Swindon station 90% of the windows boarded up
Had the sheer delight of travelling from this train station today. Almost looked derelict. What’s the most and least swanky stations in the UK?
And there’s now a huge ad board where the old departure boards were
As a technician who builds LED wall I love that that thing, as a human being with eyes I absolutely despise it.
Brighter than the sun that thing.
And the seats they have are those stupid slat things that your arse goes numb on after 5 mins when you’re waiting for the train after the one they just cancelled because of driver shortages. Again.
Look up what Euston used to look like… survived both wars only to be “redesigned” by some 60’s Architects who knew only concrete boxes. Absolute disgrace.
Oh wow! That staircase!!! What an utter waste... :(
I think Euston is fine. Is you're comparing it to other London terminals it's lacking, and I agree with you on the seats, but it could be worse. I often pass through both Stratford and Stratford International stations, neither of which have any waiting rooms or somewhere comfortable to wait around. Stratford International has a large empty atrium above the platforms with one WH Smiths and a coffee shop. There's 1 rock hard bench to sit on and the atrium is cold, but is your only option when the coffee shop is closed. Thing is, so many UK stations have no waiting room so if you're waiting around for an hour you're doing it in the cold.
As for Swankiest, St Pancras is a good shout but I must mention Blackfriars, a station on top of the Thames is hard to beat.
Last swanky is Belfast Great Victoria which is next to the Europa bus station. Horrible, cramped, glad that the new Grand Central is being built.
Please accept my most sincere apologies for having to go anywhere near Swindon
I was playing for Eastwood Town after leaving uni and we drew Swindon Supermarine in the FA Cup First Round proper in 2011. I couldn’t play because I had damaged wrist ligaments (keeper problems) but I travelled down with the lads on the train.
Supermarine actually play in a little village outside of Swindon (I forget the name but it had a nice little pub), but we had to get off in Swindon. Never. Again.
Oh. And we lost 2-1.
South Marston.
And they (or their youth squad?) train sometimes in Calne.
The true magic of the FA Cup.
Great story.
Swindon gave us one of the greatest rock bands of all time, lest we forget.
The one and only XTC !!!
My dad says he was in XTC right at the beginning and he's mentioned in their biography but I've yet to see any proof...
Did you check the book?
Ehh I'm not sure I wanna spend £13 on a book 🤣 might one day
https://archive.org/details/xtcchalkhillschi00twom/page/n5/mode/1up
This one? Can borrow it for free for a bit if so... scratch the itch
Haha I found it, there's a whole bit about my dad was basically a singer in (a crap) band when he met Andy as a student (my dad is Martin Vincent if you're curious) I'm gonna take the piss out of him when I see him Thursday!
That's brilliant
get it from a library near you!
Good idea I think I know someone who works at one ☺️
"lovable mopheads from Swindon" per John Peel, as I recall.
Oasis got their name from a poster that featured the Swindon Oasis leisure centre as a venue.
Knowing that, I kind of wish they had called themselves ‘Dorcan Recreation Complex’ now
What's wrong with The Link Centre?
Or "Milton Road Hydrotherapy"
I was in Swindon for a stag do recently, it was a strange depressing place. Even the cab driver said the only things they have are the magic roundabout and the steam museum. Unless social deprivation is a tourist attraction now?
Why on earth was Swindon chosen for a stag do!?
I can only assume some sort of adrenaline sport?
Running away from Swindon?
Can't you read? The steam museum! What stag and his group of rowdy mates wouldn't want to learn all about steam?
It's a great place to go and get steaming.
That would be one hell of a gag.
The best man organized a "surprise" stag do with the details to be kept in envelopes until the set date. At the very last moment the best man calls in and says he can't go as he's got diarrhea, but you lads go have fun!
The groom to be opens the envelope to find out where they're going, and it's...
Swindon.
Steams open the invite.
Super glues it shut, seals in concrete, and buries in a wood in the middle of the night.
It’s the ultimate Escape Room.
Worst. Best man. Ever.
I had to go the the CEX in Swindon - there were 4 Greggs en route from the station
Swindon, CEX and Greggs... there's a holy trinity of slightly naff British things!
A trip to CEX with 4 Greggs on the way honestly sounds like my kind of afternoon
I hear they dropped an atomic bomb on…Swindon. About 15 quid’s worth of damage.
