page_title: Stowmarket railway station
section_title: Passenger station
hierarchical_section_title: Stowmarket railway station / Description / Passenger station
caption_attribution_description: English: A view of Stowmarket railway station, Suffolk, looking down the Great Eastern Main Line towards Norwich.
context_page_description: Stowmarket railway station is on the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, serving the town of Stowmarket, Suffolk. It is 80 miles 9 chains down the line from London Liverpool Street and is situated between Needham Market to the south and Diss to the north. It is also the junction where the Ipswich to Ely Line joins the GEML. Its three-letter station code is SMK.
  The station is currently operated by Abellio Greater Anglia, which also runs all trains that serve the station.
context_section_description: As mentioned above the station buildings were listed in 1972 and restored in 1987. Historic England describes the station buildings thus:
  "Red brick with gault brick dressings under roofs clad in machine tiles. 1-3 storeys on high basements. Composition, in Jacobean style, is symmetrical, comprising a central one storey and attic block linked by single-storey ranges to taller 2-3 storey side blocks. Central block with Dutch gables to west, north and south, the west one facing the entrance and with an attic window. Windows generally are ovolo-moulded cross casements, cornices are saw-toothed. 2 square one-storey pavilions flank main entrance right and left. Recessed linking blocks had retaining walls with taller central doorways enclosing forecourt, but this remains now only to south side. Main outer blocks with cross casements, Dutch gables to all faces (north return of north block with twin shaped gables), and frontal (west) polygonal towers with doors at the bases and pierced parapets at the top. Gabled roofs carry romantically-placed 2- and 3-flued stacks. Platform canopies supported on square section welded steel piers of late C20. The piers rise to timber braces within which are cast-iron scrolled brackets. Inner face of main west range with 4 arches right and left of central entrance to booking hall." 
  Nicklaus Pevsner described it as "an elaborate piece of Elizabethan architecture by Frederick J Barnes, 1849.  Red and yellow brick, symmetrical, with shaped gables and angle towers."
  The Stowmarket area was controlled by two signal boxes – one at the station that exists today as a gate control box and the Yard Box to the south. A third called Stowmarket works existed 1941–1957.
  There are two platforms linked by a footbridge (which was replaced in 1985 with a taller structure to allow for the electrification of the route). The original footbridge is preserved at Weybourne railway station on the North Norfolk Railway. The down platform was restricted to five coaches for many years but both platforms were lengthened prior to electrification in 1985.
  Today (2016) there is a small convenience store is located on platform 2. Disabled access between platforms is possible using the Stowupland Road level crossing.
  Most of the former railway land (goods sidings) is now given over for car parking for the station.
caption: The main building seen from the footbridge
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