PLANS have been submitted to transform the portico and front entrance of York Railway Station as part of the York Station Gateway project.

Under the proposals the taxi drop-off point will be moved elsewhere, and the portico will be glazed, repaved and pedestrianised, with two new shops.

Planning documents submitted by LNER say the work will ‘reinvigorate the station entrance and provide a welcoming environment’.

The station building’s fabric will also be restored, with all work being ‘sympathetic to the Grade II listed building, which opened as a station in 1877’, the application says.

Not everyone agrees the change will be an improvement, however.

York architect Matthew Laverack criticised the proposals as ‘fundamentally wrong’.

“Many a time I have been dropped off and/or picked up at York station when it has been raining, sleeting or snowing and thanks to the foresight of Victorian designers I stayed dry,” Mr Laverack said.

“But now this looks set to change. Protecting passengers from bad weather is to be sacrificed on the alter of increased shopping space and obsessive pedestrianisation.”

We thought the best thing to do was to dig out some old photos of the portico and the station’s front, so you can decide for yourself.

All our photos today come from Explore York’s wonderful archivce of digital images, which you can find at images.exploreyork.org.uk/

There are several from the early 1900s showing trams, buses and taxis queuing up outside the portico (with the emphasis being on that word ‘outside’).

We’ve also included a couple of historic photos of the interior of the station - and of the earlier, original station inside the city walls which today’s station replaced in 1877.