Victorian Stations: Railway Stations in England and Wales, 1836-1923

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I am going to design, in a great hurry, a station after my own fancy . . . with engineering roofs etc., etc.. It is at Paddington, in a cutting, and admitting of no exterior, all interior and all roofed in . . . Now such a thing will be entirely metal as to all the general forms, arrangements and design; it almost of necessity becomes an Engineering Work, but, to be honest, even if it were not, it is a branch of architecture of which I am fond, and, of course, believe myself to be fully competent for, but for detail of ornamentation I neither have time nor knowledge, and with all my confidence in my own ability I have never any objection to advice and assistance even in the department which I keep to myself, namely the general design. Now, in this building which, entre nous, will be one of the largest of its class, I want to carry out, strictly and fully, all those correct notions of the use of metal which I believe you and I share (except that I should carry them sill farther than you) . . . I want to show the public that colour can be used . . . ” (quoted also by L T C Rolt, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, London, 1957.) Crook, J. Mordaunt. The Dilemma of Style: Architectural Ideas from the Picturesque to the Post-Modern. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.

In the latest of his features for ChronicleLive, local historian CHARLIE STEEL recalls the various railway and Metro stations that have served North Shields since the middle of the 19th century From 1899 the LC&DR entered a working union with its rival, the South Eastern Railway, to form the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR). As a result, services from its station at Victoria began to be rationalised and integrated with those from the other SECR termini. [40] a b c d "Tube bosses tell commuters: don't travel through Victoria at rush-hour, it's too busy". London Evening Standard. 8 March 2016 . Retrieved 6 August 2017. As of December 2022, the typical off-peak service run by Southeastern in trains per hour (tph) is: [77] It is worth pointing out that the Italianate features of King’s Cross — notably the tower as cited by Pevsner — could well reflected Prince Albert’s enthusiasm for Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s Italianate designs for the Prussian royal family — notably his work at Charlottenhof. Albert, incidentally, had chosen Lewis’ alder brother Thomas as his architect for Osborne House (1845-48), the summer home of the royal family on the Isle of Wight. Thomas Cubitt (1788-1855), who had begun his career as a carpenter, was the greatest London speculative builder and developer of the 1820s. Belgravia, Bloomsbury, Pimlico and Tyburn were largely built by him and he made an immense fortune. Lewis Cubitt also built the Great Northern Hotel (1854) — the oldest hotel in central London — which adjoins King’s Cross. Unlike the station, it is of no remarkable architectural distinction, though the passing years have given it a charming patina. It is recommended for those wishing to spend a night in London before going on to Luton Airport. When King’s Cross is restored the space between King’s Cross and St Pancras International will form a magnificent piazza. The two stations will supply a vivid lesson in the polarities of nineteenth-century architecture. (Lewis Cubitt was a very successful bridge designer — much of his work was overseas. He deserves more attention than he has received from historians.) Paddington Station, London (1854), designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-59) Matthew Digby Wyatt (1820-77) and Owen Jones (1809-74)The District, like the Metropolitan, also attracted a lot of attention from other railway companies, anxious to get to the City by a new route. This created three other "circle" routes, the first being Middle Circle, started in 1872, which involved the Great Western running trains from Aldgate to Paddington on Metropolitan lines, and then over its own lines to Westbourne Park, where it switched to the Hammersmith and City (which it jointly owned with the Met), then by a link (now lost) at Latimer Road onto the West London Line, which brought it to Kensington (now Kensington Olympia) and onto the District Lines into Mansion House. Born in Newcastle, local historian and author, Charlie Steel has spent much of his life living in Monkseaton. With a lifelong interest in the North Tyneside area, he has several published books to his credit. They include Monkseaton Village (Part 1 & 2), Whitley Bay Remembered (Part 1 & 2), North Shields Public Houses, Inns & Taverns’ (Part 1 & 2), and Tynemouth Remembered - all published by Summerhill Books. London’s extensive railway network is an integral part of the city’s infrastructure, connecting millions of people every day. However, few may be aware of the long and complex history behind the development of these railways. A journey through time is necessary to understand how London’s railways came to be, tracing their origins from the earliest horse-drawn lines to the high-speed trains of today. This journey takes us through a fascinating exploration of technological advances, political maneuvers, and social changes that shaped the railways and, in turn, the city itself. From its humble beginnings to its current state as a world-renowned transportation hub, the story of London’s railways is one of constant evolution and innovation, driven by the needs and aspirations of its people.

Minnis, John. Britain’s Lost Railways: The Twentieth-Century Destruction of Our Finest Railway Architecture. The Mildura railway line was closed by the Kennett Government in 1993 after the withdrawal of The Vinelander service. The colour scheme of Paddington — long since vanished — was by the architect, historian and theoretician, Owen Jones, who was responsible for the colouring of Paxton’s Crystal Palace. Jones, whose stature has yet to be fully recognised, was as progressive as Brunel. He moved in advanced intellectual circles and was a close friend of the novelist George Eliot (Marian Evans, 1819-80) and her consort George Henry Lewes (1817-78), the writer and biographer of Goethe. Matthew Digby Wyatt was a successful architect — Secretary of the Great Exhibition and Surveyor of the East India Company. He was also, in an era when art history was an emerging discipline, the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge. Like Owen Jones he was an accomplished designer and, indeed closely associated with Jones. It is not difficult to detect the influence of Jones in the Moorish cast-iron capitals at Paddington. Jones’ first great publication — the monumental two volume Alhambra, London, 1836-45, being the inspiration. The boom of the railways took force in England from the late 1830s and into the 1840s, so much so that in 1840 the HM railway inspectorate was set up, and the 1840 Act for Regulating Railways: Frith painted several smaller versions of The Railway Station, including a version in the New Walk Art Gallery, Leicester. Technical examination of this picture has established it was painted by Frith himself but at a considerably later date than the original.London and South East" (PDF). National Rail. September 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 March 2009. The London & Birmingham Line (L&BR) was one of the first inter-city railway lines to be built in the United Kingdom. It was completed in 1838 and connected the cities of London and Birmingham, covering a distance of 112 miles. The line was designed by Robert Stephenson, one of the most famous civil engineers of his time, and was considered a masterpiece of railway engineering. The L&BR was an important milestone in the development of the railway system in the UK, and it helped to revolutionize transport and travel in the country.