ROUBAIX STATION

It's impossible to miss this magnificent building proudly housed at the top of Avenue Jean Lebas. Inaugurated in 1888, six years after the puncture of the future avenue, the Roubaix Railway Station was designed by Sydney Dunnett, the chief architect of the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer du Nord. Inspired by large stations such as the Lille Flandres Station or the Parisian train stations, Sydney Dunnett makes this station a mixture of tradition and modernity and the symbol of the apogee of the industrial age in the roubaisienne city. The most spectacular (and also the most visible) element is of course this superb iron and glass hall. Normally used in terminal stations to cover the tracks, the glass glass has no architectural utility here, but brings a certain majesty to the built. It was once dominated by another glass nave, which was unfortunately destroyed during the First World War. The central body is framed by two pavilions of neo-classical bricks and stone. The building is crowned with a clock tower, and it will take a seat on the North railways. Heavily damaged during the two wars, the train station gradually loses its superb way to seeing its halls and dependencies disappear. In the 70 s, demolition was then envisaged. But the municipality is fiercely opposed to it and is undertaking extensive renovations. Having regained its ancient nobility, the railway station was inaugurated in 1984. Today, impossible to imagine the landscape roubaisien without this building in the history as astonishing as its architecture.