Bristol Temple Meads railway station

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Bristol Temple Meads
Location
Place	Bristol
Local authority	Bristol
Operations
Managed by	First Great Western
Platforms in use	13
Annual entry/exit 04/05	5.641 million **
History
1840 1878	Opened Extended
National Rail - UK railway stations
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
** based on sales of tickets in 2004/05 financial year which end or originate at Bristol Temple Meads. Disclaimer (PDF)

Bristol Temple Meads is a major railway station in Bristol, England. It is situated about a mile south-east of the city centre, and is the main station for central Bristol. Bristol's other main-line station, Bristol Parkway, is on the northern outskirts of the city.

The station is served by express services on the Great Western route from London Paddington, Virgin Cross-Country express services between the north of England and the south west, and local and regional trains. Due to the layout of the lines around the station, trains to Wales, the Midlands, the north, London and the south coast all exit at the east end of the station. Only trains heading for Cornwall exit at the west end. The station has its platforms numbered 1-15, excluding 14; most of the platform faces have two numbers, with platform 4 (for example) being the south end of platform 3.

[edit] History

The name of the site where the station was built derives from the nearby Temple (or Holy Cross) Church, which was built by the Knights Templar in the 12th century, rebuilt in the 14th century, and gutted by bombing during World War II. The site was within the boundaries of the old city, but some way distant from the commercial centre, and on the far side from fashionable Clifton. It did have the advantage of facing onto the Floating Harbour for transhipment of goods onto boats. The city's cattle market had been built on neighbouring land in 1830.

Brunel's original station now houses the Empire and Commonwealth Museum.

A Class 220 Voyager at Bristol.

The original terminal station was built for the Great Western Railway (GWR) and was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the engineer of the GWR. The 72'-wide (22 m) train shed has a wooden box-frame roof and cast-iron columns disguised as hammerbeams above Tudor arches. The station also included a more utilitarian engine shed, and is fronted by an office building in the Tudor style. It is the oldest railway terminus in the world, and is regarded as one of the best Victorian station buildings. Services to Bath started on 31 August 1840 and to London Paddington in 1841. This part of the station was closed in 1965, and fell into disrepair for over twenty years. From 1989 until 1999 it was the home of The Exploratory, an interactive science centre, and is now the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum. It is a grade I listed building.

The adjacent through station, which is still used by trains, was built between 1871 and 1878 under the direction of Brunel's former associate Matthew Digby Wyatt.There have been a number of references to Matthew Digby Wyattt's involvement with the rebuilding of 1871-1876 but there is no documentary evidence in the Minutes of the Joint Committee or on the drawings. The only signature on the drawings is that of Francis Fox (1818-1914) who was the Engineer to the Bristol and Exeter Railway. The curved train shed is 500' (154 m) long on the platform edge and has a wrought-iron roof structure by engineer Francis Fox. It replaced the 1844 station of the Bristol and Exeter Railway, which was perpendicular to the GWR station. The Bristol and Exeter's office building, by S. C. Fripp, still stands alongside the station approach. At the same time the Brunel terminus was extended eastward to join up with the new building; since the closure of the terminal station in 1965 this extension has served as a covered car park. The through station was further extended on the east side in the 1930s by architect P. E. Culverhouse, with the addition of two further platform islands, allowing the removal of a narrow island platform in the middle of the 1870s train shed. The through station is also a grade I listed building.

The original station (left) closed in 1965. All services now run from the 1870s extension (right).

The GWR's goods yard was built on the north-west side of the station, between the passenger station and the Floating Harbour, allowing transhipment of goods onto boats (though not onto ships, as the wharf was upstream of Bristol Bridge). In 1872 a further connection to the harbour was made in the form of the Bristol Harbour Railway, which ran between the passenger station and the goods yard, onto a bridge over the street outside, and then descended into a tunnel under the churchyard of St. Mary Redcliffe on its way to a wharf in a more convenient position downstream of Bristol Bridge. The bridge outside the station remained in use until 1964, but has now, along with the goods yard, been entirely swept away.

The station was built for the GWR's broad gauge, and in 1844 broad gauge trains of the Bristol and Gloucester Railway began running from the station. In 1846 the B&G was taken over by the Midland Railway, and by 1853 it had been converted to standard gauge, with mixed gauge track running into Temple Meads.

The original Joint Committee set up in 1865 comprised Great Western, Bristol and Exeter and Midland Railways, hence the three main entrance arches. The capital costs of the work were split 4/14 Great Western/B&E and 10/14 Midland Railway. The ongoing costs were split GWR 3/8, Midland 3/8 and B&E 2/8. Hence when the GWR absorbed the B&E in 1876 the split was GWR 5/8 and Midland (later LMS) 3/8 until Nationalisation in 1948.The station remained a joint GWR-Midland (later GWR-LMS) operation until nationalisation. It was converted to standard gauge when the GWR finally abandoned broad gauge in 1892.

The former Bath Road Depot was situated to the immediate south of the station.

[edit] Station Layout

In general, platforms are arranged in pairs, with odd-numbered platforms located at the east end of platform faces, and even-numbered at the west end. Platforms 1-4 are located on the main concourse; platforms 1 and 2 being bay platforms. The other platforms are on three islands, containing platforms 4-7, 8-11, and 13 and 15 respectively.

[edit] Further reading

• John Binding: Brunel's Bristol Temple Meads ISBN 0-86093-563-9
  
• A. Gomme, M. Jenner, B. Little: Bristol: an Architectural History ISBN 0-85331-409-8 (out of print)

[edit] See also

• Public Transport In Bristol

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bristol Temple Meads

• Train times and station information for Bristol Temple Meads railway station from National Rail
• Street map and aerial photo of Bristol Temple Meads railway station from Multimap.com

• Panorama of Bristol Temple Meads railway station
• Photos of Bristol Temple Meads railway station