Network SouthEast Railway Society

By Fritz von Marshall-Blitz, R.I.B.A.

Where it all began…

When the words “Modern Movement” are mentioned, one immediately conjures images of the works of the Bauhaus and Art Deco periods – the great brick/concrete façades of the 1930s, clad with faience and punctured with great swathes of glass in slender metal frames.

However, this may be a rather blinkered view of what the word “modern” means in terms of architecture… Architecture is like the human race – it evolves, taking aspects from previous strata of architectural design, to better suite the present use, environs and climate.

Whatever the “Modern Movement” may have been to our forebears, it is now having somewhat of a renaissance, but we forget all too easily about the period immediately after the “Post-Modern Movement” in the UK (1950s-1980s), in which buildings reverted back to brick, concrete and glass, without the austere styles and additions of the Post-Modern erections.

Rations and Festivities…

The British Transport Commission took the challenge of building new stations post-War with great care, owing to the post-War lack of resources and changing attitudes toward styles. Their decision on the aesthetics and materials had their origins in the structures at the highly successful Festival of Britain (1951), when pre-stressed concrete beams and lightweight structural steel proved that large open-plan spaces could be created cheaply and quickly.

The aesthetic qualities of the station buildings of this period reflect some of the romance once associated with rail travel, and the interior of Chichester’s Booking Hall is the epitome of the clean and simple Festival style which emphasises the innocent and unpretentious aspirations of the post-War years, without reference being made in the design to the austerity of the period.

The later builds, such as Folkestone Central, were more detailed, and carried their duties with some more sophistication than had previously been experienced. By today’s standards, the décor would be considered “kitch”, but it kept some dignity as architecture drifted more into the concrete ‘60s.

The Cold War and Concrete years…

British Rail had an interesting task on its hand in the 1960s, when a new standard in architecture was adopted: it consisted of relatively new “Consortium of Local Authority’s Special Programme” (CLASP) building method where pre-fabricated concrete/glazing/door panels could be fitted to an external steel structure set out in a grid quickly and cheaply, resulting in a crisp, clean modern image to the travelling public.

However, by the time that the BR re-building programme had gone into full swing, a new system using brick instead of concrete panelling was developed, known as the “Second Consortium of Local Authority’s” (SCOLA), this method was slowly adopted as the basis for all future construction from the late-1970s (Teynham and Newington are fine examples of this means of construction.)

Other structures, such as waiting shelters and signalboxes were also built using the same construction means, although shelters were developed using prefabricated timbers rather than steel and had wooden/glass panels set around a standard grid form – BR had explored and used prefabrication to the utmost, and proved its value.

Whilst CLASP and SCOLA summed up the modernisation of BR, the world around was changing: pebble-dashed concrete, timber-framed windows and dark brown bricks with black dyed mortar beds was, simply, becoming out of fashion.

 

Changes are afoot…

A change was necessitated in both Architecture and the Country – with the election of Mrs Thatcher’s Government, the nation seemed to be dramatically altered, attention sternly turning to money – and BR was no exception, with the creation of “Business Sectors” in the mid-1980s, a new dawn had arisen and “standards” were created which surpassed everything which had come before.

Architecture was evolving: famous buildings such as the Lloyds Building, London, the Louvre Pyramid & chasm beneath at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, and the Unisys Building, Bournemouth, set the trend for affluent and tasteful (or tasteless, depending on one’s perception) styling which were to remain in vogue only for a mere five years before the economic slump of the early ‘90s hit home.

Network Standards

The stations erected by Network SouthEast were the unsung brethren of the boom period of the late 1980s, many of which were created on the following principles:

• “Modern”
• Light
• Spacious
• Economical
• Environmentally Responsible
• Easily maintainable
• Vandal proof (a sign of modern times, I suppose!)

As was the status quo in the 1980s, competition was the name of the game and NSE actively encouraged new and creative designs from architectural practices whose flares were free from the grasp of the Chief Civil Engineer’s office, and their creations are still doing sterling work to this day.

Platforms were furnished with standardised fittings to ease maintenance and create a uniform appearance to the travelling public – a latter day corporate image which still penetrates the privatised network, unintentionally.

Lighting was important in creating a safe atmosphere after dark, and new lamp standards were erected across the network, causing a stir in their gloss red. The “Abacus” standards still remain unchanged, and their simplicity and bright lamps have become the norm even with new builds [NB: At Wareham, where new standards have recently been installed, they are exactly the same as those which they replaced].

Benches were the successful Macemain & Amstad all steel frame (being virtually indestructible proved valuable in inner-city scenarios), powder coated in the obligatory red [NB: At Bosham, Southern have recently installed like-for-like benches, albeit in their apple green, thus proving the bench’s longevity.].

The early buildings of NSE involved the tried and tested principles of traditional brick and block construction, interspersed with large panes of glass in pressed aluminium frames. Structural members (which would have been traditionally made of steel or pre-stressed concrete) were formed of laminated timber sections (known as Glued Laminates – GLULAM – using short lengths of timbers to span large distances) – perhaps an attempt at ecologically friendly construction before it became the norm?

 

“It’s gorgeous, I love it…” – Interior Design under NSE

Predominantly, terrazzo (highly polished ‘Fusion Solstice Orb’ marble chippings set in cement) was the chosen floor covering, with expansion joints picked out in polished brass.

Often, pre-cast terrazzo was used, although for new builds it was sometimes set in situ, and can be identified by hair-line cracking where expansion has occurred over the years. Raised detailing which was “part of the floor”, i.e. flower beds, walling, etc., were also clad in terrazzo – Waterloo and Portsmouth & Southsea (lower level) are examples of these.

Walls were clad in a terrazzo tile (a much lighter and highly polished ‘Fusion Solstice Copper Orb’ chippings) in buildings where extensive refurbishment and modernisation had taken place – Winchester and Portsmouth Harbour boast terrazzo walls in their booking halls.

Generally, the colour scheme was simple: window and door frames were dark blue or grey, doors gloss red, window sashes in white. Ticket Windows were red, with chrome shelve and cill beneath. Walls, where painted, were white or magnolia, with skirting and dado rails picked out in dark grey or blue.

Lavatories were extensively modernised with tiled walls, new cubicle structures and easily maintainable and vandal proof ceramic fittings. Floors were tiled in ribbed-tiling to provide adhesion during flooded conditions.

 

A more in-depth guide on the “Painting of Stations” and the accurate colour numbers can be found in the Appendix.