Which stations can we be proud of?

I have always said what a wonderful building it is, but the signage is pretty poor (they have improved it slightly over time, to be fair). The departure boards in the circle are oddly laid out (as if everyone from around the world arriving there knows about there being different TOCs) and two separate ticket offices for UK RAIL is also silly - even if we know why that is.

I actually think that King's Cross will be better for shopping (for one thing, they won't be trying to ensure they only have 'premium' shops for the most part) and a lot of people going to/from St Pancras will cross over - just as so many people must do with St Pancras now (I certainly go over there loads of times).

Huddersfield!

Elegant, imposing, generally well-maintained building that looks like a railway station ought to look (both from the street and the platforms), with a pub accessible from the platform that sells real ale and Belgian beer. What's not to love? (Well the lack of direct services to anywhere beyond the immediately neighbouring regions, I suppose)

W-on-Sea said:

Huddersfield!

Elegant, imposing, generally well-maintained building that looks like a railway station ought to look (both from the street and the platforms), with a pub accessible from the platform that sells real ale and Belgian beer. What's not to love? (Well the lack of direct services to anywhere beyond the immediately neighbouring regions, I suppose)

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Two pubs. But you are right it is very elegant and pretty well connected with overnight trains to Manchester airport.

AlterEgo said:

Agreed - as does Chester (shame about the decay once you get inside the station though!).

I find Darlington to be quite pleasant inside. It's just a shame East Coast have barriered it.

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Agreed! It has been damaged badly by the barriers. The circulating area outside the ticket office is very samll and can get badly congested.

The exoterior os quite nice in a plain simple sort of way and the clock tower si a ncie touch and is visable for miles around!

One you might not think of - Stoke-on-Trent.
A bit like a smaller version of Carlisle.

When I lived in the area around 1970 it was a grimy dump.
Over the years it has been gradually improved and is now a fine station.

All the architectural detail now shows up after cleaning and painting, and the reglazed ridged roof is a great structure letting in a lot of light.
There is impressive tiling in the subway which shows off the history of the area. There are clean toilets on BOTH platforms, and it all looks very neat and pleasant.

The newly-accessible western frontage (now a car park), previously invisible to the public, is a great addition, even though it has not (yet?) been fully restored.
I'm no architect, but the stone columns at the western entrance could be mistaken for those of Euston's missing Doric arch.

Somebody has carefully thought about bringing the best out of this building, unlike at, say, Chester, which has had hideous ATW-green pods added to "modernise" the passenger areas.

Stoke 1 - Chester 0.

Borth. You can see Aberystwyth-bound trains coming from at least 5 minutes away and miles of Welsh hills. There's even a zoo. I think a rail museum is opening there shortly.

Glossop is one of the nicest stations; the Friends of Glossop station have opened up the waiting rooms for the first time in decades, complete with pictures of the station & trains over the years. Plus it has an ornamental lion on the roof!

Shoot me down for this if you want to and it's not just a local pride thing but I'm going to say Milton Keynes Central. It's a great example of providing for future demand increases - oversised (in 1982) entrance hall, space for the (now built) platform 6, space for a second multi-storey. It's built to the typical Milton Keynes philosophy of anticipating future growth and leaving space for it. It also overlooks one of the largest urban public squares in the country and forms part of that space with the two office buildings on either side.

And it was in Superman!

I adore St Pancras. The original architecture has been restored and is a national treasure. I seem to be the only one who thinks the contrasting between the original train shed and the extension works (if a little bit dark).
My grandad used to work in the stores underneath the platform deck back in the day. And when I showed him a photo he couldn't believe the transformation.

Stations we can be proud of...

Gold stars go to...

St Pancras - Gateway to Britain (well London at least)
Newcastle - The best station on the ECML
Crianlarich - The most spectacular junction in Britain?
Glasgow Central - Meets historic and modern very well
Stirling - A proper old school station in the modern day

Silver stars go to...

Moor Street - It's special, but its still in Birmingham
York - For historic reasons - but you seem to rattle about in it.
Manchester Piccadilly - A nice place to be since the Commenwealth Games
Corrour - A purely magical place
Brighton - Often forgotten.

Bronze goes to...

Darlington - Grand and domineering. But let down by the TOCs
Carlisle - A happy place to be.
Leeds - I like the remodelled station
Wemyss Bay - If only it was in its glory days
Baker Street - Historic. Emotive. A first.

Waiting in the wings...

A finished Kings Cross

AlterEgo said:

Agreed - as does Chester (shame about the decay once you get inside the station though!).

I find Darlington to be quite pleasant inside. It's just a shame East Coast have barriered it.

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You've obviously not been to chester recently?

one that I've always been impressed by is Helsby. Nice signal box, proper signals, always looks well maintained etc.

I'd vote for Crianlarich too.
Carlisle struck me as being quite nice but I've only been there twice.
York is lovely (well it was in GNER days), as is Oxenholme Lake district.

MK Tom said:

Shoot me down for this if you want to and it's not just a local pride thing but I'm going to say Milton Keynes Central.

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I think you argued a very good case there. It's not just down to amazing architecture, and you've pointed out very important aspects - given future growth is often forgotten (or ignored) by people with very short term thinking.

dickdarlington said:

Silver stars go to...

Moor Street - It's special, but its still in Birmingham

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Less of it!

One great thing about Moor Street is that the people who work there seem to be very proud of the fact. This week the florist who has a stall by the ticket barrier (at least I assume it was him) has placed carved Halloween pumpkins on all of the tables in front of the two cafes and the coffee bar. It looks really good.

Cherry_Picker said:

Less of it!

