I for one am very glad St. Pancras was not demolished. While I doubt I will ever be able to afford a stay in the hotel, you can’t deny it’s absolutely magnificent to behold
I was a Derby railway guard for many years, and worked almost daily to St. Pancras. I would occasionally pay in monies to the booking office there which is now a bar. On one memorable day the duty station manager came into the mess-room and asked if anybody wanted to join him on his 'safety-walk' across the arched roof, on the outside. I duly joined him and we proceeded to the end of the old platform 7 before ascending a very decrepit circular staircase. At the top of the staircase we went through a rather narrow, old wooden door and onto the duckboards that were the 'path'. The views were stunning, overlooking the numerous chimney pots between St. Pancras and 'The Cross', and north towards Kentish Town. We crossed the roof, checking all was good, then made our way back. Sadly it was one of the few occasions I did not have a camera with me, such is life. My journey back to Derby was behind a class 47, sitting in the brake van after I had checked tickets, with the guards inward door wedged open so I could listen to the majestic rhythm of the 47's engine working up Sharnbrook. Happy memories of fabulous days.
I'm sure that when the station is rebuilt, the propylaeum will be depicted in tiles as a sort of "tribute." What there should be is a mosaic showing Ernest Marples stuffing a suitcase full of fivers.
Just imagine all the famous stations like St Pancras, Paddington etc in a hellish box like Euston. Reasonable or not, the quick fix constructions of the. 60s really left scars across the UK aesthetically, visually still scars from the war scars they fixed.
They're making the same mistake again by doing it half assed. It needs a full on rebuild to meet the needs of the next 50+ years. It's already been over capacity for decades.
You have used to worst 2 stations as examples there. While Paddington & St Pancras may be pretty buildings, they are dreadful for passengers. Both are several smaller stations in 1 with a long walk between each. You cannot hear any announcements in them either because the large roofs create too much reverb. Paddington is also a draughty, cold place. It was also smoky until they electrified most of the GW too.
@@TheRip72 I think St Pancras is a pretty good station since its refurb. I use it a lot to change between all the different lines (Kent lines, Midland, Thameslink and International) and sometimes the underground as well. It can be a long way if you're going down into the underground, but otherwise bearing in mind it serves five different groups of lines, I don't see how you could design anything much better. The quality of the ambience is good, especially on the upper level, and you have lots of choice of places to eat including some with really warm and welcoming interiors like the Betjeman Arms and the Booking Office bar, both good for an informal business meeting in London. The Champagne bar is a cold, draughty rip-off but hey, you can't have everything! It seems to be able to absorb large numbers of people waiting for trains very much better than KX or Euston, without getting overcrowded, probably because there are effectively different areas to wait in front of the departure boards for each of the groups of lines. The only time I've know it seriously overcrowded is if there is a major problem with International. If all stations were as good as St Pancras, then we'd all be happier, I think it is an exemplary study in how to update and upgrade whilst exploiting the best aspects of heritage. My only real beef architecturally, is that it's such a shame that the extensions to the train shed roof were not done in an arched style to echo Barlow's original, even in modern materials - that would have made it perfection. At the time the new (flat) train shed roofs were built, The Butterley Company who made the Barlow original were still in business, and still making large metal structures (bridges, link spans etc)! Wouldn't that have been a lovely celebration of 150 years of British engineering?
I'm not sure I see Euston Station as a Temple or sanctuary. Each to his own of course , but I would have thought "Portico" more apt, considering where you end up. Also, I think the gentle slopes down to the platforms are better described as hazardous, thoughtless and tiresome inclined planes, designed to impede the safe and happy transit of luggage, the disabled or injured and the elderly in a manner most off putting to rail travel itself, whilst also ironically giving an example of the perils of road transport at the hand of runaway prams, trollies and bicycles. I wonder if Marples was a KGB agent. He was caught with his skirt pulled up in Lord Denning's Profumo enquiry, although his paid "assistant" failed to become as famous as Christine Keeler. I "think" of him every time a go near the Hammersmith or Chiswick flyovers.
Whato Jago, You are, of course, correct in mentioning Ernest Marples' involvement in the Beeching Plan. I am the former Chief Archivist to the British Railways Board and dealt with the closure files of the London Midland Region, transferring them to the National Archive. What is interesting is the Transport Minister actually authorising the closure of many of the lines was not Mr Marples but the majority of the files contain the signature of another poor Minister of Transport: Barbara Castle. And that was after the Labour party had promised to stop the Beeching Plan.
@@sheelaghbradley942 Post Beeching closures *Tories* 1963....324 miles (521 km) closed 1964....1058 miles (1703 km) closed *Total: 1382* *Labour:* 1965....600 miles (965 km) closed 1966....750 miles (1 205 km) closed 1967....300 miles (480 km) closed 1968....400 miles (640 km) closed 1969....250 miles (400 km) closed *Total: 2,300* *Tories* 1970....275 miles (440 km) closed 1971....23 miles (37 km) closed 1972....50 miles (80 km) closed 1973....35 miles (56 km) closed *Total: 382* *Totals* Tories: *1,765* Labour: *2,300* Labour allowed many rural lines to close as car ownership was accelerating in those areas because of run down services and ramshackle trains by the Tories, with eventually services having few passengers. The damage was already done with new roads and by-passes being built. Companies set up where the roads where not the rail lines. Also many line closures were too far in advance they were difficult to reverse. The march of the personal car setup by the Tories was unstoppable. Also aided by new towns in the 1950s designed around roads.
I worked for Travellers Fare at Euston for 6 months in the late 1970’s, as a placement on my HND Hotel Management course. The Superloo had showers which passengers could use, the charge including towels etc. At this time there were still a considerable number of Night trains, unlike today, offering Sleeping Car accommodation, so the Superloo provided those passengers with a means to Shower on arrival in London off the Sleepers. It was adjacent to The Grill Room so they could once a blurted get Breakfast. On the concourse level there was an Off License. A couple of Buffets/ self service Cafeterias. Of all the stations rebuilt in the 1960’s on the West Coast Mainline Euston was the best of them. Far superior to the rebuilt Birmingham New Street which was a dingy hole ( I see that while The Concourse at New Street has been rebuilt, they have done nothing to make the Platforms more attractive or pleasant, it’s still very much a dark dreary wind tunnel. The Plans for the pre war rebuild were quite interesting. They had already started to quarry the stone for it before it was cancelled.
I also appreciated the showers at the Euston superloo on my way home after visiting my parents who didn't have one. Ah well, at least the toilets are now free.
As someone who remembers Euston being knocked down and replaced with a concrete box, it occurs to me, with something of a shudder, that, if you live long enough, what was knocked down and rebuilt in your youth, is likely going to be knocked down and rebuilt again in your dotage...
I did some casual labour in East India Dock many years ago. That was knocked down and a huge building put up to print the Financial Times. I worked for the company that tiled the floor of the print room. Later, that was knocked down, and hotels built on the site. I worked for a company that serviced the reception machines in one of the hotels. So I ended up working in virtually the same place, for three different companies, doing three completely different jobs...
Very interesting that a similar situation played out in parallel in both the UK and US: a historic station (Penn) in the country's main city (New York) was demolished over the protest of architects, locals, & the public, which kickstarted a historic preservation movement that saved other stations (Grand Central), and are now being redeveloped to recapture some of the glory they once had (Moynihan).
I have a very close connction to Euston. I worked in the Travel Centre in the 80s - I think I'm the only person to have made a tannoy announcement in French - but my father was BRs Assistant Project Manager. I literally grew up with the place and even now regard it as "my" station. I can remember colouring in the track layouts the old man brought home. I still have quite a few of the publicity documents and internal memos I inherited. No one cares about them but they mean something to me. And I remember the Superloo - I think it had a shower in it - as well as the BR run catering with it's booth-like seating.
