Bristol Temple Meads railway station

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, Cross Country express services between the North of England and the South West, and local and regional trains.

History

The name of 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 original terminal station was built for the Great Western Railway and was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the engineer of the GWR. The 72ft-wide (22m) 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 is the oldest railway terminus in the world, and is regarded as one of the best Victorian station buildings. Services to Bath started on August 31 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 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. The curved train shed is 500ft (154m) long on the platform edge and has a wrought-iron roof structure by engineer Francis Cox (or Fox; sources differ). The station was further extended on the east side in the 1930s by architect P. E. Culverhouse.

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)