Perceval Parsons’ plans for station put on sale to mark 200th anniversary of first public passenger railway
The vaulted arches of New York’s Grand Central station are recognisable even to those who have never taken a train into the Big Apple. But they could very easily have been a sight visible in central London.
Shelved 172-year-old architectural drawings by Perceval Parsons show how he envisioned a new London railway connecting the growing number of lines coming into the city to a huge main terminal by the Thames.
The drawings of London’s own Grand Central Station, which are being put on open sale for the first time to mark the 200th anniversary of the first public passenger railway, show a scheme that would have given the capital of the UK a very different look today.
The station was to be located at Great Scotland Yard, close to the modern-day Embankment tube station, and would have boasted an ornamental frontage about 800ft (245 metres) in length.
