Bridgwater Railway Station

Bridgwater Railway Station, dating from 1841, was designed by I.K. Brunel for the Great Western Railway. The station comprises two rectangular buildings connected by a bridge to the north, with a larger main block to the west and set-back side wings. The architecture is Classical in style, constructed from stucco with a slate roof concealed behind a parapet, and brick stacks to the wings. The front of the main building has a 13-window range. A high parapet with moulded coping and a heavy cornice, including a half-round string course, runs around the entire structure. Windows are predominantly 6/6-pane sashes, set within architraves with bracketed cills. The central booking hall features a small pediment and a swept glass verandah supported by pierced cast-iron brackets incorporating cinquefoils and trefoils on stone corbels. The booking hall has tripartite 6/6-pane sash windows to the front and returns, a panelled door to the right, and a large fixed window with two rows of five panes to the left return. To the right are two set-back wings; the rightmost is even further recessed with three windows, and the left wing has C19 panelled double doors and four windows, one without an architrave. A small range projects from the left wing, featuring a fixed casement window above it, and an original stack with a similar cornice and string course. The building to the east, across the railway line, is similarly detailed. Platform canopies are supported by octagonal cast-iron columns and latticed girders, featuring boarded ceilings with a continuous pitched roof-light over small king-post trusses along the centre, with fretted and pointed wood plank edges. The closed-in bridge, approached by fine staircases with cast-iron stick balusters, vase newels, and swept oak handrails, has a slightly arched, tongued-and-grooved panelled floor below windows with some mid-19th century obscured ridged glass. A wide entrance with C19 double doors is situated at the front of the left wing, leading to double wooden gates at the foot of the bridge stairs, which have chamfered members to diagonally-crossed struts within rectangular frames with vertical iron bars. The interior remains virtually unchanged with high skirting boards and 4-panel doors. The booking hall has a large rectangular lantern with a planked hipped roof over a row of square panes, and a panelled area below. A large 11-light window reaches to the high ceiling, and features stopped chamfers to the mullions and transom.