Cathedrals of Steam

Presenter: Christian Wolmar

Virtual Meeting via Zoom

The Victorians bestowed mixed blessings upon us with regard to our transport infrastructure. Driven by the prevailing preference for competition and constrained by planning legislation, a plethora of railway termini in our capital city and many of the provincial centres (Nottingham and Sheffield for example) resulted. Christian pointed out that London has far more termini than other comparable cities. This has probably been a bonus for enthusiasts but sometimes a pain for passengers. The speaker and the subject generated a record attendance for our branch, two short of 100.

The railway companies were not allowed into the city, as defined more or less by the present Circle line and this resulted in much of the current arrangement of a ring of terminal stations. Some companies were tentative at first. So we had: – Spar Road, Maidens Lane, Bishop’s Gate and Nine Elms, before they grew more assertive and served their clientele better with respectively: – London Bridge, Kings Cross, Liverpool Street and Waterloo. Southern companies crossed the river onto the north bank. Cross-London mainline routes were confined to the Metropolitan widened lines and Snow Hill. Abercrombie, in the WWII years, proposed through routes and the Thames Link came to pass while the Queen Elizabeth line has finally emerged 75 years later.

Christian focused on the architectural merits of the facades, hotels and train-sheds, his own favourite being Kings Cross. Façade and Hotel styles were a mixture of Classical and Italianate with St Pancras going for Gothic. Train-sheds were developed in the era of Crystal Palace – magnificent structures that have been enhanced in some cases in recent times.

So we have few through routes and stations in our capital city and it could be argued that the very concept of terminal stations is an anachronism. The new Euston will tend to perpetuate this phenomenon.

At the end of the Q & A session we debated the relative merits of virtual and physical meetings. Our branch is exploring the feasibility of joint session, starting in September. We would be interested in hearing form other branches contemplating the same.