Right, ok
Swindon, literally ‘Pig Town’ or ‘Pigs Hill’ in old English. (Laughs in Oxen-Ford)
I used to live sort of half way between the two, and my Tinder radius covered both cities. WILDLY different results.
I used to teach at a language school that was about 20 min from Swindon or 40 min from Oxford. We 100% always described it as being "near Oxford"
People from Swindon describe themselves as being near Bath or Bristol
I drove to Swindon recently and on driving through the town I had a moment when I realised I was about to go through the Magic Roundabout. Was an absolute treat! Then I left it and was brought back to the crushing reality of Swindon once more.
I work on the railway, I am not going to go into the age old "the old ones are better" because they objectively just are better. So this is not my comprehensive, but here are the 2 that popped to mind immediately.
Crawley Station is a monument to how I cannot mesh the fashion and art of the 1960s with the architecture. It's legitimately disgusting. It's so poorly located, does not look like a station and just the absolute worst of utilitarian design, that it's just etched into my mind as horrid.
Edit - turns out they have slightly revamped Crawley since I was last there. Here is the view I saw on my last time there U-G-L-Y
Huddersfield, just far nicer than you expect when walking out the door and looking back at it. It is just far bigger than you expect, the square it walks out on to it lovely and it usually means that "okay, you missed the last train to Hebden Bridge, but it's only a £14 mistake in a taxi, rather than an Uber from Central Manchester" so it's alright by me.
Bonus points for seeing the hotel directly to the front-left that was the birthplace of Rugby League.
Crawley has 15 years of google streetview pictures available and they are all exactly equally depressing.
Yes, clicking through the history you can see the "budget office space" banner has been there since 2012. Grim.
A couple of great pubs in Huddersfield Station too.
One of the better stops on the Manchester to Leeds ale trail (by train)
One shit pub and one great pub.
Depends who you ask as to which one is great mind you.
Oh god Crawley. It's not just ugly, there's something wrong with it on a very deep level.
Crawley is the kinda place you'd just click "New Game" on Sim City and start again
The office building above Crawley station has been vacant for at least 25 years. Horrible place.
I second Huddersfield.
Also, the hotel that was the birthplace of rugby league is the George Hotel (just to add to your comment)
Crawley is horrible but it's not poorly located, it's right in the town centre. But I guess being in Crawley town centre is objectively badly located.
Yeah I worded that poorly.
I feel like rail stations, good ones especially, roads are supposed to lead to them. You have a "station road and a little carriage area by a square or at least an entrance of note. They're supposed to be at the end of a smaller road off of a bigger one then in a good pedestrian walking area.
Crawley has a tiny collection/drop off spot, then straight next to it is a mess of roads. I honestly walked past it the first time on my way to get the train out, because it looks and feels so unlike a train station.
Crying shame because there's a lot of them on the Arun Valley line which, despite not being from the golden age of rail stations, are really likeable. Particularly Arundel, I've a lot of time for that little station.
(Fucking hell, I'm boring. Sorry)
I commented Crawley before seeing your mention of it anf oh my god it's vile. Then you consider you have horsham one way and Dorking the other which are both rather lovely by comparison 😅
seconding Huddersfield, cracking station, inside and out.
The best part of town to be sure.
I was going to comment Crawley until I saw you already mentioned it, has to be the worst station out there, since I’ve been alive there’s never been anything permanent in the building above it, had a course or something there but that was because it got moved last minute, looks just as depressing inside too
I always thought Huddersfield station looked like the court house in Back to the future. Or, the other way round…
Crawley and its surroundings look just like regular Russia. Absolutely horrible (I'm Russian)
60s had some wonderful architecture with midcentury modern homes, then there's this oppressive brutalist ugliness of civic buildings
That Crawley station made me say 'ugh' under my breath. What an eyesore. On the other hand, I lived in Huddersfield for years and always loved that train station, especially with its famous cats.
I was literally just about to say Crawley-even screen-shotted the Google Maps pic of it! 🤣 It’s bloody horrible to look at, stinks of piss, BO and stale Maccys and I don’t remember the offices above EVER being occupied, even back in the 80s! Salfords and Earlswood aren’t worth mentioning, Redhill is just grey and boring, Croydon is…well, Croydon 🤮
I moved up to the Midlands last year, Sandwell & Dudley is my local one but for work I use Birmingham New Street which isn’t too bad inside.
