Site of the Railway Station, Warrenpoint, Newry, Co Down

Site of the Railway Station, Warrenpoint

The railway station at Warrenpoint has been demolished and replaced with harbour-related buildings. The site is now recorded only.

The station was opened by the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) in 1890 at a cost of £5,000. It was constructed in brick and superseded an earlier station located a short distance to the south-east at the north-west corner of the old dock. This earlier station had been erected by the Newry, Warrenpoint and Rostrevor Railway Company to serve the single-track line between Newry (Bridge Street) and Warrenpoint, which opened in 1849. From 1877, a horse-tram also operated to Rostrevor. The Warrenpoint railway company was taken over by the Great Northern Railway in 1886. The station closed in 1965.

The 1890 station was constructed of yellow brick with red and blue string courses. The building was linear and single-storey, featuring a pitched natural slate roof with crested ridges and plain overhanging eaves carrying moulded rainwater goods with square section downpipes. There were four visible yellow brick chimneys with chamfered bases, bands and corbelled heads. A central gable to the front, slightly advanced, contained the main entrance beneath a flat roofed timber canopy. This canopy had a frieze painted "WARRENPOINT STATION" and was pierced with pointed timber finials. Both the central gable and the right gable of the main block featured ornate timber bargeboards comprising timber frames with pierced panels to the apex and decorative drop finials sweeping down to the eaves.

The front elevation displayed a chamfered basecourse with a flush red brick band (two bricks deep) at cill level and another at meeting rail level. A continuous blue hood mould course in brick specials ran above the windows. All windows were 1/1 segmental-headed sliding sashes with the top sash smaller than the bottom one, set in deep brick reveals with moulded chamfers. Some windows had vertical iron bars. The main entrance opening (two doors wide) featured a segmental headed transom above it, with pairs of narrow windows immediately to either side. At least seven further openings were positioned to the right of the central gable. The right gable at platform level contained two four-panelled doors with segmental headed transoms and matching brick detailing.

The interior accommodated a central public hall, booking office, station master's office, refreshment room and kitchen, ladies' and gentlemen's waiting rooms, parcels' office, and telegraphy office. Toilets were located at the left end of the platform side, with the central portion containing large timber-framed windows serving as the way out.

The platform and single track were covered by a single-span slate roof with iron framing, timber and groove sarking and part-glazed sections. The roof rested on steel trusses supported by granite padstones and on a yellow brick wall on the opposite side. This wall was decorated with an arcade of eleven blind openings featuring coloured brick detailing matching the main block. The end gables were timber and groove sheeted with points cut at the bottom of each vertical. The platform was faced in rubble stone laid in two courses. The main frontage measured 180 feet.