Charing Cross Railway Station - a photo on Flickriver

            The original station building was built on the site of the Hungerford Market by the South Eastern Railway and opened on 11 January 1864. The station was designed with a single-span wrought iron roof arching over the six platforms on its relatively cramped site. It is built on a brick arched viaduct, the level of the rails above the ground varying from 13 feet at the north-east end to 27 feet at the bridge abutment at the south-east end.

A year later the Charing Cross Hotel opened on 15 May 1865 and gave the station an ornate frontage in the French Renaissance style. Contemporary with the Charing Cross Hotel was a replica of the Eleanor Cross in Red Mansfield stone, also designed by Edward Middleton Barry, that was erected in the station forecourt. It was based on the original 13th century Whitehall Cross that had been demolished in 1647. Distances in London are officially measured from the original site of the cross in Whitehall, now the statue of Charles I, and not from this replica cross. The roof was replaced following a partial collapse in 1906. Following bomb damage in WWII, the hotel received extensive repairs in 1951, 10 years after being bombed. In 1990 most of the area over the platforms was covered by Embankment Place, a post-modern office and shopping complex which replaced almost the whole of the 1906 roof.

Also visible are the Tattershall Castle (the former ferry, tied up in the foreground on the River Thames and now a watering-hole - pub!), the Post Office Tower, Centre Point and the spire of St Martin in the Fields, as well (if you look closely) the revolving orb advertising the Coliseum. The upstream pedestrian footbridge on Hungerford Bridge is under construction at the time of the photo. Taken from the Millennium Wheel (otherwise known as the London Eye).

Taken in: UK / England / Lambeth / South Bank (show map)

Taken on: May 1, 2001

Tags:

Charing Cross Station

Charing Cross

railway

Tattershall Castle

pub

watering-hole

ferry

River Thames

river

Thames

Post Office Tower

post office

tower

Centre Point

Coliseum Theatre

Coliseum

building

marine

ship

boat

vessel

St Martin in the Fields

church

City of Westminster

Westminster

London

2001

AE-1

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