‘I feel like a walking station would make interchange much easier’. And this is why I Love this channel. Up there with some of the best storytellers and documentary narrators I have ever heard. Historically useful, at times brilliantly funny, full of charm, and not rude or in your face. A rarity nowadays. You deserve way more subscribers. Lifting my brew up to you good sir. ☕️😄
That change was made to enable the tube station to stay open when the mainline station is shut for engineering works. Before that change, the tube station was closed as well, which was very inconvenient for anyone trying to get to the local area or change to a bus.
@@ADAMEDWARDS17 All they need is a doorway into the area where the escalators emerge. That could be closed in the event of engineering works requiring the closure of the mainline station. As it is, there's a glass screen which seems to serve the purpose of tantalising people by showing them where they need to be, without letting them easily get there.
I use Euston every few months when i visit from North Wales, and having used most of the stations within London I find Euston a strange anomaly. I find it better laid out for passenger convenience but it is a cold sterile environment with no real character. Whereas St P, Marlybone, Victoria are the total opposite not very well laid out but with a warm character where I feel more comfortable sitting down for a cuppa waiting for my train to wherever I'm off to.
It is nice to hear somebody actually appreciate Euston for the fact that it works. I am sure that was the main objective when it was re-designed in the 1960s.
It is weird how Euston is a station is a station that wants you to go through it but not stay in it, while London seems designed to be a city you stay in but not go through. There are exceptions of course, like Crossrail 1 and hopefully 2, but then there are things like the lack of good connection between HS1 and HS2, almost as if the thought of Northerners wanting to go to the Continent is blasphemy to them, and they'd much rather they stayed in London.
@@jeanjacques9980 It's not just about connecting Manchester and Birmingham with the continent, there's a huge population live in Kent, adjacent to the high speed Javelin trains, that are isolated from the North by having to fight their way through London. I do it most weeks! Lots of people do business between Kent and the Midlands and North, and travel for leisure as well. Joining HS1 and 2 would have been the sensible thing to join up these parts of the country to improve the advantage of rail over road. Getting a fast, modern train to London then having to de-train and drag my luggage up the Euston Road in the rain and wind, dressed for business in a smart suit, high heels and styled hair that cost me nearly a hundred quid, to then board the fast train to a Northern city, is simply bonkers - they had the first chance in 200 years to properly join up the North and the South, there is plenty of evidence from Thameslink and Crossrail that NOT ALL JOUNEYS END IN LONDON! And they threw it away. Unquestionably the stupidest government transport decision in two centuries. And for those of you who blame "the Tories", see today's equally bonkers announcement by Labour . . . ! They are all the same! Sheelagh
Apart from being a soulless dump with platforms in a basement, I really object to the way they keep inter-city passengers waiting at Euston and then announce the platform with seconds to spare before the departure time resulting in an undignified stampede.
Isn't that something to do with B.R. and later operators not wanting to have passengers in underground terminal stations on platforms if there was a fire or other accident?
Not really the station's fault. Euston is dull but it does its job - to be devil's advocate, Kings Cross/St Pancras all looks great but doesn't work so well, especially if something goes wrong. And why if you are boarding a train at Kings Cross do you have to go in the side doors, to a concourse that is too small?
@@Julius_Hardware Not sure I'd say it does its job well. The concourse gets very overcrowded and its pretty dismal compared with some other terminal stations.
Up-line, I don't know if things have changed since the revamp, but Birmingham New Street used to be notorious for last minute platform alterations - often at the opposite end of the station. To make matters worse, the platforms are below the concourse, so when the platform change announcement came, you'd have to climb a set of stairs, race across the concourse and down a set of stairs or escalator (I think the escalators were down only).
Funny how the British Museum housed the Elgin Marbles (from an Arch in Greece) , whereas The Ernest Marples made sure that BR Arch disappeared, probably due to his hands being greased.
Walking city? Nope, but there was Howls' Moving Castle! As for the plug in idea, they are demolishing one such building in Japan. ruclips.net/video/vrwYUOg1bZQ/видео.htmlsi=wqQv7LaDC_sVQrzn
In the 1990s I remember watching BBC's One Foot In The Past and they did a feature about the Euston arch. Dan Cruikshank investigated what happened to the structure after it was demolished. It turned out that a great proportion of the stonework was dumped in the Thames to fill a hole. In the programme they actually lifted a few dressed stones from the water. It was a fascinating thing to see. I wonder what happened thereafter? I haven't seen any updates about it. Maybe someone here will know.
13:17 mothballing parcels by rail may well turn out to be one of the most short sighted decisions ever made. I'm sure in 2003ish when email was "the future" it seemed like a good idea... and now we have Amazon and something like 1m delivery vans on the roads. I have a sinking feeling that at some point in the future they'll be trying to retrofit the capacity back in.
Moving parcels by rail requires a large well-managed organisation. Royal Mail was once that but the company is quickly becoming unusable. I cannot imagine the likes of DPD, Evri or DHL having a large enough structure to use rail any time in the near future. Amazon seem to be a user & user/provider of parcels movement instead of a provider for others.
@@JagoHazzard- that’s not a bad shout - I think the infrastructure is still under there isn’t it? (Although it would be a shame to lose the ability to travel on the bit you can go on now!)
Precisely. And that's why the likes of Varamis and Orion have recently started in the game of converting ex-passenger stock to parcel trains and running "proof of concept" routes to show that there is indeed a good use case to still have parcel trains in the UK.
I'm not sure what it is constructed of but I have a feeling it has sound absorbing properties as there is little 'walking' noise and , in the old layout, the PA was always clear with no echo.
I actually quite like the concourse area, it reminds me of the old terminal buildings at Heathrow, now long gone. It's the horrible dark platforms that spoil it. As construction causes vast amounts of CO2 emissions, I believe it behoves us to make best use of whatever we've already got. I would have thought extending the existing building into the area that has already been cleared would be the most sensible option - that's if HS2 actually gets to Euston.
What I miss most about the Euston that is soon to depart is the huge departure board over the platforms with the analogue mechanical signage. Yes, the modern day 4K Ultra HD boards may be more clearer, but do they have the charm of the CHAKKA-CHAKKA-CHAKKA sound every time the board changes? I think not! And let's not forget that the 1968 design served as a template to the design of smaller stations - the station in Coventry stands as testament to that, and BR made a big deal out of it at the time. I'm pretty sure that the locals would have been angered at the thought of Coventry's Doric Propylaeum being knocked down - had there been a Doric Propylaeum in Coventry to start off with, of course...
@@eattherich9215 Perhaps it's better that the arch has been consigned to history. I think that there's something a bit weird and typically Victorian about building a mock classical arch and it had had an air of aggrandisement to it. Interesting to see, but a bit of a folly and difficult to justify having to maintain it.
Euston is functional and looks smart and tidy on the outside, but I'm looking forward to the platforms longer feeling like a multistory car park. But after hearing about the man in charge...it's not surprising that they do!
I always like going there. I like two things that people complain about. The first is the walk up the ramp. People walk fast up the ramp as if they mean business. The route to Euston Square tube involves a walk along a wide pavement beside a 3 lane road with big red buses giving the impression to someone coming from the Shires on the slow trains that they have well and truly arrived.
Very good Jago, that's now my second-favourite review of Euston station. First is this piece by Richard Morrison of The Times, written in 2007: "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."
I only have the vaguest memory of the old Euston, but the new one is firmly burned in my brain from 1968, as I was living in Lunnon at the time. It seemed like a fine building to me, being young and modern, myself.
@@sglenny001 The Post Office Tower is one of those things that many people wouldn't be able to find on a map because they would think its located somewhere else
I'm glad you used the original and proper name for it. Some things should always be referred to using names that are no longer found on maps- the Post Office Tower, Hammersmith Odeon and so on.
