Should a station be aesthetically pleasing?

They are working on Peterborough railway station and have been for about a year.

More people are using trains and so the train operators want to run more services and (for commuters like me) they want to run longer trains, too.

Main problem at Peterborough station is that there are not enough platforms, so you often have to wait outside the station until one is available; also many platforms are too short. Only Platform 2 can accommodate a 12-coach First Capital Connect train and this must cause all kinds of problems.

Often my train comes from King’s Cross to Peterborough in an hour and 10 minutes, but then can wait for up to 10 minutes on the bridge just outside the station until there’s a platform free. People who are catching the Birmingham train to go on to Stamford or hoping to get the bus to Norwich get increasingly fidgety as they see their connection broken.

So it’s good that they are working on the station. There’s a new platform (or two) being created and they are also extending a number of platforms. That’s good news, but what’s not so good is the shoddy job they are making of it.

Tom and I were waiting on Platform 2, looking across at the work being done on extending Platform 3 and Tom thought the extension they have put in was a temporary structure. He couldn’t believe that was the final job.

Basically, they have extended a concrete and brick platform with prefabricated decking (which is clearly purpose-built for the job), but which comprises galvanised steel supports and steel decking (with a textured surface) clipped on top. The front of the structure is covered with steel mesh and, at the back, there are railings. There’s not a spot of paint on the whole structure and it looks a complete mess.

Where it meets the old platform, they’ve left the ramp in place, but cut a chunk out of the top, so the new structure can meet it on the level. It looks a mess and it’s been done at the cheapest price possible.

There’s an argument to be had between form and function. The new platform will do the job, it allows people to stand on it in safety and it will accommodate the longer trains required, thus relieving congestion. But it looks awful.

It wouldn’t be so bad if the whole platform was the same exposed galvanised steel structure, or if they’d taken more care to blend together the old and the new, or if they’d designed the new structure to look more pleasing (perhaps oval supports instead of angle-iron?).

This makes the breeze-block and concrete structures at places like Stevenage look almost beautiful in comparison. This makes you want to spray obscenities on it.

Peterborough is a historic railway town; its prosperity and growth in engineering and food processing depended upon the railways. We should have a splendid railway station, look at York or Darlington further up the east coast main line or March (a much smaller and poorer town in the same county). Those are Victorian structures and the Victorians did understand that it is important for people using a structure to be able to view it and be pleased by what they saw.

King’s Cross station (admittedly a much bigger, more prestigious project) is a place of beauty that pleases me every time I walk into the main concourse with its fan-like steel roof. No angle iron there, it’s made of beautifully shaped and crafted steel. Tourists are often taking pictures of it. No-one, except me for this blog, has taken pictures of Peterborough station.

It doesn’t take much. Down the main line, little stations like Hornsey, have brick bases where the builder has created a simple pattern in the brick, just by stepping them outwards at the top. It’s not hard.

Passengers at Peterborough will, consciously or sub-consciously, cringe every time they see their new, improved station. Thank goodness I won’t have to experience it for very much longer.