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Hey Guys… just thought I would start up a similar discussion to my one last year on brutalist builidngs… which got me some good marks for a thoroughly shit essay, so thanks for your contributions!
This time I am looking at railway stations, as representations of London, most particularly within St Pancras…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Pancras_railway_stationand Westminster Tube station
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_tube_stationBasically I was wondering what messages and feelings you get from buildings like this… its all about Iconography and shit like that – do you like the stlyles? do you think its worth pouring public money in to architecture of this type? should there be form over function (ie should it do just what it says on the tin, or look nice too?!), do they make you proud etc
If you had any ideas on other stations that show representations of London, then I am open to ideas. Any input would be truely appreciated.
Cheers
Paddington tells me that during the quiet time of the year like now i can expect to wait about 20 minutes on average for a job (sometimes a poxy £3.00 around the corner) and at Euston that wait can go up to as much as 40 minutes!!! 😉
What i can also tell you is that it was a disgrace that they got rid of the old Euston station only to replace it with that monstrous 60’s imbelishment……….guess thats progress 🙄Dammnit Turks!
I wrote a couple of sentences about brutalist buildings last year and I still haven’t recieved my master’s in architecture, or engineering or whatever it was supposed to be through the post. Your uni gave a degree to Cat Stevens and I bet he didn’t do anything thing like that. Alright, here’s my views on symbolism, but I’d better get a super-advanced degree this time or there’ll be trouble!
St Pancras and Kings Cross are nice stations externally. They seem to be quite romantic (not in a gay way) structures, that herald back to better times. For some reason they remind me of European architecture, but also seem very proud and determined to stand out, like it was an achievement that they were built.
Westminster tube station on the other hand seems to be slightly self concious, like it needs to be minimalist to shy away from the money that was spent on it. Whereas in days gone by a new building was a triumph, it’s now almost as if they’re an embarrassment. And I don’t think that Westminster tube is function over form. Sure it’s well laid out, but I think that they went out of their way to try and make it look minimalist AND nice.
For my money content is always more important than style (just look at my dress sense), but since when to architects care about that? Look at oilrigs. Those are built purely to do a job, not to look nice, but they’re in the middle of the North Sea, so no-one really cares. Stations like Westminster and to a lesser extent Waterloo and London Bridge seem to be designed to give a somewhat cold, business-like feel to them but it is just style rather than a genuinely streamlined structure (imho).
Actually I’ve changed my mind, make me a Doctor of medicine as that’s a license to print money.
Thanks in advance
Dr NeonSamurai (BSC, SSC)
Cheers Turks, that’ll do nicely.
Oh and that’s DR NeonSamurai to the rest of you oiks.
Dr NeonSamurai
Qualified to look at ladies boobiesOk, Im now looking for ways that stations have been portrayed in different mediums – ie film (Gary Potter, Paddington Bair), Paintings (Ummm…), Poetry (?), Books…, etc
Has anyone got any ideas?
Cheers
(Ps, take pitty, ive got to write 2500 words on this shit, and I dont understand it at all!!… plus, I have just found out that higher education employs 1.8% of the UK’s working population – so there – all you student haters (Led by Snell – Arch Nemesis to all things studenty…!))
give my regards to Broad Street…………filmed in the early 80’s and starring Paul McCartney
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087337/
features old broad street station which has long been demolished, once situated just beside Liverpool Street Station its now the site of the Broadgate centre
http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/stations/b/broad_street/index.shtml
Lol neon – thats actually bloody good – A+ from me.
Dont believe the medical doctor pay though – this bullshit on the news just now makes my blood boil – Ive been a fully qualified GP for 4 years and I earn WAY less than the figures touted around just now – like 50% less!
Its just propaganda from the government as ever.
@TurksMeister wrote:
hmmm perhaps a section on disused underground stations… innit
try this site…..
http://underground-history.co.uk/front.php
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