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Euston Arch


The Euston Arch, built in 1837, was the original entrance to Euston station, facing onto Drummond Street, London. The Arch was demolished when the station was rebuilt in the 1960s, but much of the original stone was later located—principally used as fill in the Prescott Channel—and proposals have been formulated to reconstruct it as part of the planned redevelopment of the station, including the station's use as the London terminus of the High Speed 2 line.

When Euston station was redeveloped Drummond Street was split into two parts either side of the station complex, with the eastern half renamed Doric Way, after the style of the arch.

Designed by the architect Philip Hardwick, it was inspired by the Roman architecture Hardwick encountered on a trip to Italy in 1818 and 1819. Strictly speaking it was not an arch at all, but a propylaeum of the Doric order. The sandstone structure was designed for the London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR), complementing Birmingham Curzon Street station, at the other end of the company's mainline. The arch was to be not only a fitting gateway to the Midlands, but to the whole new world which the railway was to open up. The construction of the arch was announced by the directors of the L&BR in a report dated February 1837:

The Entrance to the London Passenger Station opening immediately upon what will necessarily become the Grand Avenue for travelling between the Metropolis and the midland and northern parts of the Kingdom, the Directors thought that it should receive some architectural embellishment. They adopted accordingly a design of Mr. Hardwick's for a grand but simple portico, which they considered well adapted to the national character of the undertaking.

The arch was supported on four columns, and bronze gates were placed behind them. It stood 70 ft high (21 m) and 44 ft deep (13 m), while the diameter of each of the columns was 8 feet 6 inches (2.59 m). The structure was built from stone from Bramley in West Yorkshire, and cost £35,000. Initially it had very little embellishment and no descriptive title until 1870, when the London and North Western Railway incised "Euston" on the architrave in letters of gold. There were two lodges on each side of the arch, executed like it in strictly classical style. Each of these lodges was separated from its neighbour by an imposing pair of bronze gates. The gates between the right-hand lodges were an entrance for carriages and very heavy goods going by train, while the right-hand lodge was an office for outgoing parcels.


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