York Guides

 The following is a snippet from a wonderful book called England - Travels Through An Unwrecked Landscape by Candida Lycett Green, and is an absolute must read for anyone interested in England's lesser known and beautiful scenery, landscapes and architecture.

 
York has one of the most magnificent railways stations in Britain Handsome, stalwart and true, it serves to remind us of what we have lost at Derby and Birmingham New Street. Look how timeless and adaptable it has been, how it has withstood bomb damage in the last war and how it remains a proud monument to those heroic Victorian railway engineers and architects.

Dr Beeching, one of this century's most misguided men, axed our branch lines and killed off hundreds of stations, leaving a trail of tragic devastation, but he did at least leave the main line system unwrecked. Helped by the valiant Victorian Society and English Heritage, listed stations are now safe from further degradation. 

York Station was luckier than most. It survived without any radical change to its structure. It was northern pride that first put York on the railway map through the enlightened speculation of the legendary George Hudson. 'Mak' all t' railways cum f York,' he said, and he was in a position to make it happen. Hudson was born at the village of Howsham near York, the son of a farmer. After leaving school he was apprenticed to a drapery shop in York when, unexpectedly, at the age of twenty-seven he inherited £30,000 from a distant relative. He was fascinated by railways and so he invested in North Midland Railway shares. From then on his career rocketed. First he became chairman of the Conservative Party in York, then town councillor, then alderman and, in 1837, Lord Mayor. 

Meanwhile, Hudon's vision of the railway system was taking shape, and although his thinking was about seventy years ahead of his time, he managed to lay a sound basis for his life's ambition - to weld together a nationwide railway network. Stimulated by his civic success he struck out and supported new projects. Although there were vague rumblings along the tracks towards York in the 1820s and early 30s, it was not until the York and Midland Railway Company was formed, largely under Hudson's influence, that real progress was made. An Act of Parliament was obtained in 1836 and the first train ran from York's first station on 29 May 1839. 

Hudson continued to engineer mergers and deals and seldom missed an opportunity to gain more track. When he heard about a new line being built from Newcastle and Berwick, he soon saw to it that York benefited: the York, Newcastle to Berwick line was born. (In 1853 it was amalgated [amalgamated] with two other Hudson lines to become the North Eastern Railway.) By the mid 1840s, when the railway boom was at its height, Hudson had over a thousand miles of track under his command and interest in miles more. But as his operations extended, so he sailed closer and closer to the wind and he was eventually accused of fraud. The 'Railway King', as he was known, ended his days in poverty and disgrace. 

Hudson had left an enormous legacy. York was its hub and its great showpiece. When the third and present station was built between 1873 and 1877 it was the largest in the world. The original design was by the official Northern Eastern architect, Thomas Prosser, who echoed John Dobson's earlier designs for Newcastle and also derived features from the roof at Paddington. Prosser retired in 1874 and was succeeded for two years by Benjamin Burleigh. But it was William Peachey who was ultimately in charge of the station's construction and is said to have modified and altered the design. The curving lines, which needed concentrically curving sheds, and the elegant sweep of roof above make the inside of York Station a magical and unforgettable place. When the station was finally opened in 1877, one of the North Eastern Railway shareholders deemed it 'a very splendid monument of extravagance'. It had cost £400,000 and is a truly beautiful building.