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Euston station (also known as London Euston), is a large railway station in Central London. The station is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line with trains to and from Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow, as well as many local services. It is also a major interchange station for the Underground.

Euston is located in the London Borough of Camden, on the northern edge of the city centre, just outside the congestion charge zone.

Train services into Euston are run by Virgin Trains and Silverlink, with First ScotRail overnight sleeper train services to Scotland.

History

Although the present station building is in the International Modern style, Euston was the first inter-city railway station to be built in London. Its Greek Revival Doric portal, "Euston Arch", introduced the concept of a monumental railway station as the modern portal to a city. Its loss helped galvanize the environmental conservation movement in Britain, which had previously been focused on preserving aristocratic power houses, picturesque vernacular architecture and unspoilt landscapes. The loss of the original Pennsylvania Station in the United States has been referenced as comparable.

The original station was opened on July 20, 1837, as the terminus of the London and Birmingham Railway constructed by Robert Stephenson. It was designed by a well-known classically trained architect, Philip Hardwick, with a 200ft (61m) long engine shed by structural engineer Charles Fox. Initially it had only two platforms, one for departures and one for arrivals. Until 1844, trains had to be pulled up the hill to Camden Town by cables as they did not have enough power to get there under their own steam.

The station grew rapidly over the following years as traffic increased. It was greatly expanded in the 1840s, with the opening in 1849 of the spectacular Great Hall, built in classical style. It was 125 feet long, 61 feet wide and 62 feet high (38.1 by 18.6 by 18.9 m), with a coffered ceiling and a sweeping double flight of stairs leading to offices at the northern end of the hall. A 72 foot (21.9 m) high Doric arch was erected at the station's entrance to serve as a portico; this became renowned as the Euston Arch.

The station and the railway that it served experienced several changes in management, being owned in turn by the London and North Western Railway (1846–1922), the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (1923–1947) and British Rail (1947–1993).

In the early 1960s it was decided that the old building was no longer adequate and needed replacing. Amid much public outcry the old station building (including the famous Euston Arch) was demolished in 1962 and replaced by a new building, which opened in 1968. The modern station is very much a creation of 1960s architecture. It is a long, low structure with a frontage of some 647 feet and a very functional (and windswept) concrete exterior. Part of the station building includes two office towers which look out onto adjacent Melton Street and Eversholt Street. The station itself has a single large concourse populated with the usual assortment of shops and eateries, separated from the somewhat bleak train shed. A couple of small remnants of the older station were kept, close to Euston Road, but were hardly an effective sop to those offended by the loss of the former building. The station is set back much further than the 19th century original and since the construction of additional office buildings in front of it, it is effectively screened from view from the road.

Euston is widely regarded as the ugliest and the most unpleasant of all of the Central London rail termini. The dark ramps which passengers have to descend from the concourse down to platform level seem claustrophobic to many, while the concrete-adorned square outside the entrance is a popular stamping ground for beggars (who also frequent the station concourse itself), and rough sleepers. It is unfortunate that this is the first view that many visitors and tourists get of the capital.

Following privatisation of the railways in the 1990s, train services were taken over by private companies, on a franchise. The station itself was taken over by Railtrack and was subsequently transferred to Network Rail.

Underground Station

Euston Underground Station is on the Bank branch of the Northern Line, this is between Camden Town and Kings Cross St Pancras. On the Charing Cross branch it is between Mornington Crescent and Warren Street. It is also on the Victoria Line between Warren Street and King's Cross St. Pancras.

Charing Cross, Euston, and Hampstead Railway

Euston Station (on the London Underground) opened as part of the original Charing Cross, Euston, and Hampstead Railway (CCEHR) (now the Charing Cross branch of the Northern Line). Original plans for the route were to have it bypass Euston on its way to Camden Town, so that the line could be straight. However the wisdom of bypassing a busy railway station which would provide customers was soon questioned, and the line was changed, leading to the line running on an east-west axis through Euston station. Since it was an independant company from the mainline station, exit (via lifts from the west end of the platforms) was to a seperate building slightly west of the station.

