Barking mad

I haven't praised much modern architecture on here recently, so can I introduce Barking railway station:


This is a story of how the best enlightened intentions of modern architects are often thwarted by the generations that come after. This rather fine, simple concrete and glass box was opened in 1961 -- architecture by British Railways Eastern Region (chief architect HH Powell).


Powell's team had a tricky brief: to create a structure that would float over no fewer than eight railway lines, providing easy, welcoming access to the complicated service pattern operating through here.


They solved it with the large, airy pavilion you saw in the first couple of photos, floating over the tracks which were accessed by wide flights of stairs from the spacious walkway behind the concourse.


But the concourse itself was also pretty spacious -- a generous double-height space, all glazed and sunny.


Here's where the story gets less positive -- successive generations have crammed-in more retail, introduced cheap lighting and ducting "solutions", and cobbled together any old tat that anyone felt was necessary.


Even on a gloriously sunny day like today, it now feels cramped and dingy. A feeling not helped by the insane "streetscape design" applied outside.


Who in their right minds would insert a Parisian-style Art Nouveau advertising hoarding/pissoir here (next to the faux-Victorian lamp-post and the massive wall of pedestrian penning, designed to control our movements)?


If you just push the camera in a little so those distractions are removed, the cantilevered roof suddenly comes back into its own, a shape both daring and welcoming, the three unequal pitches of the roof adding their own excitement.


Once you're down on the platforms things are pretty bog-standard, that light-filled pavilion left behind as a gentle memory.


I'm not a huge fan of faced concrete (not in the English climate, anyway) but in the main station hall it's used sensitively and sparingly.

I have a bit of a crush on Barking railway station. But I want to sweep away all the crap and restore it to its minimalist glories.