Crawley - so glad I moved away. I went back a few months ago and it's still a shithole
I always try to be at least a bit positive when it comes to the UK on reddit to counter the endless negativity, but man, that is so grim.
Tear it down
Swindon - or the old British Rail building?
The UK I think.
I heard there was an atomic bomb dropped on Swindon.
There was about £15 worth of damage.
It may look nice but it's also the coldest place on earth. I've spent many hours shivering on the wind tunnel that is platform 2. Brrr.
Second coldest.
Coldest is the bus station.
Noooo Ely station is the coldest place on earth, particularly when you’ve missed a connection, which is often.
Wrong. Aberdeen railway station is the coldest place on earth. Even in high summer it’s bloody baltic.
And the whole city is just grey and bleak
Like I'm Cornish I love a bit of granite I love granite as much as the next guy but if your that far north with grey sky nine months of the year maybe buy a tin of fucking paint now and again
Every time I went through Aberdeen on the way to Orkney I ended up with seasonal affective disorder
It also has a decent pub with a solid range that’s below high street prices rather than paying a huge premium.
Swankiest I've been to is Marylebone in London. It's one of the smaller ones, trains come in from nice bits of Oxfordshire, and it has a covered road outside linking to the 5 star Landmark hotel which is fairly swanky itself
Birmingham Moor Street at the other end of the line is another swanky one.
Birmingham Moor Street is lovely.
The Landmark Hotel was built by the railway and was the HQ of British Rail until privatisation.
lovely station. they shot peep show there
Although why would Sophie would be changing at Marylebone if she was going from Bristol to Birmingham when there's a direct line between them.
Still, I'm sure nothing happened really...
Nice bits of Oxfordshire...and unfortunately Aylesbury
I always choose to go into Marylebone when travelling from Birmingham because it’s a much less stressful journey than Brum to Euston!
Bristol Temple Meads is pretty impressive.
I was hoping TM would be mentioned, the main foyer building looks lovely and now that the hideous derelict sorting office is long gone, at least things look a lot more inviting, even with a building site there instead. It's just a shame that location wise, it's a bit rubbish.
I'm very fond of York station.
On the flipside there's Dudley Port station (not in Dudley, nowhere near the sea) which is little more than a bus shelter on a wind-blasted bridge.
Dudley Port is named for the old canal loading docks. Although, it's primary purpose seems to be to confuse people trying to go to the zoo.
Its primary purpose is to feed a continuous supply of potential mugging victims into Dudley Port.
London Blackfriars is the nicest modern station, in my opinion. It's over a river and made of glass! And the south bank exit takes you right out into my favourite bit of London.
The swankiest older station is probably Edinburgh Waverley. And I like Newcastle Central too.
The original Coventry station is an absolute vile shithole, as are Snow Hill and Birmingham International.
For a nice train station I do quite like Birmingham Moor Street.
You should have seen the original Snow Hill station - it was a work of art. British Rail closed it and then realised later on that they shouldn’t have closed it. Of course by that time the original nice station had been completely bulldozed so they built what is there today.
I'm amazed Moor Street survived in it's current form given what happened to Snow Hill, New Street (although version 3 is better than version 2 at least) and Curzon Street.
I do appreciate Snow Hill's secret second exit.
Moor Street was hideous in the 90s, then they refurbed it back to the original look and it’s fab!
Moor street is a wonderful survivor. Loved when the severn valley loaned the steam engine for display there
I prefer v2 to v3 - v3 feels busier and you're funnelled into smaller space, which isn't helped by the low ceilings and it's full of shops which brings in more crowds. The old one had a nice big open space you could comfortably stand around in waiting for your train. Now you trip over people selling you shite.
Snow Hill station is a microcosm of Birmingham in general. Bulldozing anything of value only to replace it with something worse in the name of progress
I could be wrong but I know at least one iteration of Snow Hill station was sliding down Livery Street so it had to be demolished. But I don’t know if that was the beautiful OG one.
The history of both Snow Hill and Moor Street is completely idiotic, especially Moor Street.
Moor Street was originally built because they needed more capacity and couldn't expand the tunnel between the two, so they kept the through lines and added some tracks on the side for a new terminus - Moor Street.
