page_title: Bristol Temple Meads railway station
section_title: 1870s expansion
hierarchical_section_title: Bristol Temple Meads railway station / History / 1870s expansion
caption_attribution_description: English: The front face of Bristol Temple Meads station. Français&#160;: Gare de Bristol.
context_page_description: Bristol Temple Meads is the oldest and largest railway station in Bristol, England. It is an important transport hub for public transport in the city. In addition to the train services there are bus services to many parts of the city and surrounding districts, and a ferry to the city centre. Bristol's other major station, Bristol Parkway, is on the northern outskirts of the conurbation.
  Temple Meads was opened on 31 August 1840 as the western terminus of the Great Western Railway from London Paddington, 116 miles 31 chains from Paddington. The railway was the first to be designed by the British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Soon the station was also used by the Bristol and Exeter Railway, the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, the Bristol Harbour Railway and the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway. To accommodate the increasing number of trains, the station was expanded in the 1870s by Francis Fox and again between 1930 and 1935 by Percy Emerson Culverhouse. Brunel's terminus is no longer part of the operational station. The historical significance of the station has been noted, and most of the site is Grade I listed.
context_section_description: The additional railway routes put the two short 140-yard (130 m) platforms of Brunel's terminus under pressure and a scheme was developed to extend the station. An enabling Act of Parliament was passed in 1865 and between 1871 and 1878 the station was extensively rebuilt. Brunel's platforms were extended by 212 yards (194 m) towards London and a new three-platform through station built on the site of the express platform, while the B&ER station was closed and the site used for a new carriage shed. This work is usually attributed to Brunel's former associate Matthew Digby Wyatt, but there is no documentary evidence of his involvement in the Minutes of the Station Joint Committee. The only signature on the drawings is that of Francis Fox, the engineer of the B&ER. The curved wrought-iron train shed over the new through platforms was 500 feet (150 m) long on the platform wall. The goods depot was rebuilt with the inconvenient wagon hoists replaced by a steep incline from the east end of Temple Meads, which meant that the sidings in the goods shed were at right angles to their original alignment and the barge dock was filled in.
  Trains on the Bristol and South Wales Union and the Midland routes operated from the terminal platforms while the GWR used the new through platforms. The capital costs of the new work were split 4/14 GWR/B&ER and 10/14 MR, operating costs were split GWR 3/8, MR 3/8 and B&ER 2/8. Hence when the GWR absorbed the B&ER in 1876 the split was GWR 5/8 and MR (later LMS) 3/8, until nationalisation on 1 January 1948.
caption: The main entrance to the station built in the 1870s between the terminal and through platforms. The tower was topped by a spire until World War II.
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