Beautiful Railway Stations

[buzby]

I think - possibly unfairly - that King's Cross is always going to be in the shadow of St. Pancras (literally and figuratively). Having said that, I don't remember it looking like it does inside in your second picture, so it must have been a while since I passed through there!

Similarly, the removal of the horrible old building attached to the front of King's Cross:

to allow the old building to be seen in full was a great thing to do.

I like the new extension on the side too - it's wonderfully spacious and light inside, as well as interesting to look at.

[Gurke and Hare]

Your pic seems to be missing, but I can confirm that Hamburg is a particularly great station to have to wait around in.

It's the one on this page.

[Serge]

Nice! Yeah, I had to wait around for trains to Lüneburg from there on more than one occasion. I remember buying a copy of 'Kitchen Confidential' in a bookshop in Hamburg, and started reading that whilst I was waiting, so I always associate that book with Hamburg Station.

[Smeraldina Rima]

Not beautiful, but here are some nice old pictures of Little Weighton being kept in shape.

[Ferris]

These are all just lovely.

To add - Birmingham Moor Street is very nice, fond memories of sitting in the cafe drinking beers. Also the previously mentioned Toronto Union Station is very grand inside (and if you loiter and look at it long enough, the old ladies who work there will come over and tell you facts about it), and Edinburgh Waverly for the view it affords of the castle when leaving Eastbound towards Haymarket. Plus Sheffield station for the fountains outside and the pub on platform 2 (?).

Come to think of it, I can't think of an unpleasant train station (other than the old Birmingham New Street which was like a car park designed by an '80s heroin addict). The UK really has train stations sewn up. Chapeau.

[purlieu]

Come to think of it, I can't think of an unpleasant train station (other than the old Birmingham New Street which was like a car park designed by an '80s heroin addict).

To the Ugly Railway Stations thread with you!

[Blumf]

To add - Birmingham Moor Street is very nice,

Yep, one of the very few genuinely lovely places in Brum centre.

Looking it up I see that it had a fancy traverser table set up:


http://warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrms1223.htm

[Cursus]

I see Simon Jenkins has just published a guide to Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations:

[PowerButchi]

Local bias, but Ruabon Train Station is very pleasant indeed.

[Twit 2]

I see Simon Jenkins has just published a guide to Britain's 100 Best Railway Stations:

Here's the top 10, including Norwich yay!

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/oct/01/10-of-the-best-railway-stations-in-britain-uk-simon-jenkins

[PowerButchi]

Being originally of Llangollen, the Guardian are cheating bastards and the Llangollen Railway isn't a real one. Only stations served by disappointing overpriced franchises please.

[Ferris]

Being originally of Llangollen, the Guardian are cheating bastards and the Llangollen Railway isn't a real one. Only stations served by disappointing overpriced franchises please.

I inadvertently went to Llangollen on a rainy Saturday and had a lovely time. It was during the comedy festival and I had fancy fish and chips in a nice restaurant overlooking the river. None of this is pertinent, but basically - Llangollen; very nice place. Glad to hear the train station is appropriately pleasant.

[newbridge]

New York's Grand Central is the shoo-in's shoo-in for 'most beautiful railway station', but only because the Sunderland-esque Penn Central isn't included.  Other N American cities apparently putting us to shame include Toronto's magnificent (you have no idea how hard it is for me to type those last two words) Union Station and

Penn Station used to be glorious, but it was demolished by the dunces of ages past and is now a dumpster.

[Tikwid]

If we're talking tube stations then the Leslie Green-designed ones on the Piccadilly/Northern/Bakerloo lines have always been my favourites:

On the other hand I have got a soft spot for Nyugati palyaudvar, the venerable old train station in Pest:

Bloody hell, it's the station from Half-Life 2!

[Billy]

These are all just lovely.

