Templepatrick Railway Station

Templepatrick Railway Station is a detached four-bay two-storey brick railway station built on a steep embankment on the north side of the former Belfast-Ballymena railway line. It was opened in July 1848, following the opening of the Belfast-Ballymena Railway in April of that year. The line was later incorporated as the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway in 1860.

The station was likely rebuilt around 1873 by engineer-architect John Lanyon, son of Sir Charles Lanyon, who was commissioned to design stations along the Northern Counties line. It shares distinctive stylistic features with contemporary stations at Downhill, Limavadi and Castlerock. The steep embankment at Templepatrick presented unusual design challenges, resulting in a remarkable two-storey plan form with several innovative features.

The building is rectangular on plan, with bays one and three gabled, creating an H-shaped ridge with an additional bay to the east. The south elevation, which opens onto a concrete platform, is single storey over a double-height basement level. The upper level is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with polychrome brick banding. The basement level is uncoursed rock-faced basalt with brick quoins and a chamfered brick string course between storeys, forming a plinth to the south elevation. Single-stage buttresses to the basement corners form an in-stepped profile to the side elevations.

The roof is pitched natural slate on profiled rafter tails and timber brackets, with crested ridge tiles and ogee cast-iron rainwater goods. Two yellow brick chimneys are present.

The majority of windows are round-headed 1/1 sliding sashes with margin panes, featuring heads of alternating black and red brick, chamfered brick reveals, cogged brick hood mouldings and flush chamfered masonry cills. Where segmental-headed windows occur, there are no hood moulds. The south platform elevation has a single boarded window to each remaining bay, with the east bay window reaching the eaves and lacking a hood mould. The second bay from the west has been opened and is now contained within a gabled uPVC projecting porch. The west elevation features a double-height vehicular entrance arch with brick reveals, to the right of which is a segmental-headed replacement timber-sheeted door. The upper storey to the west is blank. The north elevation is dominated by a pair of centrally located double-height arches at lower level. The upper storey has a window to each bay, with the second window from the right being segmental-headed. The left bay contains a pair of diminished segmental-headed windows. The east elevation displays an M-profile double-gabled form, with a vehicular arch at lower level to the right and round-headed windows with projecting stone cills to either side at upper storey. A segmental-headed window with timber-sheeted door is located beneath the platform at mid-level, accessed by a flight of timber steps.

The lower storey contained covered vehicle loading bays, while the first floor housed the booking hall, accessed by a flight of interior stone steps. The 1907 Irish Railway and Commercial Gazetteer records the station as having money order offices, telegraph offices and a post office. Freight traffic was winched to the platform by means of a manually operated counterbalanced winch, part of which survives. The station is further distinguished by a double-height vehicular loading storey with rustic stonework that acts as a robust plinth to the station above. The winch tower and wheel remain as evidence of this unusual freight access lift and are of additional industrial heritage value.

The station closed to passengers on 20 September 1954, was reopened on 1 September 1980, and closed for the final time on 23 February 1989. Planning permission for change of use to a dwelling was granted in 1996. The building is currently vacant.

The station stands in the grounds of a 1980s house, surrounded by lawn and an ornamental pond to the rear. To the east side, covered in undergrowth, are the remains of the freight winch mechanism, consisting of a metal lattice tower surmounted by a wheel. A concrete platform spans the embankment to the west and is supported by pre-cast concrete piers.

Despite changes to its use and some degradation, the station's essential character remains intact. It is an important social artifact for Templepatrick village, which it influenced to a certain extent, and is significant in respect of improved transport and communication networks in a wider national context.