THE BAM NUTTALL PARTNERSHIP AWARD: HARLOW TOWN

Turning now to two stations which illustrate the two poles of NRHA entries: original railway structures from the early days and modern replacements.

Harlow Town station dates from 1960, and was among the first batch of BR’s new stations built in conjunction with the New Towns Development Corporation. Designed by H H Powell, it was also considered to be one of the best and is Grade 2-listed.

The original station here was Burnt Mill (Harlow station is two miles to the east), renamed Harlow Mill when Town opened.

Slab roofs and predominantly glass walls were overtopped by three concrete-panelled lift shafts, and the whole finished with fascias of various depths.

However these plywood fascias had weathered to a dull white and had rotted in places, so Greater Anglia has replaced them with modern glass reinforced plastic ones - pre-coloured in hollybush green as per the original colour. These should also be much easier to clean and maintain. The overall effect is to enhance once more the integrity of the original design.

The train is a mid-morning slow to Bishops Stortford. It is waiting in the Down loop to be overtaken by a Stansted Airport fast. Some of the new dark green fascias can be seen just above it.