One of the most distinguished private buildings in York (if you can forget the ugly radio tower growing out of its head) is found at Station Rise, just inside the city walls across from (what else) the train station is the home of the GNER -- the Great Northeastern Railway. We took the GNER from London's King's Cross station to York and I'm not sure I'd call it great, but it was adequate and precisely on time. GNER, owned by a sea container company flirting with chapter 11, runs high speed trains from the major north eastern cities to London and a lot of local lines feeding into these. The joys of privatizing rail! (By the way, the York train station is a clear winner; managed by GNER, it won the 2006 Station of the Year award over the 2500 stations in Britain.)
Unfortunately, other buildings make it difficult to see the entire building from the front.
Above is a view taken from the western city wall of York of Station Rise. The memorial (which we'll discuss in a minute) is at the left; the grassy knoll separates the headquarters building from the train station.
Below is a monument between GNER headquarters and the train station. It commemorates those British Rail employees from York who fell in World War One. (In those days, it didn't have a number as it was the war to end all wars. Obviously they were quite naive then compared to us modern day folks who are merely satisfied with the end-of-history after the fall of the Soviet Union.) York has had a lot of wars which have resulted in many war memorials (over 100 by a 2001 count); many are to WWI and can be dedicated to just a few people with connection to a place or employer.
