Reg No
50930337
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Technical
Previous Name
Westland Row Station
Original Use
Railway station
In Use As
Railway station
Date
1880 - 1895
Coordinates
316674, 233993
Date Recorded
08/06/2017
Date Updated
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Attached five-bay three-storey railway station, built 1884, altered and refaced 1891, with two glazed barrel-vaulted sheds over railway lines entering to first floor. Barrel roof with balustrade parapet. Giant red brick Flemish bond pilasters having limestone dressing to end bays, flanking iron walls with giant pilasters having moulded detailing acting as continuous sill courses. Decorative panels below upper floor windows, with rosette motifs below first floor openings and chevron patterning below second floor windows. Banded yellow and red brick walls to central ground floor, below bridge, having red brick plinth and moulded red brick surrounds with decorative terracotta panels above to door openings. Square-headed openings with tripartite windows to upper floors. Square-headed openings to ground floor, some retaining historic overlights, with recent replacement door fittings. Station interior having cast-iron columns and girders and red brick panelled walls supporting cast-iron glazed roof structure. Red brick Flemish bond walls to station interior, having pilasters, moulded stringcourses, decorative architraves and some pediments to openings. Some openings retaining historic glazing and doors.
The first station on this site was opened 1834 as the terminus for the Dublin & Kingstown Railway, the first public railway service in Ireland. Altered in subsequent years to meet growing capacity requirements, a new station, comprising two large barrel-vaulted sheds by William Turner, for what was now the Dublin, Wicklow & Wexford Railway was built 1884 to designs by T.N. Deane & Son. The principal iron members of the station, including its arched girders, were made in Chepstow, Wales, while the Dublin foundry of Courtney, Stephens and Bailey supplied the remaining ironwork. The main roof is 155m long, spanning nearly 27m; the smaller bay is 73m long with a span of almost 20m. The west elevation was altered 1891 to accommodate the Loop Line connection to Amiens Street (Connolly Station). This elevation is innovatively built in light weight iron. The wide roof span of the main shed, achieved with the use of cast-iron and brick, is a reminder of the engineering innovations of the nineteenth century. Railway companies were often among the first to embrace new technologies and materials, and the roof span and iron façade of this building are particularly noteworthy technical features.