Why don't we have stations like these?

[talltim]

Gare de Lyon Saint-Exupéry in France

Liège-Guillemins in Belgium

I Calatrava!

 

[asylumxl]

Cost.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

To be honest, do we need it? Surely the whole point of a railway station is that it is a location for people to alight and board trains, it doesn't have to be made from steel and glass and cost over £1,000,000. St P and BTM do that lot over any day

 

[WatcherZero]

Because here the public expect everything public to be done on the cheap, unless that changes we will never again have notable civic buildings like those are Victorian forebears left us.

 

[At_traction]

Gare de Lyon Saint-Exupéry in France

Liège-Guillemins in Belgium

I Calatrava!

Why? We have the St. Pancras airplane hangar, after all.

Because here the public expect everything public to be done on the cheap, unless that changes we will never again have notable civic buildings like those are Victorian forebears left us.

So spot on, I'm afraid.
Even though the examples may be a bit towards the over the top in terms of balance between usability (cost) and showiness and there are some not bad ones done recently - or in the pipeline - in the UK, but in general it is rather underwhelming.

 

[asylumxl]

To be honest, do we need it? Surely the whole point of a railway station is that it is a location for people to alight and board trains, it doesn't have to be made from steel and glass and cost over £1,000,000. St P and BTM do that lot over any day

If you had an hour wait at a station, would you like to be in a dark, seedy, grotty place, or a bright, airy, clean place?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

If you had an hour wait at a station, would you like to be in a dark, seedy, grotty place, or a bright, airy, clean place?

No stuff like, say, MKC or Bhm Intl, all only 30-40 years old, relatively cgheap and nice. There's tonnes more we could spend the money on, not making a 15-acre statiion building made of Venzuelan glass

 

[PR1Berske]

Try to get the tabloid press to accept a multi-million construction project for a railway station.

Then add in political pressure, the Unions, private companies' particularly bendy attitude to timetables, ATOCs, Network Rail, the current state of the public purse, peoples' attitudes towards public spending, the conservative architecture brigade.....

It's not worth the hassle, really.

 

[sprinterguy]

Because the only new build line in the UK that would be able to accommodate a brand new multi-platform station development is HS1, whose only major station (Stratford International excluded) is at St. Pancras where the design of the new domestic section had to be designed around constraints imposed by the listed status of the main trainshed. I do think that a trick has been missed with Stratford International though: As it is a brand new station on the new high speed line, that’ll be close to the new Olympic stadium and surrounding developments, something really iconic could and should have been designed to act as a gateway for Olympic visitors, instead of it just being a concrete box.

Elsewhere in the UK on existing rail lines, station design is often constrained by having listed buildings incorporated into the station in some way, where it would be impossible to bulldoze the current layout and start anew with a shiny, modern station, and any alterations have to be made to complement the older areas of the station.

Plus, existing UK stations are often narrowly confined by the surrounding cityscape and limited to their current area footprint which makes redevelopment difficult, as any new construction is likely to cause major disruption to existing services and station access whilst it is ongoing.

And Birmingham New Street IS getting a makeover more in keeping with those major European stations: I think the design (of the refurbed New Street) looks hideous, but it cannot be denied that the new design can be described as both radical and iconic.

 

[gordonthemoron]

Liège Guillemins is not as good as it appears in the photos, there are next to no station facilities and it still isn't finished, the ticket office is in a portakabin

 

[bluenoxid]

We are very densely populated and designs like that are not universally appreciated.

 

[gordonthemoron]

the South East of england is densley populated, but the rest of the UK isn't

 

[At_traction]

We are very densely populated and designs like that are not universally appreciated.

Universally? By whom? If the question posed is "would you like a tax hike and public service cuts in order for elitists to embrace an artsy, non-English train shed" the answer might be different from one to "would you like to have your dark, p*ss-stinking, grimy and crime-ridden hellhole to be brought up-to-date in terms of services and waiting areas".

The frightening part is that the answer to both might as well be "no"...

And of course such expense in times like these is bound to be unpopular and, frankly, should be lower in priority to many other issues at present, but such economic reasoning can only be extended to a point (in time). Especially in cases such as the Stratford Int. where the station was to be built anyway, with definitely no restricting built-up areas and, indeed, as a gateway to one of the world's largest international events.

