On the right track with chaste love
IT WAS the unromantic setting for one of the most romantic films ever made. It made its stars and director world famous. And soon, a rundown railway station on the Lancashire-Cumbria border could be reborn . . . as a Brief Encounter theme park. Carnforth Station, on the West Coast line between London and Glasgow, has seen better days: main-line trains no longer stop there. But it still basks in history as the place where the young David Lean shot Brief Encounter, the 1945 love-story starring Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson. Now Railtrack Properties is offering it for lease to entrepreneurs who wish to develop the station into a restaurant and pub. It includes the original refreshment room where Howard met Johnson and removed a bit of grit from her eye. Railtrack Properties spokesman Steven Tyler said: "The film became a classic throughout the world because the characters did the right thing and never committed adultery. "There is, for instance, a cinema in Tokyo that shows Brief Encounter non-stop throughout the year because the Japanese have a very high regard for chaste love. "Thousands of Japanese and other tourists visit the station each year - it is still served by local trains - but the station is now unmanned and the buildings, including the refreshment room, where a lot of the action took place, need a little attention." The station buildings and four unused platforms, totalling some 2,500 square feet, are available on long lease to would-be developers: the property cannot be sold outright because two other platforms are still in use. And Railtrack is anticipating no shortage of would-be tenants. Tyler added: "There is already a Brief Encounter pub and restaurant operating on a disused part of the station at Norwich and it is doing tremendous business because it appeals to film and railway buffs and romantics in general - an ideal place for a candlelight dinner. "If an imitation station on the other side of the country can do so well, you can only imagine the business that would be created by the real thing." On the right track with chaste love Daily Telegraph - 12/08/1995
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