Great Western Coffee Shop

From Kent Live (https://www.kentlive.news/whats-on/five-incredible-ideas-deserted-eurostar-9003394)

I think this should be in THe Lighter Side board.

Ridiculaous to think even one butterfly would frequent the station. They need green.

No idea how it got there, I suspect a bird had given it a ride before being overcome by the animal's objections: some time before HS1 came to town, we retrieved a frog from the platforms of Ashford Station. Beneath the platforms run not one but two rivers, so not far to take the amphibian to a more frog-friendly habitat.

Mark

If you went down to Melksham Station late at night, fifteen years ago, you were likely to see bunny rabbits hopping around.   Lisa and I were in Bath Bus Station on Saturday that was something of an informal aviary for birds of family Columbidae.  And railway lines are well known for assisting the spread of flora and fauna, providing protected corridors through both urban areas and countryside.

There are indeed - in fact, if you exit the station on the domestic side, one of those can be found behind the taxi rank before disappearing under the tracks/platforms. My laocal station in the 70s & 80s in the days when Mark Smith - the Seat61 - w3as station manager .

In a letter to a newspaper, someone made the good point about the value, currently lost, of Ebbsfleet / Ashford as park and ride for Eurostar, something that St Pancras would struggle with.

Mark