London and Birmingham Railroad - The Station at Euston Square

The original station was opened on 20 July 1837, as the terminus of the London and Birmingham Railway constructed by William Cubitt. It was designed by a well-known classically trained architect, Philip Hardwick, with a 200 ft (61 m) long train shed by structural engineer Charles Fox. Initially it had only two platforms, one for departures and one for arrivals.

This print by Thomas Bury shows the type of open carriage in which pasengers are sitting , open to all weather as well as the ornate architectural roof covering the platform.

Charles Dickens wrote about the impact of the railways in several works. For example, Mugby Junction in Christmas Stories II, 1866, he wrote, ' So many railway lines they appeared to be the work of extraordinary ground spiders that spun iron’. and the carriages appeared to have ‘iron-barred cages full of cattle.....the drooping beasts with horns entangled, eyes frozen with terror’.