The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 11, Issue 8 (November 2, 1936)
Station Gardens
Station Gardens.
One is always inclined to regard a railway station as a place of utility only, and to associate it with a certain amount of unavoidable grime, combined with a bleak and tidy efficiency which is depressing; in short to find it a coaly, smoky, noisy place admirably suited for its purpose.
Beauty and a railway station—what a contradiction in terms! But not in fact, for the beauty-worshipper, the garden-lover, is not to be baulked by utilitarian ugliness into abandoning his quest for sweetness and light.
In Australia I noticed that there seems to be keen competition in station gardens. Even in the metropolitan station there is an attempt made to brighten up the drabness and grime of the great yards, by the growing of palms in the open spaces among the rails, and along the North Shore line there are many stations which are veritable bowers of roses and other climbing plants, while in one the only decoration used was flat white pebbles and coloured bricks. In England and Scotland, too, many stations are made very trim and smart with flower-beds and grassy plots. The most beautiful and unique of these is without doubt Wemyys Bay on the Clyde, the jumping-off place for the famous Kyles of Bute. Wemyys Station is neither more nor less than a conservatory. It is completely enclosed in glass, and is in reality a railway pier where the trains run to the water's edge. All the woodwork is painted white, while the overhead supports shine like silver, so bright and spick and span is the ornamental metal work. The entire length of the enclosed space is lined on either side by banks of flowering plants, some in pots, some in deep troughs painted green and white, and many of the plants being of the climbing variety, they take every advantage of their unique glass-house by twining up the supports, flinging green trails along the metal work in the roof and drooping their lovely festoons of leaves and flowers over the heads of the passengers. When the sun comes dazzling through this miniature Crystal Palace, lighting up with prismatic glory, delicate blossoms and leafy trails of greenery, bringing out the rich perfumes of flowers and setting the birds carolling lustily, a train seems an incongruous object in the midst of all this beauty.
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