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London
Euston
Station
1962
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Main Entrance Main entrance to 'Old Euston' from the restricted courtyard off
Drummond Street. © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
Taken on 6th
April 1962 (unless dated otherwise), a significant number of excellent
photographs by Ben Brooksbank and Alan Murray-Rust have
come to Blood and Custard’s attention in respect of the old Euston Station not
long before its demolition and rebuilding. A further selection of photographs
(1963 to 1965) includes the rebuilding of the station.
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Doric Arch at Euston Station Demolition
of the Doric Arch begins; this being 'in the way' of the approaches to the
New Euston. Despite of vigorous protests by many eminent people it was
condemned in October 1961 by Ernest Marples, then
Minister of Transport supported by the Conservative Prime Minister (Harold
Macmillan). The breakers moved in on 6th
November 1961 (the contract for building the new station having been awarded
to Taylor Woodrow Construction Ltd earlier that year). “I took
this photograph on a wet 12 February 1962. When the new - and dreadful -
'Great Hall' had been completed in 1968 it was found that there was plenty of
room after all”. © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Euston Station From
Euston Road the entrance to Euston Station after removal of the Doric Arch. The
two flanking 'classical' lodges remain, the LNWR War Memorial is prominent.
The Station is beyond the Euston Hotel, which also disappeared in the sixties
rebuilding. © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Arrival Side Arrival side from the road approach off Drummond Street. Platforms 1
and 2 are off to the right, Platforms 3 and 4 and the rest of the station are
to the left. Note the poster advertising the 'Starlight Specials' to
Scotland. © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Arrival Side Arrival side to Drummond Street, south-east from roadway between Platforms 1/2 (left) and 3/4 (right). © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Great Hall Interior
of Great Hall at Euston Station, built by the (then) newly created London
& North Western Railway in 1846 at the 1837 terminus of the London &
Birmingham Railway. Ahead is the grand staircase leading to the gallery and
shareholders' room, past the 1852 statue of George Stephenson. Removed in 1961 and weighing around six tones, the marble statue of George Stephenson on its
plinth was 15' high. It was commissioned from sculptor Edward Hodges Baily (1788-1867).
Picked
out in gold, its inscription reads: “George
Stephenson; Born June 9th 1781; Died
August 12th 1848” “Being a
Sunday there are relatively few people around - except the inevitable
sleeping drunk. A splendid place for a booking-office, but you normally
bought your ticket from a little guichet outside in a narrow passageway. This
was all destroyed in 1962.” © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Circulating Corridor Circulating corridor behind main entrance, looking towards Arrival side.
The Great Hall was to the left. A limited number of 'retail outlets' lined
the corridor. “A totally different Age. Note how smart
everybody is!” © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Platform 3 Outward view to the barriers of Local Platforms 4/5 and 6/7 (on left);
in the centre is Main Arrival Platform 3, then the roadway for picking up passengers
and luggage and over to the right are Main Arrival Platform 2/1. Head Wrightson
Ltd of Thornaby-on-Tees built railway wagons (including some of British
Rail’s Salmon engineering vehicles). © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Platform 3 Looking inward from Platform 3 on the Arrival side to the shorter
platforms 4/5 and 6/7, which were used for local trains being DC electrified
for the service to Watford. On the left the taxi-ramp can be seen descending between nos. 2 and 3,
having curved all the way round outside No. 1 from Drummond Street. © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Platform 10/11 With a Ford Thames 400E van, outward in middle section to Platforms 11
(left) and 10 (further on right), in roadway used by parcels and other vans. © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Platform
12/13 To the barriers on Platform 12/13. On the right is Fowler no. 42367 at
Platform 14 on empty stock it has brought in from Willesden. Immediately above is a bridge for vans leading from Cardington Street
to Platforms 11 and 10 where parcels etc. were loaded. © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Platform
12/13 Departure side: outward on Platforms 13/12. © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Platform
12/13 Departure side: inward view to barriers along
Platform 12/13. © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Platform 13/14 Departure side: outward at the end of Platform 13, Stanier 'Coronation'
8P no. 46228 'Duchess of Rutland' is about to leave on the 10.25 to Carlisle
and Windermere. Ahead is the Ampthill Square Bridge No. 2. Until 1952 there would also
have been the Bridge No. 1, making the whole top end of the Station very
restricted and claustrophobic, dominated by the great No. 2 Signalbox; No. 2
Bridge was also removed when the New Euston was built. © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Platform 14/15 Departure side: outward view with the empty stock of a Down express near
the buffer-stops of platform 14 brought in from Willesden by LMS Fowler 4P no.