 

[Dai.]

I quite like the older stations, I like looking at the architecture as I sit waiting for my connecting train. Especially York, I went to York station and immediately fell in love with its design.

 

[talltim]

I quite like the older stations, I like looking at the architecture as I sit waiting for my connecting train. Especially York, I went to York station and immediately fell in love with its design.

I agree with you there, stations like York and St Pancras as mentioned above are great designs. But thats the point, they are their period's versions of the stations in my links. At the time they were built they were architecturally and engineeringly cutting edge and I'm sure, not to many people's taste.
But of course they were built with private money. Perhaps its time we privatised the railways...

 

[Dai.]

I agree with you there, stations like York and St Pancras as mentioned above are great designs. But thats the point, they are their period's versions of the stations in my links. At the time they were built they were architecturally and engineeringly cutting edge and I'm sure, not to many people's taste.
But of course they were built with private money. Perhaps its time we privatised the railways...

I can't see why we'd need a station of that design though - The UK isn't really a modern country it's pride lies in what we've been built upon not what we can build.

 

[merlodlliw]

Mussolinis Cathedral station at Milan, Milano Centrale,now that impressed me, built about 80 years ago.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

If you had an hour wait at a station, would you like to be in a dark, seedy, grotty place, or a bright, airy, clean place?

that sounds a bit like Rhyl station ,dark,seedy,grotty

 

[At_traction]

I can't see why we'd need a station of that design though - The UK isn't really a modern country it's pride lies in what we've been built upon not what we can build.

Well, if that's the case, then the industrial revolution (and the railways) - a definite "can do" achievement - would have been someone else's to come up with in the first place...

"These stagecoaches are jolly comfortable, Margaret."
"Indeed, James. Where is the next tavern?"

Remainder of vintage rusticity is truly an asset and does complement the great British landscape, there's no denying that, but to state that there's really no need to look forward (for example) in civic architecture is a bit bold stroke. A lot of cr*p has been built post-war, but much of the vintage construction might have been even worse - and much of actually done was thought to be just that at the time. Barker and Hyde's "London As It Might Have Been" gives a clue of many barely missed monstrosities.

 

[LE Greys]

Gare de Lyon Saint-Exupéry in France

Liège-Guillemins in Belgium

I Calatrava!

Because they would look awful after a few British winters and a colony of pigeons establishing themselves (not that I like them much now). Even when shabby, classical architecture has a way of looking good. That would look terrible. Besides, plain columns are boring, especially when white. Why did they not paint the columns in the extension at St Pancras blue? It would have blended in with the old trainshed much better, but oh no, it had to be white (now going dirty yellowish grey). Why did they not put wrought-iron balustrades on the sides of the big hole instead of glass panels? Glass looks more modern, let's forget it it's in an historic station. Why does almost every station have a white marble concourse? It gets slippery every time it rains and makes the station freezing cold in the winter. I haven't the faintest idea. Does anyone know?

 

[At_traction]

Because they would look awful after a few British winters and a colony of pigeons establishing themselves (not that I like them much now). Even when shabby, classical architecture has a way of looking good. That would look terrible.

Delipidated and sooted architecture is delipidated and sooted architecture, whatever its stylistic origin. It is unpleasant to approach and use and gives away an air of lack of upkeep and thus security. You can look at any less than well-attended urban/semiurban station with suffered brickwork, dirt and generations of badly-removed posters - and that is on the street entrances!

All buildings require upkeep during their lifespan and stating one set of "styles" better than other because of its perceived ability to withstand time better than other is just, excuse me, misjudged. The world is full of splendidly preserved modernist buildings which look splendid due to the same reason that splendidly preserved historic buildings do: active preservation. That's what National Heritage, for example, uses its money on. And lots of it. Their real estate hasn't survived on its own.

Besides, plain columns are boring, especially when white. Why did they not paint the columns in the extension at St Pancras blue? It would have blended in with the old trainshed much better, but oh no, it had to be white (now going dirty yellowish grey). Why did they not put wrought-iron balustrades on the sides of the big hole instead of glass panels? Glass looks more modern, let's forget it it's in an historic station.

