ROUBAIX STATION

It's impossible to miss this superb edifice standing proudly at the top of Avenue Jean Lebas. Inaugurated in 1888, just six years after the future avenue was built, the Gare de Roubaix was designed by Sydney Dunnett, chief architect of the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer du Nord. Drawing his inspiration from large "landing stages" such as the Gare Lille Flandres and Parisian stations, Sydney Dunnett made the station a blend of tradition and modernity, symbolizing the heyday of the industrial era in the city of Roubaix. The most spectacular (and eye-catching!) feature is, of course, the superb iron and glass hall. Normally used in terminus stations to cover the tracks, the glass roof serves no architectural purpose here, but adds a certain majesty to the building. In the past, another glass nave was built above it, but was unfortunately destroyed during the First World War. The central body is framed by two neoclassical brick and stone pavilions. The building is crowned by a clock tower, itself preceded by a marquee bearing the Chemins de Fer du Nord inscription. Heavily damaged during the First and Second World Wars, the station gradually lost its superb appearance, until its halls and outbuildings were finally demolished. In the 1970s, demolition was considered. But the town council fiercely opposed the idea and undertook extensive renovation work. Having regained its former nobility, the station was re-inaugurated in 1984. Today, it's impossible to imagine the Roubaix landscape without this building, whose history is as astonishing as its architecture.