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Earl Purple · October 24th 06, 03:40 PM posted to uk.transport.london

wrote:
I was in Berlin recently and of course took some time to admire the new
Hauptbahnhof. Reading up about it, I discovered that pre-WW2, Berlin
had the same situation as London regarding mainline termini, i.e. a
number of them in a circle around the city, depending on which part of
the country you were travelling to. As part of reunification, a
decision was made to build a Berlin Hauptbahnhof where all mainline
trains to the city would halt.

My question is, was something similar ever considered for London in the
immediate postwar period? The area where the Barbican now is was
flattened, so would it have been possible for the lines from Euston,
King's Cross/St Pancras, Moorgate, Fenchurch Street, Cannon
Street/London Bridge and Waterloo to have been extended somehow to
build a London "Hauptbahnhof" on a site in that area? I know it would
have left out Victoria & Paddington, and would have meant a lot of
demolition, but the postwar nationalisation period would seem to have
been the natural time for such a big project if the idea were ever
mooted.

Euston, Kings Cross, Paddington, Waterloo, Liverpool Street and
Marylebone all have direct links to Oxford Circus via one of the 3
lines that uses that station. Although Moorgate doesn't, you can alight
either at Kings Cross or Highbury & Islington (or Finsbury Park) from
any of the mainline trains before it reaches that station so you can
get to Oxford Circus that way.

London Bridge is not a terminus.

That leaves only Cannon Street and Fenchurch Street lacking the direct
link.

Perhaps now there's a congestion charge and internet shopping and all
the shops in Oxford Street are doing so badly, we should bulldoze is
all down to make that the common London terminus then?

(Of course Smithfield might make a more sensible location, do we really
need a meat market there?)