Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB19/15/003 A

Address :
Lisburn Railway Station Railway Street Lisburn Co Antrim BT28 1XW

Townland:
Lisnagarvy

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
08/10/1981 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Railway Station Structures

Former Use
Railway Station Structures

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
Yes

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
165/6 SE

IG Ref:
J2663 6459

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

Lisburn Station comprises (1) the main station building, (2) main platform canopy, (3) platforms, (4) island platform building and canopy, (5) circular water tank, and (6) rectangular water tower. The signal box (HB19/15/003B) and footbridge (HB19/15/003C) are described separately. 1. Main station building Single-storey, multi-bay station building with projecting gabled entrance at middle, end returns and canopy over trackside platform. All aligned E-W along the S side of the up track (from Belfast to Dublin). Hipped natural slate roof to main section of station building slightly raised over central bay. Previously there were skylights to the S pitch, but these have been removed. Five yellow-brick chimneys along ridge, all with advanced chamfered bases and moulded brick copings. The returns and projecting entrance bay have pitched natural slate roofs, the ridges of which are slightly higher than the main roof. The entrance bay roof also has decorative ridge tiles and end finials. These gables all have projecting plain bargeboards underneath which is decorative timber fretwork carried on brackets affixed to the walls. Boxed eaves with plastic and cast-iron gutters of ogee profile and metal down pipes; the latter are of circular cross section to the street (S) elevation and of rectangular cross section recessed into the wall on the platform (N) elevation. Yellow brick walls with advanced chamfered base course and advanced eaves course. A course of black and red brick at both window cill and window head spring levels. Unless otherwise stated, all openings are recessed within semicircular heads and have stopped roll mouldings to their jambs. The head of each opening is accentuated by a brick hood mould in black brick; this moulding continues along the top of the black/red brick platband. All windows openings have margined one-over-two timber sliding sashes and finely-dressed granite cills set flush with the walls. The principal elevation faces S on to a small car park fronting the street. It is symmetrical except for a semi-elliptical archway containing a pair of wrought-iron gates at the extreme right (E) end. This is now used as a night gate to/from the platform. The projecting middle section is eight openings wide; the gabled section contains four of these openings, including the principal entrance at its left end. This comprises a pair of semi-glazed timber doors, each with a rectangular overlight and set in a stopped roll-moulded square-headed opening. To its right are two narrow semicircular-headed 2/2 sash windows with common granite cill. Further right is a former doorway which has been glazed and sheeted. The sections either side of the gabled section contain a pair of semicircular-headed windows. Projecting in front of the entrance gable is a glazed hipped canopy cantilevered on metal beams and edged with serrated vertical timber weatherboarding. The inside ends of the supporting beams rest on ornate cast-iron brackets with circular GNRI insignias. Both end returns contain two 2/2 margined sliding sash windows with advanced jambs and flat head, all with roll mouldings. Above each window is a moulded ogee brick cornice with two scrolled brackets and course of scalloping underneath and pseudo blocking course over. The upper red/black/red brick platband is discontinuous across these particular windows’ jambs. The inside cheek of each return contains a pair of semicircular-headed 1/2 sash windows detailed as above. The walls between the middle projection and end returns have a margined sliding sash window at each end, also detailed as above. The W elevation has no openings. The platform (N) elevation has multiple semicircular-headed windows and doors on either side of a glazed and sheeted middle section between the entrance hall and platform. Some of these openings are contiguous, giving the impression of an arcade. The middle section also contains a pair of semi-glazed doors to/from the platform. The brickwork, doors and windows of this elevation are detailed as above. Some of the doors are now dummies, the internal rooms having been reconfigured. The E elevation is four openings wide. At each end there is a four-panel painted timber door with semicircular overlight. Between them are two semicircular windows, detailed as those on the main section of the S elevation. Roof: Natural slate and corrugated metal Walling: Yellow brick with red/black brick dressings Windows: Timber RWG: Plastic and cast-iron 2. Main platform canopy This canopy runs the full length of the station platform and covers the platform serving Belfast to Dublin trains. It has a hipped natural slate roof with skylights to both pitches and is edged with serrated vertical timber weatherboarding. The slates are supported on common rafters over purlins resting on triangular metal trusses. The inside ends of the latter are affixed to the eaves of the station building and are also supported to their centres by a row of decorative cast-iron columns. Ornate cast-iron brackets between the columns and trusses carry circular GNRI insignia. 