Euston Arch

According to the London Evening Standard a nightclub and banqueting hall are to be built inside a reconstructed Victorian monument at Euston station under plans announced today. The Euston Arch stood in front of the station from 1838 until it was demolished by modernist town planners in 1962.

Built at Euston Grove, the station was for many years the only north-bound railway exit from London. Designed in the classical style, the most notable feature was the massive Doric Arch entrance. Euston Station was one of the glories of British railway architecture it served as the terminus for travellers to London from Birmingham and the North West. Its architecture, based on Greek temples, was deemed a fitting gateway to the capital and an introduction to the engineering marvels of the railway beyond.

Euston Station was the first mainline terminus station opened in a capital city anywhere in the world. It was opened on July 20, 1837, as the terminus of the London and Birmingham Railway constructed by Robert Stephenson. The architect was Philip Hardwick who worked with structural engineer Charles Fox. The station first had only two platforms, one for departures and one for arrivals.

It was also Hardwick who designed the Euston Arch, a 70 feet 6 inches high Doric propylaeum, the largest ever built and which formed the entrance to the station. The grit stone structure complemented the Ionic entrance to the Curzon Street Station in Birmingham (which still exists) which was the other end of the London and Birmingham Railway’s mainline.


Euston Station, 1851

Its demolition, with the rest of Euston Station was regarded as one of the greatest acts of Post-War architectural vandalism in Britain, the campaign to save it lead to the foundation of the Victorian Society and involved the indomitable Sir John Betjeman.

However British Rail’s cultural vandalism was worse than was realised even at the time. To block off any campaign to rebuild the Arch and despite an offer from the contractor to store the stonework British Rail demanded that it was all dumped and it has transpired the stones were thrown into a tributary of the river Lee in east London. This has now come to light as British Waterways has dredged the channel to salvage the discarded rock on behalf of the Euston Arch Trust as it carries out repair work to the waterways around the 2012 Olympic site. The stones are being lifted from the Prescott Channel, where they were used to fill a hole in the riverbed. Campaigners want to reconstruct the arch using as much of the original stone as possible.

Demolition was speedy and brutal - as recorded in various newsreel documentaries - with the stones being broken and much damaged as the arch was speedily cleared away. The new station was opened in 1968. Designed in the International Modern style, its somewhat bleak style has been variously described as "hideous", "a dingy, grey, horizontal nothingness", "an ugly desecration of a formerly impressive building", a reflection of "the tawdry glamour of its time" entirely lacking of "the sense of occasion, of adventure, that the great Victorian termini gave to the traveller", and "the worst of the Central London terminuses, both ugly and unfriendly to use". Writing in The Times, Richard Morrison stated that "even by the bleak standards of Sixties architecture, Euston is one of the nastiest concrete boxes in London: devoid of any decorative merit; seemingly concocted to induce maximum angst among passengers; and a blight on surrounding streets. The design should never have left the drawing-board - if, indeed, it was ever on a drawing-board. It gives the impression of having been scribbled on the back of a soiled paper bag by a thuggish android with a grudge against humanity and a vampiric loathing of sunlight".


Euston Station Today


The passenger friendly concourse?

Today’s Euston Station is a forgettable exercise in 1960’s functionalism except for the small matter that it doesn’t function very well on a number of levels. The windswept prairie in front of the station was the ostensible reason for the knocking down the Great Hall and Euston Arch to enhance the commercial value of the development. It contains two nondescript office blocks. One, 40 Melton Street, was the HQ of the much unlamented Railtrack which was the infrastructure company created at rail privatisation in April 1994. The other office block, conveniently, contains the office of a firm of accountants who wound them up when Railtrack went into administration in October 2001. They have now been succeeded by Network rail who are in the same offices.

Now walk across the windswept prairie into Euston and judge for yourself this “functional” station. You will see an expanse of cold, black stone flooring and everywhere you will see passengers camped out on this cold surface for there are hardly any seats for the thousands who must wait here. Whatever coherence the concourse had has been lost by the mish mash of tacky kiosks and retail outlets as Network Rail ”adds value” by increasing rental returns at the expense of passenger convenience. Go into the food court and you will see a place overflowing with passengers looking for seats whilst they enjoy the fast food delights on offer. Pay to use the toilets which reflect the municipal toilet ethos of the rest of the station. Disabled? Well, don’t bother trying to access the Virgin executive lounge or the Britannia Bar on the first floor as Network Rail ignores here (as elsewhere) its legal obligations since October 2004 under phase 3 of the Disability Discrimination Act.


