This is a celebration of the life and architecture of the railway station and its evolution, providing a highly readable and informative account of the social and political context of stations over the last 150 years, large and small. It examines the background of some of the world's major stations, looking at the history of their structures, the great events which have occurred there, and how the buildings have affected the life of the cities they serve.
The lure of the great railway terminus has been strong, with the breathtaking grandeur, swagger and opulence of the architecture fused with the dizzying prospects of adventure, escape or challenge promised by the names of far-flung destinations. The many stations featured in this book cover a broad spectrum of architectural styles, and a wide variety of international locations, from the Victorian Gothic of London's St Pancras and the Beaux-Arts splendour of Grand Central Station in New York, to the daring acrobatics of Nicholas Grimshaw's Waterloo International Terminal and Santiago Calatrava's Lyon-Satolas Station in the 1990s.
Beautiful archive photographs and drawings combine with the ephemera of railway travel - the signage, posters, tickets and the design of the trains themselves - and with new photography of some of the world's most magnificent and innovative railway buildings in existence today, to create a fascinating narrative and visual record for all those interested in trains, buildings and travel.
