TRIVIA - Grotty stations in nice towns

[Capybara]

I'm old enough to remember Harrogate as it was. Sadly, modernisation came as it lost almost all of its mainline services in the mid-60s. Perhaps if it had hung on for a few more years it might have been more sympathetically treated in years to come. As it was it lost its bay platforms in turn to be replaced by car parks. The multi-storey one is horrible. Finally the old footbridge went. More positively it has been spruced up recently and the pub adds a bit of life. As for the 'bus station, it was a perfectly adequate and lively 'bus station with local and long-distance services - I worked there during the holidays in the mid-70s - until it was decided that Harrogate no longer needed a 'bus station. Then for years, decades, hardly a week passed without an article or letter in the local paper about what was to be done with the 'bus station site. Then someone had a bright idea. How about building a 'bus station?

 

[Mikey C]

Slightly off topic but relevant to the thread, New York's Penn station must be the ultimate grotty station in a nice town...

 

[Cherry_Picker]

Walsall has to be on this list. Awful place

The station isn't particularly attractive either.

Slightly off topic but relevant to the thread, New York's Penn station must be the ultimate grotty station in a nice town...

Taking the tangent further, there's a decent article and podcast here about how crap Penn station is. I guess Birmingham Snow Hill suffered a similar fate.

 

[urbophile]

Did you see this speech on beauty in transport?
Seems they are going to put the Euston Arch back.
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-journey-to-beauty

A better idea than putting grammar schools back.

 

[Clansman]

Perth and Dundee almost certainly meet the criteria for this. No explanation needed.

 

[WestRiding]

Llandudno, Beverley. Both tatty and sparse for the nice towns they are in.

 

[greaterwest]

Portsmouth Harbour, Southampton Central, Chichester and Guildford are filthy, though arguably Portsmouth and Southampton aren't "nice" places per-se!

 

[Spankthemonkey]

Hampton court - really out of place in a lovely part of the South East.

 

[Harbornite]

Shrewsbury Station's a bit down-at-heel, it's large but was rather unkempt in places.

 

[DarloRich]

Yes Chester is a mess. Confusing layout and grotty footbridge. (Pity anyone commuting between Hooton and Chester : bridges at both ends with lifts that may or may not work.)

The frontage is quite nice, although I agree internally it is a funny layout.

Every town has areas that look nice and look bad, such as parks and back alleys.
So nice town as far as I care includes every town, so I'll list stations that look alot worse than they should for the town it serves.

Great Yarmouth,

I think the station and the town of Grot Yarmouth reflect each other perfectly! The town is a dump and the station looks like a public toilet.

 

[bavvo]

Henley on Thames. A Sad truncated stump of a platform with a short canopy and an identikit tacked on ticket office that replaced a once grand terminus. Thanks so much BR/Town Planners.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

At the risk of going out of scope, I visited Geneva Eaux Vives a few years ago, which is an SNCF station located in Switzerland. It was hard to imagine a more depressing, decrepit and derelict major station in a major city. However Eaux Vives is now closed while the cross-city link line is being built and will be replaced by a new station in a tunnel.

 

[Scouseinmanc]

Carmarthen, Southport (horrid concourse & frontage), Liverpool Central...

 

[urbophile]

I agree about Southport. Though the train shed and platforms are rather impressive. Liverpool Central is an odd one: the recent refurb has left it clean, tidy and generally welcoming, but the Northern line platforms are hopelessly inadequate for the passenger numbers. The escalators are in the wrong place (the northernmost one is ignored by most passengers because only 6-car trains stop at that end of the platform) and there is a dire lack of seating.

 

[Scouseinmanc]

I agree about Southport. Though the train shed and platforms are rather impressive. Liverpool Central is an odd one: the recent refurb has left it clean, tidy and generally welcoming, but the Northern line platforms are hopelessly inadequate for the passenger numbers. The escalators are in the wrong place (the northernmost one is ignored by most passengers because only 6-car trains stop at that end of the platform) and there is a dire lack of seating.

