Slough station - historical

[pdeaves]

A colleague has asked me which room used to be the royal waiting room. Can anyone help, please?

My own (light) research suggests that there was once a royal waiting room in a previous version of the station, but (after the Windsor line opened) it was all demolished and replaced with what we see today. Is that a correct understanding?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Hornet]

A colleague has asked me which room used to be the royal waiting room. Can anyone help, please?

My own (light) research suggests that there was once a royal waiting room in a previous version of the station, but (after the Windsor line opened) it was all demolished and replaced with what we see today. Is that a correct understanding?

Thanks for your help!

I have looked through "The History of Slough" by Maxwell Fraser, published in 1973. Page 52 states that:-

When Princess Alexandra of Denmark landed in England on 7 March, 1863, three days before her marriage to the Prince of Wales, the Royal pair travelled by train from Paddington to Slough, and drove from Slough Station to Windsor, The Royal waiting room at Slough Station was filled by Charles Turner with masses of fragrant flowers, and the whole of the Station Approach, from the East End to the North Star, was lavishly decorated with greenery, flags and coloured lights. A triumphal arch bore the welcome, "God Bless our hopes in both" in Danish and English, and there were two more triumphal arches at the Crown Corner.

Sluffians will know that Station Approach ran from the Catholic Church, past the Licence Victuallers School, (now Tesco's Superstore) to the front (Down Main) side of the Station. That is where the Royal waiting room would have been. The present Royal Train arrangements use the Up Relief Platform (P5) for picking up/setting down of the Monarch.

The book also indicates that the present Station, built in 1882 is the fifth Station at Slough.

PS. Drove in the quote would have been Horse and Carriage.

Note that the internal layout of the down main Buildings have altered massively since 1882. The Booking Office alone is vastly different to when I used to use it in the mid 60's.

 

[pdeaves]

Thanks, Hornet.

Would it be reasonable to infer that whatever dedicated royal facility that existed in 1863 was removed in the 1882 rebuild?

 

[Hornet]

Thanks, Hornet.

Would it be reasonable to infer that whatever dedicated royal facility that existed in 1863 was removed in the 1882 rebuild?

Would expect that the facilities at Slough were made redundant, on the opening of Windsor & Eton Central Station's Royal waiting room in 1892.

Unlike the nearby Windsor and Eton Riverside Station, which was operated by the London and South-West Railway company, the Central Station was opened by the Great Western Railway. It was "originally built in 1850, and entirely rebuilt and remodelled with a new royal waiting room in 1897. This station was the scene of an attempt on the life of Queen Victoria in 1882" (Ditchfield and Page). It has now been largely converted into a shopping and refreshment complex, though there is still a local service from short platforms at the far end. On display in the station is a replica of the engine once used to drive the Queen's train.

http://www.victorianweb.org/technology/railways/63.html
https://books.google.ie/books?id=d0...r and eton central royal waiting room&f=false