Excactly because it is not a historic station, rather than a stylistically and operationally independent extension to a historic station in the contemporary style. In good or bad, it follows the stylistic "language" of the early 21st Century architecture, including non-decorated colonnade and balustrades - decoration at least dissimilar to one used in the 19th Century (which itself harks back to the lightweight structures of the 11th Century Gothic).

Why does almost every station have a white marble concourse? It gets slippery every time it rains and makes the station freezing cold in the winter. I haven't the faintest idea. Does anyone know?

Well, at least when it comes to polishing such a floor (or any stone floor) near the entrances without any anti-slipping treatment, that's not a good way to do things...

 

[daikilo]

New (may) look great when new. Can we takes votes please on say
1) Bristol TM v. Cardiff General
2) York v. Birmingham New Street
3) Crewe v. Doncaster
....

What I particularly like with St Pancras is that the 150-year old structure has been retained and adapted to create a visually attractive and operationally efficient gateway.

 

[Nigel Cliff]

Couldn't we just clean the ones we have and give them a lick of paint,I travelled from Efinburgh last week and can honestly say that Waverley,Preston and Crewe made me embarrassed to be British

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Couldn't we just clean the ones we have and give them a lick of paint,I travelled from Efinburgh last week and can honestly say that Waverley,Preston and Crewe made me embarrassed to be British

Waverley aint bad! Preston, i'm there every week, just could do with refurbing the platforms and roof, ditto with Crewe

 

[ert47]

How about Stratford Regional or some of the stations on the Jubilee line extension (namely Westminster and Canary Wharf)?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

WHat was at Stratford Domestic before the glass building? Reading looks nice too - as it is now! The buildings at Corby and Uckfield etc are impressive too, and Blackburn with the tennis racquet roof!

 

[Nigel Cliff]

Waverley aint bad! Preston, i'm there every week, just could do with refurbing the platforms and roof, ditto with Crewe

Look at the roof above platforms 10 & 11at Waverley they are filthy but a few hours with a pressure washer and they would be fine as would most of the other stations,it just needs the station operators to be given a kick up the watsits

 

[90019]

Look at the roof above platforms 10 & 11at Waverley they are filthy but a few hours with a pressure washer and they would be fine as would most of the other stations,it just needs the station operators to be given a kick up the watsits

I believe they're part way through replacing the glass in the roof, and I think it really needs replaced rather than cleaned.
Not really paying much attention to it when I've been passing through recently though (even though I was there about an hour ago ), but I'll have a look tomorrow.

 

[At_traction]

How about Stratford Regional or some of the stations on the Jubilee line extension (namely Westminster and Canary Wharf)?

The Wharf station at least has undoubtedly obtained a good deal of notability also worldwide, largely due to its location (and famous architect).

I believe they're part way through replacing the glass in the roof, and I think it really needs replaced rather than cleaned.
Not really paying much attention to it when I've been passing through recently though (even though I was there about an hour ago ), but I'll have a look tomorrow.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7997839.stm
Good that it is underway now.

The Victorian roof is at the centre of the project, which will see it re-glazed with strengthened glass.
Presently artificial light is used in the station as the cloudy, wire safety glass prevents natural light.

The replacement of the original roofing is a balance between retaining a vintage element and making it work better in the role it was built to do (illumination) and easier to maintain at the same time.

 

[monkey]

...I like british stations... they're very err british lol. I think stations like marelyborne and york and waverly are beautiful. I even think newcastle station is a beaut! I dunno I just think having stations like that here wouldn't really go with our railways.. and we do have some wonderful station architecture, they just need to be better taken care of, and upgraded amenities...

I guess perhaps maybe for the replacement of ugly late 21st century stations that need replacing we could have some modern airy stations, like for the replacement of euston, but even then I'd like different take on designs with some vintage british elements, not just a big humongous modern structure with no context...

 

[ainsworth74]

for the replacement of ugly late 21st century stations

*Checks calender*






I think the majority of stations in the country are fine, they do the job that's required and whilst some aren't the greatest (Sunderland springs to mind) others are truly terrific testaments to Victorian engineering (St. Pancras!). In my view I would hope that any new build or replacement major stations or terminals would be built to be something a bit special. But as long as it's well designed and does it's job, I'm not to bothered about anything else.