The Tuesday Inspiration: Made for Queen Victoria

2010.10.26

I’ve always had a soft spot for the architecture at Bosham station, the next stop along the line from our village, so it seemed an obvious thing to shoot for today’s theme. It’s been very well maintained and provides an excellent way to keep out of the rain – one of the purposes of today’s theme. When I arrived to take my photo one of the station staff was just leaving and he told me lots of interesting facts about the station when he saw me taking photos. It’s a Victorian building and apparently was built for Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband. It seems he had friends living locally and wanted somewhere attractive to alight from the train when he visited so Victoria had Bosham station built for the purpose. It’s certainly a handsome structure, with all the original cast ironwork still in place. The ticket office has its original parquet flooring and the waiting room still has the original cast iron fireplace, although I’m sure it’s a long while since it’s been used. Even the station bridge is the original one – complete with hundreds of hand riveted joints. And to think I would have known none of this had I not bumped into that particular railway employee!

Thanks to Marjorie (McMommy) for setting today’s theme. Last Tuesday’s theme was ‘Then and now’. The other interpretations of this week’s theme can be found here.

Great post!

Kozuka · 2010-10-26: 06:53

Great for the theme and interesting commentary.

Lynda · 2010-10-26: 06:56

Beautiful station and your text is interesting

josy63 · 2010-10-26: 06:57

Wow, HRH P.A. must have had a huge number of friends at King's Cross.

Lovely image, btw.

revenant · 2010-10-26: 07:11

Great story Helen, and I love this in b&w.

McMommy · 2010-10-26: 07:18

...very good, I like it

borogovoi · 2010-10-26: 07:29

Lovely image and fantastic information from the employee (great to see the stereotyping of BR employees turned on its head).

cariad · 2010-10-26: 07:34

Great shot and info Helen

????? · 2010-10-26: 07:58

Nice for the theme

????? · 2010-10-26: 11:10

Impressive shot....and perfect in B/W!

lookagain · 2010-10-26: 11:40

Great shot, perfect for the theme. I'm disappointed now because I didn't think of it though for a while I've been planning to do a set of station roofs. I'd noticed that the gable ends (I think that's what they're called - perhaps Revenant can correct me, he seems to know lots about architecture) of the platform roofs on our line are all different to one another. Although they're made from mass produced shapes, they are all put together slightly differently.

Jarvo · 2010-10-26: 12:57