One great thing about Moor Street is that the people who work there seem to be very proud of the fact. This week the florist who has a stall by the ticket barrier (at least I assume it was him) has placed carved Halloween pumpkins on all of the tables in front of the two cafes and the coffee bar. It looks really good.

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Chortle.

I was really pleasantly surprised by Moor Street. I've only been there once, and it was before I found this forum so I had no idea about it. I thought my train had got lost and dropped me off at somewhere Keighleyesque.

The station itself commands respect and if I was working there I'd have pride and contentness in my work too. This is the problem with the likes of Darlington and York. Spectacular structures which have been maintained...just. If a bit of time and money was spent on retuning them to their former glories, and not keeping up with the corporate identity of whoever is running the railway this week, then they'd be the envy of network. Looking at Darlington in particular, its had work done on it. But it still looks shabby, especially from the outside. It still has the 1970s ticket office/shops etc. Its broken up by the horrible gates. And the costa just gets in the way given its location. Some thought would have made the world of difference. York is the same.

On a side. I'd like to add a station we really should be proud of. But has sadly been largely forgotten: Tynemouth. It is a special place. Currently being restored (but with express style supermarket covering the bay platforms) it really is a quaint decent sized victorian structure. Again with the right lick of paint it could become very similar to Moor Street (where DB will oblige is a different matter). Shame that the bay plaforms will be lost. they had been in a state of decay for years though.

As we all see stations differently, I suppose it depends what you like about stations, what they offer, how they look and for me the feel about them

I like traditional stations

Sheffield
Preston
Nottingham
Edinburgh Waverley

Agree Preston's quietly efficient at what it does - particularly like the fact that all the announcements are done by real people, sometimes I feel I've stepped into a Wallace & Gromit film.

The whole thing's let down for me though by platforms 1 and 2 - mainly used for the Fylde branch, 1 in particular feels bleak and neglected.

St Pancras is quite superb, and manchester Piccadilly is very good, too. Someone mentioned Stockport - you have to be joking! A deadful place to have to wait for a connection; old buildings (except platform 0, where they are new but just completely lack any charm). And the waiting rooms on the main platforms smell of wee. It's a dump (as is Stockport itself). Ugh!

I really do like Picadilly. Obviously it's not the most modern building from looking at the exterior but they've really done well with the interior to make it look like a modern welcoming place. I always feel safe there late evenings as everything is well lit etc. Same can't be said for Victoria.

I forgot Lincoln, nice quaint station but does the job well

As soon as you enter Stockport, you feel the cloud of doom over you, its just not nice.

There again its not the worst try Burton upon Trent station and Tamworth

This is a cracking thead

The two stations that blew me away the first time I saw them (after refurbishment that is) are:

Manchester Piccadilly - Love the glass footage to the platforms with the gaint platform white platform numbers.

And it does the opposite of what St Pancras does (even though I do like both ways of doing it) in that there are shops and restaurants on a level above the main concourse. I like to sit up there and look down on all the hustle and bussle.

St Pancras - Everything from the outside brickwork, gaint statue, oylimpic rings to the glass footage around the eurostar platforms. Which unlike Waterloo when it had the eurostar it shows you what the station is all about, it doesn't hide them away.
Plus how cool is it to go upto platform level. I took a photo the first time I was there, I was standing on the stairs, halfway down so the shot has some shops with a eurostar on top! - Cool

Other stations which I like:

Carlisle - Many an hour spent there, even though like most places these days it's not at its peak (train wise) it is still a beautiful station. The train portraits and nameplates that line the wall really add to feel of the place. Would have loved to have seen Citadel in all its pomp.

Preston - My home town station. I can only imagine what it used to look like, or greater till - felt like, when it was at it's largest. Before the fishergate arrived. Pretty much two stations in one.
The entrance its lovely and the gaint red rose is a favourite of mine. Says i'm home
Anyone know how long its been there??? - I can always remember it so if i'm right about that then its been there at least since the late 80's.
The subway needs some attention. Its just bare brick painted white. There's quite alot of dust and dirt down there. Some lovely bright tiles over the brickwork would set it off a treat.

Most ECML stations - York, Newcastle etc are pretty

Alot of stations for me are nice to look at, but ruined by becoming backwaters. Perth is a classic example.

Leeds hasn't been mentioned so far. Ok its not the best looker, from the outside but inside its modern and what the backwater's lose in lack of trains, Leeds more then makes up for. Always something to see.

Bristol Temple Meads - I agree with previous posters, its not much from the inside but WOW - that fascade!
I didn't really know about it till I was there. I turned around on leaving the station and was blown away!
This truly is a under photographed object - More people outside of Bristol should know about it.

Liskeard - Cannot believe this station hasn't been mentioned. I was there this summer. Had quite some time in total between waiting for the next train to Looe and for my train back to Plymouth. The warm summer's evening helped of course. The air was still and there was no noise. The station is very pretty and what won it for me was the semaphore signalling. I could see the signal wires along the platforms edge and for once they were in working order (and on a mainline to top it all!)
Sat there, watching the signalman at work in his box, listening to wires go back and forth - Bliss

newbie babs said:

I forgot Lincoln, nice quaint station but does the job well

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Despite it being my home station, I'm not sure I agree.

It's a nice building, but there is so much wrong. Insufficient ticket selling facilities, poorly thought out barriers and pigeon infested. It also has very strange orange lighting, that I've not seen at other stations of that size - makes it an odd place to wait at night.

trentside I look beyond tickets, barriers and pigeons and look at the architectural design, materials they have used and position of station in relation to the city.