To add - Birmingham Moor Street is very nice, fond memories of sitting in the cafe drinking beers. Also the previously mentioned Toronto Union Station is very grand inside (and if you loiter and look at it long enough, the old ladies who work there will come over and tell you facts about it), and Edinburgh Waverly for the view it affords of the castle when leaving Eastbound towards Haymarket. Plus Sheffield station for the fountains outside and the pub on platform 2 (?).

Come to think of it, I can't think of an unpleasant train station (other than the old Birmingham New Street which was like a car park designed by an '80s heroin addict). The UK really has train stations sewn up. Chapeau.

I was astonished when I stopped over in Moor Street about a decade ago - 1990s childhood memories had it as a glum and desolate green shed of a station. The old-school rebuilding of it all since was incredible.

[Gurke and Hare]

Putting this in beautiful rather than ugly despite its present condition because of what it could be. Let's hope it does get restored.

[studpuppet]

Yeah, Canary Wharf's similar. I wonder if that vast space thing that they have is inspired by Grand Central, which is similar albeit more ornate.

If we're allowed underground stations, well, virtually every station on the Piccadilly line has something to recommend it for. Even if it's only the clocks at Hammersmith.

And the original thirties wooden benches on the platforms, and the District Line tiles at one of the entrances!

[studpuppet]

I love the Santa Maria Novella station at Florence, in all it's bronze-and-marble Mussolini pomp. I arrived there after taking an overnight train from Munich once and was just wowed by it. Still has all the original signage for the kiosks etc. which makes it look amazingly modern.

Great official photos here:

http://www.italianways.com/the-new-santa-maria-novella-train-station-in-florence/

And a couple of it in use :

[purlieu]

It needs touching up a little, but Stoke-on-Trent has a rather grand looking station for a place of its renown.

[The Culture Bunker]

I thought Helsinki's Central Station very grand.

[thenoise]

The grand and ridiculous Milano Centrale, Italy. Fascist art at it's most fantastic.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Anyone mentioned Sao Bento station in Porto?

It's a beauty.



Especially when the sun shines through the tinted glass, bathing the entrance in a warm glow.

[Cuellar]

Antwerp Central is a grand monster, multi-storeyed.

[buttgammon]

Yes! The most beautiful train station I've ever been in, and somewhere that sets the tone nicely for a lovely city. The outside isn't bad either, especially when viewed through the Chinatown Arch.

[ToneLa]

I thought Helsinki's Central Station very grand.

mirrored this as I was seeing anti-hotlinking nonsense

God, this thread is gorgeous. Seen a lot of em myself - personal favourites; Sao Bento, Antwerp, Lime Street

[Darles Chickens]

Madrid Atocha is pretty nice if you enjoy small tropical jungles in your station.






The last photo there is the memorial to the 191 victims of the terrorist attack on 11th March 2004.

[kngen]

Antwerp Central is a grand monster, multi-storeyed.

Yep, first one I thought of. Seeing trains arriving on the raised platforms from the concourse below is quite something; made me think of Magritte's Time Transfixed.



Not exactly blowing anyone's mind here, but New York's Grand Central is lovely. It's lit in perpetual twilight, which somehow seems to calm everyone down a little. If I'm with someone that's never been there before, I take them for a cocktail in one of the bars in the mezzanines at either end of the main concourse.  Sipping an Old-fashioned while half of New York scurries back to the provinces makes you feel like a mad joyous king, especially when your alcohol/train station interactions were usually of the 'bag of cans at Partick Overground' variety up until that point.

[Bronzy]

Gare de Strasbourg-Ville is a beauty.

[NoSleep]

My favourite railway station is Crystal Palace, which harks back to its origins in the Victorian era (opened in 1854).






But it used to be just one of two stations that brought punters to the Crystal Palace, and the other now defunct station was/is something to behold in its ruin:

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Madrid Atocha building and that old concourse they've turned into a garden are very nice.

It's a bit of a windowless stressy corporate place in the bits you need to go through though. And Spain has bag checks which is a depressingly authoritarian time wasting reaction to terrorism.