Preston Stations new entrance on short list of the award no one wants

[LeylandLen]

This has been featured on local news in Lancashire www.bdonline.co.uk/carbuncle-cup/ca...butler-street-entrance-by-ahr/5088599.article

...The residents of Preston clearly preferred the former entrance variously describing the new building as an “eyesore”, “hideous”, “a joke” and “planning gone mad”.

Nominator Steve Webberley described it as a “deadening cake tin slapped on its side”. He said: “This fractured geometric lean-to would seem out of date 10 years ago. It isn’t even that well-planned inside....

I see that a building in Victoria, Nova Victoria, a mixed use scheme in London has won the 2017 Carbuncle Cup

 

[AlterEgo]

Wow, that is essentially vandalism of a wonderful Victorian structure. First time I've seen it. Just awful.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It is a bit of a monstrosity and not well-sited either. Preston station could do with a proper revamp, though - the de-facto main entrance is and remains the footbridge to the Fishergate Centre which is barely adequate and prevents the installation of barriers. A new modern footbridge with escalators and lifts somewhere in the middle and a replacement for that bridge (again accessible) would allow a separated "railside" and "landside" as well as improving access from all directions, far better than what has been built.

 

[Bertie the bus]

Seems appropriate really. List a structure nobody needs or wanted which serves no useful purpose for an award nobody wants.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Preston is my local station when in the UK. I started as an enthusiast in early 1970. I remember the electrification of the line. This is sad.

 

[Bertie the bus]

It is a bit of a monstrosity and not well-sited either. Preston station could do with a proper revamp, though - the de-facto main entrance is and remains the footbridge to the Fishergate Centre which is barely adequate and prevents the installation of barriers. A new modern footbridge with escalators and lifts somewhere in the middle and a replacement for that bridge (again accessible) would allow a separated "railside" and "landside" as well as improving access from all directions, far better than what has been built.

All of which would serve no useful purpose. Preston doesn't need a gateline. What does separating 'landside' and 'railside' even mean and who would it benefit?

All that needs doing is to increase the width of the bridge spanning P4-P7. That's it.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Preston doesn't need a gateline.

Quite another debate. It's a major station that used to be manned-barriered. I would argue that it indeed does need one. And because it has a high amount of interchange, it makes sense for it to be laid out so the platforms are entirely within it, so individual platform barriers don't make sense.

 

[Bertie the bus]

It has been an open station for about 30 years. The world didn't come crashing down when they demolished the ticket checker's huts. There is absolutely no need for a gateline. They quite happily do revenue checks when they want to.

 

[notlob.divad]

Do I assume this:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.7555593,-2.7062904,3a,75y,265.67h,88.63t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1spT_B1tON0DQORoESPXhFaw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Is what has been replaced. Sorry I don't really know the outside of Preston station, it is usually just acts as an interchange for me, so I only know the inside.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Do I assume this:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.7555593,-2.7062904,3a,75y,265.67h,88.63t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1spT_B1tON0DQORoESPXhFaw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Is what has been replaced. Sorry I don't really know the outside of Preston station, it is usually just acts as an interchange for me, so I only know the inside.

Yes, it is.

 

[furnessvale]

I wondered what happened to the crazy house at Southport fun fair when it closed!

 

[TwistedMentat]

Looks perfectly fine to me. *shrugs*

 

[PR1Berske]

I am from Preston. The 'shack' hasn't got many defenders if comment sections are any guide. It looks pretty bad inside too, the 'seam' between it and the subway is clumsily realised.

 

[yorksrob]

It doesn't look that bad to me - a bit zany for its setting but by no means worthy of an international "award".

That said, the structure it replaced looked much more in keeping with the trainshed. One wonders what possessed them to replace it.

 

[faltskog36abba]

I am from Preston. The 'shack' hasn't got many defenders if comment sections are any guide. It looks pretty bad inside too, the 'seam' between it and the subway is clumsily realised.