3. Platforms The platform alongside the main station building serves Belfast to Dublin trains on the ‘up’ line. The platform opposite it, on the island, serves Dublin to Belfast trains on the ‘down’ line, whilst the platform along the other side of the island formerly served the Antrim line. The platforms are generally of rubble stonework, the tarmaced top surfaces of which are edged with concrete. A rubble masonry wall runs along the back of the up platform. The island platform has been extended westwards. (4) Island platform building and canopy The island platform, just N of the main platform at Lisburn Station, contains two buildings aligned E-W which are connected to one another by a canopy which extends over the platforms along either side (no.2 platform at S and no.3 platform at N). This platform is accessed by a staircase down from the footbridge at its E end (HB19/15/003E). Each building is a single storey high. Their roofs form part of the canopy, described below. The walls are of painted brick (green base, cream above), with shallow pilasters to their external faces. The windows and doors are set in flat-headed openings. The doors are generally four-panelled timber with rectangular overlights. The windows are 1x3-paned timber frames with painted masonry cills. The canopy is of shallow pitched profile and sheeted with corrugated metal sheeting. Ogee plastic gutters. The sides and ends of the canopy are sheeted with vertical tongue-and-groove timber embellished with a sawtooth along their bottom edges. The underside of the canopy has a suspended sheeted ceiling. The canopy runs from the W gable of the W building to beyond the E gable of the E building. The sections alongside both buildings and beyond the E one are supported on horizontal metal beams which have curved metal brackets at their inner ends attached to alternate pilasters. The section between the buildings is similarly detailed, but their beams and brackets are secured to two rows of cast-iron columns. Electric lights are affixed to the underside of the sheeted soffit. The platform is tarmaced and edged with concrete. A signal box sits at its W end (HB19/15/003C). Roof: Corrugated metal Walling: Brick Windows: Timber RWG: Plastic (5) Circular water tank This water tank is located at the E end of the island platform. It is a free standing structure comprising a circular open-topped tank on top of a vertical metal column. The tank has a cast-metal base and sides of riveted metal sheeting around the top of which is a flanged metal strengthening lip. It rests on a central hollow cast-iron column. A plate towards the base of this column carries its maker’s plate “A. Brown & Sons Ld. Engineers Londonderry”. The inside of the tank is accessed by a metal ladder, the top of which is secured to the lip. A horizontal cast-iron pipe with a plastic pipe extension projects from the base of the tank. This pipe is mounted on two brackets attached to the column so that it can swivel around. Its discharge is controlled by a chain-operated lever linked to a valve inside the tank. The tank is filled by means of a water pipe up the inside of its supporting column. (6) Rectangular water tower This disused water tank is located on the embankment at the NW end of the station complex, alongside North Circular Road. It is a free standing structure comprising an open rectangular water tank on top of a single-storey brick pump room. The tank is of cast-iron plates bolted to one another along flanges along their inside faces. There are rounded quadrant pieces along its top, bottom and corner edges. The top of the tank is accessed by a metal ladder attached to the wall and tank on the E side. To its right an inverted J-pipe projects over the lip of the tank. The base is of red brick construction with three soldier courses forming corbelled eaves. Two recessed semicircular-headed window openings to S elevation and one to W end, all with spoke-headed cast-iron window frames and dressed sandstone cills. The two windows on the S elevation each have an inverted relieving arch under the cills (presumably decorative rather than structural). Metal-sheeted door in E end, set within a recessed shallow segmental-headed opening. There is a timber depth gauge between these two windows, with a metal pulley bracket affixed to the top of the tank above it; the actual float is missing. The gauge is calibrated in six inch divisions from empty up to 5ft 6in (full). The N elevation is set close to the boundary wall along North Circular Road and has no openings. A pipe projects just below eaves level in the middle of the W elevation (disconnected inside). Setting The station complex is delineated along its E side by a road and bridge over the tracks. A high brick wall capped with terracotta copings runs along North Circular Road, through which is a pedestrian masonry archway giving access to the N end of the footbridge (HB19/10/003C). There were originally engine sheds at the NW corner of the site but these have been demolished to make way for modern buildings now outside the premises and separated therefrom by a metal security fence.

