check out:
my new blog complaining about everything, sometime praising things. but mostly hating
also please visit
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
NEW SITE
I had too many blogs going
check out:
my new blog complaining about everything, sometime praising things. but mostly hating
also please visit
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
Thames Lions
Thames LionsThese lion heads line both sides of the Embankment, staring out over the River Thames. Their mouths hold mooring rings and it is said that if the lions drink, London will flood. They were sculpted by Timothy Butler for Bazalgette’s great sewage works in 1868-70.
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
10 Hyde Park Place
10 Hyde Park PlaceThis building is 3 feet 6 inches wide. One theory for its existence is that it blocked a public right of way to serve as a watch house overlooking the old St George's graveyard - extremely popular with bodysnatchers in the 18th Century!
With the ground floor consisting of nothing more than an alleyway behind the front door and the first floor just a tiny bathroom.
It was built in 1805, and was damaged by a bomb in 1941.
Lewis Grant Wallace was the first and only tenant.
Britain's smallest police station
Britain's smallest police station. This station was built back in the 19th Century. It was built because back then alot of distruptive trade union types would chose Trafalgar square as a good place to protest. The police therefore decided that they needed to keep an officer to keep an eye on the troublemakers
The light reputedly comes off Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory.
Abandoned Tube Station 4
Mark Lane tube stationMark Lane tube station is a disused station on the Circle and District Lines of the London Underground, west of the modern Tower Hill station.
It was originally opened in October 1884 to replace the short lived Tower of London station, which was closed when the Metropolitan Railway and Metropolitan District Railway were connected to form the Circle Line and a new larger station had to be built.
In 1946 the station was renamed from Mark Lane to Tower Hill.
The station became disused due to overwhelming passenger numbers and there was little space available for expansion. It was closed on 4 February 1967, and the present Tower Hill station was opened as its replacement.
The sub-surface section of the station can still be seen between Monument and Tower Hill, though only one platform on the eastbound track now remains due to redevelopment of the track. The surface station, sited in Seething Lane, can be seen in the form of a subway under the road, where large grilles now cover the original stairways down to the platforms.
The offices above the station were called 'Mark Lane Station Buildings', and this can still be read above an entrance.
Sunday, 12 April 2009
Abandoned Tube Station 3
Strand StationThere have been two stations on the London Underground network called Strand station, both sites are located close to Strand.
- The first was on the Picadilly Line and opened as "Strand" in 1907. It was renamed Aldwych station in 1915. Aldwych tube station was closed in 1994 but the surface building can still be prominently seen.
- The second station was on the Northern Line. It opened as Charing Cross station in 1907 before being renamed as "Strand" in 1915. The station was closed between 1973 and 1979 when it reopened as a combined station with the former Trafalgar Station station on the Bakerloss and the new terminus platforms for the Jubilee Line (the latter of which has since been rerouted away from the station) on 1 May 1979. From the reopening the combined station was called "Charing Cross".
Brompton Road Station
BROMPTON ROAD
(1906-1934)
The Brompton Road underground station closed on 29th July 1934, because the nearby Knightsbridge station (which had been rebuilt to allow a direct connection to Harrods) was so near.
It was taken over and converted into the Royal Artillery's Anti-Aircraft Operations Room (AAOR) for central London. (The exact date is uncertain: it could have been a WWII AAOR or a 1950s one.)
To facilitate the use of the station, two of the four lift/access shafts were floored over at intervals of about 15 feet, and a staircase inserted, thus providing all the necessary office and room space in these two shafts. Of the other two shafts, one was retained for ventilation and the other for a full staircase from the surface to the lowest level.
At the bottom of the two office shafts, at the lowest level, one was used as the operations room. This is circular and although fairly cramped it retains the shell of a typical AAOR ops room in miniature. The other was used for the ventilation blowers.
The access passageways at the lowest level are used for electrical switchgear and gas filtration. Staircases then go down to the platform tunnels, which are walled off from the train lines. The eastbound platform was used as the teleprinter and communications station, and the westbound one was used for a rest area, staff space and a briefing cinema in which the screen can still be found. Some of the original tiling is still in place on the walls.
The whole area is very dusty (mostly asbestos dust from the train brake linings). It is quite well preserved, having never been used since 1955 when the AAOR programme became defunct. The below-ground section is owned by London Underground, while the surface building is owned by the Ministry of Defence and used by the University Air Squadron.
