BACKGROUND We have recently received a request to consider Fleet Railway Station for listing as it is under threat of imminent demolition. In December 2012 a planning application was submitted to the local authority which, on 31 January 2013, concluded that it had no objections to the scheme for a replacement station building and footbridge. Network Rail’s design for the new building was published on the Get Hampshire website on 15 February 2013.

HISTORY/DETAILS Over 100 new station buildings were built between 1940-1980, the East Region and London Midland Region taking the lead. While the content and function of smaller stations remained essentially unchanged over the years, there was a strong move from the later 1950s, the first being at Banbury in 1959, to relocate public facilities onto an enclosed overbridge where passengers could see their train arriving.

Economical and quickly constructed, prefabricated buildings, especially for smaller sites, were as much a priority for the railways as for other areas of construction in the post-war period. In the early 1960s London Midland Region built a series of modular stations for the Crewe to Manchester and Liverpool electrification. Very few stations were built in the Southern Region prior to 1960, however in 1965 the CLASP system, that had successfully been applied to schools, was adopted. Between 1966 and 1972 over thirty system-built stations were erected, the first being at Fleet in 1966. Fleet railway station was built to replace the 1906 building which in turn had replaced the original station of 1847. It is a single-storey, system-built building housing a ticket office, waiting room, office and WCs. A flat oversailing roof supported on the square profile uprights of the steel frame provides a deep canopy on the platform and car park elevations. Panels and fascias are in exposed coarse aggregate concrete; it has shallow, timber, clerestory windows; flush-panel doors and the cheeks to the ticket booths are picked out in orange, the steel frame is painted blue. A steel turnstile admits passengers to the ‘down’ platform. The earlier steel frame footbridge provides access the opposite (up) platform.

ASSESSMENT Fleet Railway Station is assessed against the Principles of Selection for Listing Buildings (March 2010) and the English Heritage Selection Guide: Transport Buildings. Prompted by Network Rail's enhancement programme, both GWR main line structures and nationally, signal boxes have been subject of recent or current NHPP projects. Post-war railway stations have not been ascribed a current dedicated survey, however they were considered in the first round of post-war listing. A survey was conducted in 1994 (Buildings for the Railways 1940-80: An Historical Summary) and 12 buildings were recommended for listing. Four early 1960s stations were listed at the time: Harlow Town (1959-60), Manchester Oxford Road (1960), Barking Booking Hall (1961) and Coventry (1962), while Broxbourne station (1959-61) was listed in 2005, all at Grade II. They are also flagged under the NHPP overview on responsive designation as an area for future assessment, as with other projects on post-war buildings, picking up the buildings of highest merit where earlier surveys left off and are eligible for individual assessment where the criteria of threat or evident significance are fulfilled.

The bar for post-war listing is set high. Assessment considers: the use of high quality materials and attention to detail; technological and structural innovation; spatial treatment and scale, seen in the plan, composition and the fitness for purpose of a building; its intactness and historic interest. Listed railway buildings reflect the nationalised British Railways' post-war building programme, which can be appreciated as a continuous development from lightweight pre-fabrication to heavier sculptural forms culminating in Paddington Maintenance depot and workshops (all by 1966-8 by Paul Hamilton of Bicknell and Hamilton and listed Grade II*) and in the dramatic architectural treatment and sculptural form of Birmingham New Street signal box (1964, Grade II). The Eastern Region stations stood out at the time, providing a lead nationally. Harlow Station was regarded as the showpiece for its innovative plan, the bridge regarded as an integral part of the design rather than an afterthought. It acted as gateway to the new town very much as Milton Keynes' station was designed to link the existing rail infrastructure to the new town in the early 1980s.

Purfleet (1963), one of the smaller 1960s stations assessed in 1994, and the larger Chichester railway station ticket hall (1961) assessed in 2004, did not merit listing because of their limited architectural or spatial interest. Fleet Station, built later than the other stations that were considered at the outset, was noted at that time as the first of the CLASP stations but was not assessed as it was not of the first order. It was also on the cusp of the Thirty Year Rule whereby buildings less than thirty years old only qualify for listing at the higher grades of II* and I. This is no longer the case as time has moved on but nonetheless, although little altered, under the current criteria Fleet Railway Station does not meet the high bar for listing for the following reasons:

Materials and structure: the CLASP system adapted for use in railway buildings, using materials and contrasting colour in a way that was standard at the time rather than to the higher specification and with an inventiveness seen in the more ambitious stations and booking halls;

Architectural interest: on account of its smaller scale, it lacks the spatial quality achieved in the earlier and generally larger CLASP schools and in the larger late 1950s and 1960s stations, such as Barking;

Plan: again on account of its scale and purpose, it is not innovative in its plan and function;

Historic interest: although it was the first Southern Region CLASP system station, in the wider context of British Railways’ post-war building programme it follows the national trend rather than setting a new standard.

CONCLUSION Whilst certainly of note, Fleet Railway Station is not recommended for listing.