Your quick flash of the previous orange indicator board above the platform entrances reminded me of the one before that, which was 1 of those clacjety-clack flip-over affairs. It added what passed in the day for audiovisual entertainment while waiting for a train!
Euston was one of my favourite (or at least less objectionable) stations to visit when I was employed to fix the ticket machines, purely because it was one of the few central London stations where I was guaranteed free parking!
Having spent a couple of nights the floor of Euston (along with dozens of other people) because a) I'd missed the last train or it was cancelled and b) I wanted to get the first one out, it always struck me that it was a large open plan shoebox built to accommodate the departure board. A queue of people waiting at a usual departure platform would move en masse to the other end when a platform change was announced. (probably still happens). Its dull allbeit amusing to go people watching. I sincerely hope they build something more interesting when its replaced. The old station - judging from your pictures, Jago - reminds me of Milan central station, which has several huge halls linked together. Worth a visit just to get an idea what Euston could have been while still incorporating new high-speed services (and in Milans case, to other parts of Europe).
Thanks for another very interesting history lesson. I was particularly struck by the sections considering the "anti railway" Ernest Marples and had no idea that a proper connection to Euston Square was prevented by the "vital" underground car park. In 1968, when I was 14, I travelled to the lakes from the then brand new Euston, it seemed pretty flash to me then but these days, aside from the indoor concourse, it strikes me as rather a mess with the outdoor, all weather, seating area being particularly dismal and not helped by the pop art style hoardings telling us something new is coming . . .
Functionally for passengers, this version of Euston always worked quite well, unlike the original version which was a hideous mess, by all accounts. It is also probably still a better functioning station than the heavily revised Kings Cross, which seems to me to be worse than it was before! The snag with the future Euston may be that it will follow the trend of many major stations across Europe in that it becomes a shopping centre with some railway platforms hidden away somewhere. At least with current Euston, its functionally clear - you enter a concourse, you see all the trains on the departure board with the platform entrances under the board - easy and clear! If you are foolish enough to follow the signs at St Pancras, you are led into a labyrinth and walking several miles you might with luck actually arrive in sight of some platforms, though if you don't want Eurostar, yet more walking is required to find the domestic departures! I may be old fashioned, but I like my stations to actually look like stations, with clear routes to the trains!
Have you ever caught a domestic HS1 service from St Pancras? The platforms are near the international ones, but you need to walk the entire length & width of the station to get to them. The "Great Hall" always gets shown when the original Euston is mentioned. Can you imagine today's passengers having to make their way up/down those staircases to/from the trains? It would never cope with them all.
@@TheRip72 Yeah - St P is dreadful. You can see how valued domestic customers are valued! What annoyed me is that I was at Kings Cross, which is literally just across the road from StP, and I followed the signs to StP and it took forever to get there! Directed the long way round through a shopping centre!
@@timbounds7190 Agreed. I now live hundreds of miles north of London, and what passengers like me want is an efficient layout which we can navigate easily. Instead we get appalling fussy Victoriana like St. P. which is totally unfit for passengers and likely costs a fortune to maintain. I never got the Euston Arch, it was a fake, pointless bit of stonework that just got in the way. If railway enthusiasts loved it so much they could have coughed up the dosh to take it apart and get it put up somewhere out of harms way. Paddington is a joke. When I lived down south I would arrive at platform 15 or similar and then have to walk outside the station then back in 10 minutes later to get the tube. Practically all the London termini as disasters, but not so bad as Birmingham New Street, who have spent millions recently with no improvement at all.
The departure board over the platforms has now been replaced with an enormous LED advertising panel. Departure boards are now smaller and located on the concourse causing passenger standing 'pinch points'
@@barrieshepherd7694 Oh haven't been there for a while. Indicative of declining standards of station design - designers in the 60s knew what they were doing!
Funnily enough, I was watching a video this morning on the Tom The Taxi Driver channel. It was interesting to get the perspective of a London cabbie on the changes which are happening at Euston. One foesn't often consider the impact of infrastructure changes on all the support services which have to make it work. The relevant episode is called "RIP Euston Taxi Rank".
I asked my mum if we could visit the old Euston before they did away with it. I remember the great hall, this wonderful space, with scale models of locomotives in the spaces between the columns , and an encounter with a tipsy Irish lady waiting for the Irish mail train. And the last of the blood and custard carriages!
As I live overseas, I pass through Euston very infrequently, perhaps every 3-10 years. I think of my time in the space, particularly the forecourt, as chapter breaks in my life story; I have just completed one phase, which will have been several years long, and I am about to embark on the next. I also attended the Live Aid concert with my brother, and the passages that day through the station to/from Euston Square to pick up the underground tofrom Wembley (via Baker Street) are etched in my mind. I have very strong positive feelings for the place, even though it is out-and-out utilitarian.
As someone who lived for over 40 years at various places close to the WCML, Euston was always my main rail access into London. I'm not old enough to remember the pre-68 version, but there is no doubt that the current station is stereotypically 1960's ugly. Having said that, I always thought that it functioned well as a major railway terminus. The space in the concourse, the ramps to the platforms and the retail and food outlets around the perimeter all worked. The two walkways on either side of the main concourse that went to the low numbered and high numbered platforms reminded me of an airport terminal. If I had a gripe, it would be the lack of a direct connection to Euston Square tube station.
At least one of the gate houses at Euston is still used...As an ale house...Always visit Euston Tap when I'm wandering around the smoke. Shame about the cider tap...
Great upload! I studied architecture in the mid 1990's and wrote an essay comparing the orginal Euston, Kings Cross and Kings Cross St Pancreas stations and I use the current Euston station regularly (I had no idea that Archigram were involved in a proposal to redevelop it). I always thought the current station is somewhat unfarily maligned. Sure, its not as regal as its Victorian counterparts but it functions as it should. The plaza at the front is a useful breakout space for communters leaving the station itself. And the black cladding of the complex gives it an intresting mid sixties look... I for one will be sorry to see it go... especially as it still seems fit for purpose and we should be looking to not demolish and rebuild, but adapt and reuse.
Arrived at Euston on a Friday in November 1964 just before 17.00 from Oxenholme (leaving at 09.30am). we waited for me Dad taking us to Wimbledon by his Work's Van. God that was a trip and a half.
Really good Jago; a fascinating tale and comforting to know that, even in the good old days, we had Marples feathering his own nest by manipulating the transport infrastructure.
I'd not realised how old the station is. My second least favourite station (after Victoria) in London but many adventures have started with a train from there so I regard the terminus with some fondness. Once again, an interesting article on a place which would not otherwise capture my interest.
I used Euston a lot when I was traveling to London, but I didn't knew about the history of it. Now that I know it makes me sad to see such a beautiful looking old building being replaced by the modern one. Now I need to find time to watch your video about Liverpool Street Station. Been there as well.
the tastiest French onion soup I've ever had was in the late 1970's at a little cafe in the parade of shops along the front of the new Station building (at the northern end of the parade).
I think I'm going to need a video about Rod Stewart's swimming pool. Does it slide open, like the swimming pool in Thunderbirds, to reveal Rod Stewart's model railway room below the pool?
Howl's Moving Castle? I used Euston,1969-72, as a student from Brum, behind Class 86 locos, which did 110 mph beside the M1, south of Watford Gap, to show off. Perhaps the condition for further demolition should be the resurrection of The Arch?
The loss of the Euston Arch (demolished, not even relocated) was inexcusable. There was talk of rebuilding the arch as part of the HS2 upgrade but suspect that won’t now be happening with the monumental cost increases.
I had happily forgotten that the Black Tower (40 Melton Street or Railtrack House) had existed until I caught a glimpse on your video of an archive image. Been to some thoroughly dismal meetings in that building.
I also liked the Thornton House office block that has been flattened as part of the HS2 work. As an example of 60s architecture it was one of the better ones. Now there are doubts about HS2 coming to Euston, has it's demolition been in vain?
