The Architecture the Railways Built
British television documentary series
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The Architecture the Railways Built is a British factual documentary series presented by the historian Tim Dunn, first broadcast in the United Kingdom from 28 April 2020 on Yesterday. Each episode explores railway sites across the UK and Europe, including historical, abandoned, modern and future elements. All episodes in series 1 to 3 have one featured location from continental Europe; the rest of the featured locations in each episode are from the United Kingdom.
The series is a UKTV original, commissioned for Yesterday and produced by Brown Bob Productions. Two further series of ten episodes each were commissioned by UKTV in October 2020,[2] with the sequel premiering on 19 January 2021, and the third series premiering on 13 September 2021.[3] A fourth series was commissioned in 2022,[4] with the first of ten episodes broadcast on 28 February 2023.[5]
From 4 February 2025, BBC Four began showing series 1 each weekday evening except Friday.
Following its success, Secrets of the London Underground, a programme of four series presented by Dunn, was broadcast from 2021.
Episodes
Series 1 (2020)
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Featured locations | Original release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Down Street" | 28 April 2020 | |
| 2 | 2 | "Ffestiniog" | 5 May 2020 | |
| 3 | 3 | "King's Cross" | 12 May 2020 | |
| 4 | 4 | "Ribblehead" | 19 May 2020 | |
| 5 | 5 | "Metroland" | 26 May 2020 | |
| 6 | 6 | "St Pancras" | 2 June 2020 | |
| 7 | 7 | "Snowdon" | 9 June 2020 | |
| 8 | 8 | "Broadway" | 16 June 2020 | |
| 9 | 9 | "Stockton Darlington" | 23 June 2020 | |
| 10 | 10 | "Swindon" | 30 June 2020 |
Series 2 (2021)
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Featured locations | Original release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | 1 | "Wemyss Bay" | 19 January 2021 | |
| 12 | 2 | "Royal Albert Bridge" | 26 January 2021 | |
| 13 | 3 | "Windsor" |
| 2 February 2021 |
| 14 | 4 | "Piccadilly Line" | 9 February 2021 | |
| 15 | 5 | "Lynton" | 16 February 2021 | |
| 16 | 6 | "Barrow Hill" | 23 February 2021 | |
| 17 | 7 | "Sheffield" | 2 March 2021 | |
| 18 | 8 | "Bristol" | 9 March 2021 | |
| 19 | 9 | "Huddersfield" | 16 March 2021 | |
| 20 | 10 | "Wingfield" | 23 March 2021 |
Series 3 (2021)
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Featured locations | Original release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | 1 | "Newcastle" | 13 September 2021 | |
| 22 | 2 | "Wharncliffe" | 20 September 2021 | |
| 23 | 3 | "Charing Cross" | 27 September 2021 | |
| 24 | 4 | "Bramhope Tunnel" | 4 October 2021 | |
| 25 | 5 | "Saltburn" | 11 October 2021 | |
| 26 | 6 | "Bishopstone" | 18 October 2021 | |
| 27 | 7 | "Greenwich" | 25 October 2021 | |
| 28 | 8 | "North Staffordshire" | 1 November 2021 | |
| 29 | 9 | "Ramsgate" |
| 8 November 2021 |
| 30 | 10 | "Curzon Street" | 15 November 2021 |
Series 4 (2023)
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Featured locations | Original release date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 | 1 | "Forth Bridge" | 28 February 2023 | |
| 32 | 2 | "Manchester" | 7 March 2023 | |
| 33 | 3 | "Channel Tunnel" | 14 March 2023 | |
| 34 | 4 | "London Bridge" | 21 March 2023 | |
| 35 | 5 | "Coventry" | 28 March 2023 | |
| 36 | 6 | "Edinburgh" | 4 April 2023 | |
| 37 | 7 | "Lincoln" | 11 April 2023 | |
| 38 | 8 | "South Devon" | 18 April 2023 | |
| 39 | 9 | "Leeds" | 25 April 2023 | |
| 40 | 10 | "Hull" | 2 May 2023 |
Reception
The critical reception of the first series of The Architecture the Railways Built in 2020 was notably warm. The Guardian, reviewing the opening episode on 28 April, called it "enjoyable and illuminating stuff, highlighting Tim Dunn's enthusiasm and the programme's ability to reveal the surprisingly striking architecture associated with railways.[6] Later in the series, the paper remained complimentary: Hannah Verdier described Dunn as exceptionally enthusiastic about train travel and said he continued to spread "railway magic" through his visits to historic structures.[7] Radio Times was similarly enthusiastic: its TV editor Alison Graham described the programme as one of her "lockdown treats" and said simply, "I love the series".[8]
The reviews therefore tended to value the programme less as a specialist railway documentary than as an accessible combination of architectural history, engineering and enthusiastic travelogue. Dunn’s conspicuous enthusiasm was repeatedly treated as an asset rather than an eccentricity, helping make fairly specialist subjects approachable to a general audience. Contemporary railway coverage echoed that assessment: World of Railways characterised the first series as a "critical and ratings success", while The Railway Magazine emphasised the programme's decision to turn attention away from locomotives towards the often-overlooked buildings and civil engineering of the railway landscape.[8]
