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Summary

Description

Designed and built in 1847 by Grainger and Miller Engineers as a rectangular-plan, 2-storey, 8-bay station terminus building in a classical style with corniced parapet. There is an advanced colonnade across the principal elevation with pedimented entrance bays to each side, that to the north extending into a further 5-bay single storey section. It is built in sandstone ashlar with coursed whinstone to the rear. The rear elevation has irregular fenestration and triangular marks form the former glass roofed structure to the rear.

A separate single storey, 14-bay platform waiting room block is attached to the rear at right angles by a steel beam. It is building in ashlar to the principal elevation (south) and random rubble to the rear (north). It has a piended slate roof with corniced stone ridge stacks and boarded doors with penlights over.

Historical background

The station house was built in 1847 and served as a railway terminus for ferry passengers who travelled across the Firth of Forth from Granton in Edinburgh to link with the Fire railway system as well as those holidaying in Burntisland. The Station House and platform waiting rooms to the east first appear on the 1^st edition Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1854, published 1856) forming a group around Forth Place with the Forth Hotel to its east and the Ferry Pier (demolished) to the south. The maps show the main station house and platform waiting rooms were linked by large, glazed roof structures. These have since been removed but evidence of the former roof pitches can be seen in the rear gable of the station house.

The Forth Rail Bridge was planned from the 1870s to provide a direct rail link between Edinburgh and the east of Scotland. When the new rail bridge was opened in 1890 it completed the direct rail link route to Fife. These works included the replacement Burtisland Station building set immediately to the north of the Station House (listed at category C LB22782).

The 2^nd edition Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1894, published 1895) shows the Station House linked to the new station on the new track to the north and the later revision map of 1913 shows the glass roof structure had been removed. In the later 20^th and early 21^st centuries the buildings were converted to artists workshop spaces.

Statement of Special Interest

• The former Station House and associated waiting rooms form the main elements of an early example of a railway terminus in Scotland.
• The buildings have historic interest as a significant part of the mid-19^th century main rail and ferry link between Edinburgh and Fife before the Forth Road Rail Bridge was built.
• It was built in a classical style and it retains its high-quality design interest and prominent setting next to the shore.

Statutory address and listed building record revised in 2024. Previously listed as 'Forth Place Station House'.

References

Bibliography

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