We arrived at the stunning Helsinki Central Station early one morning* after travelling from St. Petersburg by train. The day felt clear, sharp and fresh. By comparison to the Russian city, Helsinki was cleaner, more efficient, more affluent. And what an entrance, it felt almost cinematic.

Helsinki Central Station was designed by Eliel Saarinen with a marvellous array of styles, taking in late Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Modernism and, why not, a pinch of Vienna Secession too. In this respect, according to architecture critic Jonathan Glancey, the station bridges the gap, architecturally, between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Glancey also listed the building as one of the ten most beautiful train stations in the world in a 2014 BBC article).

Saarinen won a competition to design the station in 1904, though he abandoned his initial romanticist design to create something more modern. The new concept was completed by 1909, and the new station was built and opened in 1919.

The main features of the station are the striking archway over the entrance with grid windows; the four iconic ‘lantern bearers’ figures, designed by sculptor Emil Wikstrom, who flank either side of the arch, each holding a globe lamp (which light up at night); and the clock tower. The whole building has a lovely pink granite facade with copper highlights (now obviously turned green through oxidation) creating a soothing, soft pastel feeling.

There is a slight controversary in the mix of styles in the station, mostly because Art Deco and Modernism wouldn’t become common for at least another decade. As the heading to The Beauty of Transport’s (my new favourite blog; where else can you mourn the loss of 1930s railway toilets in Hampshire?) post on the station implies, the architects (Eliel Saarinen and his son, Eero, who designed the futuristic TWA Flight Center) are actually The Men From the Future. The Helsinki station contain Art Deco and Modernist elements (especially in the interior) that would appear later in some of the great American train stations, and other buildings, such as the Power Station at Bankside in London.

This mix of styles is apparent too in the lantern bearers. Created in the romantic nationalist style rejected by the architect, they combine elements of Art Nouveau and Art Deco (check out their haircuts), and show the influence of ancient Egyptian and Assyrian sculpture.

Whatever it is or isn’t, the station is wonderfully idiosyncratic with its Art Nouveau organic elements sitting alongside the more formal Art Deco aspects, with its form prefiguring Modernism.

*So early I don’t think we’d slept the night before, and went to bed immediately after arriving at our hotel nearby. Hence the title – a play on Elizabeth Smart’s prose poem By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept.

Previously on Barnflakes
Southgate Tube Station
Subterranean Stockholm syndrome
Moomins in London