It has always been a puzzle to me why Harcourt Street Station was not born with twin platforms. As it stands at present it is a most gloomy and unnatural kind of place, unrelieved by any effort to brighten it up with the cobweb-sweeper or the paint-brush. The great roof adds to its unattractiveness by barring the rays of the sun, though a good glass roof would serve the dual purpose of keeping off the rain in winter and shedding a little brightness in summer. And that ugly looking "blind" wall which seems to mock every passenger waiting for his train - a long wait if you miss the one that's gone. Surely that could be demolished and the twin platform substituted? The only bright object in the whole of this station - one of Dublin's principal railway stations, too - is the colourful bookstall, which keeps the wary and depressed travellers from going entirely mad!
The Irish Times, June 15th, 1929.