Far be it for us to give advice to NSW Premier Mike Baird. Recently he’s been getting plenty of unsolicited counsel – good and bad – from others on many diverse subjects.
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But, as experienced travelers, we can suggest a destination for his next overseas jaunt. He should head to London and spend some time at the historic St Pancras railway station.
This will give him a wonderful perspective regarding his request of the public about how to give a vibrant new look to Sydney’s Central Railway terminus. Indeed, within minutes of stepping onto the main concourse at St Pancras, he’ll have the solution.
Striding onto the area below the ornate replica clock, he will be confronted by a larger-than-life statue of the much revered Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman. Half a century ago Sir John saved St Pancras from the Philistines who wanted to tear it down and build a grotesque office tower.
The grand old man fought against this cultural vandalism, cleverly using the Fleet Street newspapers to shame the powers that be. He chastised the bureaucrats for their failure to recognise the significance of the facade of the Midland Grand Hotel that dominated the station’s front. He also railed against (pun intended) the lack of support for the giant arch – at the time the largest indoor space in the world and to this day the largest single-span station roof in Britain – designed by the renowned Victorian railway engineer William Barlow, to be the terminus for steam trains of the Midland Railway.
Waxing lyrically in the third person, as only Betjeman could, he spoke of a typical St Pancras devotee: “What he sees in his mind’s eye is that cluster of towers and pinnacles ... outlined against a foggy sunset and the great arc of Barlow’s train shed gaping to devour incoming engines”.
Betjeman’s campaign eventually saved St Pancras from the wrecker’s ball. The station is now listed as a heritage monument. Lines from his poems feature on the walkway throughout it.
Could we see a statue of reformed alcoholic Arthur Stace at Central Station, with his signature word Eternity scattered about it?