Leamington - New Station: Part One
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Leamington Spa Station Reconstruction
By the late 1920’s there were over one million men
unemployed in the UK and in an attempt to reduce this figure the government
introduced the ‘Development (Loan Guarantee and Grants) Act 1929’.
This Bill provided financial assistance to public utilities for what would
otherwise be un-ruminative Capital expenditure schemes in the form of annual
low interest grants and also grants to defray, in whole or in part, the
interest payments on any Loan (with a 15 year limit).
As a result of this scheme, the Great Western developed an
extensive improvement programme across its network. In the Warwickshire Area
this included quadrupling the Birmingham Main Line approaches (1933), New Goods
Facilities in Birmingham (1933) and reconstruction of Leamington Spa Station
(1938).
The first Leamington Spa Station had been built in 1853, but
had been modified piecemeal over the years, with extra buildings, removal of
the overall train shed roof, additional platform length and construction of a
bay platform.
The planned new station would have wider platforms of
standard height protected by new longer canopies and connected by a new
15’ wide passenger subway with electric lifts to each platform for
luggage. A new approach road was to be constructed to provide access at subway
level and an impressive modern ‘Art Deco’ style, three storey station
building faced with Portland stone and granite would provide additional
facilities for both passengers and staff. Electric lighting would be provided
to all buildings and the subway, while modern gas lighting was to be provided
to the platforms and station approach roads.
Normal traffic operation and passenger access was required
to continue during the station reconstruction work which resulted in the work
being carried out in a series of stages and taking almost two years to
complete. A temporary booking office pavilion was built in the forecourt and
maintained almost to the end. The limited working space on the up platform
required all surplus materials from the excavation and demolition on this side
to be removed by rail.
The initial stage was to construct the new subway, excavate
the forecourt, demolish the down side buildings and build new retaining walls
for the down platform. This was carried out by E.C.Jordan of Newport, under a
contract worth almost £20,000. Approximately 18,000 cubic yards of
excavation were removed to form a forecourt, which extended over ¾ acre
with a separate entrance and exit and 27,000 sq feet of surfaced roadway and
parking space. During the excavation water was encountered below the platforms
necessitating extra drainage and the provision of a 2” cavity behind the
walls.
Holliday & Greenwood were given a contract worth
£35,000 to erect new station buildings and carry out platform
alterations. The building was a prefabricated steel framed structure, sheathed
with brickwork and externally faced with white Portland stone above a
contrasting polished granite plinth. This granite plinth continued into the
booking office, with tiling above, while the subway was tiled through out
including the non-slip floor. The granite plinth was also retained on the 1st
floor platform side with the Portland stone facing on the pillars and
restaurant façade, but English bond brickwork on the remaining walls.
The new platforms were paved with precast slabs obtained from the GWR depot at
Taunton. The building roofs were flat surrounded by low parapets, while the new
canopies were conventional Great Western design, with zinc sheets over a
shallow reverse slope steelwork frame supported on cast iron pillars. The down
platform canopy had glass sections to provided natural light where it adjoined
the station building.
To the left of the main entrance on the ground floor of the
new station building (with direct access to the forecourt) were; the parcels
office, cloak room, cycle store and the refreshment room cellar. To the right
was the booking office and the entrance to the former passenger subway, which
on completion was converted to a public footpath allowing the removal of the
footbridge at the west end of the station. At platform level on the first floor
was a store, the refreshment room, down side waiting room and lavatories, pay
clerks office, bookstall, telegraph office, station master’s office, staff
office and mess room. On the up platform was a second refreshment room, a
bookstall, lavatories and a waiting room and on the top floor of the station
building was further office accommodation and at least one staff flat.
The reconstruction work was completed in 1939 and would have
been the template for several other stations, but for the start of the Second
World War. The construction quality is confirmed by the fact that after
approximately eighty years the station buildings at Leamington Spa Station have
needed little alteration.
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