Railway Mania
The first "railway mania" was in full swing and, although at first sight young and inexperienced, Robert Stephenson appointed him to be the architect for the North Midland Railway then under construction.
He designed many publicly acclaimed buildings, major and minor railway stations, and warehouses. One of the most representative of his surviving work is the Midland Hotel in Derby.
This was part of a complete railway complex, the world's first, comprising one of the most magnificent station buildings of the time, attached to which was a large three-bay glazed train-shed, together with workers' houses, and a locomotive roundhouse and workshop.
Notable for his criticism of the extravagant nature of the railway architecture of the day, Whishaw was nevertheless full of praise, writing: "The admirably contrived and elegant roofs, the spacious platforms, the great length of the whole erection extending to upwards of a thousand feet. All unite in rendering it the most complete structure of the kind in the United Kingdom or perhaps the world."
Though the original station has been rebuilt the hotel survives along with the Cottages and the original workshop.
Thompson continued to work with Robert Stephenson and assisted with the Chester and Holyhead Railway and with the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Strait. His building at Chester still exists.
Read more about this topic: Francis Thompson (architect)
Famous quotes containing the words railway and/or mania:
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)