audere_est_facere

We know. We're just not that fussed. Mustn't grumble.

Robespierre

I didn't know that 100 years thing. When I rode the Intercity One-Two-Five (for 125mph) to Cornwall in the '80s, I was told the road was all new construction to accommodate the fastest trains in the UK at the time.

Myth - or exaggeration?

PatrickLondon

The line was the same. The tracks, underpinnings and signals would have been new, of course, as - at some point - they all have been over the years. It's like having kept the same hammer through five handles and three heads.

PalenqueBob

audere: don't you have somebody to arrest or something?

audere_est_facere

Yup - just done it.

Audere - keeping the streets safe in a Life on Mars stylee....

fnarf999

By "longest span" they are referring to the total width of the roof between the supports. St. Pancras, at 243 feet, was the longest span ever built up to the time (1865) but was subsequently surpassed by three great American trainsheds, one of which survives: Philadelphia Reading, 1893, 259 feet. However, it is no longer in use as a train station. Its neighbor, Philadelphia Broad Street, also 1893 (demolished 1923) was an astonishing 300 feet long!

I have heard rumors of longer train sheds being built in recent years in China, which is undergoing a railway explosion unlike any seen since Britain in the 1840s and 50s, but I can't find any confirmation online.

Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (1906) and the brand-new Liege Guillemins trainsheds both come in at just a foot or so shorter than St. Pancras.

I believe that Victorian railway stations are the cathedrals of their age, and are far more interesting and beautiful than any of the religious buildings of the same era. The spread of that roof, and the many other masterpieces of the metal-and-glass era, are testaments to the explosion of industrial talent and might that made the world we know. I think St. Pancras is as important a London monument as the Tower or the Abbey or St. Paul's. It certainly plays a more important role in the story of how today's Britain came to be.

PalenqueBob

Do i agree - though i find the futuristic train sheds like Berlin Hauptbahnhof appealing i more love the classic old glass-and-iron Victorian train sheds.

The curving one in York is a classic - appropo because it's linked to the adjacent National Railway Museum by a walkway.

Antwerp Centrale is another favorite as in Amsterdam Centrale - especially perhaps after the current rehab and expansion is finished - see how blend in with old style.

Gares des L'Est and du Nord in Paris. The one in Tours itself (not one of the most boring St. Pierre-des-Corps the effective may station in Tours.

flanneruk

"St Pancras...plays a more important role in the story of how today's Britain came to be."

Oh, come on. St Pancras - however stunning a building the hotel is (I'll reserve judgement on the station till we see it in its full glory) is about as insignificant historically as the station at Moreton in Marsh.

You could try to make a grand claim like that about Liverpool Edge Hill, Manchester Oxford Rd or even bits of Darlington. You might even try and argue that trains impacted the world more than Magna Carta.

But St Pancras' only historical claim to fame is the fact that it wasn't demolished in the 1970s. The reason it was nearly demolished was its insignificance. The reason it didn't get demolished was that (unlike Euston) it was so insignificant it really didn't affect our transport system much whether it stayed or got merged into Kings Cross.

fnarf999

St. Pancras's importance has to do with its culminating role in the great race to longer and longer iron spans. It was, simply, the biggest. As a work of engineering it (the roof) is a spectacular achievement. And engineering is the highest form of Victorian art.

The vast fancy brickwork, hotel etc., stuck on the front is fine, but not interesting to me. Architecture, schmarchitecture!

York is a masterpiece. I've only seen it in pictures; I'll be there in two weeks. There are a number of other great trainsheds in Britain, including those at Glasgow Central and Glasgow Queen Street, but sadly so many of them were demolished: Birmingham New Street, Leith Central, Cannon Street, Leeds Central, etc. Repurposed ones, like the G-Mex Centre from Manchester Central, are better than nothing. There's another one somewhere up north that's been turned into a shopping mall, but I can't remember which.

Bits of glass in iron: the most beautiful thing in the world. If I had a time machine I'd go back and see the Crystal Palace first.

Edge Hill is, like all of the stations on the Liverpool and Manchester line, a monument to shortsightedness and loss, as it is a shadow of its former self. The most interesting station remaining in the Liverpool area is the most obvious one, Lime Street, even though most of it is replaced -- its current shed is newer than St. Pancras (1867, and one of the prettiest in the world). Crown Street is long gone, as are Exchange (except for the facade) and Central.

There are fascinating ruins of the original Edge Hill station, but they are inaccessible to the public and in a tragic state of near-total ruin. See the fascinating Subterranea Britannica site here: http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/s..._hill_cutting/

Manchester Oxford Road was wholly rebuilt in 1960. It's a gorgeous building but hardly historical.

Sorry if I've hijacked your Eurostar thread!

audere_est_facere

If you get the chance to go into the Midland Hotel (I think that's what it's called) take it. It's a great over the top piece of victoriana.

I saw it before it reopened and it was absolutely splendid.

Josser

I rather liked this comment

"Tourist bosses on the train were also enthusiastic. Neil Wootton, of travel company Premium Tours, said the shorter Eurostar times would help its day trips to Paris. "Part of the excitement for the American tourist market is about getting on Eurostar and being able to go under the sea. It's amazing how many Americans get on and expect to see fish and whales from the tunnel."

PalenqueBob

<St. Pancras's importance has to do with its culminating role in the great race to longer and longer iron spans. It was, simply, the biggest. As a work of engineering it (the roof) is a spectacular achievement. And engineering is the highest form of Victorian art>

i've been to the Moreton-in-Marsh station that flanneruk says <is about as insignificant historically as the station at Moreton in Marsh>

but i can't remember it being anything so distinguished architecturally as St Pancras - have to go take a look at what must be a totally amazing station for such a backwater.

fnar - You can see the remains of the Crystal Palace - basically foundations at today's Crystal Palace park in Sydenham - on top of one of London's highest ridges - BBC has a TV tower there you can see from all over London

all that remains are foundations but you can see how vast the building much have been. The Palace was of course moved here after the circa-1850 World Exhibition in Hyde Park and reassembled here in all its glory.

Old locals still recall the devastating fire that burnt it all down - apparently the fire could be seen from all over London. What a loss.

On Saturdays there is a Crystal Palace Museum near the Crystal Palace train station (itself a Victorian brick glory) - open only on Sats i believe but with exhibits and docents to explain how monumnetal the original Crystal Palace was.

Crystal Palace Park is also a gem of London parks - sprawling and noted especially for the Dinosaur statues extant from the late 1800s i believe - done by a very famous sculptor.