One of the remaining gatehouses with the destinations inscribed on the quoins

Far better to leave now before you become too depressed and at the front onto Euston Road you will find all that remains of the Great Terminus which once stood here. In the centre is the war memorial and on either side are two decorative gatehouses with the destinations served carved into their quoin stones. These framed the Doric Arch and the only evidence of this is on the sign of the pub on the forecourt, ironic indeed as this was also part of the “commercial development” which required it to be demolished. Here too you will find the statue of the engineer for the lines into Euston, Robert Stephenson, known as the Father of the Railways. There is no history of weeping statues in front of train stations but as he surveys the mediocre morass for which history was swept away we could allow Robert a few tears.


Euston Arch stonework being recovered from the River Lee, East London

Now the trust has unveiled a £10 million design to rebuild the 70ft arch on the original site with a nightclub in the foundations and lifts rising up the pillars to the banqueting hall, seating 80. Buses and taxis will be able to drive through it.

"The Euston Arch was a powerful symbol of the optimistic spirit of the Victorian railway. Its demolition in the 1960's confirmed that blandness and lack of imagination had replaced the heroic vision of the past. Since then, the enormous popularity of the restored St. Pancras, soon to be followed by a restored King's Cross, has shown that celebration of the past and potential for the future is not mutually exclusive. The restoration of Euston Arch would restore to London's oldest mainline terminus some of the character and dignity of its great neighbours."

Michael Palin, Patron of the Euston Arch Trust

The Euston Arch Trust has as its patron Michael Palin who I met once and whilst he is famous as a world traveller as well as a member of the famous Monty Python comedy team he broke into a smile when I mentioned that I had a copy of his first every travel documentary “From Euston to the Kyle of Lochalsh.” For Michael is at heart a Sheffield lad from a railway family so his commitment to trains and public transport goes back some time. As the Euston Arch Trust says on its site;

“Network Rail and British Land have announced that they will redevelop Euston Station in a £1 billion project. This is a golden opportunity to rebuild the arch and return to Euston, the local community, London and Britain a building of major importance that should never have been demolished.


Great Hall


Platform in Euston Station before redevelopment

The redevelopment of St Pancras station has already shown how a world class station can combine the old and new. Euston can do the same. The Euston Arch would be a wonderful gateway to the new Euston. “

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/st-pancras-reborn.html

Historian Dan Cruickshank, who has led a 15-year campaign to reconstruct the monument, described it as "the first great building of the railway age". In 1994 Cruickshank discovered an estimated 60% of the 4,000 plus tons of the arch buried in the bed of the Prescott Channel at its junction with the Channelsea River that runs into the River Lea in the East End of London. A section of one of the columns was recovered from the river. The location of the rubble, for which he had been searching for 15 years, had been revealed by Bob Cotton, a British Waterways engineer, who stated that the rubble had been purchased in 1962 to fill a chasm in the bed of the Prescott Channel.


Curzon Street Station, Birmingham

The possible rebuilding of the Euston Arch should throw light on another of the threatened glories of railway history because the Arch was one of two “bookends” the other being the complementary Ionic Arch at the other end of the line in Birmingham. For in the Curzon Street Station you have arguably the oldest mainline rail terminus building in the world. It was here on 17th September 1838 that the first London to Birmingham train arrived at the very birth of railways. Built to the designs of Sir Philip Hardwick the architect of Euston Station, London, it echoed his magnificent design there which was so crassly demolished in 1962. It was designed in the style of a triumphant Roman Arch to echo his Euston Arch and provided two dramatic visual bookends to the first railway route between London and a major city. This Grade 1 listed building is currently unoccupied and at risk.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/04/birmingham-centre-of-england.html

The London to Birmingham Railway was the first rail service between two major cities and the muscular classical architecture was deliberately designed to give an impression of solidity and continuity to a public distrustful of this new fangled technology. They were visual propaganda for the technology which changed the world and made modern life possible and the propaganda was never more confident than Philip Hardwick’s two magnificent emphatic statements of Victorian confidence announcing the new world to the citizens of London and Birmingham. Let us rebuild the Euston Arch and save Curzon Street station as two interlinked and priceless pieces of this great Industrial Heritage. Maybe when this is done a smile may cross the face of the “Father of the Railways” Robert Stephenson whose statue in front of Euston Station has surveyed with a stern frown the architectural detritus which replaced the great triumphal entrance which met travellers to London.


