The main station between Bishop's Bridge Road and Praed Street was designed by Brunel, who was enthusiastic at the idea of being able to design a railway station himself, although much of the architectural detailing was by his associate Matthew Digby Wyatt. He took inspiration from Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace and the München Hauptbahnhof. The glazed roof is supported by wrought iron arches in three spans, respectively spanning , and . The roof is long, and the original roof spans had two transepts connecting the three spans. It is commonly believed that these were provided by Brunel to accommodate traversers to carry coaches between the tracks within the station. However recent research, using early documents and photographs, does not seem to support this belief, and their actual purpose is unknown. The original station used four platforms, -wide and -wide departure platforms, a arrival platform, and a combined arrival platform and cab road. A series of nineteen turnplates were sited beyond the ends of the platforms for horse and coach traffic.