Its Hideous.

 

[kylemore]

Utter garbage!

Preston is a superb station and deserves better than this.

 

[47271]

Oh hell

I change at Preston a lot but haven't stepped outside in two or three years, so don't really remember what it was like before, but this is grim.

Just so I'm clear, is this architecturally illiterate bog up definitely Virgin's and not Network Rail's?

NR's standard glass box designs are generally so bland that they go with anything (eg Haymarket) and, to be fair, when they push the boat out at the likes of King's Cross then they tend to get it right.

 

[PHILIPE]

Another Newport type job ?

 

[Mikey C]

An appalling structure, whoever is responsible for it...

 

[Shenandoah]

Hideous is the kindest I can say. I commented elsewhere and likened it to looking like a train wreck.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Utter garbage!

Preston is a superb station and deserves better than this.

Preston I'd put in with Bristol Temple Meads in some ways - a pleasant trainshed (though Bristol wins on impressiveness) but with no proper concourse and surprisingly poor passenger facilities. The Fishergate Centre I suppose provides these to some extent but not in the evenings.

Crewe has similar disadvantages, which is amazing for such a big station.

 

[Chrism20]

It's not the prettiest thing that's ever been bolted to the side of a building BUT it does look marginally (I'm stressing marginally here) better in real life

 

[mmh]

Quite another debate. It's a major station that used to be manned-barriered. I would argue that it indeed does need one.

Why? You said you'd argue that it needs one then gave no argument for it!

 

[mmh]

Preston I'd put in with Bristol Temple Meads in some ways - a pleasant trainshed (though Bristol wins on impressiveness) but with no proper concourse and surprisingly poor passenger facilities. The Fishergate Centre I suppose provides these to some extent but not in the evenings.

Crewe has similar disadvantages, which is amazing for such a big station.

I'll give you Temple Meads has a confusing layout with its platform numbering, and the underpass isn't how you'd build a station now, but it's really unfair to say it's got poor passenger facilities. It's got direct services to a remarkable spread of the country. I think that's what most passengers at stations want, not a Marks & Spencer or All Bar One.

Crewe's a big station because it was a major interchange, it would never have had many journeys starting or ending there in the scheme of things.

(I was surprised when Crewe got barriered, and it seems almost pointless that it is, the staff are so used to people coming in and out with "I'm just going out/in for a cigarette" you just get waved through with any ticket coloured bit of cardboard". I think they think it's stupid themselves)

 

[Bletchleyite]

I'll give you Temple Meads has a confusing layout with its platform numbering, and the underpass isn't how you'd build a station now, but it's really unfair to say it's got poor passenger facilities. It's got direct services to a remarkable spread of the country. I think that's what most passengers at stations want, not a Marks & Spencer or All Bar One.

I think they want both, personally, and at say the new New St they do.

 

[yorksrob]

I'll give you Temple Meads has a confusing layout with its platform numbering, and the underpass isn't how you'd build a station now, but it's really unfair to say it's got poor passenger facilities. It's got direct services to a remarkable spread of the country. I think that's what most passengers at stations want, not a Marks & Spencer or All Bar One.
)

Although to be fair, the last time I was there, you could actually get a decent beer at Bristol Temple Meads.

 

[Mikey C]

In terms of a major station, a newsagent, a supermarket (whether M&S or another one) and a decent station pub are all high up my list of desirable aspects, depending on how near the station is from the centre of town.

 

[47271]

I think that it's the element of surprise around there being no M&S at Temple Meads - I don't use the station that much, so it caught me out a while ago.

However, the only real suffering I experienced was that I had to use a GWR buffet car as a result.

I was more distressed when I saw a picture of that entrance to Preston station.

 

[Wombat]

Good grief. I can only imagine that it looked a great deal better in the architect's mock-ups, and/or that the people who approved it were pharmaceutically compromised at the time.

 

[jonesy3001]

is that over the road from the shopping centre or further down near the car park?