Media centre

Monday 10 Jan 2005

CHESTER STATION CANOPY

Region & Route:

The ornate station canopy covering the entrance to Chester station has been completely renewed by Network Rail in a ten-week project costing £55,000. Robbie Burns, Network Rail’s route director, said: “We are delighted with the result of this project, which has vastly improved this beautiful and historic entrance to Chester station. It took a great deal of painstaking work by craftsmen and we hope it will be appreciated by generations of rail passengers.” The canopy is a Grade II listed structure, which meant that Chester Council had to give listed building consent to the plans before any of the work could be carried out. The iron structure supporting the canopy was in quite a good condition so was simply rubbed down, given a protective coating and then painted in its traditional red and green colour scheme. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of the tiles, glass and wood that make up the rest of the awning. Its listed status meant the contractors had to pay considerable attention to detail in the refurbishment work. All the glazing bars were renewed using hardwood manufactured to match the existing profile and the old Great Western glass was replaced with laminated glass sealed units. The decayed roof and underside timber boarding was renewed and the main wooden horizontal beams were replaced like-for-like using graded timber. Special softwood mouldings had to be manufactured and spliced in place of rotted timber. More than 80% of the roof tiles needed renewing so blue slate was used to match and blend in with the remainder, and the box gutters were relined with lead. When all the repair work was finished, all the timber, iron and steel was given a protective coating to ensure it will last for many years to come.