Great Malvern railway station


Great Malvern is one of two railway stations that serve the town of Malvern, in Worcestershire, England; the other is. It is a stop on the Hereford to Worcester section of the Cotswold Line. It is situated downhill from the centre of Great Malvern and close to Barnards Green. It retains most of its original Victorian station design and is a Grade II listed building.

History

Great Malvern station was opened by the Worcester and Hereford Railway in 1860 and the present buildings, by architect Edmund Wallace Elmslie, were completed in 1862. The Midland Railway and the London and North Western Railway collaborated on the construction cost; the solicitor, Samuel Carter, held the same role for both of these major companies. It was later absorbed by the Great Western Railway.
Lady Emily Foley was a key sponsor of the building of Great Malvern station. She had a waiting room made for her exclusive use.
The station celebrated its 150th birthday on 23 May 2010, with the unveiling of a plaque and a special train. An additional part of this celebration was the reinstatement of some of the highly decorated lighting columns around the cab road, at the front of the station.
There was previously a branch line to, via and. Operated by the Midland Railway, it was closed in 1952.
Before May 2022, there was one through service to and from. This service has since been withdrawn.

Architecture

The station buildings are built from local Malvern Rag stone and follow a French Gothic theme.
A particular feature of the station are the deep canopies, which are supported by elaborate cast-iron girders; these in turn are supported by columns with elaborate capitals. These capitals are decorated with high relief mouldings depicting different arrangements of flowers and foliage. The sculptor, William Forsyth, was employed to work on the buildings and designed the metal capitals of the columns, which support the canopies above both platforms of the station.
At the end of platform 2 is the entrance to the Worm, an enclosed passageway that leads under Avenue Road into the former Imperial Hotel. It formed a private pedestrian access and is believed to be the only structure of its kind in the country. Although in need of extensive restoration and generally not open to the public, the Worm is itself Grade II listed.

Facilities

There is a ticket office and an award-winning café which opened in 1984, named Lady Foley's Tea Room, after Lady Emily Foley, on the London-bound platform.
In 2023, Network Rail spent £8 million on restoration of the platform canopies, sculptures, overhead glazing and ironwork. The Victorian station clock is now also working following an £8,000 restoration in 2021 after having been stuck for over three years. The work included replacing all the glass in the station canopies.

Services

The station is served by two train operating companies: