Dismal Stations Which Give A Poor First Impression Of The Town They Serve

[Aictos]

Yup currently, including the small memorial to a former staff member who passed away (l actually remember him working there). I think that more work is scheduled for the platforms and wonder if that bridge may go though.

I hope if the bridge does go that they relocate the murals to another location within the station.

 

[MikeWM]

I have actually never been to Plymouth: Norwich and Bradford are the only other similarly sized cities in England which I have never visited. Always thought it was supposed to be nice though.

The Hoe is nice, but I'm not sure there are many other highlights. The main problem is that on both my visits I thought the place as a whole felt extremely pedestrian-unfriendly. Especially when compared to Devon's other city Exeter, which I find a really nice place, Plymouth is rather frustrating and disappointing.

Norwich is well worth a look when you get chance.

 

[Llandudno]

I have not visited Llandudno station for quite a while, but considering it is the station for one of the nicer North Wales holiday resorts, it was depressing in the nth degree.

Llandudno Station has recently been refurbished, and an excellent job they have made of it, so they should considering how much it cost!

Only problem is that the main entrance and booking office area closes at 3pm, well before returning day trippers and shoppers!

 

[Grumpy Git]

Only problem is that the main entrance and booking office area closes at 3pm, ..........................

That looks to be a prime example of the business putting the whims of the staff before the needs of the public.

 

[Revaulx]

Nah, I like Euston! Admittedly the platforms are grim, but you spend your time on the concourse, which I really like. Plus I love brutalism, and Euston is an absolute classic of the genre.

I reckon the concourse is far too elegant to qualify as “brutalist”. Or was; the added mezzanine has given much needed extra floor space, but has badly compromised the light, airy spaciousness of the original design.

 

[Grumpy Git]

The concourse at Euston is OK at the moment, but awful during "normal times" due to the overcrowding. The platforms and the outside "vista" are really horrendous however.

The Signal Box pub on the mezzanine is great for a pie and a pint though, a bit pricey, but par for the course given the captive audience, but the Rocket down Euston Road is always a cheaper alternative.

 

[BrianW]

I reckon the concourse is far too elegant to qualify as “brutalist”. Or was; the added mezzanine has given much needed extra floor space, but has badly compromised the light, airy spaciousness of the original design.

Looking at useage stats from ORR: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=station+use+figures+Euston
From 28million in 1998 to 48 million in 2018, let alone what it was in the 1960s, that's got to put a lot of pressure (and wear-and-tear) into a restricted space.
Hopefully post-HS2 will provide opportunity to restore and/or improve the 'customer experience'.
Wondering how folk judge 'first impression'- is it as you come out of the cutting, or get off onto the platform, or onto the concourse, down to the tube, out to the bus, Euston Sq, Euston Road, a building site ...

 

[ChrisC]

Both Bradford stations are pretty grotty, but so is the city centre generally. It's generally a fairly creepy place later in the evening on a weekday - I can think of no other city of the size which is do deserted after about 11pm.

Both Bradford stations are small for a city of that size but they are functional. They are not wonderful but I wouldn’t call them grotty.

I find Bradford a strange city. The area around the huge Centenary Square is a really nice area, with the City Hall, Alhambra Theatre, The National Science and Media Museum and Broadway Shopping Centre all close by. There are some fantastic old buildings around this central area and if that’s the only part you visit it gives the impression of being a very nice city. However, venture only a short distance from that central area and it is an absolute dump.

I’ve stayed in the Premier Inn and the Midland Hotel, both close to that nice Central area and enjoyed staying in the city. I agree it is strangely almost completely deserted at night but it did appear to be quite safe walking around at night and it didn’t feel threatening on a Friday night as some city centres do. I wouldn’t like to stray from that central area at night. The main problem I found was finding anywhere decent to eat outside the hotel. There just doesn’t seem to be anywhere. Perhaps that is part of the reason why it is deserted after about 7pm.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Llandudno Station has recently been refurbished, and an excellent job they have made of it, so they should considering how much it cost!

Only problem is that the main entrance and booking office area closes at 3pm, well before returning day trippers and shoppers!

Thank you for this excellent news about the station refurbishment. When we holidayed there, my wife always insisted that we stayed on the quieter beach area side of the resort.

 

[Djgr]

I have not visited Llandudno station for quite a while, but considering it is the station for one of the nicer North Wales holiday resorts, it was depressing in the nth degree.

Revamped in 2015 and being refurbished again this year!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Revamped in 2015 and being refurbished again this year!

See the posting response that I made immediately above your posting.

 

[LancasterRed]

Dorchester West is not directly near any decent amenities as well as being as dated as a station of its size can be. If you do use it it's better to walk to South and work your way into the town from there and use the amenities. On the topic of South, the improvements made in that area over the past few years have been admirable.

I'll add Weymouth to this list as well. While functional, this station is in need of a direct path to the food outlets and a larger concourse. It could be improved and create a better first impression to what is a nice holiday town.

Chorley has also been improved as a town in recent times however the area between the bus and train station as well as station itself would benefit from modernisation.

I don't mind Swansea as a city but similar to the abovementioned it would benefit from modernisation. The area directly outside is, or rather was, quite grim.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Weymouth station I would agree is manky. Would do well to be replaced with one of those new modular type buildings as it has no particular architectural merit. That said, the town, while pleasant, does have a slightly run down air in places (particularly the main shopping bit), which is probably in keeping with it.

 

[yorksrob]

Yes, weymouth was a smart new replacement in NSE days (I remember visiting it in the early 90's) but it's always seemed a bit austere for a town of Weymouth's size. Like Oxford, it seems a shame one of the predecessors to BR didn't build something a bit more fitting (thinking of the Southern Railway's booking halls at Ramsgate, Margate and Hastings). At least it has good platform cover.

 

[Djgr]

See the posting response that I made immediately above your posting.

Yes but it's being refurbished again this year!

 

[Grecian 1998]

Southampton Central looks rather drab and always manages to feel rather gloomy even on a sunny day, particularly platform 4. The platforms also feel rather cramped.

Dorchester West is not directly near any decent amenities as well as being as dated as a station of its size can be. If you do use it it's better to walk to South and work your way into the town from there and use the amenities. On the topic of South, the improvements made in that area over the past few years have been admirable.

I'll add Weymouth to this list as well. While functional, this station is in need of a direct path to the food outlets and a larger concourse. It could be improved and create a better first impression to what is a nice holiday town.

Dorchester West is about the same distance from the town centre (Trinity Street and High Street) as South. Both are relatively close by although crossing the road junction outside West station isn't particularly enjoyable. There is a Domino's right outside (although it depends if you regard this as a decent amenity).

Weymouth station isn't helped by the fact the toilets have closed permanently due to persistent abuse by drug users.

 

[Senex]

Stockport Edgeley — awkward access even after some small improvement, pretty limited facilities, and a station shewing very clearly how it's been cut back in most respects from what it was. However, certainly better than it was some 60 years ago, when both it and Tiviot Dale presented a thoroughly drab and shabby to the traveller — very much stations to be enjoyed by the habitué for their decrepitude than transport-hubs to attract and welcome the travelling public. Edgeley wasn't even very much improved by the start of electric working in 1960.

 

[Gloster]

Ryde Esplanade. A hotch-potch of largely unrefurbished run-down 1950s buildings (the folding gates and iron railings are still there) that have been given a lick of paint in an old-fashioned style in the hope that it will look retro. It doesn’t: it just looks old. It can also get surprisingly dark on a gloomy day. However, this is a fair introduction to the town and the island: a depressing area that has gone to seed thinking it is still the 1950s.

 

[Robertj21a]

Both Bradford stations are small for a city of that size but they are functional. They are not wonderful but I wouldn’t call them grotty.

I find Bradford a strange city. The area around the huge Centenary Square is a really nice area, with the City Hall, Alhambra Theatre, The National Science and Media Museum and Broadway Shopping Centre all close by. There are some fantastic old buildings around this central area and if that’s the only part you visit it gives the impression of being a very nice city. However, venture only a short distance from that central area and it is an absolute dump.

I’ve stayed in the Premier Inn and the Midland Hotel, both close to that nice Central area and enjoyed staying in the city. I agree it is strangely almost completely deserted at night but it did appear to be quite safe walking around at night and it didn’t feel threatening on a Friday night as some city centres do. I wouldn’t like to stray from that central area at night. The main problem I found was finding anywhere decent to eat outside the hotel. There just doesn’t seem to be anywhere. Perhaps that is part of the reason why it is deserted after about 7pm.

Numerous curry houses around.

 

[ClagLover]

Preston, while lovely looking, needs a decent cafè, shop and station ale house. As mentioned, the footbridge is not fit for purpose and it needs a decent entrance. I wouldn’t call Preston an armpit though maybe I’m biased with being a Chorley bird.

 

[WesternBiker]

Yes, weymouth was a smart new replacement in NSE days (I remember visiting it in the early 90's) but it's always seemed a bit austere for a town of Weymouth's size. Like Oxford, it seems a shame one of the predecessors to BR didn't build something a bit more fitting (thinking of the Southern Railway's booking halls at Ramsgate, Margate and Hastings). At least it has good platform cover.

GWR had great plans for Weymouth, according to "Next Station" by Christian Barman*, the "Artist's Impression" for which shows an impressive Art-Deco building, with a long glazed facade with a feature clocktower, which rather resembles Newport Town Hall's tower, albeit the station would have had it on one corner. Clearly an early victim of the BTC, though there must be a good as to whether it was realistic to consider such grandeur at a time of post-war materials shortages and the urgent need to replace bombed-out housing.

*(printed in conjunction with the GWR in 1947, and reprinted by David Charles in 1972 as "The Great Western Railway's Last Look Forward" ISBN 0 7153 5720 4. It's worth a read - and shows how the mindset of 1947 failed to appreciate some of the imminent changes on the horizon, though some is also eerily prophetic. It talks of the need for new stations with greater capacity in Reading and Oxford!)

 

[FtoE]

Doesn’t Perth usually win this sort of competition, especially platforms 3 - 7? A major junction for the whole country and a city with claims to be the ancient capital. Now a prosperous and pleasant county town.

The station has a roof like a sieve and passenger overbridges held together with bird**** and rust. The ‘circulation area’ is tiny and unimpressive.

(I should add though the staff go a long way to make up for this, without exception very helpful and friendly)

 

[Senex]

Numerous curry houses around.

As in so many places and near so many main-line stations. Fine if you like curry. I can't stand it!

 

[Wolfie]

I hope if the bridge does go that they relocate the murals to another location within the station.

Absolutely.

 

[ChrisC]

Numerous curry houses around.

There are but not in the city centre or in the case of Bradford near the railway stations.

 

[oddiesjack]

Cleethorpes and Blackpool Pleasure Beach aren't the best first impressions of such places. Fortunately the beach and the roller coasters in the immediate background make you ignore the station you are walking through.

I find Cleethorpes station quite pleasant; airy covered concourse area, step-free access to all platforms which are nice and wide, a good real-ale bar on the station. Given that most people are travelling there for a day at the seaside, it is merely a few steps away from the promenade, so I don't understand why they'd get a poor impression of the place from the station given that their reason for visiting there is literally on the doorstep of the station.
Plus, its only 3 minutes walk from the finest fish & chip restaurant we have ever visited, ie Papas Restaurant in the grandeur of the old ballroom on the pier, where as well as excellent tea, or Dandelion & Burdock, you can have a pint of excellent cask beer to accompany your Haddock, Chips and Peas!

 

[JohnRegular]

Southampton Central looks rather drab and always manages to feel rather gloomy even on a sunny day, particularly platform 4. The platforms also feel rather cramped.

Agreed that Southampton Central doesn't have a lot going for it, but the again the city itself isn't anything to write home about. Both station and city could be described as perfectly alright, not bad in the grand scheme of things, but ultimately unexciting.

 

[yorksrob]

GWR had great plans for Weymouth, according to "Next Station" by Christian Barman*, the "Artist's Impression" for which shows an impressive Art-Deco building, with a long glazed facade with a feature clocktower, which rather resembles Newport Town Hall's tower, albeit the station would have had it on one corner. Clearly an early victim of the BTC, though there must be a good as to whether it was realistic to consider such grandeur at a time of post-war materials shortages and the urgent need to replace bombed-out housing.

*(printed in conjunction with the GWR in 1947, and reprinted by David Charles in 1972 as "The Great Western Railway's Last Look Forward" ISBN 0 7153 5720 4. It's worth a read - and shows how the mindset of 1947 failed to appreciate some of the imminent changes on the horizon, though some is also eerily prophetic. It talks of the need for new stations with greater capacity in Reading and Oxford!)

I'd love to see a picture of that (shame it's not on t'interweb !

For a company that built some exceptional stations (Cardiff, Snow Hill, Paddington), the Great Western had some which were noticably not up to scratch (Oxford, Weymouth etc).

 

[24Grange]

The Hoe is nice, but I'm not sure there are many other highlights. The main problem is that on both my visits I thought the place as a whole felt extremely pedestrian-unfriendly. Especially when compared to Devon's other city Exeter, which I find a really nice place, Plymouth is rather frustrating and disappointing.

Norwich is well worth a look when you get chance.

The problem is the post war planners did far more damage to the character of the city than the Luftwaffe ever did. Dropping Manhattans street plan, with total subservience to the car onto it didn't work. The main station is isolated from the town, by a dirty big roundabout and is reached on foot by walking under it by tunnel. The nice nice bits ( Barbican, Hoe etc) missed both the council and the luftwaffe.

Friary was better placed for walking and ambiance into the city, but they closed it ( North road is up a hill).

Somewhere along the way it lost its soul. Exeter I think kept it's because - although bombed ( although no where near as bad as Plymouth) they kept the existing street pattern, whereas Plymouth they just obliterated it.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Agreed that Southampton Central doesn't have a lot going for it, but then again the city itself isn't anything to write home about. Both station and city could be described as perfectly alright, not bad in the grand scheme of things, but ultimately unexciting.

As a former resident of Southampton and a fairly regular re-visiter I would say that that is an excellent summary.