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A large space occupied by a beautifully ugly road ramp at Euston station has been cleared to make way for new HS2 platforms.
Euston parcel ramp (c) Google Street View
The West Ramp was added when Euston station was rebuilt in the 1960s and allowed vehicle access to an upper deck once used as a Royal Mail parcel sorting depot, taking parcels from the trains on three dedicated platforms for parcel freight.
The decision to construct a large parcel depot above the station was a legacy of its Victorian predecessor, as so much post was carried by rail through Euston station that it used to cause serious congestion problems on the passenger platforms.
Separating the parcels from the passengers was one of the main aims of the station rebuild, and one of the changes that made Euston station so radical when it opened — all the parcel deliveries were hidden away from passengers, unlike how most other stations used to operate at the time.
It was very cleverly designed, with vans able to come up one side of the station, to the huge 5-acre postal depot and then drive down another ramp on the opposite side of the station, reducing traffic jams on the approach roads.
However, the parcel depot was taken out of use when increased demand for passenger services meant that the parcel services need to be shifted to road traffic. The parcel depot has been used for office space and storage ever since.
The removal of the western approach took 13 weeks to complete, although due to Covid-19 restrictions, work on-site was paused on 23rd March but restarted on 16th April.
The area will eventually become part of the platforms for the HS2 trains.
HS2 Euston West Ramp site (c) Network Rail
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