Then Snow Hill closed and Moor Street nearly went with it.
Then Snow Hill reopened and they built a new Moor Street on the through tracks, closing the terminus.
Then they reopened the terminus.
The time between the original closure of Snow Hill and the final decision to reopen the Moor Street terminus was just over 30 years.
I'm glad they did though. Moor Street's fucking lovely and as a railway nut who often has to travel through New Street it's a breath of fresh air.
Except that big sweeping staircase in coventry station is gorgeous.
On the contrary, I got the train to Coventry once and was pleasantly surprised to see that the interior of the main building still looked like something out of a 1960s British Transport Film!
Coventry’s 1960’s train station is a grade 2 listed building, so although it may not be to your taste the description of ‘vile shithole’ is disingenuous hyperbole. The new station actually incorporates the original. Birmingham International is of no merit, can’t argue with that and Moor Street is pleasant.
I went to Warwick so was often at that station. I don’t think it looks bad at all
Just did a quick google. Is this the orange wraparound/cladding the same building we’re talking about? Looks like it could be EasyJet’s head office?
Having spent a lot of time at Moor Street recently I have to respectfully disagree. The exits are confusing (I’m not sure I’ve ever managed to enter and exit in the same place), it’s filthy, so much of it is dark and gloomy and I am constantly harassed for money.
EDIT: I am thinking about New Street - I didn’t realise there was a Moor Street too, my bad!
Are you thinking of New Street? This sounds very much like New Street.
Edit: For what it's worth I agree with you on New Street, they've made improvements but I don't like being there. At least the air quality isn't as bad at platform level anymore.
Cov station v Pool Meadow. I cannot comprehend which was worse.
Have you seen the flats in there? The building is amazing.
That’d be a dream flat, although chances of getting 9.5m feels like a pipedream
But at least the service charge is only £50k a year.
It's a bit...roofy.
Oh my god I hate it.
That’s a hotel, the station is way behind it and not half as nice.
Still pretty bloody nice as stations go!
Reading is almost both in one. The "new" (though it's been several years since the upgrade) part of the station is quite nice
https://images.app.goo.gl/FbfMQJrZ1Mw57KR86
The older part is still pretty grim though
I like that Reading has 3 stations in one. There's the original Victorian bit which is the Three Guineas pub now, then the 80s depressing bit and finally the modern part is massive and quite unique/impressive.
Yeah I often forget about the Victorian bit
I think the 80s bit needs a facelift - not necessarily a tear-down-and-rebuild like with the new bit but just a fresh coat of paint, fix the floor, some better lighting, that sort of thing.
Agree, would be great if they really leaned into the 80s vibe just to make it clear it's a distinct part of the history
I worked on the rebuild of reading station. Believe it or not the 80's looking part is listed so had to be kept.
I find it hard to discuss Swindon without mentioning the roundabout.
I had to do my bloody driving test on that thing which made me fail three times 😭 I will never not be complaining about the magic roundabout!
You poor poor thing. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.
So did I but failed in Dorcan lol
I accidentally turned off for the Royal Mail place in Dorcan when my instructor meant for me to stay on the road…😅
Worked there for 12 years. The canteen had a pub in the middle
Glasgow Charing Cross is another one of the sad post-war concrete stations
Quite fond of it myself. Used it to get to rugby training at Anniesland every Friday a while back.
I like how it kind of nestles away among the high rises, and at track level you're underground but open air.
Euston is swanky without the s. Terrible place to catch a train, always has been and whatever buildibg work they are doing to it now hasn't actually made it worse as that simply isn't possible.
Bognor Regis Station has the most marvellous second hand bookshop so it can have a vote for swanky.
Agreed. You’re think that being a major London station Euston would be a lot nicer. The business class lounge is like a Travel lodge breakfast room.
Not a shit hole as such but Ford station in West Sussex. Often had to change here to get home if getting back late from a midweek game. Station in a field. Exposed to the elements. Absolute silence at 11:55pm bar the creaking of the station sign as it swings in the wind. Terrifying.
Ford. Barnham. Chichester. I have the recorded announcer's voice burned into my brain.
I was wondering if anyone would mention Ford. I only stopped there briefly but passed through many times.
It's called Signal Point and had been empty for years before Network Rail bought it back in 2020. They're still working out what to do with it.
