20th July: Euston Station

On this date in 1837 London opened its first intercity railway station, Euston. Here are some things you may not have known about Euston Station.

1. Euston was the first intercity railway station to open in London. It was the terminus of the London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR).
2. When the decision to build a station on the site was made, it was on the edge of London, mostly farmland and described as “a quiet scene of nursery gardens”.
3. The original building was designed by classically trained architect Philip Hardwick and built by William Cubitt. It had two platforms, one for departures and one for arrivals, and a 72 ft (22 m) monumental gateway, the largest ever built, at the entrance, known as the Euston Arch. The building was described as “mightier than the pyramids of Egypt.”
4. The station was named after Euston Hall in Suffolk, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Grafton, the main landowners in the area.
5. Until 1844, trains had to be pulled up the hill to Camden Town by cables because of an Act of Parliament prohibiting the use of locomotives in the area. The act had been passed because local residents had been concerned about the noise and smoke locomotives might produce as they toiled up the hill.
6. Due to increased passenger numbers, the station was demolished and rebuilt in the 1960s. The new building, intended to symbolise the coming of the "electric age", was designed by British Rail in consultation with Richard Seifert & Partners and built by Taylor Woodrow. The monumental arch was demolished, much to the horror of the public including Sir John Betjeman. His campaign to save the old building failed but led to the formation of The Victorian Society, which did manage to save St Pancras station's Gothic building. The new building wasn't popular. "A dingy, grey, horizontal nothingness"; entirely lacking in "the sense of occasion, of adventure, that the great Victorian termini gave to the traveller"; "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"; "one of the greatest acts of Post-War architectural vandalism in Britain" are some of the comments made about it.
7. All that remains of the old station now are two Portland stone entrance lodges, a war memorial and some statues. A statue of Robert Stephenson by Carlo Marochetti, previously in the old ticket hall, stands in the forecourt. There is also a large statue by Eduardo Paolozzi named Piscator dedicated to German theatre director Erwin Piscator at the front of the courtyard. In July 2014 a statue of Matthew Flinders, who circumnavigated the globe and charted Australia, was added, because it is thought his grave lies under platform 15.
8. The station today has 18 platforms. Four of them are extra long to accommodate the 16-car Caledonian Sleeper. It is the sixth busiest railway station in the UK.
9. In 1983, eight people were injured when an IRA bomb went off in a snack bar. The Police had received a three-minute warning and were unable to evacuate the station completely, but British Transport Police evacuated much of the area before the explosion. A woman called Judith Ward was convicted of causing the explosion, despite the evidence against her being highly suspect. She was acquitted in 1992. The actual culprit has never been found.
10. In the early 2000s, there was talk again of demolishing the station and rebuilding it, possibly rebuilding the arch, but it was decided in 2011 that the station should just get a makeover. However, the proposed High Speed 2 line to Birmingham and the north, which would terminate at Euston, would require extensive redevelopment, so the "dingy, grey, horizontal nothingness" may not be safe after all, and the arch could yet reappear.