Proposal to transform Bury St Edmunds Railway Station with new northern entrance, improved ticket hall and two shops
Plans for a new entrance, booking hall and shops at Bury St Edmunds Railway Station could see the building partially returned to its original 1847 state.
Greater Anglia has submitted proposals to West Suffolk Council for an extensive remodelling of the Grade II-listed building’s ground level.
The vision would see a new entrance created in the station’s northern side building off Fornham Road – currently used as a car wash – extending into a booking hall running underneath the railway line and out to the existing main entrance, in the southern building.
In a planning statement, the company said it believed an undercroft linking arches on the facades of the northern and southern buildings existed when the Northgate Station opened in 1847.
“By opening up the northern side of the station a larger booking hall and throughfare will be created allowing customers to access and exit the station from both the northern and southern side (not dissimilar to the original station layout),” said the document.
“Although records are difficult to obtain, the original station seems to have been designed and built with an undercroft. The undercroft provided access from one side of the station to the other, passing below the railway tracks.
“Photographic evidence would seem to suggest that this undercroft originally provided access for horse-drawn carriages allowing for passengers and freight to alight.”
The latest scheme includes refurbishment of the existing ticket office and ‘back of house’ areas, creation of a new ticket hub with extra ticket machines, two shops – one beside each station entrance – and ticket barriers/gates.
Meanwhile, the northern facade would be ‘sympathetically’ repaired and a dilapidated single-storey building, which currently houses the car wash and is not part of the station structure, demolished.
Greater Anglia said a northern entrance would provide more direct access to customers travelling to Bury from the northern side of the station – an 81-space car park on the station’s northern side was opened by Greater Anglia a year ago – and improve retail facilities.
New ticket barriers and gates could help to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour, as the British Transport Police had proven a link between ticket-less travel, crime and anti-social behaviour.
A Greater Anglia spokeswoman said the company wanted to improve the facility and help link the newly-built car park with the station.
She added: “The work can be carried out under permitted development, however we have submitted a listed building consent due to the station being Grade II-listed. Works are currently at design stage and we are in constant dialogue with the local authority heritage officer.”
- The old station master’s house has undergone a major restoration.
Train operator Greater Anglia invested £400,000 in the scheme, with a further £192,000 funding being provided by the Railway Heritage Trust.
Since 2019, contractors reinstated the roof, doors and windows and repaired fractured brickwork on the Grade II-listed building, adjacent to the main rail station.
The building was originally the Station Master’s House and was built in around 1847. At some point in its history it also operated as the station hotel and then, after an extensive refurbishment, opened as The Great Eastern Bar, restaurant and nightclub in 1991 before closing again in 1995.
The building has since stood empty, slowly deteriorating due to the effects of the weather, pigeon infestation and vandalism.
Andy Savage, executive director of the Railway Heritage Trust, said: “The RHT is delighted that Greater Anglia has taken on the restoration of this building and we are very happy to give a grant towards that work.
“We had previously sponsored work on the building in the 1980s and were very disappointed that previous operators of the station had allowed it to deteriorate so much.”
West Suffolk Council and the Bury Town Trust worked alongside Greater Anglia making the case for investment in salvaging the Grade II listed Station Master’s House.
Cllr Susan Glossop, cabinet member for growth at West Suffolk Council, said: “The station is an important gateway to the town and, prior to Covid-19, we had been seeing increased use. In the long term we expect that to continue.
“That is why this investment is so important and one which we very much welcome.
“We will work to assist Greater Anglia in finding new tenants for the building and look forward to more improvements to include the new north side station entrance.”
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