Station To Station

NORMALLY, it's steam engines hogging the limelight at the National Railway Museum, but what about stations you may ask? They have an equally important role to play and we spend almost as much time waiting for trains as we do sitting in carriages. So why don't they get any attention?

Well that is about to change in a new exhibition called Destination Stations that will reveal the fascinating history of Britain's railway stations.

"They are much more than simple stops on the line," says Ellen Tait, interpretation developer at the NRM. "They have evolved with us ever since the railways were established, keeping pace with our lifestyles and reflecting society's priorities and passions."

Elllen Tait has a Brief Encounter moment at York Station. Picture: Matt Clark

At first the priority was to provide shelter from weather. Not for passengers, but to protect precious new railway technology and the first stations were little more than rudimentary stopping points. York, for example, had a makeshift wooden affair on Queen Street.

Rail companies believed their trains would mainly transport goods, this was, after all, the industrial revolution's speedy successor to canals. But it soon became apparent that there was another eager customer base.

"It was quite a surprise how passenger traffic took off," says Ellen. "Before rail, people really didn't travel, it was expensive and time consuming. Suddenly having this technology made it quick, easy and relatively affordable. Taking a day trip to the coast doesn't exist before the railways."

Companies quickly took note and began building monumental stations. Many still stand today, in the form of iconic behemoths such as Glasgow Central, Newcastle and of course York's present station which opened in 1877 as the world's largest.

Fittingly, they adopted classical designs to herald their own empires. Take the huge Doric arch at Euston which dates from 1835, just five years after those first ramshackle timber affairs appeared.

Like the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris, it has one purpose; to impress.

"It's established and familiar but also comfortable," says Ellen. "It's saying the railways are here to stay, look at the things we're creating."

These grandiose structures also offered reassurance, in the same way the stolid Bank of England building does. With good reason. People were fearful at what fate might befall them at the giddy speed of 40 mph.

Ellen makes an interesting point that stations were always fashionable. The trends of the day were incorporated and the buildings were designed to be fit for purpose. Which makes you realise, without employing hindsight, that Euston was in fact a perfect solution for the 1960s.

"It's really important to put yourself in the mindset of the time," says Ellen. "Today people ask of the arch 'what were they thinking?' because we value our heritage so much, now. But the 1960s was a brave new world, with a feel of 'let's get out there and remake it'. Some of the old buildings were seen as dinosaurs."

Euston is perhaps the most famous victim of this drive to modernisation. Despite public outcry, the station building and its iconic portico were demolished in 1961 to be replaced by an often deplored building, described by Times critic Richard Morrison as 'one of the nastiest concrete boxes in London'.

Dismantling Euston arch

Sir John Betjeman famously campaigned, but lost his bid to save the arch, although he was more successful at St Pancras, helping to save the station and hotel.

A statue to the poet laureate looking up in awe at the magnificent engineering splendour of William Barlow's train shed, while catching hold of his hat, stands testament to his triumph.

St Pancras is often called the cathedral of the railways and its hotel, designed by George Gilbert Scott, is a fine example of Victorian Gothic architecture.

"Then it's fortunes completely dip, the station stops being used for anything much and becomes almost derelict," says Ellen. "There was a plan to replace it in the 'thirties but the war intervened so nothing happened."

Fast forward fifty years and it's a very different story. This is now the home of Eurostar and a totally different take on a railway terminus. St Pancras is a destination station in it's own right, there's even a swimming pool outside.

"The grand reinvention of St Pancras makes us feel travelling by train is not just a means to an end, a way of getting from A to B, it's glamorous," says Ellen. "We're not commuting, we're travelling. It's an adventure and I'm spoiling myself."

Which means you want to set off from a luxurious setting and another good example sits across the road.

Kings Cross is no longer the sooty, grimy den of iniquity it once was, but a shiny, sleek homage to modern rail travel, featuring a breathtaking steel latticed canopy and designer coffee houses.

However, railway stations are more than just bricks and mortar. Trains produce incredible emotions; they bring people together, they pull them apart and leave tears of joy or sorrow in their wake.

Many thousands of which are shed every day, all over the world, in a Brief Encounters style, on the platform, under the clock.

"It's about the waving goodbye moment where one person is pressed to the train window while the other is thinking how long do I wave before I should go and when will I see them again," says Ellen.

Then there is the destination board which offers the mystery and romance of long-distance travel.

"I often stand in front of it and think I could go anywhere," says Ellen. "I don't have to go to work, I could go to Bristol."

Or Nice. St Pancras reintroduced the sense of adventure and glamour in taking the train to sunnier climes. Indeed, Eurostar is the 21st century Train Bleu to the Riviera, there's even a Champagne bar on the platform, to emphasise these levels of luxury.

"People travel more now and St Pancras had to feel international, Says Ellen. "This is the starting point for a romantic trip to Paris, the romance of railways has returned.

"People do want a bit of Brief Encounter in our lives."

Destination Stations runs from September 25 to January 24, 2016. The exhibition will make extensive use of the National Railway Museum's collections, particularly its images, and will incorporate loaned artefacts from key architectural archives across the country. Items in the exhibition will be complemented by new digital features such as computer-generated fly throughs and time-lapse photography.

York Station in the 1960s.

For more information visit www.nrm.org.uk/destination-stations.

All archive images in this article were kindly supplied by the National Railway Museum.