London Euston Station

[Cartman]

The stuff on Euston in the location thread was interesting and to avoid thread drift I thought I'd start a new topic. The original station was built in 1839 as the terminus of the line from Birmingham and was of great historical significance. It was a brilliant building with a huge Doric arch and stone hotel and offices, looking like a stately home. Inside was a fantastic waiting room called the Great Hall, with a double staircase and an ornate plasterwork ceiling, looking like a Country House. It was expanded piecemeal over the years and there had been a plan to rebuild it in the 1930s which was killed off by the war.

It was demolished in 1963,to much opposition, led by John betjeman, and there was a suggestion to keep the arch by moving it on rollers, but silly prices were quoted for saving it so it was knocked down, the man approving this was the notoriously corrupt minister of transport at the time, Ernest Marples.

The replacement was completed in 1968 and wasn't highly thought of at the time, even by the standards of 60s concrete, although today's glass boxes are even worse. One thing which did arise from the demolition was a growing interest in heritage and St Pancras came under threat a few years later which was successfully saved. 

[Cartman]

By way of an update, there's some great colour footage of it on you tube taken in 1957. What a great location it was, if it had survived, Hard Men would have looked very different! 

[Gene Hunt]

Sept 7, 2019 12:20:07 GMT Cartman said:

The stuff on Euston in the location thread was interesting and to avoid thread drift I thought I'd start a new topic. 

Thanks Cartman 

Gene.

P.S.

[Cartman]

Thanks Gene, yes that's the one. Love it, but sad that we have lost such great locations. 

[Del Boy]

Good idea to start a seperate thread Cartman, thanks.

I modified the title slightly and dropped a link into the Hard Men Location thread  

[Del Boy]

I love the unique style of the Doric Arch and feel its a loss to London. I think the column sections ended up being dumped into a river in east london. The river Lea if I remember correctly.  Euston also lost its fine on site hotel in the 60s rebuild. The outcry over this project rumbled on into the 70s and 80s and influenced later decicions on other London terminus upgrades. Liverpool Street's 80s upgrade was sympathetically upgraded and they made a good job of it to be fair. The brunel designed Paddington has come under attack over the years. The roof in particular although an amazing structure has been mooted for the chop due to the complexity in routine maintenance and the cost of repairing it in any upgrade.

[D.C. Burtonshaw]

Thanks for posting up the film Cartman, very interesting to see Euston Station as was in 1957, that architecture was certainly something and as others have said, sad that it all went. Love the footage when trainspotting, was not a much mocked hobby then, and the kids were all well behaved, footage of the people going about their business and the passing traffic is wonderful. As a side comment, many say that cars are all the same colour today (grey's and silvers and blacks often seen although not sure if that's totally true) but 97% of the cars seen all are black it seems!!

[Del Boy]

Just watched the above film clip. What a totally different place it was and seemed far busier than now so if the terminus could handle it then it would have been ok to keep it. 
The Doric arch looked a fantastic structure very unique.

I've found an article of the recent proposal to rebuild the arch as part of the new HS2 station. 
There are some decent diagrams of the old station layout and site of the arch alongside artist's impression of the new station. 
Interesting that the arch wasn't on Euston Road it was set back a fair bit. 

>>>Euston Arch To Rise Again<<<

The arch was built in 1838 

[Cartman]

Interesting link Del thanks. I quite like the proposed design incorporating a rebuilt arch, but I still think the best would have been to have kept the old station and upgraded it, which has been done in other cases, like Liverpool Street. 

[D.C. Burtonshaw]

Actually that photo certainly makes that famous Doric arch huge and imposing! Such a shame it was swept away.