Its horrifically ugly. And its so badly designed that it naturally
attracts druggies and tramps around the front, making it one of the
least inviting stations to arrive at. And inside is hardly any better,
so devoid of architectural quality that there is little to describe it
except "large empty box with shops round the outside".

The inside of the station is very good - it has been allowed to become
cluttered with island shops and some quite inappropriate frontages (eg
the pub inside the station - The Britannia, is it called?) and some of
the less commonly used areas are not kept clean. This is a shame, but
the main hall is a very impressive piece of architecture and the
station does work well (far better than, say, Victoria).

The outside is something else though - it is ugly, shabby and hard to
navigate: this is where the focus for any investment should be.

On 5 Nov, 12:45, whos2091 wrote:
Its horrifically ugly. And its so badly designed that it naturally
attracts druggies and tramps around the front, making it one of the
least inviting stations to arrive at. And inside is hardly any better,
so devoid of architectural quality that there is little to describe it
except "large empty box with shops round the outside".

The inside of the station is very good - it has been allowed to become
cluttered with island shops and some quite inappropriate frontages (eg
the pub inside the station - The Britannia, is it called?) and some of
the less commonly used areas are not kept clean. This is a shame, but
the main hall is a very impressive piece of architecture and the
station does work well (far better than, say, Victoria).
If you took the shops out of Victoria it would be a thousand times
more impressive.
Besides, impressiveness is worthless if it still leaves Euston at the
intrinsically ugly monstrosity that it is.

On Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:53:46 -0800, lonelytraveller
wrote:

Besides, impressiveness is worthless if it still leaves Euston at the
intrinsically ugly monstrosity that it is.

Ugly it may be, but it is immensely practical - and the shops aren't a
bad thing if you want to use them!

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

On 5 Nov, 20:57, (Neil Williams) wrote:
On Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:53:46 -0800, lonelytraveller

wrote:
Besides, impressiveness is worthless if it still leaves Euston at the
intrinsically ugly monstrosity that it is.

Ugly it may be, but it is immensely practical - and the shops aren't a
bad thing if you want to use them!
That's no excuse. That's no justification for it being designed the
way it is rather than something more pleasant.

On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 00:17:09 -0800, lonelytraveller
wrote:

That's no excuse. That's no justification for it being designed the
way it is rather than something more pleasant.

I'd rather it was like that than freezing, smelly (OK, that's the
diesel) Paddington, for example.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

On 6 Nov, 21:07, (Neil Williams) wrote:
On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 00:17:09 -0800, lonelytraveller

wrote:
That's no excuse. That's no justification for it being designed the
way it is rather than something more pleasant.

I'd rather it was like that than freezing, smelly (OK, that's the
diesel) Paddington, for example.

The train shed in Euston is just as freezing and smelly. The "shops
area" in paddington is no more freezing or smelly than the hall in
Euston, and probably is actually warmer as its fully enclosed.

On 7 Nov, 19:39, lonelytraveller
wrote:
I'd rather it was like that than freezing, smelly (OK, that's the
diesel) Paddington, for example.

The train shed in Euston is just as freezing and smelly. The "shops
area" in paddington is no more freezing or smelly than the hall in
Euston, and probably is actually warmer as its fully enclosed.

That's a disingenuous argument.

If someone goes to Paddington, buys a ticket and waits for a train,
they end up spending their time in the freezing, smelly train shed -
unless they make a particular effort not to.

If someone goes to Euston and does the same, they will end up waiting
on the unfreezing, unsmelly concourse [which is also fully enclosed],
and will only have to enter the train shed when they're already
walking to their train.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org