Newport station just looks like a pair of ovaries
https://www.reddit.com/r/Wales/comments/7oijk1/newport_train_station_looks_like_ovaries/
Did you enjoy the fine selection of coffee and vape shops?
Ima say Newcastle, really nice old station but with a functional modern feel and in the buzzing centre
Crawley train station looks like a building straight out of Chernobyl
It really is a shame this is the first impression of Swindon - is it any wonder it gets such a bad reputation. But in fact Swindon has some lovely areas, the railway village is just a 5min walk from the station and is gorgeous, but most people only know it by the train station, and first impressions matter.
It’s either the train or the coach….both entrances through Swindon’s bumholes
I quite enjoy the one by my aunties in mid Wales where you have to flag down the train driver. It's about a 50ft platform you have to cross the tracks to get to.. no cover or anything just a raw platform.
Cannot beat Harlow Mill for sheer industrial bleakness.
https://www.instantstreetview.com/@51.789785,0.132308,333.29h,-14.51p,1.74z,atPuyEMzePizNUdUHrj6IQ
That's the winner
Allow me to present Windsor & Eton Central. It has one platform and only goes to Slough. However, it's also the main shopping/eating area in town and rather beautiful.
Perfect metaphor for Swindon over the past two decades as a whole really, especially given the towns rich rail history. What is worse is it's usually the first thing anyone visiting by train sees. Last I heard Network Rail recently took back control of the building, so I've been hoping it gets revamped or torn down soon because it's a blight.
Least swanky is any of the types similar to "Dorking Deepdene".
It's literally a line of wooden boards and nothing else.
No ticket office, no ticket barriers. Just one CRT monitor ) to, in theory, keep you informed but in practice seems to just show everything running on time until the train you're waiting for disappears from the board when it's due; whether the train turns up or not.
For a station which actually has decent service - 2 trains an hour to both Reading and Gatwick - it's by far the least swanky station there is.
I stopped commuting to Dorking over a decade ago, but the all too experience of spending an evening assaulted by the weather, not knowing when a train will actually stop - this was the era they'd avoid "cancelling" a train by just skipping all the stations between the first and last without penalty - on that plyboard misery hasn't left me.
Having been to deepdene and box hill etc there's a charm to those no-frills wee train stations. Much prefer them to the shithouse Woking types
Wakefield Kirkgate has a beautiful Victorian stone entrance that they restored a few years ago but the rest of it is dire. You do not want to be down that part of Wakefield after dark. Once I was returning home from uni in Sheffield (fairly nice station) and some dude followed me all the way to my bus stop about 5 min walk away. He asked if I had a light, said no sorry, then asked for my number. I said no, he called me a bitch and walked off.
The tunnel at Kirkgate has always terrified me, I’m sure someone was once assaulted there, and my mum used to warn me to never go on my own
My biggest criticism of Swindon railway station is that there's only one of it. Swindon is quite a large sprawling place, it needs more than a single station located in the centre. I imagine the new fast-accelerating electric trains on that line could cope with a couple more stops without losing time.
Teesside Airport and Redcar British Steel for two of the most miserable stations.
The same prefab design that got basically no service before getting closed and awful accessibility . With the latter you couldn’t even leave the station.
To be fair, every station on the Saltburn line is depressing. Not to mention that Redcar Central is a deathtrap.
Don’t know about Swindon; but last year Newport Station was voted the third ugliest building in the world:
It's a smaller one but I've always had a soft spot for Wemyss Bay. Gorgeous circular glass roof, Arts and Crafts style exterior with a lovely clock tower.
You can imagine Michael Portillo's great-grandchild expounding on the virtues of this station in a 100 years time.
Before anyone jumps on this post, I am taking the piss, since Portillo has no children and this station has no virtues.
Hebden Bridge is a beautiful station
Nicest building in Swindon that.
It's listed. Sorry, typo... Listing.
Inverness train station is a pigeon shit covered waste land. It's falling apart and has been like that for over 30 years with no investment.
Huddersfield station is really splendid, in its way, so is Hebden Bridge. Also, Great Malvern. Actually, despite its poor location, Bristol Temple Means isn't bad as a building.
