Bristol Temple Meads railway station
Categories: Railway stations in the United Kingdom | Buildings and structures in Bristol | Grade I listed buildings | Transport in Bristol
Bristol Temple Meads is a 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 situated on the northern outskirts of the town.
The station is presently 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 down to the south coast all exit out the east end of the station. Only trains heading on the line down to Cornwall exit out 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.
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.
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 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 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.
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)
External links
- 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
| Preceding station | Image:British Rail.gif National Rail | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terminus | Arriva Trains Wales (South Wales Main Line) | Severn Tunnel Junction | ||
| Bath Spa | First Great Western (Great Western Main Line) | Weston-super-Mare | ||
| Taunton | Virgin Trains (Cross-Country Route) | Bristol Parkway | ||
| Newport | Virgin Trains (Cross-Country Route) | |||
| Terminus | Wessex Trains Alphaline (Bristol-Penzance) | Bedminster | ||
| Terminus | Wessex Trains (Bristol-Worcester) | Filton Abbey Wood | ||
| Terminus | Wessex Trains (Severn Beach Line) | Lawrence Hill | ||
| Terminus | Wessex Trains Alphaline (Wessex Main Line) | Keynsham | ||
| British railway system - Major UK railway stations |
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Birmingham New Street | Birmingham Snow Hill | Bristol Temple Meads | Cardiff Central | Derby | Doncaster | Edinburgh Waverley | Exeter St Davids | Glasgow Central | Glasgow Queen Street | Leeds City | Leicester | Liverpool Lime Street | Manchester Piccadilly | Manchester Victoria | Newcastle Central | Nottingham | Reading | Sheffield | York |
|
Blackfriars | Cannon Street | Charing Cross | City Thameslink | Clapham Junction | Euston | Fenchurch Street | King's Cross | King's Cross Thameslink | Liverpool Street | London Bridge | Marylebone | Moorgate | Paddington | St Pancras | Victoria | Waterloo |
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