Hull Station and Hotel
The station and hotel stand as a monument to their architect, G. T. Andrews.
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Address:
Ferensway, Hull, HU2 8NH
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The station was originally opened by the York & North Midland Railway in 1848 as a new centrally-located terminal for Hull, with a three-bay pitched-roof trainshed, and a hotel named the Royal Station Hotel after a stay by Queen Victoria which was added in 1851. The Y&NMR subsequently became part of the North Eastern Railway, created in 1854 by merger with other railway companies.
The main station building is a fine Italian renaissance style building, Andrew's largest. It has an impressive porte cochere with paired columns, large round headed windows, and a balustraded parapet above. The hotel reflects the style of the station.
Half a century later the NER rebuilt and greatly expanded the station to create the last of Britain's great barrel-vaulted glass-and-iron railway stations, being reopened in 1904 with a five-bay trainshed and two additional barrel vault bays at right angles covering the concourse.
The Royal Station Hotel was subsequently enlarged in a style somewhat unsympathetic with the elegant and coherent appearance of the original 1849 building, this also necessitating some shortening of the adjacent main station entrance portico which had been part of the 1904 station rebuild and extension. The hotel was significantly damaged in a fire and then sympathetically restored in 1990.
The station has survived the bombing of two world wars and subsequent decades of demolition and redevelopment which has swept away much of Hull's architectural heritage. It has recently been modified to provide a multimodal transport interchange. Both buildings are listed Grade II*.
By road: On A1079 in the centre of Hull.
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