Lower Waiting Room, Cliff Railway

LYNTON AND LYNMOUTH

SS7149 THE ESPLANADE, Lynmouth 858-1/4/85 (South side) Lower Waiting Room, Cliff Railway

GV II

Waiting room with attached workshop, at lower end of Cliff Railway. 1890. Paid for by Sir George Newnes, built by Bob Jones. Timber-framed, rubble, asbestos-cement slate roof. A rectangular pavilion with deep projecting decorative gable to the S side, at the foot of the railway. This front has a diagonally-boarded gable behind an open truss with curved braces and barge-board, over a large plate-glass light and narrower light each side of a framed door with diagonal planking. The return has 4 similar glazed panels, each with a flanking narrower light in the upper half, but the first and third panels have diagonal boarding. The frame members are of square scantling, with chamfered members to run-out stops at each junction. The outer gable, facing the Esplanade, has the diagonal boarding, but is blocked below by a later service block. To the W of the main pavilion is a small workshop in rubble, extended by a later lean-to. INTERIOR: has a concrete floor, and is in 2 bays with a king-post roof truss with cross-bracing, all the members with stopped chamfers, as the main framing. HISTORICAL NOTE: the pavilion is little changed, and still serves its original purpose. It originally had a tiled roof, and is similar in style to the Upper Waiting Room, Lee Road (qv). The railway was opened on Easter Day, 1890. It was funded by Sir George Newnes, and built by Bob Jones. The builder's grandson, still working for the railway, says that "Newnes' money and Jones' brains built Lynton and Lynmouth", which included this work.

Listing NGR: SS7216949656