Grand Central Terminal

The Curated coat (similar)
Wilfred dress (similar)
Aldo boots (similar)
JW Pei handbag (similar)
& Other Stories headband
& Other Stories necklace
Linjer rings (c/o) (similar)
Location: Grand Central Station – New York City, New York

If there were a fairytale of New York, one that wasn’t just an old punk song, it would surely be set at Grand Central. The old train station, surrounded by highrises, must have once been the architectural jewel of Forty-Second Street. Now, with the Met Life Building and the Chrysler Building, among others, dwarfing it on all sides, you could miss it if you didn’t know where to look. But Grand Central remains a beauty, none of her natural elegance dulled by the passage of time.

I admit to a deep love of train stations. It was during an elementary school choir performance at our own local train station, which I now know to be a shabby shadow of its former middling glory, that I first looked up and found myself taken aback by the beauty of a vaulted ceiling. I was nine. The Gare de Lyon in Paris remains one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever stepped insde. And while the much more popular Gare du Nord is infinitely less picturesque, it will always be the first place that I ever caught a train – a sleeper from Paris to Avignon – and it retains a special place in my heart for that reason.

When it comes to beauty, Grand Central rivals Gare de Lyon. The constellation paintings on the high ceilings capture my imagination on every visit. The marble staircases, while slippery, retain the elegance of a bygone era. The station is a museum as much as a place to arrive in or depart from New York. Every era in its history remains represented within its stone walls. On our visit this year, we stumbled upon a Shake Shack, just fifty metres from the gloriously kitschy Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant. The restaurant opened with the station in 1913. And the decor remains largely intact from when it reopened, after a brief closure, in 1974.

In that Grand Central is a train station, it is essentially a place for people to pass through, often rushed and heedless of their surroundings. In all of our visits to New York over the years, I’ve done the same thing myself. Barely stopping to take in a bit of grandeur because I am so focussed on my next destination. This time, we paused to explore a bit. It’s not all beauty, of course. The restrooms double as homeless shelters. When I stopped in to use them myself, I had to step over syringes and found more than one stall filled with the tossed contents of a stolen suitcase. The beauty and grandeur of the place is tinged with tragedy, as beauty and grandeur most often are. But that’s part of the story, too.

If there were a fairytale of New York, it would be set at Grand Central precisely because of its museum quality. Since its christening in 1913, countless passengers have passed through the station, each one with their own untold story. If the walls of the terminal could talk, I can only imagine what they would have to say – and what I am imagining is, undoubtedly, not half as interesting as what they would actually say.

Shop the Post