Pevsner and Inner Stoke

Station and North Stafford hotel.

The finest piece of Victorian axial planning in the county. Begun in 1847 by H. A. Hunt of London.

The square between the two buildings is called Winton Square and has the statue of Wedgwood by Edward Davis, 1863.

The buildings are of brick with black brick diapers, Elizabethan to Jacobean in style. Windows with mullions and transoms; shaped gables. The hotel (opened in 1849) is more compact (E-plan), the station (opened in 1848) spreads out more. On the first floor of the station, the eight-light double-transomed window lights the former Board Room of the North Staffordshire Railway Company. The window includes the arched Ipswich motif. Tuscan colonnade on the ground floor, now glazed. A similar composition, but less lavish, is on the other side of the rails.

To the l. and r. of the hotel former staff housing.

The board room of the North Staffordshire Railway Company
was located over the central booking office

North Stafford Hotel

"Stoke-on-Trent possesses one of the finest gateways in the country in Winton Square; step off the train in Stoke-on-Trent and you are met with one of the finest examples of Victorian urban planning you are likely to come across, and two great landmarks in Stoke-on-Trent Railway Station and the North Stafford Hotel, both of which are Grade II* Listed."

David Proudlove - Regeneration Manager for English Partnerships

in front of the hotel is a statue of Josiah Wedgwood

Photos: June 2001

Houses nos. 1 & 2 Winton Square

- photo Dec 2007 -

on Winton Square and its buildings

½m. s of the station is the roundhouse, large but purely utilitarian. It is reached from City Road

Stoke Roundhouse
This is the locomotive yard at Stoke Roundhouse in Stoke-on-Trent and the men standing around the engine are likely to be locomotive engineers and company managers.

1920 - 1930 (c.) © Staffordshire Past Track

- this building has since been demolished -

The round house (engine shed) from an 1898 O.S. map
blue = Trent & Mersey canal
pink = City Road
Yellow = Whieldon Road

Also within walking distance are the following:

To the s, in London Road, public health department (former School of Science and Art), 1858-60 by James Murray. Seven bays, Gothic, of brick with much terracotta.

Library, next door. 1877-8 by Charles Lynam. The windows of the upper ground floor are circular.

Herbert Minton Building (former Art School)

on the Herbert Minton Building

Purpose built library in 1878 by Charles Lynam.
Site given by Colin Minton Campbell, costs subscribed by Thomas William Minton.

on the Library Building

on Libraries of Stoke-on-Trent

Opposite are Minton's large premises, 1950-2.

The statue is of C. Minton Campbell, Herbert Minton's nephew (1887 by Thomas Brock).

The frontage of Minton Offices on London Road

- since demolished and replaced with a Sainsbury's supermarket -

Statue of Colin Minton Campbell outside the Minton offices

On the three sides of the base are the following inscriptions:
'Colin Minton Campbell, born August 27th 1827, died February 8th 1885'.
'A successful manufacturer, a leading townsman and generous friend'.
'High Sheriff 1869, Member of Parliament for North Staffordshire 1874 to 1887, Thrice Lord Mayor of Stoke 1880-1883.'

- statue now installed outside the Sainsbury's supermarket -

photos June 2000

To the e off City Road the roundhouse, and, adjoining it, Whieldon's Grove (actually in Fenton).

This was Thomas Whieldon's, the potter's house. Five bays and two storeys; mid c18. Late in the c18 a n wing was added, and the doorway of this wing is now reset, next to the old house. It has Ionic columns and a broken pediment.

Whieldon's Grove c.1845
he road from Stoke to Longton crosses the left hand side of the picture
the two parallel lines running middle left to right shows the line of the proposed railway.

- this building has since been demolished -