York Historic Environment Record

Formerly known as: The New Station STATION PLACE. Railway station. 1872-77: original platforms extended to north and south, western platform and Tea Room added, Platform Signal Box and bookshop constructed 1900-09; western platform refurbished and new footbridge built 1938-39; damaged by bomb in 1942, repaired 1947; new Signal Box 1951; all windscreens except one replaced in 1972; major refurbishment in 1977. Original architects were Thomas Prosser, Benjamin Burley and William Peachey. MATERIALS: station and train shed of yellow Scarborough brick in Flemish and English garden-wall bonds with moulded ashlar plinth, plinth band and dressings; roof carried on wrought-iron trusses supported on cast-iron columns. 1930s platform buildings of colour-washed stucco; new Signal Box of orange brick in stretcher bond, header bond on curved corners, with artificial stone dressings: footbridge iron framed with iron railings; Platform signal box and Tea Room of timber. Roofs generally glazed, with some slate, and glazed windscreens; extension platforms covered with corrugated steel sheeting. Stacks are brick, some with moulded stone cornices. PLAN: station consists of aisled train shed with former ticket hall and concourse on eastern side, and portico further east: to west, extension platform with service buildings and new Signal Box built against train shed western wall. EXTERIOR: portico is of 1 storey with clerestory and 9 bays behind cantilevered glazed awning. Arcaded front is of keyed segmental arches on pilaster piers with moulded stone imposts and hoodmoulds. Centre bay is open; flanking bays closed by balustrades of bulbous stone balusters and brick piers, the upper part with glazed timber screens. Moulded eaves cornice surmounted by balustraded parapet. Station clock on S-shaped projecting bracket incorporating the arms of the North Eastern Railway Co. to left of centre. Former ticket hall front within portico: 1 storey and clerestory; 12 bays, 4 centre bays breaking forward. 4 segment-arched openings in centre have pilaster jambs with moulded stone plinth bands and imposts; spandrels at the head are sunk panelled beneath clerestory lights in semicircular keyed brick arches with stone hoodmoulds. Openings on each side, some squat 6-pane sash windows, some altered to C20 doors, have stepped brick panels with segmental heads, some glazed, in clerestory. Train shed elevations: 1 storey and clerestory; blind arcades of round-arched recesses between 3-stage buttresses with moulded stone offsets: clerestory above plain stone band is pierced in each bay by an oculus. Moulded stone eaves cornice, badly decayed in places. At each end are massive square terminal piers with moulded bracket cornices and cross pedimented caps. On western side, New Signal Box is of 3 storeys, 13 bays. The main part is articulated in brick pilasters each with oversize triple keyblock of artificial stone at the head. Windows are metal framed top-opening or pivoting lights. Tea Room Square front: 2 storeys and attic; 6-bay quoined front arranged 2:2:2; centre bays on ground floor project to form 1-storey canted bay window, balustraded at first floor: to left is lower 2-storey 2-bay block. Ground floor openings to main part are arcaded in tall keyed round arches with hoodmoulds between pilaster piers with moulded capitals, those to bay window crocketed. Windows are recessed, of 2 lights, 5 panes high, with blind round heads, over moulded stone sills: centre bay window is altered to makeshift door. All first floor windows are segment-headed 2-light casements over moulded stone sills and swagged stone aprons, set in cambered arches with garlanded keyblocks. Moulded eaves cornice beneath balustrade of bulbous stone balusters, brick piers and moulded stone coping. Central attic flanked by volutes encloses swagged arms of the NER. Block to left has recessed round-headed sash windows on ground floor, cambered arched sashes on first floor, all 4-paned. Tea Rooms extending through train shed wall on both sides has 2-storey 4-bay spine block between 1-storey parallel ranges. 1-storey fronts have bowed and canted bay windows with square latticed transomed casements incorporating good Art Nouveau glass. Panelled parapet over bracketed eaves string. Bow windows to Square front have domed caps surmounted by tall finials. Original train shed windscreen of tiered arcaded lights survives at end of eastern aisle between Tea Rooms and station hotel. INTERIOR: former ticket hall has roof of 7 hammer beam trusses springing from corbel brackets and stiffened with ornate tie rods. Segment arched opening with garlanded keyblock leads to concourse, between segment-arched doorways with semicircular fanlights. In clerestory over each arch are semicircular panels of brick or stone with stone voussoirs, keyblocks and hoodmoulds. Concourse enclosed on three sides by 2-storey ranges except where bomb damaged. Central opening is segment-arched with pilaster responds and moulded imposts. Canted corner bays have doorways with pilasters jambs with foliate capitals beneath semicircular brick arches set with stone voussoirs, and hoodmoulds with volute keyblocks. Ground floor openings, originally round headed 4-pane sash windows now mostly altered, are round-arched and recessed and tied with moulded impost band. Above moulded cornice, upper floor openings are blind sunk panels in moulded surrounds across main range, 4-pane sashes beneath keyed cambered arches in side ranges.
North of central arch is a ceramic tiled map of the NE Railway network in moulded tile frame. Fourth side of concourse partly blocked by 2-storey Platform Signal Box and bookshop. Bookshop has sliding shop doors on concourse side. First floor glazed with 6-pane horizontal sliding sashes over moulded sunk panels. Moulded bracketed eaves cornice. On concourse side is a clock in pedimented timber surround beneath voluted panel enclosing a roundel. On platform side, massive clock on openwork S-shaped bracket incorporating foliage, white roses and the City of York arms projects over footbridge. Train shed is aisled in arcades of segmental arches springing from Composite columns also supporting transverse segment-arched trusses, the outer ends of which are carried on pilasters attached to outer walls: arch spandrels filled with heraldry set in foliage trails incorporating the Yorkshire rose. Inner side of walls arcaded as outside. Brackets projecting from two columns and incorporating foliated NER monogram now support television screens. North and south extensions are roofed with braced trusses on twin colonnades of slim Corinthian columns: canopies are valanced. (Bartholomew City Guides: Hutchinson J and Palliser DM: York: Edinburgh: 1980-: 246-7).
Listing NGR: SE5959751712

Derived from English Heritage LB download dated: 22/08/2005

Mentioned in the york central audit of heritge assets, the station was constructed in 1877.

NMR, NMR data (Unassigned). SYO2214.

Dr Bill Fawcett, John A Ives and Alison Sinclair, 2013, YORK CENTRAL AUDIT OF HERITAGE ASSETS,NOVEMBER 2013 (Report). SYO1457.

York Archaeological Trust, 2017, York Station and Queen St Bridge DBA (Unpublished document). SYO2053.

Arup, 2018, York Station Frontage HER ST (Unpublished document). SYO2257.