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SUMMARY
Railway station. 1866-1867 by Charles Henry Driver for the
London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR). The canopy
over the western island platform (Numbers Four and Five) was
removed, probably in 1979. The station frontage and booking hall
were restored in 1986 following a fire.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
Battersea Park Railway Station, built in 1866-1867 by Charles
Henry Driver for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR)
is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
ARCHITECTURAL INTEREST
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as a well-surviving
example of a suburban station of the 1860s with a
good-quality ticket hall interior;
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for distinctive and
original decorative ironwork to the canopy of Platform One
and at the head of the stairs to platforms Two and Three;
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for the rare survival of
the projecting timber Platform One with its cast-iron
superstructure. Historical interest:
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as a station by Charles
Henry Driver, a notable Victorian railway architect and
expert in the architectural use of ironwork.
HISTORY
Battersea Park Railway Station opened in 1867. It was built by
the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR) to designs
by the architect Charles Henry Driver and probably constructed
by the firm of Jackson and Shaw. It was one of a pair of new
stations, both designed by Driver, built close to each other
along Battersea Park Road, to service the high-level lines out
of Victoria Station built by the engineer, Sir Charles Fox, for
the LBSCR, and the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR). The
second station ‘York Road (LCDR)’, a hundred yards further east,
was demolished in 1923. As the LBSCR station, originally known
as ‘York Road (LBSCR)’, was sited at the junction of two lines
which cross Battersea Park Road on bridges, the frontage of the
station was squeezed in between the two bridges with waiting
rooms and other accommodation placed under the high-level
platforms.
In 1906 a signal box spanning the central track at the north end
of the platforms was added and the canopy to Platforms Two and
Three replaced. The signal box was demolished in 1979. The
original canopy over the island platform (Platforms Four and
Five) was also removed, probably at the same time. The station
front and booking hall were restored in 1986 following a fire in
the booking office in 1984. In 2009 electronic ticket gates were
installed.
The station has had a number of name changes. In 1870 it became
York Road and Battersea Park, then Battersea Park and York Road
in 1877. The present name dates from 1885.
Charles Henry Driver (1832-1900) was an architect who, his
obituary says 'was largely employed by engineers', some of whom
were the leading figures of the C19 such as Sir Joseph
Bazalgette with whom Driver worked on the Abbey Mills and
Crossness Pumping Stations and the Victoria Embankment. Driver
started his career as a draughtsman in the office of Frank
Foster, Engineer to the Commissioners of Sewers, London and came
to specialise in ironwork construction. His involvement with
railway buildings began in 1852 when he was employed by Liddell
and Gordon for work on the Midland Railway, designing stations
on the Leicester to Hitchin Line which opened in 1857. From 1860
he worked freelance for the LBSCR and was involved in the
designs for their terminus at London Bridge as well as working
on the company’s South London line linking Victoria with London
Bridge, including Denmark Hill and Peckham Rye stations. In 1866
he also provided designs for the Three Bridges to Tunbridge
Wells Central Line stations. Driver's reputation was
international. In the 1870s he designed an impressive market
building which was constructed in Manchester and shipped to
Santiago, Chile, one of the major prefabricated buildings of the
late-C19. He also designed the Estacao da Luz railway station in
Sao Paulo, Brazil, completed in 1901 after his death.
DETAILS
Railway station. 1866-1867 by Charles Henry Driver for the
London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR). The canopy
over the western island platform (Numbers Four and Five) was
removed, probably in 1979. The station frontage and booking hall
were restored in 1986 following a fire.
MATERIALS: the main station building is of pale yellow gault
brick laid in Flemish bond with red brick and Portland stone
dressings and banding. The roofs are slate covered, although it
was originally pantiled and crowned by iron cresting. The
adjoining railway embankments and platform retaining walls are
of yellow stock brick. Platform buildings have timber cladding
and Platforms One, and Two and Three, have cast-iron canopy
supports. The canopies have steel and timber superstructure. The
cantilevered Platform One has timber decking atop a cast-iron
and steel superstructure.
PLAN: the station is located between two railway embankments to
the south of the station which meet to become a single
embankment supporting the platforms. The station frontage
building and double-height ticket hall and (originally) the
General Waiting Room to the north are located at street level
with a flight of stairs rising from the waiting room up to a
timber cross-gallery at mezzanine level (passing through one of
the vaults of the embankment) from which three staircases rise
to the platform level atop the embankment. The cantilevered
Platform One on the east side of the station is now disused
(2020). A corresponding cantilevered platform on the west side
of the embankment was removed at an unknown date. There are also
two island platforms (the surfaces of Platforms Two* and Three*
to the east, attached to the back of the main station buildings,
and Platforms Four* and Five* to the west are not of special
interest).
The frontage building has a wedge-shaped plan and is of three
storeys with accommodation on the upper floors with the
double-height ticket area separated from the waiting area to the
north, with its pitched glazed roof, by a colonnade. On either
side of the main building the arches of the converging railway
embankments contain additional spaces*. Those on the west side*
originally included a telegraph office* (still accessible from a
door inside the passage to the west of the front building), lamp
room*, porter’s room*, parcels office* and First Class Waiting
Room*. A former coal room* below the cross-gallery is accessed
via a door to the north of the ticket hall. On the east side of
the ticket hall is a modernised staff room* (formerly the
Ladies’ Waiting Room) and WC’s*.
EXTERIOR:
MAIN STATION BUILDING
The south elevation of the Italianate station building (the only
fully expressed external elevation because of the building's
location between the embankments) is symmetrical, of five bays
and giving onto Battersea Park Road. Stone platbands divide the
ground and first floors and first and second floors. The
overhanging eaves are supported by a stone cornice with
dog-tooth decoration and paired brackets backed with red brick
corbelling (this detail continues on the other three
elevations). On the ground floor a blind arcade of five recessed
round-arched openings (the outer ones containing the two
entrances) spring from broad, stepped, pilasters with foliate
stone capitals. The arches have red brick relieving arches and
stone hood-moulds, keystones with incised floral decoration
rising to the platband, and oversize elaborate carved stops.
Fenestration is of four-over-four horned timber sashes with
stone sills and cast-iron spear-headed railings. The entrances
have fanlights with plain vertical glazing bars and double
two-panel doors with brass lions-head doorknobs. The first floor
has recessed square timber windows with wide flared stone
surrounds with incised keystones and hood-mouldings with foliate
stops. The second floor has two-over-two timber sash windows in
recessed round-arched openings with red brick relieving arches
and stone hood-mouldings with foliate stops. The arches spring
from a continuous stone cornice with foliate decoration. The
elevation is adjoined at both ends by the yellow stock brick
abutments of the two railway bridges. The western bridge is
separately listed at Grade II (National Heritage List for
England 1065548).
The east and west elevations of the frontage building are blind,
above the adjoining railway embankments, while the top floor of
the north elevation has five window openings with red brick
segmental arches and one-over-one timber sash windows although
two of the openings have been partially infilled to create
emergency exits. The building has five stock brick chimneys and
a hipped slate roof.
Below the cantilevered eastern platform, the first arch of the
eastern embankment is infilled with buff-coloured brickwork with
a stone hood-mould and gault brick relieving arch. The arch has
three polychromatic round-arched windows flanked by arched red
brick niches. The central window arch has decorative ironwork.
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