Robert Stephenson, Father of the Railways

See also;

The Great Circle Line Journey

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/great-circle-line-journey.html

Euston Arch Trust

http://www.eustonarch.org


Euston Arch 1938

Caledonian Sleeper

Sleeper Car

For those who have yet to discover it the Caledonian Sleeper provides the most interesting train journey in Britain. It's the most civilised, romantic, time-effective and environmentally-friendly way from central London to the heart of Scotland. For the English, the sleeper is the ideal travel option for a stress-free weekend in the Highlands or business meeting in Scotland, avoiding a short-haul flight and its disproportionate contribution to global warming. Every night except Saturday night, Caledonian Sleeper trains leave central London for Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Aberdeen, Fort William, Perth, Dundee, Stirling, Gleneagles, Aviemore and many other places all over Scotland.


Class 90 Loco


Pair of Pendolinos at Euston

The train leaves London’s Euston station each evening (except Saturday) and impresses by its length alone normally comprising 16/17 carriages and a pair of Locomotives. The train contains within that length a Dining Car, Lounge Car, Couchette Car as well as First and Standard Class Sleeper cars. Each sleeping car has the same layout. They have 12 Sleeper compartments with a disabled accessible toilet at one end and a ladies and gents at the other end of the carriage. The compartment beside the disabled loo is also accessible. If you book a First Class compartment you have it to yourself and in Standard Class the upper berth is lowered so two share the same compartment. The compartments were refurbished last year and have a fresh feel with the walls on the berth side being lined in blue moquette and with a fold down table over the berth. At the foot there is a wide shelf under the window which has a blackout blind. On the berth side this provides a storage spot for your luggage and on the window side it folds up in front of the window to reveal a large sink and to the side a shaver socket. On the wall opposite the berth there are two sets of double hangers on a strap in two panels which have a moulded indentation with Velcro straps to hold your clothes in place.



If you are travelling First Class (We were!) one of these is an interconnecting door and if you have booked two adjoining cabins this can be opened. If this is done it hinges across the outside door to one compartment leaving one door to access from the train corridor but giving you an extremely roomy layout between two compartments which, as devotees of James Bond movies know, can be surprisingly convenient. One other point, the doors to the corridor are positioned so they are not at the corridor windows giving greater privacy if you open them when at a station. All in all, this is very comfortable accommodation. There are no showers on the train but if you are travelling First Class these are available free in the First Class Lounge’s at the major stations to First Class ticket holders.




First Class Lounge Euston

As you leave the sterility of Euston behind you realise this is not just a train – it is an elongated mobile village with a community of regulars and visitors who either know each other already or will soon introduce themselves in the convivial surroundings of the Lounge or Dining cars. The Caledonian Sleeper from London to Fort William, sometimes known as “The Deerstalker”, is easily the most amazing train ride in Britain. Imagine the convenience of a train that leaves rainy central London after work at 21:15 and arrives at Fort William in the glorious Scottish West Highlands at the foot of Ben Nevis (the highest mountain in Britain) at 09:54 next morning. Imagine a trip where you go to bed as the train speeds through familiar London suburbs at 80mph, then wake up in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains, streams and woods, sunlight streaming through the window, deer bounding away from the train, a diesel locomotive struggling to haul the two sleeping-cars and lounge car up the gradients and around the sharp curves of the scenic West Highland Line at 40mph. Imagine a train that has almost “cruise train” facilities - private sleeping compartments and a plush lounge - yet on which “Bargain berth” fares start at only £19 one way.


