[Closed] It's Tuesday, it's Elfin's Architectural Appreciation Thread! Stations Edition.

This is degrading to poor, defenceless Portakabins.

😉

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As an aside, I'm looking forward to the airport edition...! Seem to be spending a lot of time in them at the moment!

Classical 1960s architecture 😕
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That text you sent me last week was to MrsWCA phone.

She was most puzzled when an unknown number txt her to call her an IDIOT!

Only found out when discussing weird messages and emails this weekend

Not just one station - the Bilbao Metro by Sir Norm

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God, New St is one of the most depressing places I've ever had the misfortune to pass through. Truly horrible.

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WCA; well that's the number you gave me when you were between 'phones, so what am I sposed to do?

Please explain to your wife that it was in fact you, not her, I was calling an idiot.

Mind you, she already knows this...

Yep, its pretty grim. Amazing to think that it replaced this:

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Supposed to look like this soon though:

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Oh that's such a shame. 🙁

Something went horribly wrong in Birmingham, din't it?

New-type one looks interesting, but will it ever end up like that, or will compromises mean that it's just a half-arsed attempt, as seems to happen so often with buildings these days?

Flinders St station in Melbourne:

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I love railway stations- well most, St Pancras is truly amazing, I know its not British but found Grand Central spectacular and I am constantly delighted by little village ones. On the hated list is Bristol Parkway, I must never meet the person/people who designed it!

The new New St looks pretty desperate and a touch too 80s makes me think of the space ship in the sf children's film the Navigator.

And I like the flat iron below!

Reminds me of home.

The Flat Iron building in Toronto
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EDIT:Oops.. didn't read the brief...sorry

Never mind stations, this is my favourite architectural construction full stop. It closes completely flat at night and opens hydraulically. Genius.

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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/flamejob/5488836370/ ]Calatrava Metro Entrance[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/flamejob/ ]Flamejob[/url], on Flickr

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Manchester Oxford Road.One of those lovely little overlooked pieces of Architecture. Its so hedged in, and so much smaller in scale than t'other local ones, that you don't really notice it.

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Then when you do notice it, you notice how unique it is. Designed by Henry Moore. I wish they'd do it up. Rather than spending millions on Piccadilly's glass and chrome, this just needs tarting up a bit

Here's a different view of St Pancras taken the Christmas before last....

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Something went horribly wrong in Birmingham, din't it?

There's only one solution I'm afraid Fred.

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Slightly OT but this thread reminded me of this article in this weekend's paper. I particularly love the President's holiday home by the lake - straight out of a Bond film!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/feb/07/russian-architecture-soviet-union-photography

Liege

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Pretty spectacular. Some great buildings around it too.
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Liege FTW, IMO

Liege is very neat - nice be in well

I love Leuchars in Fife - just a classic small railway station
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Also, Milano Centrale, a transport cathedral
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Santa Lucia, Venice - no pictures show the contrast between the straight modernist lines of the station contrasting with the rhigh renaissance of the city
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And of course, my favourite - Glasgow Central
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Not part of Leeds current station but if you look hard enough on your way in from the west you'll see this reminder of a bygone era when Leeds had two stations and a network of tracks crossing over each other on viaducts.

All that remains are a few buildings that have been put to other uses, and this building which was designed to lift wagons between the two railway lines.

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They fixed Sheffield Station alright 🙂

However they managed to 'Birminghamnewstreetise' Nottingham Victoria from this

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To this

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Brunel's Bristol Temple Meads:
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From a different angle:
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Manchester Victoria's map.

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Love manchester victorias canopy too

Madrid's Atocha Station :

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Terrapins live freely in the station :

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grand central ceiling

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Moscow subway

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Newcastle, which I can always remember being the coldest station In the UK.

Another cool thread elfin 😀

Hadlow Road Station Willaston.

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A musical tribute to the station that was half a mile from where I went to school.

I love Venic Santa Lucia station. I think I saw [b]34[/b] platforms there in the 90's, though tghe last four or five looked a bit mothballed. I supposethat's because its because its very busy, a terminus station and also on an island that is crowded with no room for a mrshalling yard nearby.

Other station with no public road access:
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Not really playing fair as this is the destination rather than the station, still damn cool tho and a nice day out!

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Oh, i looked it up and Venezia Santa Lucia was a 'mere' 23 passenger platforms, but several have a third track in between the ones you can get on and off from the platforms.

Corrour Station - as seen in Trainspotting. Fantastic place.

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Not strictly a station any more, but majestic none the less

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Wakefield Kirkgate - can you appreciate a place for being utterly sh*t? 🙂

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Woody for some reason that makes me feel really nostalgic, I think for train sets. I really don't know why...

Love these threads. My favourite railway station is the one in Helsinki.

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My photo of nostalgia is New St....

I love the final approach to Brighton Station, sweeping in over the viaduct and seeing the town below..
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..before pulling into the double arched and curving trainshed.
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Clockwork - I live in Willaston, station is currently being refurbished. You in the village?

The cool thing in the context of this forum is that it's now the start (almost) of the Wirral Way cycle (and foot and horse) path.

Monet's Gare St Lazare

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Not strictly a station, it's a terminal, but it's beautiful nonetheless

I had the misfortune to use Birmingham New Street today.

It's so utterly dingy and depressing. Adding a fancy new building wont help if the trains are still underground in a dark hole.

Can I choose a tube station?
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You can. Matthew, indeed it was to be my very next post in fact! Great minds...

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It's an absolutely enormous space they've excavated to create that station. Drained an old dock, then dug it out twice as deep, creating a massive concrete canyon. An engineering marvel. I travel through it at least once a week, and really enjoy the experience.

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I also love the DLR station at CW.

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Firenze Santa Maria Novella for me. Used it last summer. A very welcome contrast to the rest of the city. I thought I had my own photo of it- alas not. Here is google's best offering.

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I'm also quite a fan of London Euston.

All of this: http://www.abandonedstations.org.uk/

in my feverish demented state yesterday, I totally forgot about the work of Charles Holden, who helped shape the look of parts of the Underground.

Chiswick Park:
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Arnos Grove:
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Southgate:
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Calatrava - Lyon
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