42367. This was the great old, rambling station not long before it was rebuilt
for 1966. The main Departure side (Platforms 12-15) were separated by various
structures (including the Great Hall) and local platforms from the Arrival
side well away on the east side. © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Euston Station Sunshine streaming through the glazed
curtain wall alleviates the generally dingy atmosphere of the old Euston
Station. Royal Scot class no.46153 'The Royal Dragoon' makes its
departure. © Alan Murray-Rust (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Euston Station The
station throat with a Black 5 locomotive propelling empty stock under the
Ampthill Square Bridge (which has since been demolished). In the foreground
are the DC electrified tracks for the local services to Watford which used
the fourth-rail system (shared with Bakerloo Line underground trains north from
Queens Park). © Alan Murray-Rust (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Euston Station 'Jinty' tank locomotive
no.47522 is performing station pilot duties (shunting a parcels van) while
Black 5 no.44752 is awaiting departure. © Alan Murray-Rust (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Eversholt Street South-east on Eversholt Street at Drummond
Street (by Euston Station) towards Euston Road and along Upper Woburn Place
to St Pancras Church in the mist. This was before the rebuilding of Euston Station for 1966, in which
this end of Drummond Street was swallowed up. © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
Reconstruction of
Euston Station
1963
The ‘old’ station had a total of 15 platforms, of
which 14 were used by passengers; most of these were now of inadequate length.
The remaining platform being used for (mechanised) parcels traffic.
Phase one of the reconstruction replaced these
with 18 new platforms, three of which were segregated for parcels traffic.
These new platforms varied in length from 700 ft. to 1,300 ft., being designed
to accommodate the longest trains proposed. The main island platforms were
constructed at a width of 37 feet.
Phase two was across the old station frontage
above the London Transport Northern Line and for the new Victoria Line. The new
670 ft. long station building (including a concourse of some 30,000 sq. ft)
housed passenger and British Rail administration facilities. In addition, a
multi-storey underground car park was provided with vehicular access (including
taxis and GPO vehicles) being below ground.
A British Rail publication on the new Euston station can be
found on the Barrowmore Model Railway club website.
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Arrival
side A transitional view outward on the remains of the roadway between the
former Platforms 2 and 3, showing the entrances to the Underground station. © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Platform 6 From the former
of Platform 6, considerable rebuilding has occurred on the site of the Main
Arrival platforms. © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Platform 8 With more of
the New Euston on the left, two Type 1 Diesels now in use on empty stock
workings. Ahead, Ampthill Square No. 2 Bridge is still there. © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Platform 8 From the remains of Platform 8, rebuilt and electrified with an EMU waiting
to leave for Watford Junction. The inner part of the Main Arrival side is a
wasteland, seemingly not able to receive trains. Beyond is Euston House on Eversholt Street. © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
1964
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Platform 3 Outward from barrier end of Arrival side, on site of former Platforms 3
on the right and 8 on the left. © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
1965
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Arrival platforms Looking inwards
from the end of the Arrival platforms. Main-line electric trains started to
run in November 1965 and here the wires are already up, but a steam
locomotive (Stanier 5MT no. 45292) is still to be seen. The New Station is
now recognisable. © Ben Brooksbank (CC-by-SA/2.0) |
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Ben Brooksbank In researching photographs for BloodandCustard webpages many excellent the
photographs taken by Ben Brooksbank
emerged of the geographically-based Geograph website. Ben granted permission to use these photographs under the Creative Commons licence. Sadly, those of us here at BloodandCustard never got to meet Ben (a lifelong railway enthusiast and Retired Medical Scientist sadly he passed on 24th February 2018). However, this page is dedicated in gratitude towards both Ben and his foresight to take these photographs which form part of an important historical record. |
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COPYRIGHT BLOODANDCUSTARD PHOTOGRAPHIC COPYRIGHT BEN BROOKSBANK (CC-BY-SA/2.0) |
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