Station building architects

[winfieldber]

Can anyone advise on how to find out the name of a station architect? I would like to know who designed the very fine entrance building of Central Station, Exeter, opened in 1933

 

[Roger1973]

I would imagine it was something of a team effort, but the chief architect of the Southern Railway was James Robb Scott. He started with the LSWR and was responsible for the 'Victory Arch' at Waterloo, moved with the times to embrace modernist / art deco at Surbiton, and the more restrained style that was coming in by the late 30s with the stations on the Chessington branch.

I can't find a specific reference to Exeter Central, but the general style is similar to Bromley North and the 1930s building (since demolished) at Hastings both of which he is credited with.

 

[The exile]

Can anyone advise on how to find out the name of a station architect? I would like to know who designed the very fine entrance building of Central Station, Exeter, opened in 1933

Does Kew (National Archives) hold the Southern Railway Board Minutes (or maybe the NRM)? I would imagine that a station as big as Exeter Queen Street (as it was then) would have required signing off by the board itself both for expenditure and prestige reasons - so a trawl through meeting minutes for about 1929/30 might bring results.

David St John Thomas and Patrick Whitehouse credit Scott as architect in "SR150 - The Southern Railway" (page 93), so if you're happy to take their word for it....

 

[John Webb]

Another potential source of information on station buildings is https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/ provided that the station is listed. I've had a look and I'm sorry to say Exeter Central isn't listed.

Another possible source is the "Buildings of England" series instituted by the late Nikolaus Pevesner and updated by others from time to time. They always discuss 'Public Buildings' when looking round a town and often include the local railway station(s). Regrettably not available on line.

 

[weepingwillowb]

The Devon & Exeter Gazette's report on the official opening ceremony named only one architect present on the occasion (1st July 1933) - Mr John Bennett, the City Architect. I couldn't find any other mention of an architect. However, the Mayor of Exeter thanked the directors of the Southern Railway for erecting the building, so, as mentioned above, it was likely to have been an in-house Southern Railway design.

 

[Ashley Hill]

I would imagine it was something of a team effort, but the chief architect of the Southern Railway was James Robb Scott. He started with the LSWR and was responsible for the 'Victory Arch' at Waterloo

Scott is mentioned in connection with Exeter Centrals rebuilding in Colin Maggs` book Rail Centres: Exeter.

 

[stuving]

The Devon & Exeter Gazette's report on the official opening ceremony named only one architect present on the occasion (1st July 1933) - Mr John Bennett, the City Architect. I couldn't find any other mention of an architect. However, the Mayor of Exeter thanked the directors of the Southern Railway for erecting the building, so, as mentioned above, it was likely to have been an in-house Southern Railway design.

In 1931, after what were described as "economy plans" for a new Queen Street station had been submitted to the City Council, the chairmen of the streets and planning committees went to London to complain that they wanted something more imposing! They met "the General Manager and the architect and engineer of the Southern Railway", which also suggests this was the work of the company's internal architects. However,it does leave open the possibility that they may have brought in someone more fashionable as a consultant just to add a bit more modern style to it.

PS: Looking at the building again, it's more likely they added a bit of old-fashioned gravitas (and scrolls) to keep the City Council happy.

 

[swt_passenger]

The Devon & Exeter Gazette's report on the official opening ceremony named only one architect present on the occasion (1st July 1933) - Mr John Bennett, the City Architect. I couldn't find any other mention of an architect. However, the Mayor of Exeter thanked the directors of the Southern Railway for erecting the building, so, as mentioned above, it was likely to have been an in-house Southern Railway design.

I saw that piece on the BNA site, seemed to mention nearly everyone down to the station cat, but surprisingly not the individual architect…

 

[The exile]

I saw that piece on the BNA site, seemed to mention nearly everyone down to the station cat, but surprisingly not the individual architect…

Ah - but, unlike the station cat, the architect wasn’t local! What’s the (probably urban myth) Aberdeen P&J Headline after the loss of the Titanic? Something like “Aberdeen man missing at sea”?

 

[stuving]

Google's AI Overview thingy asserts with total confidence that the architect of Exeter Central station was Charles Herbert Aslin. Since Aslin was at the time Borough Architect for Derby, that's not just unlikely it's plain wrong. This may seem surprising for an entity with a brain the size of a planet that's had most of the text on the web tipped into it, but perhaps not. Aslin was responsible for Exeter Bridge, Queen Street swimming pool, and the bus station (opened in 1933) - all in Derby. So I can see how looking at text about all those and reasoning they are incomplete statements about something else might add up to that hallucination.

If that's what happened, I think we can conclude that there is no statement saying who the real architect was anywhere accessible on the web.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

In 1931, after what were described as "economy plans" for a new Queen Street station had been submitted to the City Council, the chairmen of the streets and planning committees went to London to complain that they wanted something more imposing! They met "the General Manager and the architect and engineer of the Southern Railway", which also suggests this was the work of the company's internal architects. However,it does leave open the possibility that they may have brought in someone more fashionable as a consultant just to add a bit more modern style to it.

PS: Looking at the building again, it's more likely they added a bit of old-fashioned gravitas (and scrolls) to keep the City Council happy.

It is a handsome building, but yes a bit old fashioned for 1933. I would like to see the booking hall fully opened out as the architect intended - under WR 'stewardship' for a time it was even worse than now with just a narrow passageway to reach the platforms.

The station was also very well designed operationally with the centre roads and scissor crossings to permit splitting and joining of portions to and from the 'Withered Arm'. I would like to see the layout restored now that the 'Devon Metro' is going from strength to strength.

 

[Gloster]

Railway Stations - Southern Region (Wikeley & Middleton, Peco, 1971) does not cover it as it was not then in the Southern Region, but hints that Scott would have had some responsibility. My guess, with a bit of recollection from when I lived there, is that it was built to what was basically the standard SR design of the era as laid down by Scott, but with a more impressive facade to keep the city authorities happy. (And to cock a snoop at the GWR and its somewhat ramshackle St David’s.)

 

[EbbwJunction1]

There's no mention of the architect on the Wikipedia article about the station, which is unusual.

I realise that this would need a visit, but is there a foundation stone giving the details somewhere on the station?

 

[stuving]

The plans submitted to the City Council in 1931/33 should have gone into the archive, or at least there's a good chance that some of them were selected for that. I had a quick look for a catalogue, with not much success. The National Archives have an entry for "Exeter City Council - planning dept building plans, Held by: Devon Archives and Local Studies Service (South West Heritage Trust)." If you follow their link to the SWHT catalogue, there is at least one item of relevance: "Plans of Exeter Central Railway Station, undated".

It is however easy to predict that the formal plans would have been submitted in the name of the company itself, or if signed it would most likely be by the company's architect. An in any case that "undated" does not suggest formal plans, does it? But worth a bit more probing, or if you're local a visit to Devon Heritage Centre, Great Moor House, Bittern Road, Exeter, EX2 7NL.

 

[winfieldber]

Thanks to everyone for the above. The plans in the Devon archive are unsigned and undated, but I think early. They are annotated 'Exeter City Engineer' on the back.

Give similarities to, say Exmouth (demolished in the 1970s) but attributed to James Robb Scott and features repeated from other Southern Railway stations also attributed to him, I guess he had overall responsibility, though the designs might have been drawn up by someone else in the architects' department and just signed off by him. In pursuit I discovered Surbiton - what a wonderful building. Very fine photo in RIBApix