Euston is one of London's oldest stations, and can fairly argue to be the terminus of the first trunk railway in the world, the London and Birmingham, opened in 1837.
Alas, alas. You'd never know it now. This great gateway to the West Midlands, Lancashire, North Wales and Glasgow (otherwise known as the West Coast Main Line) is the only long-distance station to have been completely rebuilt (in 1968). The result has never been loved.
To understand why, we need to go back to 1837. When built, the original Euston was furnished with a grand entrance arch, a gateway to the world of possibilities offered by this new and novel means of transport. The arch was designed by Philip Hardwick (1792-1870) and consisted of a truly huge Doric portico with fluted columns over eight feet in diameter, flanked by paired stone lodges, also in the Doric style, and with elaborate wrought iron gates. When built, the columns were the tallest in London. A further pair of stone lodges was added in 1870.
The station behind was always inadequate, and in 1846 Hardwick was commissioned to design a new waiting room and other buildings. The Great Hall, as it came to be known, was another masterpiece, and regarded by Sir John Betjeman as one of London's finest public rooms: in the Ionic style, it had a dramatic coffered ceiling and a grand, curving double staircase. It also contained the Shareholders' Meeting Room, decorated in a sumptuous Baroque. Over the years, the station was extended east and west in piecemeal fashion, and a new ticket office opened in 1916.
However, by the 1960s the station was in need of serious refurbishment, and the electrification of the West Coast Main Line provided an opportunity to modernise the station. This was the era before the conservation movement had gained momentum, however, and the new design - resembling the airports of the time - required the complete demolition of the old. The most controversial move was the demolition of the Euston Arch, and the battle over this was one of the key moments in the history of conservation.
Alas, this early battle was lost to the Philistines: the protests from preservation societies, the London County Council and the Royal Fine Art Commission fell on deaf ears. Even the demolition contractor famously offered to re-erect the Arch at his own expense on a site chosen by the then British Railways. He was refused (although apparently, some of the stones are still intact, lying on the Thames riverbed at Bow Creek and in the gardens and ponds of the men contracted to demolish the arch 46 years ago). The arch came down in 1962, although two of the lodges survive.
Instead, the large concrete shed with its long approach roads and glass curtain wall was erected in its place and opened by the Queen in 1968. It's buffets have always attracted criticism as being plastic and unpleasant, the long walks through the terminal have always been unpopular, and there has always been too little seating (amazingly, public seating was almost entirely absent in the original design). The taxi rank is also underground, and suffers from traffic fumes.
But perhaps the major failing has been the platform area: the train shed roof is low and dark, and the platforms are approached by long sloping ramps equipped with huge metal screens. It's a dismal gateway to London, and the habit - again taken from airport practice - of holding passengers in the waiting hall until the train is ready has never been popular with passengers.
It still serves passengers going to the original destinations, as well as a substantial commuter service to Watford, Milton Keynes and Northampton. The station is used by 27 million passengers a year, is open 24 hours a day and has all the facilities you'd expect of one of Europe's busiest stations.
Efforts have been made in the last decade to cheer up the concourse with more shops, more seating and brighter lighting, with some success; less successfully, the platforms have been resurfaced in white marble and given hanging baskets of flowers, but they are still claustrophobic and dank. The original lawns in front of the station have become a sort of piazza, and various office blocks have been built in front, which at least gives the station some life. Another plus is that buses pull into the area in front of the station and run to a wide range of destinations in central London and points north.
However, there is light at the end of this particular tunnel: Network Rail is committed to rebuilding the station, and a campaign has started to rebuild the Euston Arch. Its website is at: http://www.eustonarch.org . Please support it! read more