Leeds railway station, March 2008
A soulless modern station
(Article © urban75, March 2008)

There's some beautiful railway architecture to be found in Britain, but sadly much of the modern stuff compares very badly with Victorian and Edwardian buildings.

Take the case of Leeds' hideous mess of a station - all soulless Meccano tubing and wannabe airport stylings - which has such a fussy construction it looks like its permanently covered in scaffolding.


Comparing the pipe laden dark roof of Leeds with the light majesty of the Victorian engineering at stations like St Pancras/Kings Cross/York is rather a depressing experience.

How can any architect think this is what the public want?




The elevated, airport-style walkway works, but the steep stairs are awful to use. The escalators are too narrow if you're carrying large luggage and there's not enough lifts.

What's wrong with employing large, graceful stairways or, even better, well lit, broad subways?


Anther view of the wildly over engineered slab of functional ugliness.


Compare and contrast with the bright, simple and spacious lines of the original booking hall at Leeds.

MORE LINKS
Hebden Bridge station
Keighley & Worth Valley railway


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