Architects

W.H. Mills

Historical Information

The station was built in 1878 by the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) under the direction of William Henry Mills, the company’s Chief Civil Engineer from 1877 to 1909. This was two years after the GNR's creation through the amalgamation of the Ulster Railway and Northern Railway Company (Ireland). It replaced the Ulster Railway’s original station which had served the Belfast-Lisburn line since its opening in 1839. The building and its associated platform canopy first appear on the 1900 OS map. The interior of the building was refurbished in the late 1990s. The island platform and associated buildings and canopy also date from the station’s rebuilding in 1878 under Mills. A drawing of 1877 (NIEA no.98875) shows the canopy with a shallow pitched roof between the iron columns, and a monopitched roof over the platform to each side. The present pitched roof is evidently a later rebuild to a new profile using the original columns. It may date from the late 1990s when the interior of the building at the E end of the platform was reconfigured as the present waiting room. The circular water tank at the E end of the island platform first appears on the 1939 OS map. As it is not on the 1920 edition, it must therefore date to the 1920s or ‘30s. It was built by the GRN(I) and is still in occasional use for steam locos operated by the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland. The water tank of c.1930 is a now-scarce example of a type specifically designed for filling the tenders of steam locos. Its interest is enhanced by the fact that it is still in working order and used occasionally. The rectangular water tower first appears on the 1920 OS map. As it is not on the 1900 map, it must therefore date to the first two decades of the 20th century. It, too, was erected by the GRN(I). It has been defunct many years. This early 1900s GNR(I) cast-iron water tower is a good example of its type and period. The use of flanged cast-iron pieces for the actual tank contrasts with later welded steel ones. Despite its utilitarian function, the supporting brick tower also exhibits a modicum of ornamentation in the form of its recessed/spoked windows and inverted relieving arches. The tower is also of structural interest in that it not only bore the load of the water-filled tank but originally also contained the pipe work and pump (both now gone). The water gauge level is an unusual survival. The structure's setting is also of interest, being strategically situated at the highest point in the station complex and thus able to provide water under pressure throughout the site - probably for general purposes as opposed to filling the tenders of steam loco. The interest of each individual site component is enhanced by the fact that they forms an intact group, most of which is original fabric. Few GNR(I) stations now survive in such a complete state of preservation and the Lisburn example is possibly the best preserved in the Province and comparable to Dundalk, (opened by the GNR 16 years later, in 1894) in terms of its survival and extent. Sources – Primary
references: 1. PRONI OS/6/1/68/2 Second edition OS six-inch map sheet 68 (1857). 2. GNR(I) drawings of 1877 in NIEA Monuments & Buildings Record: nos 98800, 98875 and 99048. 3. PRONI OS/8/16/3A/5 Lisburn town map (1900). 4. PRONI OS/10/1/68/2/2 Second edition OS 25-inch map Co Antrim sheet 68-02 (1920). 5. PRONI OS/10/1/68/2/3 Third edition OS 25-inch map Co Antrim sheet 68-02 (1939). Sources – Secondary references: 1. W.A. McCutcheon (1980), The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland, p.196 footnote 69 and fig.51 (Belfast: HMSO). 2. E.M. Patterson (1986), The Great Northern Railway (Ireland) (Usk: Oakwood Press).

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form F. Structural System H-. Alterations detracting from building I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

R. Age S. Authenticity S. Authenticity V. Authorship W. Northern Ireland/International Interest Z. Rarity Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

An extensive GNR(I) station complex of ornate brick buildings, canopies and platforms of 1878, with two water tanks dating from the first half of the 20th century. The style, proportion and ornamentation of the main station building and canopy are distinctive features of many GNR(I) stations designed by its Chief Engineer W.H. Mills. The building’s plan form deftly integrates the private and public spaces into a single functioning unit whilst the extensive use of plain and moulded coloured brick rather than stone is undoubtedly innovative in the context of Irish railway architecture. Whilst the exterior is substantially intact, the character of the interiors is somewhat diminished due to modernisation requirements. Although the island platform buildings are not especially remarkable in themselves, their canopy is of structural interest and one of the few such examples to survive in N Ireland. The interest of each individual site component is enhanced by the fact that they form an intact group, most of which is original fabric. Few GNR(I) stations now survive in such a complete state of preservation and the Lisburn example is possibly the best preserved in terms of its survival and extent.

General Comments

Date of Survey

08 February 2011