Wednesday 4 May 2011

Leamington Spa railway's 1930s waiting rooms restored

The newly reconstructed Leamington Spa railway station, 1938.  Image courtesy of WarwickshireRailways.com
Leamington Spa railway's 1930s waiting rooms restored

Travelling through Leamington Spa by rail has just got a whole lot more enjoyable if this item of news is anything to go by.  Most modern railway stations (that's railway station, not train station - one of my pedantic pet hates!) are never the most salubrious places to wait around in, it's sad to say, so anything that brings a bit of Thirties glamour to the proceedings is all right in my book!

A pat on the back for Chiltern Railways for recognising the historical importance and existing potential of the original Great Western Railway décor instead of going for a soulless plastic and polymer refit.  Once again a group of dedicated individuals, the Friends of Leamington Station, have also given their time, skills and money to this worthy enterprise and I'll bet they're even more happy than I am to see the rooms back to their former glory.
The booking office.  They should bring that back too!  Image courtesy of WarwickshireRailways.com

This is further proof that the styles and designs of the Art Deco era are still valued by others and have their place even today, hopefully to brighten the journey of Warwickshire's commuters.  In fact the station manager, at the end of this press release, says it all - "The waiting rooms are bright, clean and have an airy feel. Staff will take pride in it and it shows we care."  Quite right!

9 comments:

  1. OOH, we travel through the Chilterns sometimes, I'll have to remember my camera if we ever find ourselves in Leamington Spa!

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  2. That's wonderful, such a sense of "grand traveling". To my horror, stations are changing into (glass) shopping malls (in the Netherlands).

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  3. That is good news, such interiors should be restored and presented in their original style. Now all they have to do is bring back are the branch lines, punctuality, polite staff etc.

    Confound that Dr. Beeching!

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  4. Oh to have travel when it was done in such style.
    So much of our grand and not so grand history is being lost day on day.
    As you so rightly say A big pat on the back is due to Chiltern Railways for recognising the historical importance and existing potential of the original Great Western Railway décor.
    I have place this on my list of places to visit.

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  5. Chiltern Railways get the thumbs up all round.

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  6. That’s such lovely news! I have a Lyons cake (yumm) display cabinet that came from Leamington spa train station (heehe- sorry, I had to!)- I never knew it looked like that though!!! I must go and check it out and see where my cabinet once lived

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  7. This is grand news indeed! Thanks for sharing. You are always such a wealth of wondrous news!

    Tickety - that is a great idea!

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  8. I love that people are restoring buildings to their former glory, not just "renovating" i.e. ripping out their interiors and replacing with "modern" stuff. In 50 years time will anyone want to restore our modern buildings I wonder???

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  9. Oh, lovely! I was in a city recently that had a lot of Art Deco-style buildings. It really is very appealing!

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