A PUB built to serve the needs of customers of the Stockton & Darlington Railway – the world's first steam-hauled passenger line – has been given Grade II-listed building status by English Heritage.
The Railway Tavern, in High Northgate, Darlington, was one of three pubs built in 1826/27 by the S&DR, regarded by historians as, in effect, ‘proto-railway stations’, built before the concept of the station had fully developed.
Each of the pubs were constructed next to one of the S&DR's coal depots,