Transcription
There's a lot of lovely stations in London. Houston's not usually considered to be one of them, although it looks quite nice from this angle. Despite being the 10th most used station in the UK, it doesn't get a lot of love.
My original script for this was based around its design, but the more I thought about it, the deeper it got. Houston used to be the most futuristic station in the UK, not once, but twice. So, what went wrong? And what does it say about the way that we think?
Back in the 1830s, railways were brand new. London had railways, but if you wanted to get from one city to another, you'd have to take something horsedrawn. That's how long has been about. It was London's first intercity station, cutting journey times from London to Birmingham from more than half a day to less than 5 hours. So when they designed Houston, they wanted to show the power of rail travel and make it luxury.
This wasn't it. This was it. Well, when it first opened, it was basically just two platforms and a train shed, but it had this massive neocclassical arch. It was massively popular and over 400,000 journeys were made through it in its first year. So they decided to expand it and they built the great hall which was followed by more platforms, offices, waiting rooms, post office facilities and then the underground. All of this was too much for the original station to handle and it was decided it would have to be rebuilt.
All that is left from the original Houston are these two lodges that used to sit at the entrance. In 2010, one of them was converted into a free house pub called the Houston Tap. Like the original Houston station, there's not that much room inside, but there's a cool bar, a cool spiral staircase, and lots of craft beverages. Both of the gate houses are now grade 2 listed, which means unlike the original Houston Arch, they're not going to be demolished anytime soon.
Here's the thing, though. Current Houston didn't used to look like this either when they first built it. It was built with the same things in mind as the original station, the grand future of rail travel. So, where did things go wrong? Anyone who's been through Houston recently has probably asked themselves the same question. What on earth is up with Houston? And that's intentionally vague because there's so much to question. There's no obvious way from the road to the station. There's a really unwelcoming facade. The facilities are all blocking the windows. There's this foul smelling bus station. And then this whole massive closed off section that HS2 will hopefully spring out of one day.
Here are some of my favorite bits. I do love the ceiling. I also really love this ceiling. Again, ceiling design here on point. Yeah, I only really like the ceilings to be honest.
When this new station first opened, it actually looked pretty smart. The inside was wide open, bright, and neat. It had these airline style ticket desks and this futuristic design. Then outside the station, instead of being dumped straight onto a street like in a lot of stations, they had this big wide open plaza with the taxi rank over to one side to keep things separate. This lovely bus shelter was hidden away to keep the view clear. Don't want to see those pesky buses. And then this building acts as a shelter to protect from the weather. Then all the male facilities were moved underground so you wouldn't even notice it passing through.
It really was a groundbreaking station, but like the original, it's become a victim of its own success. The station was originally built for 15 to 20 million journeys every year, but now with people commuting daily, it handles 36 million journeys every year. So, with that said, they've had to make some changes. They added this mezzanine, then they added utilities, and then they just kept adding until the original station was basically unrecognizable. The original standout features in some cases have been literally hidden away.
To deal with the extra crowds, they added this policy of announcing platforms just a few minutes before departure, which creates these crazy rushes. There's also the infamous advertising board that was apparently so distracting that people just kind of stopped in their tracks and watched and the government had to step in and remind them that they actually were a station and to turn it off. And remember that none of these decisions on their own were bad. They're essential to keep the station running safely and to some extent smoothly. But what's happened is the same thing has happened to its predecessor. The requirements have changed. The demand has increased and now we're left with this Frankenstein of a station that's a nightmare to fix.
It's not the only station to face this problem. Right next door, both King's Cross and St. Pancras have had massive upgrades to increase capacity. So, what's the plan with Houston? Well, in case you missed it, the UK is building a massive high-speed train line and it's coming into Houston. Like, it's actually confirmed now. Well, the route is confirmed, but there's no funding to build the actual station. So, in order to build the station, they're going to develop a whole new area around the station and on top of the station itself. There aren't solid plans for it yet, but they'll upgrade the station in stages, creating a new HS2 Houston and an upgraded version of the existing Houston. The existing buildings on site will be refurbished or rebuilt, and then a whole load of new buildings will be built on the site. Lots of gardens, better street access, you get the picture.
Apparently, the old Houston Arch is in storage somewhere. And a few years ago, there was a campaign to rebuild it, so maybe that will get rebuilt as part of the new development. Obviously, this isn't an overnight job, and we don't even have a solid estimated completion date for HS2 yet, so this could take a while. In the meantime, they've added this cute new green entrance way that will be integrated into the new entrance gardens when they're finally finished. They've also added this taxi rank. I'm imagining this old underground station will be restored as well at some point. Maybe not as an underground station, but that's something.
So, Houston's getting an upgrade, but people are already saying that there won't be enough platforms, and that's part of the issue. All around the world, our population is growing, and we're outgrowing our infrastructure at a faster rate than we can replace it. Houston is just one example. But this isn't just about transport. It's about the way that we think. You see, we love to talk about the future, but when it comes to actually planning it, we rarely think that far ahead. Assuming that we don't all get so angry with each other over the next few years that everything falls apart, there'll be millions of people living in our cities after us. If we think big and long term, we can build things that they'll thank us for, like we do the Victorians. The question is whether we'll change the way that we think or whether we'll just leave them another Houston. Impressive today, outdated tomorrow. [Music]