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Worst station improvements/modernisations 1950s to today


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Ruddy slippy in the wet, though, to walk on or drive on... I won't be sorry to see them go... Very over-rated, cobbles... 

 

Indeed. I was not going to spoil ADB's nostalgia, but I too hate cobbles. Try pushing a wheelchair over them, let alone ride in one, as my wife has to do many times here, in France, where cobblestones are almost worshipped as a faux-nostalgie, because very few of them turn out to be original.....

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 Try pushing a wheelchair over them, let alone ride in one, as my wife has to do many times here, in France, where cobblestones are almost worshipped as a faux-nostalgie, because very few of them turn out to be original.....

 

My wife uses one! They like them in Germany as well, reduced the life of the front wheels, I had to replace the front swivel wheel on ours recently due to getting bent when on German cobbles! Probably good for grip for horses unless they are icy, though! ;)

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You of course mean John Lewis International .You may find your way in after negotiating several barriers.Finding your way out is challenging.Finding a shop til you drop is the easy bit. Now finding a train.......you descend to the bowels of Hades...if you survive that long.

 

Of course, you mustn't forget that most people won't realise that if you choose the wrong stairs to change platforms, it's likely you'll need to leave "the station" through the barriers, do a lap of honour around the piazza (I was going to say concourse, but it's only a thoroughfare to the hops, innit!), and then re-enter "the station" through another set of barriers. Passenger friendly, errr, not really!

 

Paul

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Another station that suffered a similar fate to Kidderminster was Christ's Hospital.  Okay it was waaaayyy over provisioned in terms of platforms and facilities for the traffic it ever received even before the closure of the Cranleigh and Steyning branches but even still the magnificent main station building was demolished in favour what is little more than a grotty brick shed.

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Indeed. I was not going to spoil ADB's nostalgia, but I too hate cobbles. Try pushing a wheelchair over them, let alone ride in one, as my wife has to do many times here, in France, where cobblestones are almost worshipped as a faux-nostalgie, because very few of them turn out to be original.....

 

Even worse try taking a horse drawn wagon over them.

I heard a talk recently by a chap who officiated at various major events in London.

Trying to get hold off 20t of sand on a Sunday morning to cover the cobbles in order for the horses to walk safely made a very funny story..

He had that task at the time the Queen Mother died.

Bernard

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One of the most impressive station reconstructions is Antwerp. They built a new multi-level station which was blended into the existing station, the new construct is semi-open under the old train shed and with the old building retained. Visually it is quite stunning, and it was a remarkable way to go about adding through platforms to an old station within the original station footprint and whilst retaining the old building and train shed. On the other hand, it isn't the most user friendly station and it can be quite confusing to get around it and make connections. This may sound ridiculous to people familiar with Euston and Antwerp but although I'd much rather admire the station of Antwerp for its architecture and visual impact, as a user I'd take Euston every day of the week as it is a far superior station if you are just a passenger needing to get somewhere.

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Not sure if anyone has mentioned Tamworth yet, to my mind one of the worst cases of architectural vandalism during the electrification era. This is the original frontage of the Low Level buildings.

http://warwickshirerailways.com/lms/lnwr_tam3131.htm

Edited by TheSignalEngineer
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Not sur if anyone has mentioned Tamworth yet, to my mind one of the worst cases of architectural vandalism during the electrification era. This is the original frontage of the Low Level buildings.

http://warwickshirerailways.com/lms/lnwr_tam3131.htm

 

Yes, the new structure is very similar to the way Peterborough was re-built, although Tamworth benefited from an overall roof, whereas at Peterborough that was provided only over the concourse area. The rest of the roof began to leak like a sieve by the late 1980's.

 

The original Peterborough station building and platforms were pretty awful, even if they had some architectural merit. You could describe the motley ensemble as "interesting", but I remember using it as a young teen, and it was terrible. Few people seemed to mourn its loss.

 

https://www.peterboroughimages.co.uk/peterborough-north-railway-station-c-1906/

 

But the new station became too small and spartan fairly soon afterwards. The recent further re-build is an altogether better place to catch a train now, although still lacking in terms of circulating space and warm waiting areas, especially when things are disrupted. But I guess that is the nature of the small footprint within which it had to be done. (For those unfamiliar, the Great Northern Hotel on the right of the picture still survives relatively intact, at least on the station side, despite several attempts to have it demolished. However it now has a ghastly, ultra-modern extension built on the town side.)

