The Old Station · Surrey · 2024
Heritage Statement and listed building consent for a nursery in a villa that became a railway station.
A Grade II listed mill owner’s villa in Staines-upon-Thames, converted to a railway terminus in 1885 and to offices a century later. Heritage Unlimited assessed the building and supported its conversion to a children’s day nursery. Listed building consent was granted with no objection from the conservation officer.
The Old Station is an early nineteenth century villa of yellow stock brick under hipped slate roofs, built for the owner of the neighbouring mustard mills. In 1885 the Staines and West Drayton Railway bought and adapted the house as its terminus instead of building a station, and it served as Staines West until passenger services ended in 1965. It is listed at Grade II, together with the former platform wall, and lies in the Staines Conservation Area.
The building had been offices since the 1980s and was vacant. Heritage Unlimited was appointed in July 2024, through the planning consultants Simply Planning and working with Pemberton Design, to assess the building and advise on the internal and external alterations needed for its use as a children’s day nursery. Listed building consent was granted by Spelthorne Borough Council in December 2024.
- Property
- The Old Station, Moor Lane, Staines-upon-Thames
- Listing
- Grade II
- Location
- Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey
- Authority
- Spelthorne Borough Council
- Year
- 2024
- Outcome
- Listed building consent granted
A villa, a terminus and forty years of offices.
The significance of the building is high, and it comes mainly from the exterior and from its double history as a mill owner’s house and a railway terminus. We traced that history through the tithe map of 1842, Ordnance Survey editions from the 1860s to the 1960s, and a sequence of photographs from the 1940s onwards.
The interior told a different story. A room by room inspection in July 2024 found the fabric and layout to be largely modern, with replacement windows throughout. The office conversion had opened up the plan and removed most of the historic joinery and plasterwork.
Testing the one feature that looked original.
The panelled door surrounds to the ground floor stairwell appeared to be almost the only historic features left inside, and the scheme proposed to widen those openings. The day after our site visit we advised the design team that this was the one element of the proposals that carried a heritage risk.
Closer analysis of the plan and fabric showed that the surrounds were not part of the original house. One opening dates from an addition of about 1890, and the other is a modern copy. That finding allowed the works to be assessed for what they were, and the scheme was drawn with traditional timber doors, reopened historic openings and reinstated cornices and skirtings. Returning the open-plan offices to smaller rooms brought the layout closer to that of the house.
No objection, and consent at committee.
The applications were referred to the planning committee for decision. The conservation officer raised no objection, taking the view that the works would not harm the character of the building and would give it a long-term use, with no effect on the conservation area. The officer’s report described the Heritage Statement as a detailed assessment that clearly set out significance and impact.
Listed building consent (24/01053/LBC) was granted on 11 December 2024, subject to conditions on the time limit, the approved plans, and materials and detailing.
What we did
Two services, one outcome.
Listed Building Consent
We advised the design team on the heritage risks of the scheme from the first site visit and supported the applications through to committee.
About Listed Building Consent →Heritage Statements
The Heritage Statement combined a room by room fabric assessment with map and photograph regression to show which parts of the interior were historic.
About Heritage Statements →A new use for a listed commercial building?
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