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Description

505053 LINCOLN HIGH STREET Signal Box GV II Railway signal box of GN1 type. 1874 for the Great Northern Railway, extended in 1925. MATERIALS: Yellow brick, timber panelling on upper floor, slate roof. EXTERIOR: The locking room has three 4-pane sash windows with stone lintels and cills on the track side, and a name board. There is a dentilated platband below the operating room windows and a narrow timber walkway on iron brackets. The operating room windows are 4-pane Yorkshire lights and extend on three sides. The gable ends have vertical timber panelling and narrow horizontal windows at the top. The rear of the box is entirely of brick and has a single 4-pane sash window at operating room level. The gabled roof has plain bargeboards, turned spike finials, and fleur-de-lys ridge cresting. There is a chimney stack with dentilated capping on the north east corner. On the west side of the box there is a metal staircase leading to the operating room door, a toilet booth and a name board. Attached on the west side is a yellow brick extension which is a miniature version of the original box. Its locking room has a single 4-pane sash window on the track side with lintel and cill matching the Victorian originals. There is a dentilated platband on the west side and a narrow walkway on iron brackets. The operating room is fully glazed with Yorkshire lights matching those on the original box, and there is vertical timber panelling and a narrow horizontal window on the gable end. The slate roof is at the same pitch as the original box and has similar bargeboards. To the left of the locking room window there was an opening which has been bricked up. INTERIOR: The box houses a 36-lever frame fitted in 1892, which has undergone some modification. HISTORY: High Street Signal Box was built by the Great Northern Railway in 1874. It is an early surviving example of a GNR box, the oldest being Barnaby Moor & Sutton of 1872. GNR signal boxes were the least standardised of any of the major railway companies because they were often contracted out to local builders. While the design was broadly set in 1871 - including gabled roofs with elaborate bargeboards and finials - there were many variations in detail and almost every box built in the 1870s was slightly different. High Street combines the typical gabled roof and finials with unusual fleur-de-lys ridge cresting. As well as controlling railway signalling, the box controls the level crossing barriers and traffic signals. In 1925, when the crossing gates were electrified, an extension was built to the west to meet these operational needs. SOURCES: Peter Kay and Derek Coe, Signalling Atlas and Signal Box Directory, Great Britain and Ireland, 2nd edn (Wallasey, 2004), 19. J. G. Ruddock and R. E. Pearson, The Railway History of Lincoln (Lincoln 1974), 241 & 244. Michael A. Vanns, An Illustrated History of Great Northern Railway Signalling (2000), 75-90. REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION: High Street Signal Box, Lincoln is designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons: * It is an early and largely intact example of a GNR signal box, dating from 1874 * It has distinctive decorative features including uncommon fleur-de-lys ridge cresting, spike finials and dentilated platbands * The extension added in 1925 when the crossing gates were electrified is a miniature version of the principal structure, with carefully matched brickwork and windows and is not commonly found. * The 36-lever frame is an early example of 1892, although with some modifications * The box occupies a prominent and highly-visible position in the centre of Lincoln, and has strong group value with Lincoln Central Station.

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