We used Euston a few times in the early days of diesel traction on the local trains and before electrification, then through electrification, which was effective in 1966. Indeed some of the express and freight were still steam hauled. This was from 64 to about 1971. I don’t recall too much about the station as we went to the underground, in pre Victoria line days, to go to St Barts. I don’t recall too much about the rebuilding, except we originally came to the northern line city branch platform down the stairs at one end but then came down to the new arrangement when the Victoria line was coming along.
It would be really interesting to do a comparison between what happened at Euston and Penn Station in NYC at around the same time. Both were lamented and were the sacrifices that led to better preservation of architectural heritage afterwards.
Saw Euston station for the first time in the early 1970s and I was wuite impressed. It was clean and bright, and being a Saturday, not so many people, so the concourse felt spacious. They were using a platform for stabling locos, as I saw five parked together. On a related theme, Munich Hauptbahnhof is to be rebuilt in the next few years.
I was fortunate to be taken to the great hall , my father would go in the cafe for a drink and I would go and animate the model steam engines in glass cases with pennies . Going through to the platforms was wonderful experience of darkness , single light bulbs and steam monsters at the stops.
I must be one of the very few other people who likes the current Euston station, I have a copy of the original brochure, which better shows the intention before the airy concourse got filled with concession stands. I always love the sign saying 'tickets for future travel' as if you could buy tickets for travel in the past somewhere - but then again I guess that's what you provide with your channel. I'm sure people will regret it's demise in years to come as they did the previous.
Unpopular opinion - but I like Euston. Well, I remember being wowed by it in the 1970s when it seemed so spacious, clean, bright and airy compared with the grimy, oppressive gloom of other intercity stations of the era. And I can’t quite get over that initial impression even though it’s aged poorly and has been mucked about with so much.
I saw the old Euston once, but I was very young, and don’t remember much about it. I first saw the new one in 1967, when I was considered old enough to go up to London on my own. Some sort of tent or temporary building had been erected in front of the station to house an exhibition of colour television, and that was my reason for going there. I too was very impressed when I saw the new station. I saw the new departure screens when I went to the Birmingham Christmas market last year. Two generations of Solaris and the LEDs were in the right place, above the entrance to the platforms, now the new ones are small, af right angles and low down, similar to the infamous and short-lived plasma screens at Waterloo.
I was taken into the 'secret' side of Euston in the late '80's by a platform guard when I missed my train home to the midlands. Beneath the concourse is another level where post office business & logistics used to happen, many 'trains' of PO trolleys were dragged around underground by electric carts creating a very busy scene. The reason we went down there was to go to he large staff canteen to get me a free dinner, it helped that I was very small as a child/teen so probably looked younger than my 15 year old self. I seem to remember getting down there by going down the ramp past the buffers at the end of the platform which takes you into a long tunnel that links all the platforms & would be used to get the mail to or from the trains. Back when mail used to travel largely by rail
I always thought it was a very neat design the way the platform heads split, ramping up to the concourse for the passengers and down to the undercroft for goods and mail.
I quite like the idea of a walking station. It can shuffle back and forth between Euston and Old Oak Common thus making the interchange between the two a lot easier. If that idea should be outside of the available budget, could we have a heliport to link the two instead? 😁
Today's Euston makes me see similarities with architect Mies van der Rohe and the "less is more" approach to designing buildings. The demolition of old Euston reminds me of the similar destruction of Chicago's Lasalle Street station and it's sub par early 1980s replacement. An office block for the Chicago Board of Option Exchange took most of the original site.
I love Euston , whatever it looks liked, although it looks fine as it currently is. It’s Euston, just that. And it’ had always had trains to interesting places. Also, my great grandparents had a large house on Hampstead Road overlooking the lines , just before the rosd crossed over the railway. Lost firstly by a petrol station and now the HS2 works
Interesting to hear about the helicopter fixation. My joke for when there is a replacement service,”passengers are advised that this service is a replacement helicopter service “.
The Superloo at Euston had great showers in the 70's, as I spent a few months homeless, living in my car, they were very handy as council public baths had almost disappeared by then. The ones that did remain had limited opening hours not convenient if working. The showers at Euston were open 24hrs and the Barber's was better than the one at Waterloo which took some doing.
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
Marples is the real villain in the story that usually portrays Beeching as the bad guy
Imagine that, a minister for the railways who didn't like trains.
Absolutely. Beeching was paid (very well) to do what Marples wanted.
@@eattherich9215 Yeah, any story that ends with "He fled the country to avoid prosecution for tax evasion" is never a good story.
@@SynchroScorehe should have got a green card for California like a certain current British PM...
@@RichardWatt Unfortunately, I don't know why that would be. And immigration is handled by the federal government, not the individual states.
I for one am very glad St. Pancras was not demolished. While I doubt I will ever be able to afford a stay in the hotel, you can’t deny it’s absolutely magnificent to behold
Look at the Midland hotel in Manchester at the other end of the line, that's also magnificent.
Once splurged and spent a night there - it was amazing.
Hear, hear. St P is a jewel.
For a long time it was covered in soot. So much so that you couldn't see the red brick underneath.
I was a Derby railway guard for many years, and worked almost daily to St. Pancras. I would occasionally pay in monies to the booking office there which is now a bar. On one memorable day the duty station manager came into the mess-room and asked if anybody wanted to join him on his 'safety-walk' across the arched roof, on the outside. I duly joined him and we proceeded to the end of the old platform 7 before ascending a very decrepit circular staircase. At the top of the staircase we went through a rather narrow, old wooden door and onto the duckboards that were the 'path'. The views were stunning, overlooking the numerous chimney pots between St. Pancras and 'The Cross', and north towards Kentish Town. We crossed the roof, checking all was good, then made our way back. Sadly it was one of the few occasions I did not have a camera with me, such is life. My journey back to Derby was behind a class 47, sitting in the brake van after I had checked tickets, with the guards inward door wedged open so I could listen to the majestic rhythm of the 47's engine working up Sharnbrook.
Happy memories of fabulous days.
I'm sure that when the station is rebuilt, the propylaeum will be depicted in tiles as a sort of "tribute."
What there should be is a mosaic showing Ernest Marples stuffing a suitcase full of fivers.
Just imagine all the famous stations like St Pancras, Paddington etc in a hellish box like Euston. Reasonable or not, the quick fix constructions of the. 60s really left scars across the UK aesthetically, visually still scars from the war scars they fixed.
They're making the same mistake again by doing it half assed. It needs a full on rebuild to meet the needs of the next 50+ years. It's already been over capacity for decades.
You have used to worst 2 stations as examples there. While Paddington & St Pancras may be pretty buildings, they are dreadful for passengers. Both are several smaller stations in 1 with a long walk between each. You cannot hear any announcements in them either because the large roofs create too much reverb. Paddington is also a draughty, cold place. It was also smoky until they electrified most of the GW too.
And, when it comes to light industrial and housing estates, cheap vulgarity still trumps slightly costlier and longer lasting aesthetic quality.
@@TheRip72 as a daily user of st pancras, rubbish!
@@TheRip72 I think St Pancras is a pretty good station since its refurb. I use it a lot to change between all the different lines (Kent lines, Midland, Thameslink and International) and sometimes the underground as well. It can be a long way if you're going down into the underground, but otherwise bearing in mind it serves five different groups of lines, I don't see how you could design anything much better. The quality of the ambience is good, especially on the upper level, and you have lots of choice of places to eat including some with really warm and welcoming interiors like the Betjeman Arms and the Booking Office bar, both good for an informal business meeting in London. The Champagne bar is a cold, draughty rip-off but hey, you can't have everything! It seems to be able to absorb large numbers of people waiting for trains very much better than KX or Euston, without getting overcrowded, probably because there are effectively different areas to wait in front of the departure boards for each of the groups of lines. The only time I've know it seriously overcrowded is if there is a major problem with International. If all stations were as good as St Pancras, then we'd all be happier, I think it is an exemplary study in how to update and upgrade whilst exploiting the best aspects of heritage.