Bradford Interchange is severely substandard, and Forster Square isn't much better. Similarly, both of the stations in Worcester are not really fit for purpose (but neither is the local railway network, but maybe that applies in Bradford too). Plymouth station is very disappointing for a gateway to s relatively large city. Macclesfield's station is undistinguished for its setting (Stafford is a far more successful example of a station from that period even though it is not delightful)
Yeah really surprised nobody’s mentioned Bradford Interchange given that it’s half closed and literally falling down (thoughts and prayers to anyone travelling here for the 2025 City of Culture)
Bristol parkway is like a temporary station that never got taken back down
I was born and raised in Swindon.
At age 25 moved to Japan. I'm happy here and still here 10 years later.
I'm at work, bored, for the first time decide to check out Casual UK.
There it is. Staring me in the face. Absolute ridiculously ugly station I know so well. My shit town, ironically famous for it's locomotive history.
I can't get away from you Swindon.
Terraformers are expressly forbidden from recreating Swindon.
Hmm, least swanky? Glasshoughton probably.
Why? It’s just a wall
there's loads of train stations/stops which are like this though
Great Malvern is pretty nice these days.
Shame though as most people use Malvern Link
Euston station, the original being impressively grand and the new station being particularly horrible.
What's interesting is that initially I thought this was Crawley train station as it looks similar.
Oh no wait, that's not very interesting at all
I find Newport in Wales’ station really ugly.
The office building above the station is derelict so you are right! It’s not owned by gwr that run the station so not much they can do about it looking horrendous.
Newhaven Town is pretty vile. Conversely the next stop is Lewes which is very nice.
Best station without a doubt in terms of looks is St Pancras. Absolutely amazing what they did with the rebuild. The worst just from my experience is platform level at Birmingham New Street. Just feels like I'm getting choked by diesel fumes
I went to college in Swindon, and yes: it's a shit hole. There are some nice character buildings here and there, but on the whole it's bad. To call it "a dive" would be doing dives a disservice, and be an improvement. The one good thing about the train station though is that it's a train station: you're likely leaving!
Wiltshire on the whole is a beautiful county and a lovely place. Swindon is in Wiltshire. But Swindon doesn't count. Wiltshire has disowned it.
Exactly why the Swindon lot were slugs...
Little slugs with no personality…
Southampton Central - not central and surrounded by a hellscape of brutalism and incomplete modernisation attempts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2GTRKNxqh4
Gloucester - bad.
Swansea - good.
We've got some stunning railway stations in Scotland. The sort of stations that make you pause and go "holy christ but that's a beautiful structure. Places like Wemyss Bay , with its Edwardian curving roofs, or Banavie where you're mostly guaranteed to get the best picture of Ben Nevis, or Edinburgh Waverley 's sumptuous waiting room, or Glasgow's Central Station (the reason there's no picture is because it's hard to pick one piece of Central that's representative of the whole. Is it the Hielanman's Umbrella? Is it the amazing glazed arches on the Edwardian extension? Is it the entire train shed? Is it the wrought iron gates on Gordon Street? There's so much to choose from)
We've also got some bloody ugly stations, LOL. There are three words that can strike fear into many Scottish rail traveller's hearts: Motherwell. Train. Station. Google it. Be in awe at just how monumentally fucking ugly it is, LOL.
We were recently debating this for London, Mill Hill Broadway is under the M1 and looks like a loading bay for a shitty office building.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Mill_Hill_Broadway_stn_main_entrance.JPG
Why is it so tall?
The building above the station is derelict…
Newport station was voted one of the ugliest buildings in the uk so atleast it wins something
Watford junction.
York station is gorgeous, always loved my visits en route to Scarborough, which is nice enough.
Nottingham station has gotten worse over time, just a benchless shithole these days.
If tube stations count, Kew Gardens is lovely.
I would always hop on the train at either Milton Keynes or Bletchley. Both of which were less nice.
Also have to mention Eastleigh for least swanky.
Crawley and Milton Keynes have been the most ugly ones for me
One of the nicest stations I have ever visited is Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria - it not only looks lovely, it is also beautifully kept.
why is no one mentioning Southampton? its an absolute turd
For a town whose heritage is LITERALLY ALL ABOUT TRAINS, I have never been so underwhelmed as I was when I first saw Swindon station.
Most swanky: St Pancras
Least swanky: Euston - permanent building site, too small, not enough seats, and the screens face the wrong way