Simon Jenkins' Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations

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I've not seen a copy of this book myself but today's Guardian has a feature picking out their choice of a best ten, starting with Huddersfield. A natural follow-on to his 100 Best Churches? At least it's "Railway Stations"...

 

Scrolling through the readers' comments, naturally there was someone complaining that Paddington wasn't in the Guardian's picks. I enjoyed the counter-comment the Paddington is "too crowded - I much prefer Marylebone". (Sensibly, the Guardian hasn't included any of the London termini in their selection - keeping up the struggle against metropolitan bias. Of course the whole thing is cover for including a picture of Harold Wilson.)

 

The quality of Jenkins' research may not pass muster here - one howler I've spotted is that the Settle & Carlisle stations are attributed to Crossley in general with Ribblehead, by J.H. Sanders, being stated to be an exception - whereas as any Midland enthusiast knows, the S&C stations were all by Sanders, in three variations on a standard design with the exception of Culgaith. But Ribblehead does have the most magnificent location.