Loughborough Central Station, Great Central Road, Loughborough (Grade II)

Railway station. 1898, for the Great Central Railway, designed by Edward Parry, resident engineer to the northern section of the GCR. Red brick with stone dressings and Welsh slate roof; cast-iron, steel and glass canopies. Two-storey entrance block with the entrance on the upper storey. Entrance block and offices on an overbridge, other offices on the island platform below. Three-bay front with central doorway - this with segmental arched head with keystone, 2-light mullion-and-transom windows on either side. Three-ridge canopy to the front supported on two cast iron columns, restored valancing. Roof behind with two parallel ridges. Gable ends with 2-light windows. Date and initials of the railway company 1898 GCR on gables. Panelled entrance hall with booking office with original fittings leads to stairway down to the platform. This has a central range of red brick buildings with panelled walls and plain doors and windows. Continuous roof canopy with fifteen ridges supported on steel brackets and with one further ridge right across carried on four cast iron columns which joins the roof to the foot of the staircase. This is said to be the largest platform canopy on a preserved railway.
HISTORY: This station was opened by the Great Central Railway on what was originally the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway's London Extension when it was promoted in 1893. It became the GCR in 1897. Loughborough Central was opened on 15th March 1899 and closed on 5th May 1969. It was reopened on 23rd March 1974 as headquarters of the Great Central Railway (private). It is an almost completely unaltered station of 1898 which continues in traditional use as the centrepiece of a steam preservation society's railway line.
References: R.V.J.Butt, The Directory of Railway Stations. Patrick Stephens Limited, 1995. Information from Martin Hammond, Honorary Architect, Great Central Railway.