Friday, November 23, 2007

St. Pancras Train Station


It's really tragic that with the exception of Grand Central, America doesn't give much heed to aesthetics when thinking about public works. (The half-hearted art projects in the NYC subways are cute but don't count.)

My father took a detour to show me the new St. Pancras train station today... it opened last week and I say well done, whoever designed this one! In general, I feel like train stations create such room for imagination .... you could be going anywhere for any reason....
But this is especially lovely: the filtered light from the glass roof, the twice-life size sculpture of the couple saying goodbye to each other....


the Champagne bar on the departure platform, my 62- year -old father carefully wheeling his 90-odd-year-old mother in the wheelchair, every time turning her and stopping so she could read the poems etched into the stone floor ... sometimes it's just so touching and there's nothing to think except you wish you were getting on the next train ...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does this train go to the Islets of Langerhans? And isn't that statue rather...heteronormative?

--P.C.

Elizabeth Vicary said...

Oh, terribly heteronormative, absolutely. But who knows, perhaps after shipping his girlfriend off to Bruxelles Midi or Paris Nord, our friend meets his gay lover at the champagne bar. And then they move on to the Car Park for a quick shag.

A Carolina Cobras Fan said...

Here's some underground architecture that's simply amazing that you might enjoy - http://tinyurl.com/22umcy

Anonymous said...

From my local paper today - here's that couple going at it again:

http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=137564&ran=222846