Liverpool St Station In The 20th Century & Beyond
John Betjeman on Liverpool St Station, c1961, photograph by David Sim
Please come to our SAVE LIVERPOOL ST STATION campaign event at 7pm on Tuesday 7th November at Hanbury Hall, 22 Hanbury St, E1 6QR. Speakers include Griff Rhys Jones, Eric Reynolds and Robert Thorne.
CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS
This is the Liverpool St Station of living memory – the station as I first knew it – recorded in these splendid photographs from the collection of the Bishopsgate Institute.
A vital transport hub through two world wars and, most significantly, the point of arrival for the Kindertransport, children fleeing nazi Germany, this is the station that John Betjeman fought to save, winning a landmark conservation battle which gave us the sensitively restored station of recent years.
At the end of this post, I append my photographs of the beautiful station as we know it today with its luminous marble floor refracting the morning light from the lancet windows high above.
Glass was removed from the roof in World War II
Photograph by Malcolm Tremain
Photograph by David Johnston
Photograph by David Johnston
Photograph by David Johnston
Photograph by David Johnston
Photograph by The Gentle Author
Photograph by The Gentle Author
Photograph by The Gentle Author
Photograph by The Gentle Author
Photographs courtesy Bishopsgate Institute
You may also like to take a look at
Betjeman did it for St. Pancras. Now it’s up to us to SAVE LIVERPOOL STREET STATION!
Write to the Planners, and give money to this worthy cause, else another grand London landmark will be subsumed by a hideous modern monstrosity.
Thank you.
WOT?
No photos of the enormous ginger cat that used to frequent the area on the concourse next to the two pillar-boxes?
Or the dogs’ leg bridge?
See also the book: by Betjeman & Gay: “London’s Historic Railway Stations”
Dear Greg, Please send in a picture of the ginger cat and we will add it.
These are an amazing set of pictures and remind me of how important it is to make sure the new scheme doesn’t happen. I wish I were in London and could come to the meeting but thanks to you I have added my comments about the scheme online and offered there how utterly unsuited it is for such an historic and important building for London and for the country.
I first saw/experienced Liverpool Street station on a regular basis traveling from west London to visit Raphael Samuel at his Elder Street house for meetings. Also many visits over the years to explore the architecture of the area, such as the Hawksmoor church, the inimitable Severs’ House. the Phillip Webb houses; the Flower market; the Bishopsgate Institute and others.