I was in Berlin recently and of course took some time to admire the new
Hauptbahnhof. Reading up about it, I discovered that pre-WW2, Berlin
had the same situation as London regarding mainline termini, i.e. a
number of them in a circle around the city, depending on which part of
the country you were travelling to. As part of reunification, a
decision was made to build a Berlin Hauptbahnhof where all mainline
trains to the city would halt.

My question is, was something similar ever considered for London in the
immediate postwar period? The area where the Barbican now is was
flattened, so would it have been possible for the lines from Euston,
King's Cross/St Pancras, Moorgate, Fenchurch Street, Cannon
Street/London Bridge and Waterloo to have been extended somehow to
build a London "Hauptbahnhof" on a site in that area? I know it would
have left out Victoria & Paddington, and would have meant a lot of
demolition, but the postwar nationalisation period would seem to have
been the natural time for such a big project if the idea were ever
mooted.

Patrick