I believe the long term plan to deal with Liverpool Central's Northern Line capacity problem, is to either widen the tunnel & add an additional platform (P3), or to relocate & enlarge the station in its entirety, to somewhere under Church Street (the main shopping street).

As to how true this is & / or when it will happen is unknown. Given that Merseyrail / Travel's aspirations appear to remain exactly that & as long as they can get away with the 'sticking plaster' approach, I can't see anything happening for a very long time.

Maybe demolishing the high level station in the 70's wasn't such a good idea after all...

 

[TheDavibob]

Lichfield TV - feels like it is in an industrial estate (Tamworth isn't much better, and Rugeley is just a bus stop).

To be fair, Lichfield Trent Valley *is* in the middle of an industrial estate (and a rather poor station, especially given how well-used it is these days).

City station somehow manages to be situated in comfortably the worst looking party of the city centre, though the station itself is fine. Neither make Lichfield look particularly nice.

 

[70014IronDuke]

Every town has areas that look nice and look bad, such as parks and back alleys.
So nice town as far as I care includes every town, so I'll list stations that look alot worse than they should for the town it serves.

Great Yarmouth, Blackpool North, Grimsby Docks, Colne, Cleethorpes, Gainsbough (both stations), .....

Gainsborough Central was at the back end of a massive, semi-knocked down industrial plant when I was there (was it Aveling Porter?) I dare say the town has some nice parts, but if anything, the station put the surrounding area to shame!

 

[GodAtum]

Definitely.

Guildford too.

I agree with Guildford and also Woking. Too small waiting rooms on the platforms for the number of passengers that use the station.

 

[HowardGWR]

Henley on Thames. A Sad truncated stump of a platform with a short canopy and an identikit tacked on ticket office that replaced a once grand terminus. Thanks so much BR/Town Planners.

That very good point has reminded me - Looe, also a nasty truncation. We could have a whole thread about 'officially vandalised station locations'. Windermere would be a candidate too.

 

[Crossover]

Mirfield is generally a fairly upmarket (for the area) market town, but the station is rather spartan and a bit grim. On the other hand, down the road Dewsbury has a lovely station it scarcely deserves!

You are quite right about Mirfield station.

I disagree about Dewsbury. Dewsbury Town Centre is full of fantastic buildings, many now restored to a high standard, so the station is hardly out of place. It has a very good pub, but beyond that Dewsbury station is hardly remarkable. I actually think the taxi shed/canopy outside is a little ugly, and that's the main thing you see when you approach.

Dewsbury does have some lovely buildings, but most of them are occupied by pound shops and bookmakers. The station, including the pub and the unusual but attractive (IMHO) canopy, is grade II* listed.

I largely agree with 61653 HTAFC about this. I have always said Dewsbury is a rather attractive station and I certainly know I could be using worse, having seen the state of other railway stations around the country. Unfortunately Dewsbury has gone downhill over the last few years as a town. The likes of the hideous Empire House don't help architecturally either!

Mirfield is a lovely town with lots of independant shops. Unfortunately the station is bleak to say the least!

The refurbished part of Manchester Victoria is very nice, but I think the other part of the station is still poor. I also think Blackpool North gives a poor first impression of that part of Blackpool as well.

There isn't anything good about Blackpool North station, nor really South either. That said, from a personal viewpoint, I can't say Blackpool is a nice town either!

Llandudno, Beverley. Both tatty and sparse for the nice towns they are in.

I thought Llandudno was quite nice on visiting for the first time a few months ago - the recentish refurbishment looked quite attractive. I also didn't think Beverley station was all that bad either to be honest

Carmarthen, Southport (horrid concourse & frontage), Liverpool Central...

Only been to Southport once, and I felt it was one of the least inviting termini I have ever visited - I'm sure it was a grand station but it has certainly lost any of that charm now!

 

[70014IronDuke]

..........

Mirfield is a lovely town with lots of independant shops. Unfortunately the station is bleak to say the least!

