Monkwearmouth Station

Monkwearmouth Station. On the 1st edition OS mapping this was the southern terminus of the North Eastern Railway Sunderland Branch, (SMR 2289). The station was opened in 1848 as the terminus for the Brandling Junction Railway of 1839, which was realigned at the time. The architect was Thomas Moore and it is one of the finest small monumental stations, with a massive Ionic portico. After 1879 the railway bridged the Wear and the station declined in importance. It now functions as a museum and retains its booking office of 1866 {1}. Formerly known as the Monkwearmouth railway station. Main building and side walls 1848 as branch terminus of the Brandling Junction Railway for the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway Company. Footbridge added when line extended in 1879. Rear screen wall supported original train - shed roof, now removed. Passenger waiting room on W platform added 1879. Station closed 1981. Sandstone ashlar station building with Welsh slate roof, cast - iron footbridge with stone side steps and wrought - iron side handrails, wood and glass passenger waiting room. Classical style. EXTERIOR: Station: has 2 - storey, 3 - window centre, one - storey 2 - bay wings and two windows in projecting end pavilions with quadrant end bays. Central prostyle pedimented giant Ionic tetrastyle portico. Architraves to double panelled doors and sashes with glazing bars. Floor band. Flanking set - back sections have scroll brackets to cornices on architraves of panelled doors in inner bays and windows in outer with bracketed sills; cornice and blocking course continuing from floor band of centre. Similar sills and lugged architraves to windows in projecting end pavilions with paired Tuscan pilasters flanking front windows and fluted Greek Doric columns flanking windows in recessed quadrants with triglyph frieze entablature. Roof over centre runs back from pediment and has panelled corniced ridge chimneys. Similar chimneys on low - pitched side roofs. Footbridge and wall: Long arcaded screen wall runs N and S, curved at S alongside entrance drive, some arches have19th century wrought - iron railings. W screen wall 1848: ashlar. High screen wall with moulded cornice and plain pilasters extends the length of the W platform and abuts, at S end, part of former goods station wall. Footbridge attached to rear of station; 1879 for North Eastern Railway. Scroll brackets support cast - iron arched bridge with diagonally - braced parapets. Ashlar side steps attached to station and rear screen wall, treads repaired in rough - textured concrete, have wrought - iron handrails attached to walls. Bridge has wood steps and footpath, iron handrails boxed - in. Passenger waiting room: on W platform: walls boarded below and galzed above, with upper glazing bars, half - glazed doors, and fret carved canopy valence to Welsh slate roof added after train shed roof removed. INTERIOR of station shows booking office installed in 1866 and restored to condition of 1905; windows with panelled shutters. Curved windows in quadrant sections have lost curved glass; all windows have shutters. Some fires obscured by museum displays, one revealed in booking office. Upper floor formerly station - master's house. W waiting room has boarded dado with wooden benches attached, cast - iron fireplace with reeded pilasters and lintel below coping with central NER monogram. George Hudson, the railway entrepreneur, was chairman of the railway company which built the station and had been elected M.P. for Sunderland in 1845. (Corfe T: The Buildings of Sunderland 1814 - 1914.: Newcastle upon Tyne: 1983-: 18; Tyne and Wear County Council Museums: The Tyneside Classical Tradition: Newcastle upon Tyne: 1980-: 25; Hoole K: Railway Stations of the North East: Newton Abbot: 1985-: 82; Sinclair NT: Railways of Sunderland: Newcastle upon Tyne: 1986-: 24, 45) {3}.