Britain’s Lost Railways: The Twentieth-Century Destruction of our Finest Railway Architecture - Hardcover

Minnis, John

4.13

30 ratings by Goodreads

9781781313329: Britain’s Lost Railways: The Twentieth-Century Destruction of our Finest Railway Architecture

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1781313326 ISBN 13: 9781781313329

Publisher: Aurum Press Ltd, 2014

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A striking photographic record of how the Beeching cuts and modernisation saw our grand terminal stations, soaring viaducts and cavernous locomotive works wiped from the landscape

The current restoration of St Pancras Station and its Midland Hotel is a glorious exception to a melancholy rule that the finer our railway architecture, the more likely it was to be demolished in the name of progress. Who would know that the ugly, low concrete bunker of Birmingham New Street station replaced a handsome glass-roofed train shed, or that until the 1960s the stupendously high Belah viaduct swept across a remote Cumbrian valley or that the outlet mall in Swindon selling cheap designer clothing used to be he great GWR locomotive works? or that on little bucolic branch lines in the West Country or Essex an old bus body was the waiting-room? In over 200 fascinating and often rare images John Minnis documents the remarkably rich architectural heritage of our railways, from quaint country halts to distinguished railway hotels all of which exists now only in photographs.

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Review:

'A nice book, of great historical interest.'

(Railways Illustrated)

A scholarly text alongside the magnificent photographs - Ian Jack

(The Guardian)

A powerful and evocative pictorial record...images are pin-sharp and filled with atmosphere

(The Times)

It is rare for this reviewer to pick up a coffee table title like this and be quite so impressed by the absorbing quality of the book s content. However, that is exactly what the supremely presented Britain s Lost Railways achieves in bucketloads... highly recommended

(Steam Railway magazine)

This excellent book is a feast for the eyes and gives the reader much to ponder

(Today's Railways magazine)

Wonderful pictures...a testimony to an age of excellence

(Best of British)

Fascinating book

(Good Book Guide)

'A superbly produced account'

(National Railway Museum Journal)

'this is a wonderful book...it reminds us how 150 or so years of railway heritage can be simply swept away'

--Railway Magazine

About the Author:

JOHN MINNIS is a Senior Architectural Investigator with English Heritage. He has a particular interest in transport architecture and is currently engaged in a study of the impact of the motor car on the historic environment of England. He is the author of Britain s Lost Railways, published by Aurum.

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