3-017-009 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Charing-Cross Railway Station and Hotel, 1864. 'This building...is set back from the public roadway of the Strand...A forecourt is thus left for the accommodation of the carriage traffic...there is a police-lodge at each of the principal gates...the carriage gateway has a portico which is similar to the portico, with its red granite columns, bases of grey granite, and capitals handsomely carved...This is one of the first buildings in London in which terra-cotta has been so largely used...There is a sort of verandah or glazed roof, with an ornamental iron cresting, to cover the pavement along the front of the [South-Eastern Railway] booking-offices...the hotel may be entered from the railway platform...on the first floor are the general coffee-room, a ladies' coffee-room and a ladies' retiring-room...a smoking-room with a convenient balcony overlooking the station...and a committee-room...the total amount of sleeping accommodation is 250 beds...there is a rising room, fitted with comfortable seats, in which the visitors may be conveyed up or down if they feel indisposed to use the staircases...The hotel is being constructed by Messrs. Lucas Brothers, of Lambeth, under the superintendence of Mr. E. W. [sic] Barry, A.R.A.' From "Illustrated London News", 1864.