My only real beef architecturally, is that it's such a shame that the extensions to the train shed roof were not done in an arched style to echo Barlow's original, even in modern materials - that would have made it perfection. At the time the new (flat) train shed roofs were built, The Butterley Company who made the Barlow original were still in business, and still making large metal structures (bridges, link spans etc)! Wouldn't that have been a lovely celebration of 150 years of British engineering?
As an architectural historian, hearing "Propylaeum" spoken in context warmed my heart and delighted my soul! Thank you, Jago.
I thought that was just a posh word for condoms.
I'm not sure I see Euston Station as a Temple or sanctuary. Each to his own of course , but I would have thought "Portico" more apt, considering where you end up.
Also, I think the gentle slopes down to the platforms are better described as hazardous, thoughtless and tiresome inclined planes, designed to impede the safe and happy transit of luggage, the disabled or injured and the elderly in a manner most off putting to rail travel itself, whilst also ironically giving an example of the perils of road transport at the hand of runaway prams, trollies and bicycles.
I wonder if Marples was a KGB agent. He was caught with his skirt pulled up in Lord Denning's Profumo enquiry, although his paid "assistant" failed to become as famous as Christine Keeler. I "think" of him every time a go near the Hammersmith or Chiswick flyovers.
Whato Jago,
You are, of course, correct in mentioning Ernest Marples' involvement in the Beeching Plan.
I am the former Chief Archivist to the British Railways Board and dealt with the closure files of the London Midland Region, transferring them to the National Archive. What is interesting is the Transport Minister actually authorising the closure of many of the lines was not Mr Marples but the majority of the files contain the signature of another poor Minister of Transport: Barbara Castle. And that was after the Labour party had promised to stop the Beeching Plan.
Labour stopped a lot of the Beeching plan for sure..
@@johnburns4017 If you call a few percent "a lot" . . . !
@@sheelaghbradley942
Post Beeching closures
*Tories*
1963....324 miles (521 km) closed
1964....1058 miles (1703 km) closed
*Total: 1382*
*Labour:*
1965....600 miles (965 km) closed
1966....750 miles (1 205 km) closed
1967....300 miles (480 km) closed
1968....400 miles (640 km) closed
1969....250 miles (400 km) closed
*Total: 2,300*
*Tories*
1970....275 miles (440 km) closed
1971....23 miles (37 km) closed
1972....50 miles (80 km) closed
1973....35 miles (56 km) closed
*Total: 382*
*Totals*
Tories: *1,765*
Labour: *2,300*
Labour allowed many rural lines to close as car ownership was accelerating in those areas because of run down services and ramshackle trains by the Tories, with eventually services having few passengers. The damage was already done with new roads and by-passes being built. Companies set up where the roads where not the rail lines. Also many line closures were too far in advance they were difficult to reverse.
The march of the personal car setup by the Tories was unstoppable. Also aided by new towns in the 1950s designed around roads.
I worked for Travellers Fare at Euston for 6 months in the late 1970’s, as a placement on my HND Hotel Management course. The Superloo had showers which passengers could use, the charge including towels etc. At this time there were still a considerable number of Night trains, unlike today, offering Sleeping Car accommodation, so the Superloo provided those passengers with a means to Shower on arrival in London off the Sleepers. It was adjacent to The Grill Room so they could once a blurted get Breakfast. On the concourse level there was an Off License. A couple of Buffets/ self service Cafeterias.
Of all the stations rebuilt in the 1960’s on the West Coast Mainline Euston was the best of them. Far superior to the rebuilt Birmingham New Street which was a dingy hole ( I see that while The Concourse at New Street has been rebuilt, they have done nothing to make the Platforms more attractive or pleasant, it’s still very much a dark dreary wind tunnel. The Plans for the pre war rebuild were quite interesting. They had already started to quarry the stone for it before it was cancelled.
This is why Jago’s comment section is the best! Thanks for sharing and informing. 👍
I also appreciated the showers at the Euston superloo on my way home after visiting my parents who didn't have one. Ah well, at least the toilets are now free.
The short sighted vandalism was dreadful
As someone who remembers Euston being knocked down and replaced with a concrete box, it occurs to me, with something of a shudder, that, if you live long enough, what was knocked down and rebuilt in your youth, is likely going to be knocked down and rebuilt again in your dotage...
That's already happening in Milton Keynes only in a much shorter time period!
I did some casual labour in East India Dock many years ago. That was knocked down and a huge building put up to print the Financial Times. I worked for the company that tiled the floor of the print room. Later, that was knocked down, and hotels built on the site. I worked for a company that serviced the reception machines in one of the hotels. So I ended up working in virtually the same place, for three different companies, doing three completely different jobs...
Very interesting that a similar situation played out in parallel in both the UK and US: a historic station (Penn) in the country's main city (New York) was demolished over the protest of architects, locals, & the public, which kickstarted a historic preservation movement that saved other stations (Grand Central), and are now being redeveloped to recapture some of the glory they once had (Moynihan).
I have a very close connction to Euston. I worked in the Travel Centre in the 80s - I think I'm the only person to have made a tannoy announcement in French - but my father was BRs Assistant Project Manager. I literally grew up with the place and even now regard it as "my" station. I can remember colouring in the track layouts the old man brought home. I still have quite a few of the publicity documents and internal memos I inherited. No one cares about them but they mean something to me.
And I remember the Superloo - I think it had a shower in it - as well as the BR run catering with it's booth-like seating.
‘I feel like a walking station would make interchange much easier’. And this is why I Love this channel. Up there with some of the best storytellers and documentary narrators I have ever heard. Historically useful, at times brilliantly funny, full of charm, and not rude or in your face. A rarity nowadays. You deserve way more subscribers. Lifting my brew up to you good sir. ☕️😄
What a lovely idea - having the escalators from the tube going straight up to the concourse - now you have to go outside and come back in.
That change was made to enable the tube station to stay open when the mainline station is shut for engineering works. Before that change, the tube station was closed as well, which was very inconvenient for anyone trying to get to the local area or change to a bus.
@@ADAMEDWARDS17 All they need is a doorway into the area where the escalators emerge. That could be closed in the event of engineering works requiring the closure of the mainline station. As it is, there's a glass screen which seems to serve the purpose of tantalising people by showing them where they need to be, without letting them easily get there.
@@ADAMEDWARDS17 I fully understood that, but why not have gates rather than a wall?
@@ADAMEDWARDS17 also I think it’s more to do with the Night Tube
I use Euston every few months when i visit from North Wales, and having used most of the stations within London I find Euston a strange anomaly. I find it better laid out for passenger convenience but it is a cold sterile environment with no real character. Whereas St P, Marlybone, Victoria are the total opposite not very well laid out but with a warm character where I feel more comfortable sitting down for a cuppa waiting for my train to wherever I'm off to.
It is nice to hear somebody actually appreciate Euston for the fact that it works. I am sure that was the main objective when it was re-designed in the 1960s.
It is weird how Euston is a station is a station that wants you to go through it but not stay in it, while London seems designed to be a city you stay in but not go through.
There are exceptions of course, like Crossrail 1 and hopefully 2, but then there are things like the lack of good connection between HS1 and HS2, almost as if the thought of Northerners wanting to go to the Continent is blasphemy to them, and they'd much rather they stayed in London.
