Richmond Garden and Farm Supply Centre St. Martin's, England

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ST MARTINS RICHMONDSHIRE RECREATION NZ 10 SE CENTRE

4/116 Richmond Garden and Farm Supply Centre 4.3.69 (formerly listed as Richmond Railway Station)

GV II*

Railway passenger station, now garden centre. c1846. By G T Andrews for George Hudson's Great North of England Railway. Sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, Welsh slate and glass roof. Jacobethan style. Triple- depth plan. Single-storey; 9-bay train-shed fronted by 11-bay office range with 5-bay porte-cochère further to the front. Plinth. Quoins. Porte- cochère: arcade of moulded 4-centred arches divided by stepped buttresses. String with gargoyles, parapet. Inner wall, from left: 3-light mullion and transom window; leaved door in surround with moulded stop-chamfered jambs and with moulded corbels supporting lintel; part-glazed leaved door with similar jambs and 3-light mullioned overlight; 2-light mullion and transom window; main entrance door with Perpendicular-style traceried panelling and wicket-door, in hollow-moulded pointed-arched doorway with label. To right of porte-cochère: three 2-light mullion and transom windows; gabled slightly-projecting bay with canted-bay window with lead roof; two 2-light mullion and transom windows. String, parapet. Welsh slate roofs, taller over porte-cochère. Ashlar copings to left section and also at right end. Tall ashlar stacks with strings and cornices: square at end left; double- octagon between bays 2 and 3; lozenge at right end of porte-cochère; single octagon to left of gabled bay; double-octagon to right of gabled bay. Behind, glazed 2-span roof of train shed. To left of porte-cochère: single- storey lower range supporting wrought-iron water tank with roundel bearing legend "E THOMPSON YORK 1854". Rear elevation of train shed: 9 bays divided by stepped buttresses. 8 cross windows, the fifth bay blind. Glass roof over bays 2-8 slightly raised with louvred ventilator below at junction with Welsh slate roof. Left return: twin openings to train shed, now with C20 glazing below herringbone timber panelling in gables, each with a 2-light window, a tie-beam decorated with tracery and traceried bargeboards. Right return: to left, set back, lower gable of office range with 2-light mullion and transom window; twin gables of train shed with canted-bay window with stone roof in centre and double mullion and transom window to right. Interior: rooms in office range retain their panelled doors, cornices and some fireplaces. Ticket fixture in former ticket office. Shutters to windows from parcels office onto platform. Train shed: roof valley carried on octagonal hollow cast-iron columns, one bearing maker's name "JOHN WALKER YORK" (iron founder to Queen Victoria 1847-1853 and maker of the railings and gates for the British Museum, 1851). The connecting beams in the form of 4-centred arches, with flat castings of Perpendicular-Tudor motifs in the spandrels. Suspension roof to train-shed spans. The station complex at Richmond forms an important group of railway buildings and is almost complete, only the goods station and coal-staithes having been demolished. The passenger station is of outstanding architectural importance, being one of the best of many good stations designed by G T Andrews for George Hudson (several now demolished), and executed with particularly high quality materials and craftsmanship. It formed the terminus of the Richmond branch line from Darlington. Biddle G & Nock O S, The Railway Heritage of Britain (1983), p 38; Malden J "The Walker Ironfoundry, York, c1825-1923", York Historian vol 1 (1976) pp 37-52.

Listing NGR: NZ1765200870