opposite sides of the building, with passengers passing through the undercroft which contained waiting rooms. Engines were turned around on turntables and moved between lines within the engine shed. The functional space of the station as designed by Brunel remains almost entirely intact, representing the most complete survivor of early provincial railway termini and an exceptionally important example of Victorian railway architecture.