A manifesto

The Euston Arch, a legendary London landmark, was demolished in 1962 after a short and sharp campaign to save it. Completed in May 1838 the arch was the centrepiece of Euston Station which, when it opened in 1837, was the first main line railway terminus built in any capital city in the world. The arch was the architectural wonder of its age, taking the form of the largest Doric propylaeum, or gateway, ever built, it was one of the finest Greek Revival buildings in the world. With its construction immortalised in Charles Dickens' Dombey & Son, it symbolized modernity, the dawn of the railway age and the improved links between the north and south of Britain that were one of the great and immediate benefits of the nations pioneering railway system. The arch was a prodigy building for an exciting, epoch-making and prodigious age.

The arch should never have been demolished, it was an act of shameful barbarism that still has the power to shock. And now is the time to right this great wrong and return to the capital - and the country - a lost architectural masterpiece. Euston Station is to be redeveloped in the next few years and the Euston Arch Trust is committed to seeing the arch rebuilt. If achieved this reconstruction would cause delight and wonder around the world, it would be an event of international significance for it would demonstrate that architectural glories can return from the grave, that lost beauty can live again.

The rebuilt arch should fulfil its original function as a gateway to the station, and original stones, many of which still exist under the waters of an east London river, should be incorporated into the structure.

A resurrected Euston Arch would have an important role to play in making Euston once again one of the great stations of the world. It would put a regenerated Euston and rebuilt Euston Station back on the map, give them character and international distinction - make them one of the sights of London. This project is affordable and feasible, and will delight Londoners, visitors to the capital and all users of the railway. Let’s make it happen. At Euston, beauty rather than Philistinism should have the last word.

The loss of the arch

The Euston Arch Trust

The discovery during the early 1990s of these stones from the Euston Arch led to the formation in 1994 of the Euston Arch Trust (EAT, incorporated as a private limited company with Companies House on 1st May 1997, company number 3362835) to head a campaign to rebuild the Euston Arch, not as a replica but as an authentic reconstruction.

The Euston Arch

The arch - of great artistic, architectural and historic quality and an object of great visual power and beauty - should never have been destroyed. Designed by Philip Hardwick in 1836, it was the largest Greek Doric propylaeum ever constructed (it stood 70 feet high) and was the first major monument of the railway age. It marked the entry to the world’s first railway terminus to be built in a capital city and was one of the most emblematic structures of nineteenth century Britain. It was the gate to the north from London, the symbol of the power and wonder of the new railway age, of the age of steam-power, of technological progress unprecedented in its speed and scope - of the new age of fast transport and ever more rapid forms of communication.

The arch was an immaculate and inspired interpretation of much admired historic prototypes - notably the Propylaeum of c 450 BC leading to the top of the Acropolis in Athens and Greek and Roman porticos in muris such as the gate to the Roman Agora in Athens. Yet the Euston Propylaeum also, notably in its ingenious and pioneering construction, expressed tremendous pride and confidence in its own age - the age of the railway and of new building technology. Although inspired by ancient Grecian architecture and apparently of traditional masonry construction the arch was in fact modern in conception and incorporated much iron.

Hardwick wanted to minimise construction costs by reducing the weight of the arch and the quantity of expensive material, so stone was used as a cladding over a robust iron and brick inner structure. For example, each column ‘drum’ was not solid but hollow being composed of four slabs fixed together with metal cramps and braces. It was part of one of these slabs that was lifted from the Prescott Cut. The rest of the stones remain in the Cut, their site unaffected by the recent construction of a large new lock that controls the flow of the water in the Prescott Cut into the River Lea.

Since Hardwick used stone as a facing material (except for the entablature and the Doric capitals as shown in J.C. Bourne’s lithograph of c1837 documenting construction) the surviving blocks are less robust than might be expected but, to judge by the sample lifted from the water, they remain in very good condition and have suffered not at all from decades underwater. Hardwick used grit stone from the Bramley Fall quarry in Yorkshire, and this is nearly as hard as granite and, most important, the quarry is still functioning and stone similar to that used in the arch remains available.

The issues raised by the campaign to rebuild the arch are complex - should it be built on the Euston site or elsewhere? Should the maximum number of salvaged old stones and authentic 1830s construction techniques be used (which is possible since an accurate set of construction drawings - compiled by British Railways during demolition - survive in the Public Record Office, along with a number of original drawings), or should a new arch be made entirely of newly quarried stones put together in a modern and economic manner? Also, to what extent should a reconstructed arch be made to serve as a functioning public building and to what extent can it be simply a symbol? For instance, should the lodges that flanked the arch be reconstructed and should the large room within the entablature and pediment of the arch be made accessible to the public with stairs and lifts to allow the complex to contain functions that could capture the public’s imagination - such as a Pantheon of the railway age - and create revenue such as a dining, reception or exhibition room?

The Euston Arch Trust mission