.

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Not sure if anyone has mentioned Tamworth yet, to my mind one of the worst cases of architectural vandalism during the electrification era. This is the original frontage of the Low Level buildings.

http://warwickshirerailways.com/lms/lnwr_tam3131.htm

 

The pre-electrification Bletchley had attractive buildings as well which would doubtless be listed these days.

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Wolverton merits a mention, not as a station improvement, but for the 20+ year absence of a station building.

 

The original LNWR timber erection fell into deep disrepair, and was then burned down (I always wondered!), then there was a ludicrously long Mexican Stand-Off between the council, who wanted a high-spec new station to fit into regeneration of the area, and BR/Railtrack/Network Rail, who wanted to spend as little as possible.

 

The eventual new station isn't actually too bad at all, although whether people feel it was worth waiting that long for is another question. 

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The pre-electrification Bletchley had attractive buildings as well which would doubtless be listed these days.

Most Victorian station buildings cannot meet the needs of today's railway workers so they can deliver a good service to their customers. A coal fire in the corner of the drafty booking hall with a peep hole window were you buy your ticket might be romantic at a preserved railway, but is hardly welcoming for most modern travelers.

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Thameslink platforms at St Pancras International. Clean and functional. Not a clue to help bemused visitors understand that this is in fact NOT international, but actually the suburban services only platforms. All signage in English, so that those from abroad have very little information about how to reach the actual International element of St Pancras.

Your comparative assessment with St Pancras International Shopping Mall will be welcomed.

To be fair, any international traveller finding themselves round at the suburban platforms is not only utterly lost, but pretty determined. Or do you mean the low-level platform? They are only an escalator apart and while I don’t dispute the capacity of tourists to lose themselves, there’s no real reason for an international traveller to find their way down there.

 

Kings X is a great improvement over the overcrowded slum I spent so much time in during the mid 80s to early 90s.

 

Personally, I find the interior design of BNS quite functional and attractive, and it’s quite hard to get a view if the “half melted chrome blob” exterior. The contractual operation by XC leaves a good deal to be desired, but that’s been covered elsewhere.

 

Euston, no, not a favourite at all. Cambridge is another place I recently visited after a long absence, and didn’t think much of the changes at all.

 

Birmingham Moor Street, sympathetically restored is a little gem, I think.

 

Whitby is much improved by the presence of steam services, it had become too run-down and empty.

 

Doncaster is a bleak place, one of those places that was obviously once much busier than now. The minor stations of the Fens are pretty bleak, and the minor stations between the ECML and East Coast are beyond comment, mostly simply derelict-looking with little observable traffic.

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It’s an interesting question. The opposite approach was taken on the preserved side of the Liverpool Streeet trainshed, the original extended like-for-like: these things are often a matter of taste, but that approach seems to have worked well. (It’s also vastly nicer to use than the “new” side, which to me feels dark and cramped).

The problem at St Pancras is that the extension is anyway just a poor piece of architecture: lumpen, dark, draughty and yet still stinking of diesel fumes. It doesn’t have to be like that: the King’s Cross works next-door are light, airy and effective, yet obviously a modern addition.

I think Euston is not bad, though for me it loses points by adopting a US-type approach of hiding the trains away down long ramps (I also dislike the Liverpool Street approach of hiding the trains behind “retail opportunities”). It helps users orientate themselves if they can see the trains, just as airport terminals where you can see planes feel less disorientating.

Some of the stations slagged-off in this topic are, I think, rather good: Coventry, Harlow, Broxbourne, or the glorious light-filled concourse at Barking (now ruined by both chronic neglect and having stuffed the formerly open space full of those damn “retail opportunities”).

I’d nominate Southampton Central as a poor modernisation. Always problematic (it was designed as a secondary station, compared to the glamorous but now disused Southampton Terminus), war damage on the north side and a series of cheap “solutions” has left the city without an appropriate gateway compared to similar-sized places (the small Jazz Age entrance on the south side was designed as a “back door”).

