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A Ficto-HistoricalTheory
of the London Underground
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Urban railway stations were dual from the outset: that is what my next guide proclaimed. They disallowed easy absorption of new materials and technologies into unified objects, and clear wholes. The world’s first long distance railway operated from around the corner from where I write this. Simon, my guide, spoke from behind the joyful facade of his face, all Victorian colours and exuberance for no reason other than to court pleasure. It was Euston, the year was 1837. There was no precedent for this kind of a building, he said, so Euston introduced a number of features that would never be repeated. And yet, it holds the key to what would come later, under the surface.
It had a free-standing Doric portico, this first of London’s railway stations, and an oversized one at that. As for the train platforms – that technological necessity every building accommodating railways has had to address ever since – they were not of a piece with the rest, but an afterthought, tucked away at the back. It was the portico that was key, the archway that marked the triumph of entering the city. The relief of escaping it, perhaps.
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