Architectural drawings by Perceval Parsons, dating from 1853, reveal a grand plan for a central London railway terminus that would have rivaled New York's Grand Central Station. The proposals, now put on sale to mark the 200th anniversary of the first public passenger railway, show a station intended for Great Scotland Yard, near the modern-day Embankment tube station.
Parsons envisioned a station with an ornamental frontage about 800ft (245 metres) long, multiple entrances leading to a spacious hall, and eight arrival and eight departure platforms. The seven-hectare (18-acre) site was described as containing 'only a few sheds and outhouses of inconsiderable value' and being 'covered with mud sending forth anything but agreeable or wholesome odours'.
The scheme was supported by Robert Stephenson, chief engineer of the London and Birmingham Railway, but the Crimean war sapped appetite for expensive projects and it was quietly forgotten. The prospectus, including two large folded maps, is priced at £1,450 and features in a new railway catalogue compiled by Joshua Clayton at Jarndyce antiquarian booksellers.
Other items in the catalogue include letters from George Stephenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, as well as travellers' guides and timetables from the early years of steam locomotives. The 1840s saw a boom in railway construction, but plans to connect central London were abandoned after the banking crisis of 1847 and a royal commission recommendation against building terminals in the city centre.
