Platform Cottage Station House And Platform Cottage

Platform Cottage Station House and Platform Cottage are a station and station house, dating from 1845 and designed by G T Andrews. The building is constructed of sandstone ashlar to the front, with dressed sandstone, chiselled quoins, and window dressings to the rear and a slate roof. The design incorporates a central-staircase plan for the house itself, with a station range to the rear right and a service range to the rear left.

The front of the building is a two-storey, three-bay arrangement with a full-height centre portico and a single-storey bay to the left. The portico features keyed round-arched openings with an impost band, housing a half-glazed panelled door beneath a divided overlight. The ground floor windows are 12-pane sashes with plain raised surrounds, while the first-floor windows are 9-pane sashes, also with plain raised surrounds. A ground-floor sill band and a raised first-floor band are present. The first-floor window within the portico is a radial-glazed sash flanked by recessed panels within a keyed Venetian surround. The single-storey bay has a round-arched radial-glazed sash window in a raised, keyed surround, and also an impost band. Overhanging eaves are supported by shaped brackets. Numerous stacks rise through the roof pitch to the rear.

The line-side elevation displays a two-storey gable end with a single-storey, four-bay range to the right. A first-floor balcony with ogee corbels and a keyed Venetian screen with pierced balustrade is situated on the gable end. The ground and first floors feature 12-pane sashes. The station range to the right incorporates a keyed round-arched arcade with an impost band. A 20th-century glazed and panelled door is located to the right of the centre, while three bordered sashes are positioned beneath fanlights with broad transoms. An end stack is present on the right.

Inside, a geometric open-string staircase features stick balusters, clustered around a turned newel with a moulded handrail that wreathes at the bottom and decorated treadends. Window panelling and panelled shutters are retained in the ground-floor windows. The building was documented in the Illustrated London News, dated 31 August 1850, in relation to a Royal Visit to Castle Howard.