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Airdate: The Architecture The Railways Built

Tim Dunn explores the construction of station buildings across the UK and Europe.

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UK history series The Architecture The Railways Built begins on SBS on Monday and continues on Tuesday.

Featuring transport historian and architecture enthusiast Tim Dunn, this is a 10 part series around the construction of many station buildings across the UK and Europe.

It premiered in the UK last April.

Series One, Episode One: Down Street Monday, 7.35pm
Tim Dunn goes deep underground in central London to explore a disused tube station that played a crucial tactical role during the Second World War. Down Street station in Mayfair opened in 1907 but closed after just 25 years because of low passenger numbers. However, when war broke out, it became the secret base of the executive committee who coordinated all rail travel across Britain. The station now is very much as they left it and Tim gets a guided tour of the former platforms – as the Piccadilly line rumbles past.

Episode Two: Ffestiniog Tuesday, 7.35pm
Tim Dunn visits one of his favourite railway lines, the Ffestiniog in north Wales. Originally built in the 1830s to transport slate down the mountains to the coast, these days it’s a tourist line – but it’s filled with hidden architecture.

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  1. And so SBS’s tradition of being a trainspotter’s heaven continues!
    Don’t get me wrong, as both a history and train buff I may well take a look at this new show (with a host I have not seen before). After all those shows by Michael Portillo, Chris Tarrant et al, there’s probably not that many train journeys left unexplored; so a focus on other rail related issues such as architecture and social history looks promising.
    But it still makes me smile as to how SBS became such a haven for rail related programming.

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