@@jeanjacques9980 Well, Brexit didn't help, but they aren't even building a travelator to make the connection easier
@@jeanjacques9980 It's not just about connecting Manchester and Birmingham with the continent, there's a huge population live in Kent, adjacent to the high speed Javelin trains, that are isolated from the North by having to fight their way through London. I do it most weeks! Lots of people do business between Kent and the Midlands and North, and travel for leisure as well. Joining HS1 and 2 would have been the sensible thing to join up these parts of the country to improve the advantage of rail over road. Getting a fast, modern train to London then having to de-train and drag my luggage up the Euston Road in the rain and wind, dressed for business in a smart suit, high heels and styled hair that cost me nearly a hundred quid, to then board the fast train to a Northern city, is simply bonkers - they had the first chance in 200 years to properly join up the North and the South, there is plenty of evidence from Thameslink and Crossrail that NOT ALL JOUNEYS END IN LONDON! And they threw it away. Unquestionably the stupidest government transport decision in two centuries.
And for those of you who blame "the Tories", see today's equally bonkers announcement by Labour . . . ! They are all the same!
Sheelagh
Apart from being a soulless dump with platforms in a basement, I really object to the way they keep inter-city passengers waiting at Euston and then announce the platform with seconds to spare before the departure time resulting in an undignified stampede.
Isn't that something to do with B.R. and later operators not wanting to have passengers in underground terminal stations on platforms if there was a fire or other accident?
Not really the station's fault. Euston is dull but it does its job - to be devil's advocate, Kings Cross/St Pancras all looks great but doesn't work so well, especially if something goes wrong. And why if you are boarding a train at Kings Cross do you have to go in the side doors, to a concourse that is too small?
@@Julius_Hardware Not sure I'd say it does its job well. The concourse gets very overcrowded and its pretty dismal compared with some other terminal stations.
@@adelestevens That could be it but it doesn't seem to be such a problem at other stations with platforms underground
Up-line, I don't know if things have changed since the revamp, but Birmingham New Street used to be notorious for last minute platform alterations - often at the opposite end of the station. To make matters worse, the platforms are below the concourse, so when the platform change announcement came, you'd have to climb a set of stairs, race across the concourse and down a set of stairs or escalator (I think the escalators were down only).
Funny how the British Museum housed the Elgin Marbles (from an Arch in Greece) , whereas The Ernest Marples made sure that BR Arch disappeared, probably due to his hands being greased.
Location of most stones of the arch are known. It cane rebuilt with a few new stones cut.
I think the walking cities bit got me hooked.
I’m glad I had an excuse to talk about them. The concept is barmy, but I love it.
Why travel to the city when the city can travel to you?
Walking city? Nope, but there was Howls' Moving Castle! As for the plug in idea, they are demolishing one such building in Japan. ruclips.net/video/vrwYUOg1bZQ/видео.htmlsi=wqQv7LaDC_sVQrzn
@@mistie710: for a truly dystopian take, see Mortal engines.
The ramps down to the platforms at Euston always make me think of cattle ramps.
That's because the powers-that-be think of us as cattle.
In the 1990s I remember watching BBC's One Foot In The Past and they did a feature about the Euston arch. Dan Cruikshank investigated what happened to the structure after it was demolished. It turned out that a great proportion of the stonework was dumped in the Thames to fill a hole. In the programme they actually lifted a few dressed stones from the water. It was a fascinating thing to see. I wonder what happened thereafter? I haven't seen any updates about it. Maybe someone here will know.
As briefly shown in the video. (They were in the River Lee).
8:33 Terry Gilliam's vision of the future? All it needs is a giant hedgehog driving it.
They were on some pretty stong stuff in those days.
Dinsdale!!!
Euston station arch my beloved
Now you got me wondering about Rod Stewart's swimmingpool. That's something I could do without. Otherwise great video, as usual.
He may do a video about it.
@@Jasper_4444 that would be worth watching - Jago, you've got to do it
Wasn't it Rod Stewart who paid for Tom Waits' swimming pool?
13:17 mothballing parcels by rail may well turn out to be one of the most short sighted decisions ever made. I'm sure in 2003ish when email was "the future" it seemed like a good idea... and now we have Amazon and something like 1m delivery vans on the roads. I have a sinking feeling that at some point in the future they'll be trying to retrofit the capacity back in.
I sometimes wonder if the postal underground could be reinstated for packages.
Moving parcels by rail requires a large well-managed organisation. Royal Mail was once that but the company is quickly becoming unusable. I cannot imagine the likes of DPD, Evri or DHL having a large enough structure to use rail any time in the near future. Amazon seem to be a user & user/provider of parcels movement instead of a provider for others.
@@JagoHazzard- that’s not a bad shout - I think the infrastructure is still under there isn’t it? (Although it would be a shame to lose the ability to travel on the bit you can go on now!)
@@TheRip72 I used to use Red Star Parcels a lot. A brilliant service.
Precisely. And that's why the likes of Varamis and Orion have recently started in the game of converting ex-passenger stock to parcel trains and running "proof of concept" routes to show that there is indeed a good use case to still have parcel trains in the UK.
The concourse floor is gorgeous, hope it survives...
I'm not sure what it is constructed of but I have a feeling it has sound absorbing properties as there is little 'walking' noise and , in the old layout, the PA was always clear with no echo.
I actually quite like the concourse area, it reminds me of the old terminal buildings at Heathrow, now long gone. It's the horrible dark platforms that spoil it. As construction causes vast amounts of CO2 emissions, I believe it behoves us to make best use of whatever we've already got. I would have thought extending the existing building into the area that has already been cleared would be the most sensible option - that's if HS2 actually gets to Euston.
Thank you for such an interesting, intelligent, informative and entertaining look at Euston Station. 👏👏👍😀
What I miss most about the Euston that is soon to depart is the huge departure board over the platforms with the analogue mechanical signage. Yes, the modern day 4K Ultra HD boards may be more clearer, but do they have the charm of the CHAKKA-CHAKKA-CHAKKA sound every time the board changes? I think not!
And let's not forget that the 1968 design served as a template to the design of smaller stations - the station in Coventry stands as testament to that, and BR made a big deal out of it at the time. I'm pretty sure that the locals would have been angered at the thought of Coventry's Doric Propylaeum being knocked down - had there been a Doric Propylaeum in Coventry to start off with, of course...
Ahhhh Solari Flap Indicators - clear but maintenance intensive.
Wasnt the Euston Arch demolished and dumped into a canal near Bromley by Bow,I understand that certain pieces of masonry have been recovered
Yes...other parts were used to make a rockery in the garden of one of the contractors,down in Kent.
Something like that, but I think it was the River Lee, there was (may still be) a documentary on RUclips about this, by Dan Cruikshank
@@Eurobrasil550: you are correct. I don't think there was any real will for a possible later reconstruction, so the "missing" pieces are deliberate.
@@eattherich9215 Perhaps it's better that the arch has been consigned to history. I think that there's something a bit weird and typically Victorian about building a mock classical arch and it had had an air of aggrandisement to it. Interesting to see, but a bit of a folly and difficult to justify having to maintain it.
As indeed shown in the video!
Euston is functional and looks smart and tidy on the outside, but I'm looking forward to the platforms longer feeling like a multistory car park. But after hearing about the man in charge...it's not surprising that they do!
I always like going there. I like two things that people complain about.
The first is the walk up the ramp. People walk fast up the ramp as if they mean business.
The route to Euston Square tube involves a walk along a wide pavement beside a 3 lane road with big red buses giving the impression to someone coming from the Shires on the slow trains that they have well and truly arrived.
Yes it’s a bit Dick Whittington that walk!
Very good Jago, that's now my second-favourite review of Euston station. First is this piece by Richard Morrison of The Times, written in 2007:
"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."
Every time my tutors showed me Archigram designs I had a sense that they might have been taking the mickey... now I understand why.
When I was young, my dad worked at Euston above the station I loved it because it was so modern and being young it suited.
I love that shot of the station not right up against the road 😅
Thanks for another enjoyable and entertaining video, Jago!! 👍👍
Another Jago masterpiece. This video is the Doric Arch to my sprawling concourse.
