Queen's Building, Wolverhampton

The building was built by Edward Banks in 1849 for the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway as the carriage entrance to Wolverhampton High Level railway station. The carriage building was opened to passengers on 1 October 1849. With the amalgamation of the railway companies in the 1840s, the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway became part of the Great Western Railway (GWR) and the High Level station, and thus the Queen's Building, became jointly owned by the GWR and the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) until 1859, by which time the GWR had built Wolverhampton Low Level railway station and the LNWR took sole control. A single-storey extension, built in a sympathetic style to the original,…

The building is two storeys high and constructed primarily of grey brick with ashlar dressing. It has two central carriage arches, flanked by much narrower pedestrian arches and pedimented windows. The six-bay facade is articulated by two orders of attached columns that rise through a frieze and cornice to the first floor. There they divide six tall windows up to a roof-level cornice. Above the roof are two low, square turrets with round faces, one of which contains a clock. The archways formerly contained iron gates, which were replaced with glass in the late 20th century. The building complemented the façade of the original Wolverhampton High Level station until the latter was demolished…