Euston Square Gardens (East and West)

Euston Square was laid out in the early C19th on the site of the Bedford Nursery Ground, as two rectangular strips of land either side of New Road, later renamed Euston Road, which was built in 1756, a cattle route to Smithfield Market. The name Euston comes from the Fitzroy family who owned land here who were the Dukes of Grafton and Earls of Euston. The southern side of Euston Square was renamed Endsleigh Gardens in 1880 and only the northern part survives as a garden in front of Euston Station, enclosed by mid-C19th cast iron railings with grass and mature London planes. It is bisected by a slip road and traffic island with a war memorial, and the two former entrance lodges to Euston Station. By 1928 the eastern area of the garden was let to the Council of St Pancras House of Fellowship and the western garden to the St Pancras Public Welfare Association.

Euston Station opened in 1837, planned by Robert Stephenson, whose statue by Baron Carlo Marochetti is now further north in the paved area by the station's new entrance. By 1838 the station had a double train shed designed by Charles Fox, decorative screen with two lodges and 72 foot high portico designed by Philip Hardwick and was enlarged over the C19th with grand hotels and a Great Hall by Philip Hardwick the Younger. The two Euston lodges date from c.1870 and, originally the entrance to the station, were built by J. B. Stansby, the company engineer for the London and North Western Railway. The names of stations served by the company are inscribed on the lodges and the pediments have reliefs with allegorical figures representing England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales by Joseph Pitts. The statue of Robert Stephenson was erected 1871 and was originally sited between the two entrance lodges, which are the only survivors of the formal 1870 layout of the station. The war memorial was erected and unveiled in 1921 by Reginald Wynn Owen for the LNWR, with a bronze wreath on each face and statues of a sailor, an infantryman, a member of the Royal Flying Corps and a gunner, and is dedicated to the 3719 men of the railway company who died in WWI. A later inscription commemorates those employees of the London Midland and Scottish Railway Company into which the LNWR had been absorbed.

In 1963 much of the original station including its Doric Arch was destroyed for a new station, which opened in 1968; offices were built between the station and Euston Road in 1976 and the station forecourt, hard landscaped in the 1990s, had a series of banners by artist Sue Ridge, with an earlier sculpture by Edouardo Paolozzi to the south. The two areas of gardens that survived had undulating ground, with grass, mature plane trees and shrubs with some planting by the path entrance from the east. 

The Government's HS2 rail scheme has led to the (temporary) destruction of Euston Square Gardens, although some of the mature trees and the iron railings remain in place. HS2 is the UK’s new high speed rail line being constructed from London to the North-West, with HS2 trains linking the biggest cities in Scotland with Manchester, Birmingham and London. "It is the largest infrastructure project in Europe and the most important economic and social regeneration project in decades." (source: https://www.hs2.org.uk/what-is-hs2/). The High Speed 2 (London – West Midlands) Act was passed in February 2017, giving the government permission to build the railway. Euston Station is the London Terminus of the project. Construction is expected to last until 2033. By 2018 the western garden at Euston Square had been levelled and asphalted in order to provide for temporary taxi provision for Euston Station. The eastern garden lasted until 2021, but was then boarded up behind hoardings, the ground levelled and trees removed for HS2 works.  

HS2 Ltd has committed to reinstating Euston Square Gardens eventually.