Paul

I worked on the reconstruction of Liverpool Street, and a very challenging job it was too! Nice now it’s done, though.

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There's definitely a reason why cobbles failed to fight off the threat of tarmac.

They look quite nice, but functionally they're worse in every way.

Granite setts are far more attractive and functional, although much more expensive and still severely lacking in traction in the wet. Personally, I’m quite a fan of block paving.

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Yes, the new structure is very similar to the way Peterborough was re-built, although Tamworth benefited from an overall roof, whereas at Peterborough that was provided only over the concourse area. The rest of the roof began to leak like a sieve by the late 1980's.

 

The original Peterborough station building and platforms were pretty awful, even if they had some architectural merit. You could describe the motley ensemble as "interesting", but I remember using it as a young teen, and it was terrible. Few people seemed to mourn its loss.

 

https://www.peterboroughimages.co.uk/peterborough-north-railway-station-c-1906/

 

But the new station became too small and spartan fairly soon afterwards. The recent further re-build is an altogether better place to catch a train now, although still lacking in terms of circulating space and warm waiting areas, especially when things are disrupted. But I guess that is the nature of the small footprint within which it had to be done. (For those unfamiliar, the Great Northern Hotel on the right of the picture still survives relatively intact, at least on the station side, despite several attempts to have it demolished. However it now has a ghastly, ultra-modern extension built on the town side.)

.

Peterborough Station has always been pretty grim, from my recollections spanning the late 70s to early 90s and again recently.

 

The drop-off and turning bay is just a thoroughly defective layout - a turning area where most cars can’t turn? They COULD have done all sorts of things to make use of the now-infilled Platform 1, but no...

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Most Victorian station buildings cannot meet the needs of today's railway workers so they can deliver a good service to their customers. A coal fire in the corner of the drafty booking hall with a peep hole window were you buy your ticket might be romantic at a preserved railway, but is hardly welcoming for most modern travelers.

Absolutely fair comment Clive. That said, it's amazing what can be done to improve older buildings without demolishing them.

 

Also, of course, the solid brick Victorian buildings were replaced with "CLASP" structures - also rather draughty and poorly insulated.

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Chances are that if the Victorian buildings had indeed been "solid", they wouldn't have been replaced. BR wasn't heavily into renewing things which were serviceable and fit for purpose, as far as I know.

 

CLASP may not have ended up being a significant improvement, but I bet they were better places to work and use than whatever they replaced, if only for a short time.

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The minor stations of the Fens are pretty bleak, and the minor stations between the ECML and East Coast are beyond comment, mostly simply derelict-looking with little observable traffic.

Sleaford always seems to be a bit of a timewarp, in a good way, although I've not visited for several years. A largely untouched junction station in a small market town, where you can still change trains between rural services. Slightly rundown but at least it's not been replaced by a bus shelter. And he trains seem to be heavily used by school kids travelling in to the town. 

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Most Victorian station buildings cannot meet the needs of today's railway workers so they can deliver a good service to their customers. A coal fire in the corner of the drafty booking hall with a peep hole window were you buy your ticket might be romantic at a preserved railway, but is hardly welcoming for most modern travelers.

 

Well said. And that sums it up - staff are there for a shift, customers for a few mins before the train takes them away. Draughty and damp locations were not what railway servants needed.

 

 

I worked on the reconstruction of Liverpool Street, and a very challenging job it was too! Nice now it’s done, though.

Did you know Alan Dorman or John Jouques, BR Project Directors?
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There's definitely a reason why cobbles failed to fight off the threat of tarmac.

 

They look quite nice, but functionally they're worse in every way.

 

They do a good job of deterring the wannabee Stigs and the two-wheeled hooligans, though!

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Chances are that if the Victorian buildings had indeed been "solid", they wouldn't have been replaced. BR wasn't heavily into renewing things which were serviceable and fit for purpose, as far as I know.

 

CLASP may not have ended up being a significant improvement, but I bet they were better places to work and use than whatever they replaced, if only for a short time.

 

BR demolished plenty of structurally sound buildings. They did it because it impacted on the amount of rates payable.

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