......

When I was last in Mirfield, i guess the shed was full of WDs and other assorted, generally unkempt steam, and I can't really remember a clear thing about it at all.

But coincidentally, last week I was at a talk by a man of the cloth (an American, no less) who somehow mentioned he'd been in Mirfield for some sort of Anglican spiritual training course. He couldn't praise the place enough - you'd think it was Holy Island/Whitby Abbey/Canterbury Cathedral/<insert your favourite spiritual place here> all rolled into one.

And all I could think of was clanking WDs

 

[backontrack]

Thurso would be one for sure.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Only been to Southport once, and I felt it was one of the least inviting termini I have ever visited - I'm sure it was a grand station but it has certainly lost any of that charm now!

Yeah, it is and long was rather grotty. In the late 1990s it even separated Merseyrail and NWRR into separate parts of the station - to get to the Manchester train you had to go out and through the car park. Allegedly this was because NWRR at the time believed in open stations so would not pay towards ticket inspection, whereas only briefly was Merseyrail ever a fully-open system.

It needs a New St treatment of the grotty shopping centre.

 

[Blamethrower]

I'll agree with St Albans

Cas Vegas probably the most grotty I've ever seen, but it matches the town

 

[Bletchleyite]

I'll agree with St Albans

All of the Thameslink suburban stations are pretty nasty-looking. London Midland seems to have done a good job, compared with First and then GTR, of making some broadly similar stations look much more inviting.

 

[DeeGee]

Every town has areas that look nice and look bad, such as parks and back alleys.
So nice town as far as I care includes every town, so I'll list stations that look alot worse than they should for the town it serves.

Great Yarmouth, Blackpool North, Grimsby Docks, Colne, Cleethorpes, Gainsbough (both stations), Brigg, Redcar Central, Bridlington, Chesterfield, Dore, Retford (both levels), etc.
These are either insufficient, ugly or badly maintained.

Cleethorpes is a real disappointment, as once you get off the train it pukes you into an alleyway between a nightclub and a rubbish arcade. Still, you can have a nice view of the sea while waiting for the train to leave at the end of the day. Could be much better.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

When I was last in Mirfield, i guess the shed was full of WDs and other assorted, generally unkempt steam, and I can't really remember a clear thing about it at all.

But coincidentally, last week I was at a talk by a man of the cloth (an American, no less) who somehow mentioned he'd been in Mirfield for some sort of Anglican spiritual training course. He couldn't praise the place enough - you'd think it was Holy Island/Whitby Abbey/Canterbury Cathedral/<insert your favourite spiritual place here> all rolled into one.

And all I could think of was clanking WDs

Apologies for the off-topic, but the surprising part of your story is that there are Anglican training events going on in Mirfield - the town is more (in-)famous in religious circles for the imposing Roman Catholic Seminary above the town.

 

[janahan]

Richmond in South West London is particularly horrid in a nice bit of town. The Underground/Overground areas are not too bad, but the NR platforms and the over bridges reaching them are a hopeless mishmash of different ages, and plenty of exposed concrete, and dirty areas. The main entrance is not very clean either.

It does have one bright stand out feature, however. The "adverts" on the stairway heading to platform 1 (Trains to Windsor/Reading) are actually real BR adverts from the 70s and 80s.

 

[yorksrob]

That very good point has reminded me - Looe, also a nasty truncation. We could have a whole thread about 'officially vandalised station locations'. Windermere would be a candidate too.

The current location of Looe is still quite picturesque fortunately (and the pub over the road makes a decent waiting room).

 

[davetheguard]

I agree with Guildford and also Woking. Too small waiting rooms on the platforms for the number of passengers that use the station.

But at least Guildford is better than that semi derelict, decaying pile that was there before the station was rebuilt in the 80's.

I remember there being a dead pigeon resting on top of a platform clock hanging from the canopy supports which were still painted the colour of the old Southern Railway. The pigeon was there for months, if not years.