I only have the vaguest memory of the old Euston, but the new one is firmly burned in my brain from 1968, as I was living in Lunnon at the time. It seemed like a fine building to me, being young and modern, myself.
10:47 Nice shot of the Post Office Tower in the background
Didn't realise how close they were
@@sglenny001 The Post Office Tower is one of those things that many people wouldn't be able to find on a map because they would think its located somewhere else
@@davidsummer8631 I always thought it was located near the mall
I'm glad you used the original and proper name for it. Some things should always be referred to using names that are no longer found on maps- the Post Office Tower, Hammersmith Odeon and so on.
I was a kid in 1960s and thought Euston station with the vast marble floor and the overhead electric trains was just amazingly modern!
The Euston Power Signal Box....Memories 😊
Your quick flash of the previous orange indicator board above the platform entrances reminded me of the one before that, which was 1 of those clacjety-clack flip-over affairs. It added what passed in the day for audiovisual entertainment while waiting for a train!
Euston was one of my favourite (or at least less objectionable) stations to visit when I was employed to fix the ticket machines, purely because it was one of the few central London stations where I was guaranteed free parking!
Jago the Journalist goes hard with the titles 🔥
Having spent a couple of nights the floor of Euston (along with dozens of other people) because a) I'd missed the last train or it was cancelled and b) I wanted to get the first one out, it always struck me that it was a large open plan shoebox built to accommodate the departure board. A queue of people waiting at a usual departure platform would move en masse to the other end when a platform change was announced. (probably still happens). Its dull allbeit amusing to go people watching. I sincerely hope they build something more interesting when its replaced.
The old station - judging from your pictures, Jago - reminds me of Milan central station, which has several huge halls linked together. Worth a visit just to get an idea what Euston could have been while still incorporating new high-speed services (and in Milans case, to other parts of Europe).
Thanks Jago.
The Machiavellian Marples strikes again!
The walking city concept did seemingly inspire a few movies in more recent times! :)
A great video, Jago! Hits historic points in the station's history....& leaves me wondering how you wound up in Rod Stewart's pool...
My favourite Station building has always been Highley on the Severn Valley Railway in Shropshire.
And Arley ! 👍😁
Very entertaining episode! ❤️😁
5:35 I hadn't realised that Len Fairclough won the contract to knock down the arch. 😂
Wasn't he busy chasing Elsie Tanner at the time?
Thanks for another very interesting history lesson. I was particularly struck by the sections considering the "anti railway" Ernest Marples and had no idea that a proper connection to Euston Square was prevented by the "vital" underground car park. In 1968, when I was 14, I travelled to the lakes from the then brand new Euston, it seemed pretty flash to me then but these days, aside from the indoor concourse, it strikes me as rather a mess with the outdoor, all weather, seating area being particularly dismal and not helped by the pop art style hoardings telling us something new is coming . . .
I didn't know about this Jago - Thanks for sharing 😊🚂🚂🚂
Functionally for passengers, this version of Euston always worked quite well, unlike the original version which was a hideous mess, by all accounts. It is also probably still a better functioning station than the heavily revised Kings Cross, which seems to me to be worse than it was before! The snag with the future Euston may be that it will follow the trend of many major stations across Europe in that it becomes a shopping centre with some railway platforms hidden away somewhere. At least with current Euston, its functionally clear - you enter a concourse, you see all the trains on the departure board with the platform entrances under the board - easy and clear! If you are foolish enough to follow the signs at St Pancras, you are led into a labyrinth and walking several miles you might with luck actually arrive in sight of some platforms, though if you don't want Eurostar, yet more walking is required to find the domestic departures! I may be old fashioned, but I like my stations to actually look like stations, with clear routes to the trains!
Have you ever caught a domestic HS1 service from St Pancras? The platforms are near the international ones, but you need to walk the entire length & width of the station to get to them.
The "Great Hall" always gets shown when the original Euston is mentioned. Can you imagine today's passengers having to make their way up/down those staircases to/from the trains? It would never cope with them all.
@@TheRip72 Yeah - St P is dreadful. You can see how valued domestic customers are valued! What annoyed me is that I was at Kings Cross, which is literally just across the road from StP, and I followed the signs to StP and it took forever to get there! Directed the long way round through a shopping centre!
@@timbounds7190 Agreed. I now live hundreds of miles north of London, and what passengers like me want is an efficient layout which we can navigate easily. Instead we get appalling fussy Victoriana like St. P. which is totally unfit for passengers and likely costs a fortune to maintain.
I never got the Euston Arch, it was a fake, pointless bit of stonework that just got in the way. If railway enthusiasts loved it so much they could have coughed up the dosh to take it apart and get it put up somewhere out of harms way. Paddington is a joke. When I lived down south I would arrive at platform 15 or similar and then have to walk outside the station then back in 10 minutes later to get the tube.
Practically all the London termini as disasters, but not so bad as Birmingham New Street, who have spent millions recently with no improvement at all.
The departure board over the platforms has now been replaced with an enormous LED advertising panel. Departure boards are now smaller and located on the concourse causing passenger standing 'pinch points'
@@barrieshepherd7694 Oh haven't been there for a while. Indicative of declining standards of station design - designers in the 60s knew what they were doing!
Funnily enough, I was watching a video this morning on the Tom The Taxi Driver channel.
It was interesting to get the perspective of a London cabbie on the changes which are happening at Euston. One foesn't often consider the impact of infrastructure changes on all the support services which have to make it work.
The relevant episode is called "RIP Euston Taxi Rank".
I asked my mum if we could visit the old Euston before they did away with it. I remember the great hall, this wonderful space, with scale models of locomotives in the spaces between the columns , and an encounter with a tipsy Irish lady waiting for the Irish mail train. And the last of the blood and custard carriages!
Reminds me of the story of the old Penn Station in my native New York City.
As I live overseas, I pass through Euston very infrequently, perhaps every 3-10 years. I think of my time in the space, particularly the forecourt, as chapter breaks in my life story; I have just completed one phase, which will have been several years long, and I am about to embark on the next. I also attended the Live Aid concert with my brother, and the passages that day through the station to/from Euston Square to pick up the underground tofrom Wembley (via Baker Street) are etched in my mind. I have very strong positive feelings for the place, even though it is out-and-out utilitarian.
Thank you. I can remember it when new and the epitome of modern and I've always been a fan, likewise your histories.
Wonderful, and as usual, understated commentary, almost sardonic. Almost as classic as the προπύλαια.
As someone who lived for over 40 years at various places close to the WCML, Euston was always my main rail access into London. I'm not old enough to remember the pre-68 version, but there is no doubt that the current station is stereotypically 1960's ugly. Having said that, I always thought that it functioned well as a major railway terminus. The space in the concourse, the ramps to the platforms and the retail and food outlets around the perimeter all worked. The two walkways on either side of the main concourse that went to the low numbered and high numbered platforms reminded me of an airport terminal. If I had a gripe, it would be the lack of a direct connection to Euston Square tube station.
At least one of the gate houses at Euston is still used...As an ale house...Always visit Euston Tap when I'm wandering around the smoke. Shame about the cider tap...
Has that closed?
@@AtheistOrphan Yes, For a little while now.
@@SFS1009 - Thanks for the info.👍
Great upload! I studied architecture in the mid 1990's and wrote an essay comparing the orginal Euston, Kings Cross and Kings Cross St Pancreas stations and I use the current Euston station regularly (I had no idea that Archigram were involved in a proposal to redevelop it). I always thought the current station is somewhat unfarily maligned. Sure, its not as regal as its Victorian counterparts but it functions as it should. The plaza at the front is a useful breakout space for communters leaving the station itself. And the black cladding of the complex gives it an intresting mid sixties look... I for one will be sorry to see it go... especially as it still seems fit for purpose and we should be looking to not demolish and rebuild, but adapt and reuse.
