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Northampton Station

Railway Stations are an excellent example of a building type that has grown and developed according to need. Most of those in Britain are Victorian in date, from the great age of railway building, but a stream of new or rebuilt examples runs unbroken down to the present.

Stations were the public face of the railway companies, so their design was often treated with immense care within the limits imposed by function and utility. The results include some of the greatest public buildings in the country, and a wide range of smaller buildings of character and visual appeal.

The following pages show a selection of the most interesting examples, and explain some of the main themes in railway station architecture.