City and South London Railway

The City and South London Railway (CSLR) (now the Bank branch of the Northern Line) opened a station at Euston as the terminus for their northern extension, hoping to allow it to increase passenger numbers by the addition of people heading to the City having arrived from other parts of the country. Their station consisted of a single wide platform in a large tunnel (as this was their standard design at the time), connected to the surface by lifts leading from stairs at the west end of their platform. The surface building, on Eversholt Street, however, was quite unusual - it was designed in an elaborate morrocan style of stonework, in order to garner the attention of people leaving Euston (which was slightly to the west).

Connection to the Mainline

The west end of the CLSR platform was remarkably close to the east end of the CCEHR platforms, and since the companies were not in competition, it was decided to make an underground connection between the two. This consisted of a passage being built from near the CLSR lifts to the east end of the CCEHR platforms, unusually leading UP to the CCEHR platforms, as the CLSR was somewhat lower down (and to the south).

At the same time, another passageway was created, leading from the connecting passage to a new set of lifts (and emergency stairs) which surfaced within Euston itself. Though the companies continued to maintain their own seperate entrances, and the seperate lifts, it soon became clear that maintaining three entrances so close to each other was ridiculous, and so the seperate buildings closed, leaving only the exit surfacing in the mainline station. The original exits continued to exist for ventilation reasons, however, the elaborate morroccan design of the CLSR building was lost when it was controversially demolished for a building project.

The Victoria Line

The Victoria Line was designed to be a connecting service to take the weight off other lines. As such, it was decided that it would be a good idea to have cross platform access where possible. At the same time, the single CLSR platform was getting dangerously congested, so it was decided to build a new CLSR northbound platform some way to the south, fill in the old northbound track to expand the southbound platform, and run the Victoria line between the two.

The decision was made to have both southbound platforms (i.e. one from the old CLSR, and one from the Victoria line) connected together, and likewise for the northbound platforms. This resulted in a peculiar feature of the station in that although the victoria line trains heading southbound are parrallel to the CLSR trains heading southbound, they actually run in opposite directions, likewise the northbound.

As part of the construction works, new interchange passages were created above the CCEHR platform level, and two escalator shafts put in to replace the ageing, and busy, lifts. From the interchange level, escalators were put in to connect to the 2 new wide circulating areas for the southbound CLSR/Victoria Line and northbound CLSR/Victoria Line platforms. A passaageway connecting between the south and northbound platforms was made, so as to avoid necessitating the use of the escalators, and an emergency stair to the upper interchange level inserted midway along it. Then on December 1, 1969 the whole new interchange system was opened and the old passages were closed off, and changed to function as ventilation.

Unfortunately, because of the combination of the CLSR and the CCEHR into the Northern Line (and the subsequently confusing signage), and also due to the confusing nature of the interchange level as a series of parrallel tunnels meeting circulating areas for each of the escalators in turn (i.e. CCEHR steps, Up to mainline, CLSR/Victoria southbound, Down from mainline and stair to CLSR/Victoria southbound-northbound interchange, CLSR/Victoria northbound), the station is regarded as one of the most confusing on the whole Underground.

Future Plans

Euston is notable for not having the Circle Line serving the station within the complex. However Euston Square tube station is just 250m away and officially serves as an interchange for the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan Lines. However, some plans see a direct connection being made as part of a new transport interchange project (though alternative plans have Euston Square connecting to Warren Street which is also very close to it)

There are also plans to rebuild the interchange level as part of an mobility impairment accessibility project, possibly restoring use of some of the disused lower level interchange passageways.

The management of the Northern Line would like to see the two parts of the line (i.e. the Bank branch and the Charing Cross branch) seperated into two individual lines with seperate identities. This would make the signage at the interchange level significantly clearer (as well as solve many operational problems and confusion of passengers trying to find the right train at Camden Town).

External links

• Official Web site
• Euston station timetable from National Rail's Live Departure Boards
• Street map of Euston station, from multimap.com

• London railway stations
• London Underground stations