Standard Class Berths




Train Corridor with accesible compartment


Disabled friendly toilet

Regular fares start at £107 return sharing a 2-berth room or £199 return with a room to yourself (passengers travelling alone can opt to book a berth in a 2-berth room and share with another passenger of the same sex, if they don't want to pay the 1st class single berth fare). Anyone who lives in London or the South of England but who loves the Scottish West Highlands should know about this train. If you fancy a weekend away in the heart of the Highlands, this train makes it possible..! Book online at www.firstscotrail.com.




Sleeper Compartment

We travelled up to Scotland on a Thursday night and whatever else you can say about Euston Station it never fails to disappoint! With some time to kill after work I had arranged to rendezvous at the First Class coffee lounge as my travelling companion has impaired mobility (as do 10% of the UK’s population) but this lounge on the ground floor by the ticket office closes at 20.00 hrs. So we headed for the Virgin First Class Lounge but in defiance of the provisions of the Phase 3 of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), allegedly effective from 1st October 2006 this has no step free access or indeed any signs offering help or assistance to disabled people as indeed the lounge, the morose Britannia Bar and perversely, the Medi-Centre are up an awkward flight of stairs with 26 steps impassable to mobility impaired persons, particularly if they have luggage. If they struggle against the odds they are then presented with a heavy outward opening door as a final obstacle. Inside there is a relatively anodyne lounge with good service, loos and showers and complimentary beverages and a rudimentary “business area.” The staff have not had the disability awareness training required under the DDA and enquiries about access are met with the (untrue) assertion that the “whole station is being knocked down and rebuilt in four years time.” What do you say Richard Branson? Should the station owner, Network Rail, meet its legal and moral obligations under the DDA or should the unattractive premise of the Act “let the wobbly people sue us!” be put to the test?


Berth


Sink with shelf raised

Things improved as the train platform was announced (late as it turned out, you should be able to board a half hour before departure) and we went to platform 15 to board. A tip here, First or Standard Class, make sure you also make a reservation as this was a full train and passengers without berth or couchette reservations were being turned away. This is a very long train and the Fort William section is at the top and if you need assistance ask the helpful staff who will run you up to your carriage on an electric buggy. You need to check in with the attendant for your section and there is one just for the two First Class Sleepers in each of the three sections (Fort William, Aberdeen, and Inverness). Ours was the lovely Eileen who was getting married in Egypt the following Wednesday so congratulations, hope it went well! She shows you to your compartment(s), opens the connecting doors if you wish for adjoining compartments and takes your breakfast order and the time you want it served at in the morning. Additionally, First Class passengers can order meals in their compartments all of which have a call button for the attendant.


Interconnecting door with hangers


Slowly around the bend!

The lounge car, with the only real leather sofas on any scheduled British train. Pull up a chair & enjoy a light supper of 'haggis, tatties and neeps' (£4.50), a half bottle of red (£5.50) and a night cap of Glenfiddich whisky (£4) before retiring to your sleeper. We opted to have a bite in the Dining Car as we have heard reports of the atmosphere so the thought of the traditional Sleeper supper of Haggis, Tatties and Neaps and a nightcap of a wee dram beckoned us down the train. The first thing you notice in the Dining Car is the friendly ambience as people make room and move seats for you. We found ourselves in eclectic company with one of London’s leading Osteopaths who “comes down” each Monday night and “goes up” each Thursday to the small town in the Highlands where his wife and children lead the good life, a naval officer going home after a 9 month posting, a university lecturer and a business man, amongst others, all happy to mix in the club-like atmosphere of the Caledonian Sleeper. The Haggis (£4.50) etc; were not to materialise as the Dining Car ovens had gone down (!) but the friendly Lithuanian waitress fed us Salmon Pate and brown bread and some excellent Shiraz at £9.50 a bottle and somehow the absence of hot food didn’t seem to interfere with the good company and the flow of conversation helped by more wine and wee drams.








Lounge Car

As we wended our way to our sleepers some time later after much animated conversation and banter it is pertinent to mention another feature of the Caledonian Sleepers. It wends its way slowly through the night going through Crewe and Preston until this long snake like train comes to a halt at Haymarket just south of Edinburgh Waverley. Here it is broken apart with some terminating in Edinburgh and three sections going to Fort William (via Glasgow) Aberdeen and Inverness. Along the way to these three points each train stops at about 10 halts and towns so the chances of seeing your company from the night before are slim. This no doubt greatly contributes to the reckless nature of the jolly conversations the night before!


