The only symmetry was provided by four hulking gasholders which posed as though for a family photograph, two squat tanks looking up to two taller ones at the rear.
The new glass, steel and concrete station dominates the approaches to St Pancras where for many years gasholders stood.
The South Metropolitan Gas Works were built here in 1889, once the largest gasworks in Europe (they closed in 1985 but the giant gasholder still serves south-east London).
A brand new retail park has very recently been opened on part of the site in the shadow of the few remaining gasholders, surrounded by bleak fenced-off wasteland.
If the council allows the 8.6-acre site, less than half-a-mile from the centre of York, to be redeveloped, the existing buildings, including the gasholder, would be demolished and measures would be taken to clean up any contamination.
Controlled Demolition Group, in Cleckheaton, has designed a long reach excavator to allow the gasholders to be removed from ground level.
The gas company had wanted to replace the gasholders with a cinema and pub-restaurant complex.
These included a water tower, three enormous gasholders, an ammonia factory, and a gas-cleaning house.
Negotiations with Transco started in 2000, and the company is updating a feasibility study into removing the gasholder.