Arrived at Euston on a Friday in November 1964 just before 17.00 from Oxenholme (leaving at 09.30am). we waited for me Dad taking us to Wimbledon by his Work's Van. God that was a trip and a half.
you are Rod Stewarts football pitch to our lazy sunday mornings.
Really good Jago; a fascinating tale and comforting to know that, even in the good old days, we had Marples feathering his own nest by manipulating the transport infrastructure.
I'd not realised how old the station is. My second least favourite station (after Victoria) in London but many adventures have started with a train from there so I regard the terminus with some fondness. Once again, an interesting article on a place which would not otherwise capture my interest.
I used Euston a lot when I was traveling to London, but I didn't knew about the history of it. Now that I know it makes me sad to see such a beautiful looking old building being replaced by the modern one. Now I need to find time to watch your video about Liverpool Street Station. Been there as well.
the tastiest French onion soup I've ever had was in the late 1970's at a little cafe in the parade of shops along the front of the new Station building (at the northern end of the parade).
I think I'm going to need a video about Rod Stewart's swimming pool. Does it slide open, like the swimming pool in Thunderbirds, to reveal Rod Stewart's model railway room below the pool?
Howl's Moving Castle? I used Euston,1969-72, as a student from Brum, behind Class 86 locos, which did 110 mph beside the M1, south of Watford Gap, to show off. Perhaps the condition for further demolition should be the resurrection of The Arch?
I remember my Mum using the Super Loo in about 1972. She was quite impressed!
Thanks
And thank you!
The loss of the Euston Arch (demolished, not even relocated) was inexcusable. There was talk of rebuilding the arch as part of the HS2 upgrade but suspect that won’t now be happening with the monumental cost increases.
Well, the Doric Arch maybe gone but it's name lives on as a most excellent pub!
I had happily forgotten that the Black Tower (40 Melton Street or Railtrack House) had existed until I caught a glimpse on your video of an archive image. Been to some thoroughly dismal meetings in that building.
I like Euston. Particularly the black marble front, and the green marble floors. But the arch should have been kept.
I also liked the Thornton House office block that has been flattened as part of the HS2 work. As an example of 60s architecture it was one of the better ones. Now there are doubts about HS2 coming to Euston, has it's demolition been in vain?
I forgot about the designs showing the roof as a helipad/airport and they also wanted to build a landing pad/airport on Kings Cross station as well.
I actually learned to fly a helicopter - partly because they’re quick, and partly because the cost is competitive with the peak-time rail fares…
I have enjoyed the First Class lounge at Euston on many occasion when heading up north.
We used Euston a few times in the early days of diesel traction on the local trains and before electrification, then through electrification, which was effective in 1966. Indeed some of the express and freight were still steam hauled. This was from 64 to about 1971. I don’t recall too much about the station as we went to the underground, in pre Victoria line days, to go to St Barts. I don’t recall too much about the rebuilding, except we originally came to the northern line city branch platform down the stairs at one end but then came down to the new arrangement when the Victoria line was coming along.
Roads-Ernest Marples, Rails- Charles Tyson Yerkes.
Is that Michael Portillo passing the camera at 13.30??!!
Walking cities? Flying in city centres by airship? Sounds like that group of architects provided inspiration for more than one anime film.
Let's get ready for 'Girls Und Helicopter' !😅
And possibly Phillip Reeve's 'Mortal Engines' series, about travelling cities: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_Engines
And they're being sought out by Saudi Arabia at this very moment.
There was a walking drag line crane once!
It would be really interesting to do a comparison between what happened at Euston and Penn Station in NYC at around the same time. Both were lamented and were the sacrifices that led to better preservation of architectural heritage afterwards.
Saw Euston station for the first time in the early 1970s and I was wuite impressed. It was clean and bright, and being a Saturday, not so many people, so the concourse felt spacious.
They were using a platform for stabling locos, as I saw five parked together.
On a related theme, Munich Hauptbahnhof is to be rebuilt in the next few years.
Excellent video
I was fortunate to be taken to the great hall , my father would go in the cafe for a drink and I would go and animate the model steam engines in glass cases with pennies . Going through to the platforms was wonderful experience of darkness , single light bulbs and steam monsters at the stops.
I must be one of the very few other people who likes the current Euston station, I have a copy of the original brochure, which better shows the intention before the airy concourse got filled with concession stands. I always love the sign saying 'tickets for future travel' as if you could buy tickets for travel in the past somewhere - but then again I guess that's what you provide with your channel. I'm sure people will regret it's demise in years to come as they did the previous.
Unpopular opinion - but I like Euston. Well, I remember being wowed by it in the 1970s when it seemed so spacious, clean, bright and airy compared with the grimy, oppressive gloom of other intercity stations of the era. And I can’t quite get over that initial impression even though it’s aged poorly and has been mucked about with so much.
I saw the old Euston once, but I was very young, and don’t remember much about it. I first saw the new one in 1967, when I was considered old enough to go up to London on my own. Some sort of tent or temporary building had been erected in front of the station to house an exhibition of colour television, and that was my reason for going there. I too was very impressed when I saw the new station.
I saw the new departure screens when I went to the Birmingham Christmas market last year. Two generations of Solaris and the LEDs were in the right place, above the entrance to the platforms, now the new ones are small, af right angles and low down, similar to the infamous and short-lived plasma screens at Waterloo.
"I'm sure Marvel are planning a new 6-parter..."
Well, if they weren't, I bet they will now!
As controversial as it was, I wish they’d kept the arch. It makes the station look like a gateway to a grand empire, which the LNWR pretty much was.
Cracking video sir.
I was taken into the 'secret' side of Euston in the late '80's by a platform guard when I missed my train home to the midlands. Beneath the concourse is another level where post office business & logistics used to happen, many 'trains' of PO trolleys were dragged around underground by electric carts creating a very busy scene. The reason we went down there was to go to he large staff canteen to get me a free dinner, it helped that I was very small as a child/teen so probably looked younger than my 15 year old self. I seem to remember getting down there by going down the ramp past the buffers at the end of the platform which takes you into a long tunnel that links all the platforms & would be used to get the mail to or from the trains. Back when mail used to travel largely by rail
I always thought it was a very neat design the way the platform heads split, ramping up to the concourse for the passengers and down to the undercroft for goods and mail.
What made the Superloo so super? Well, everything is super with Helvetica.
Regular cleaning and showers
I wasn't expecting a train -architecture cross over episode
I quite like the idea of a walking station. It can shuffle back and forth between Euston and Old Oak Common thus making the interchange between the two a lot easier. If that idea should be outside of the available budget, could we have a heliport to link the two instead? 😁
Today's Euston makes me see similarities with architect Mies van der Rohe and the "less is more" approach to designing buildings. The demolition of old Euston reminds me of the similar destruction of Chicago's Lasalle Street station and it's sub par early 1980s replacement. An office block for the Chicago Board of Option Exchange took most of the original site.
Notwithstanding the loss of the old, the original, uncluttered concourse of the new had a grandeur of its own, which is, once more, a sad loss.
what a fantastic video jago.
I love Euston , whatever it looks liked, although it looks fine as it currently is. It’s Euston, just that. And it’ had always had trains to interesting places. Also, my great grandparents had a large house on Hampstead Road overlooking the lines , just before the rosd crossed over the railway. Lost firstly by a petrol station and now the HS2 works
Interesting to hear about the helicopter fixation. My joke for when there is a replacement service,”passengers are advised that this service is a replacement helicopter service “.
The Superloo at Euston had great showers in the 70's, as I spent a few months homeless, living in my car, they were very handy as council public baths had almost disappeared by then. The ones that did remain had limited opening hours not convenient if working. The showers at Euston were open 24hrs and the Barber's was better than the one at Waterloo which took some doing.