Cardiff Central Station, Booking Hall, Passenger Subway, Platforms 1-4, 6 & 7 and Platform Buildings

Cardiff Central Station, Booking Hall, Passenger Subway, Platforms 1-4, 6 & 7 and Platform Buildings

The Booking Hall is constructed in natural Portland stone with a Cornish granite plinth and interior walls with granite bases. Devonshire green marble is used throughout, with pilasters capped in Ashburton black marble. Ceramic tile facings feature prominently. The platform buildings and subways are finished in glazed blocks (Carrara ware by Doulton), with grey granite plinths to the platform buildings.

The Booking Hall presents a classical style with a Portland stone facade. A clock sits above the slate roof. The elevation facing Central Square has end blocks each of three bays with parapet and cornice, with a central triangular pediment, Doric pilasters and Roman Bath type lunettes with keystones. A canopy is cantilevered on lattice girders and supported by wrought-iron tie bars, continuing on the eastern return of the building. The ground floor has inserted modern shop fascias. The eastern return consists of three bays with parapet and cornice with a pediment over the central bay, plain frieze and four Doric pilasters. The central bay is slightly advanced with a blind round-headed arch with keystone. Beneath the canopy, a former entrance doorway has been blocked with render scribed and painted to imitate Portland stone. The western return is plain.

An adjoining wing to the west is in Portland stone on a grey granite base, with openings for former shops and a public house. The parapet has square openings with iron grilles. To the east of the Booking Hall, a long angled retaining wall has a parapet with square openings with iron grilles and panelling below for advertisements. At the right end of the wall adjoining the Booking Hall is a doorway to the subway serving as a luggage entrance to the station. To the rear, blind panelling faces the platforms.

The Booking Hall comprises 11 bays. Blind arcading appears on the rear wall and above the entrance. The five central bays have a coved glazing ceiling lit by artificial lighting. The three bays at each end have ceilings with elliptical vaults, lit from the front by tripartite Roman Bath type lunette windows. Dark green marble giant Doric pilasters on granite bases articulate the bays. Modernisation has included the insertion of an enquiry office at the eastern end and shops to the north.

The platforms consist of three island platforms constructed in stone with some brick extensions. Flooring was originally asphalt beneath the canopies and flagstones where not covered, though some concrete block replacement has been undertaken. All platforms have canopies with corrugated roof covering, featuring a roof system of lattice girders with central double-pitched areas and outer cantilevered canopies. Slim cast-iron Tuscan columns support the roofs, with corbels in the platform buildings. Cross girders in central areas feature 3-centred arches, whilst longitudinal girders to each bay have elliptical arches. Boarded wooden valences finish the roofs. At the western end of platforms 3 and 4, the roof divides (at the former platform 5) into two umbrella-type canopies supported on tapering I-beams. At uncovered platform ends, lamp standards sit in concrete.

Platforms 1 and 2 have two blocks of single-storey platform buildings in cream glazed blocks (Carrara ware by Doulton) with brown surrounds for advertising posters and polished grey granite plinths. Inscriptions reading 'Cardiff' appear in raised brown ceramic lettering. Mullioned windows and wooden doors with oval windows are present. The eastern block contains modernised toilets and a buffet; the western block has offices and a waiting room with wood panelling and a simple coved ceiling. Two housings for goods lifts, with modern corrugated walls at platform level, project above the canopies and are clad in wooden weatherboarding with hipped roofs. One wooden kiosk is attached to a goods lift and one stands freely between the main blocks. An additional service block in brick lies to the west of the platform.

Platforms 3 and 4 (formerly platforms 3, 4 and 5) have two similar but narrower platform building blocks. The western end was formerly divided to provide extra run-in for trains. The eastern block has an upper storey projecting above the canopy with gabled ends and pilaster strips projecting above the parapet; T-bar glazing features in the windows. This block was restored in 1998 after fire damage. Two housings for goods lifts, with modern corrugated walls at platform level, project above the canopies as on other platforms.

Platforms 6 and 7 have two similar platform building blocks. The western block extends to the east as a buffet and is faced in cream ceramic tiles. A further building to the west is constructed in concrete blocks painted to resemble Carrara Ware. Two housings for goods lifts are present as on other platforms.

The passenger subway has walls faced with cream ceramic tiles with brown tiled surrounds for advertising posters. Two stairs lead to each platform. At the foot of the stairs to the platforms, ceramic tile panels with raised cornice and surrounds bear lettering, numerals and direction fingers in brown on a cream background. Stairs to the platforms have walls in cream and brown ceramic tiles with wooden handrails. Stairs to the mainline platforms have a central handrail on iron supports; stairs to the branch lines are narrower without a central handrail. At platform level, the stairways have iron rails in simple geometrical 1930s style.