The Station, Station Square, Helen's Bay, Bangor, Co Down, BT19 1TN

The Station, Helen's Bay — Railway Station Building, c.1862

This is a single-storey building with basement, designed in the Scottish Baronial style and built around 1862 as part of the Belfast, Holywood and Bangor Railway. It was designed by the English architect Benjamin Ferrey and constructed at the railway company's expense, but its design and layout were dictated entirely by Frederick, the 1st Marquis of Dufferin and Ava, as a condition of the railway being permitted to cross his Clandeboye estate. This unusual arrangement — where the landowner rather than the railway company determined the station's appearance and plan — makes it a rare and distinctive example of mid-19th century railway architecture in the Province. The building's Scottish Baronial style and the exceptional quality of its sandstone ornamentation combine to make it one of the most striking, if atypical, stations in Northern Ireland. The listing also covers the yard walling, gate piers and stone steps descending to the coach yard.

Architectural Description

The four-bay station building sits on the north (or "down") side of the Belfast to Bangor railway line, aligned east to west. The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate, with raised and stepped gables coped with cut sandstone blocks. Three chimneys run along the ridge, each coped with moulded, inward-tapering ashlar sandstone. The gutters are integral with the advanced moulded sandstone eaves course that runs around the building. The walls are of quarried, rock-faced blackstone, squared on the south elevation. Rainwater goods are cast iron, and windows are timber-framed.

South Elevation (Platform Front)

The principal elevation faces south towards the platform. A three-arch colonnade formerly provided access into a passage leading to the internal rooms. The left and middle arches are round-headed; the right-hand arch is smaller with a two-centred head. All three are trimmed in ashlar sandstone with a moulded intrados. These openings have since been infilled with windows set on rendered dwarf walls. At the far left of this elevation is a small lancet window, also trimmed in sandstone.

The right-hand bay is slightly advanced and given additional prominence by a crow-stepped gable. It contains a pair of lancet windows sharing a chamfered cill, with stepped sandstone jambs and a shouldered pedimented sandstone lintel. One window is a fixed pane and the other is a 1-over-1 sliding sash, both with timber frames. In the apex of the gable is a square recessed panel trimmed in sandstone, bearing the intertwined letters D and A (for Dufferin and Ava) beneath a coronet, all in bas-relief. The eaves course continues across the base of the gable apex.

East Elevation (Station Square)

This elevation faces onto The Square. It has a slightly advanced base course defined by a chamfered sandstone top course. On the left are a pair of window openings detailed in the same manner as those on the south elevation. On the right is a pedestrian entrance reached by stone steps, with a semicircular head trimmed in chamfered ashlar sandstone jambs. There are vertical metal handrails to either side of the steps and an electric light above the doorway.

A yard wall extends to the right of this elevation, terminating in two square gate pillars. The wall is of quarried blackstone, defined by a chamfered sandstone string course along its base and matching copings. The sandstone trim, which has been painted, continues around the gate pillars, which have projecting pyramidal sandstone caps.

North Elevation

Access to the north elevation was not possible at the time of inspection, and only a distant view was obtained. The base course is advanced as on the east elevation. The left-hand bay is slightly advanced and detailed in the same manner as the corresponding bay on the platform side, including the Dufferin and Ava insignia on the gable apex. A later brick shed has been built across the remainder of this elevation, though inspection from the platform side suggests that the original window openings likely survive intact behind it.

North-West Tower

At the north-west corner of the building is a two-stage circular tower with a natural slate conical spire, now heavily covered in ivy. This was the private entrance used by the Dufferin family. The moulded cornice of the main building continues as a string course around the tower between its ground and first-floor stages; the upper stage also has a moulded eaves course. There is a lancet window to the upper stage, trimmed in sandstone. A doorway at ground-floor level was reached by a flight of stone steps from the courtyard below. The staircase was contained between quarried rubble blackstone walls coped with sandstone (as indicated by measured drawings). The conical roof of the tower was removed around 1960 but has since been rebuilt.

West Elevation

The west elevation is detailed in the same manner as the east, but without a base course. The eaves cornice continues across the base of the gable apex, which does not carry the D and A insignia. This elevation contains three lancet windows trimmed in sandstone. A fourth lancet at the north end has been broken out to form a doorway. A modern lean-to in concrete blockwork now partially abuts this gable.

Setting

The station building is located off Station Square in Helen's Bay, close to Clandeboye Avenue. It sits to the north of the listed station platforms, to the east of the associated coach yard and railway bridge, and adjacent to the former stationmaster's house to the north, with a related road bridge further north again. Tall basalt stone walling and piers — with painted masonry plinth and copings — separate the former yard from Station Square. The building has group value with the related railway structures in the vicinity.

Historical Background

The land on which the station stands was part of the estate of Frederick, 1st Marquis of Dufferin and Ava, who made the design of the entire station complex — including its associated bridges — a condition of granting the railway a right of way across his land. Benjamin Ferrey carried out his wishes, with all costs met by the railway company. Because the line was originally single-track, there was no requirement for a waiting room on the opposite side.

The railway had reached Holywood in 1848, but the extension from Holywood to Bangor was not begun until 1862 by the Belfast, Holywood and Bangor Railway Company. The route required extensive rock blasting and took three years to complete, opening on 19 May 1865. On opening, the Belfast and County Down Railway Company sold its Belfast to Holywood section to the Belfast, Holywood and Bangor Railway. The line was leased to the Belfast and County Down Railway in 1873 and transferred outright in 1884. The following year, the station was renamed Helen's Bay, having previously been known as Clandeboye. In 1948 the line passed to the Ulster Transport Authority, and in 1968 to Northern Ireland Railways. It is now operated by Translink. The platforms remain in use as a halt.

During the 1990s the station building was used as a restaurant by chef Michael Deane, but he has since relocated and the building was vacant at the time of listing. The architectural drawings for the station by Benjamin Ferrey, dated 1862, are held in the Clandeboye Estate Archive, with copies at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.