Queen Street Station Bridge

Heritage listing

Category A Date Added 15/12/1970 Local Authority Glasgow Planning Authority Glasgow Burgh Glasgow NGR NS 59207 65546 Coordinates 259207, 665546 — James Carswell, 1878-80, executed by P and W MacLellan. 10-bay segmentally arched engine shed over 6 tracks and 4 platforms. Cast-iron columns, with Corinthian capitals to N end Bell-capital columns, supporting lattice beams below Cathedral Street (see Bridge). Delicate lattice arched overall spans 250' x 78' high, glazed with corrugated iron panels at sections. Decorative fan-glazed ends. Now adjoining modern station offices to S, SE and SW. Bridge with wrought-iron lattice girders and parapets of cast-iron basket-arched panels divided by panelled columns and rising to latticed coping; carrying vehicular traffic. Contractors: Smith and Naysmith, Bellahouston Ironworks, Glasgow. — The original station was opened at Queen Street in 1842 by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. The early ancillary buildings have been demolished (see Hume), and the 1880 shed is the surviving representative of the impact of the Victorian railway boom at Queen Street Station; it was built for the North British Railway Company, partly out of competition with Central Station which had expanded by 1879. Arched sheds of note were also to be found at St Pancras, Manchester, and Charing Cross, London; Queens Street is the only remaining large single span overall station in Scotland. The North British Hotel, George Square (now the Copthorne) was opened in 1905, and is listed separately. The tunnel mouth was relocated northward and Cathedral Street bridge built to permit longer platforms in 1878.

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.