Haggis - The Chieftan of the Pudding Race!


Dining Car

So the really important question is how do you sleep on the sleeper? Well the answer is surprisingly well. The berths are comfortable and the compartments are roomy and private when you settle down for the night and whilst the centrifugal motion is noticeable at times as you go around bends the whole effect is soporohipic and soon you are in a deep sleep unconscious of the motion and the background click clack of the train. Indeed we slept though the break up south of Edinburgh so here’s to you Shiraz! As Omar Khayyam never said so much pleasure from a grape from the town of Shiraz in Persia! In the morning there is plenty of hot water and ScotRail give you a very natty toilet bag containing not just lotions and potions but also bed socks and a visor! The beds have fluffy white duvets, fresh clean sheets & plump pillows. On the bed are the complimentary ScotRail magazine, the room service drinks list (first class only) & complimentary toiletries pack (soap, flannel, razor, toothbrush & toothpaste). The sleeper compartments are compact but cosy, with hangars for your clothes. There are controls for the main light (dim/bright), blue night light, individual berth reading lights, an attendant call button & an air-conditioning temperature control.




Breakfast!

At 7.30 on the dot as ordered Eileen knocked on our compartment with Breakfast, the morning paper and a cheerful good morning. In Standard Class you get tea / coffee and a continental breakfast pack. In First you get a choice and for instance I had an orange juice, bacon roll, fresh fruit salad, yogurt and a pot of fresh coffee with biscuits. Next morning, there's a knock on your door as the steward brings your breakfast (included in the fare). You'll be asked when you board whether you'd like tea or coffee. The first class breakfast (shown here) includes a hot bacon or egg and cheese roll. First class passengers also get a morning newspaper. But the best was yet to come for next comes the magic. On opening your window blind you are entranced at the complete contrast with the surroundings of the night before. Before you passes the superb tableaux of the West Highland Line, wild angry mountains reflected in sparkling calm mirror lakes, shaggy horned Highland cattle staring at your train with total indifference, stops at small stations long ago turned into hostels for the walkers and nature lovers attracted to this pristine wilderness. Truly this is magic and you observe it with an increasing sense of awe as at each torturous corner of this dinky single track line negotiated slowly by your improbably heavy locomotive with its improbably small train of (now) four carriages your eyes and senses are assailed by the raw beauty of the highlands. This is why “The Deerstalker” sleeper train to Fort William is one of the Great Railway Journeys.


No caption required!

The West Highland Line (Scottish Gaelic: Rathad Iarainn nan Eilean - "Iron Road to the Isles") is one of the most scenic railway lines in Britain, linking the fishing port of Mallaig on the west coast to Glasgow. Passenger services on the line are operated by First ScotRail, primarily between Glasgow and Mallaig with the daily Caledonian Sleeper overnight service between Fort William and London Euston. The sleeper train terminates at Fort William, but the true glory of the West Highland Line is yet to come. The section between Fort William and Mallaig passes over a magnificent viaduct at Glenfinnan, through Arisaig with its fine views of the Small Isles of Rùm, Eigg, Muck and Canna, and the sparkling white sands of Morar before coming to Mallaig itself.


Highland Station

To complete the experience, you should take the connecting train from Fort William to the end of the line at Mallaig, a small fishing port and ferry terminal for Skye. This is one of the most scenic sections of line anywhere in the UK and features the famous curved Glenfinnan viaduct which is now immortalised to a whole generation of school children as the “Harry Potter viaduct” which carried the “Hogwarts Express”. Or you could climb Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Britain - the main track up "the Ben" starts just 15 minutes walk from Fort William station. But this Friday morning as we pulled into Fort William we did so with an increasing sense of anticipation for on the platform opposite was our next transport, the hissing, steaming “Jacobite Express” the steam locomotive-hauled train which operates over this section in summer and which in less than a half an hour would take us on our next adventure the 41 miles to Mallaig.


Fort William, end of the line for the sleeper

Onwards on the West Higland line to Mallaig and the isle of Skye!

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/07/jacobite-express.html

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