Neither owner allows any access to the other's section, and visits are never allowed on grounds of safety and security. It is not possible to access the site from the surface. An attempt was made to enter the site about five years ago and this resulted in the dead body of the `visitor' being found a month later at the bottom of the 110 ft. ventilation shaft, which he had apparently fallen through from the roof above.
Saturday, 4 April 2009
Abandoned Tube Station 1
Down Street tube stationDown Street, also known as Down Street (Mayfair), was a station of the London Underground's Piccadilly line which closed in 1932. During World War II it was used as an air-raid shelter, notably by Winston Churchill and his War Cabinet. It is now disused.
History
Down Street station lies between Green Park and Hyde Park Corner on the Piccadilly Line. Evidence of its presence can still be identified through the train windows between these stations by a change in the tunnel surface from black to a section of beige brickwork. The station was opened by the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (precursor to the Piccadilly line) on 15 March 1907, a few months after the rest of the line. The surface building was on Down Street, just off Piccadilly in Mayfair. It was never a busy station, as the surrounding area was largely residential and its residents were too wealthy to be regular tube passengers. The neighbouring stations were also fairly close by.
Like Brompton Road, Down Street was often skipped by trains. In 1929 it was one of the stations mooted for closure in connection with the extension of the Piccadilly line: the elimination of less-busy stations in the central area would improve both reliability and journey times for long-distance commuters. Additionally, the neighbouring stations were being rebuilt with escalators in place of lifts, and their new entrances were nearer to Down Street, further squeezing its small catchment area. The station closed on 21 May 21 1932.
After the station was closed it was almost immediately modified. The western headwalls of both platform tunnels were modified to allow a step plate junction to be installed, providing access to a new siding located between Down Street and Hyde Park Corner stations. In 1939, the platform faces were bricked up and the resulting space used as an underground bunker. The main wartime occupants of the station were the Emergency Railway Committee, but it was also used by Churchill and the war cabinet until the Cabinet War Rooms were ready for use. Since the end of the war the station has only been used as an emergency access point to the tube. The surface building, designed by Leslie Green, is still standing.
Film & TV appearances
Part of the 2004 British horror film Creep was set in the Down Street tube station, although the scenes were actually shot at the disused Aldwych tube station and on studio sets.
A sequence in the James Bond film Die Another Day is set in an 'abandoned' Tube station called Vauxhall Cross. The station is supposedly used as a neutral ground for MI6 illegals (officially nonexistent agents) to be given missions by M. A visible track-side line diagram places the station north/east of Hyde Park Corner, which suggests that it is actually Down Street, but for the fact that the real station is some 2.6 km (1.6 miles) away from the real Vauxhall Cross, and trains still run through Down Street.
The TV series and novel Neverwhere are mostly set in a medieval-fantasy world with locations named after tube stations such as Blackfriars and Knightsbridge; the finale is located in an area known as Down Street, and one scene of the TV series was filmed on the remaining open section of platform at Down Street, with real trains passing by in the background.
In Billy Connolly's "World Tour Of England, Ireland And Scotland", Billy takes a tour of the Down Street station, explaining the heritage and showcasing the various rooms Winston Churchill and his war cabinet are believed to have once occupied.
History
Down Street station lies between Green Park and Hyde Park Corner on the Piccadilly Line. Evidence of its presence can still be identified through the train windows between these stations by a change in the tunnel surface from black to a section of beige brickwork. The station was opened by the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (precursor to the Piccadilly line) on 15 March 1907, a few months after the rest of the line. The surface building was on Down Street, just off Piccadilly in Mayfair. It was never a busy station, as the surrounding area was largely residential and its residents were too wealthy to be regular tube passengers. The neighbouring stations were also fairly close by.
Like Brompton Road, Down Street was often skipped by trains. In 1929 it was one of the stations mooted for closure in connection with the extension of the Piccadilly line: the elimination of less-busy stations in the central area would improve both reliability and journey times for long-distance commuters. Additionally, the neighbouring stations were being rebuilt with escalators in place of lifts, and their new entrances were nearer to Down Street, further squeezing its small catchment area. The station closed on 21 May 21 1932.
After the station was closed it was almost immediately modified. The western headwalls of both platform tunnels were modified to allow a step plate junction to be installed, providing access to a new siding located between Down Street and Hyde Park Corner stations. In 1939, the platform faces were bricked up and the resulting space used as an underground bunker. The main wartime occupants of the station were the Emergency Railway Committee, but it was also used by Churchill and the war cabinet until the Cabinet War Rooms were ready for use. Since the end of the war the station has only been used as an emergency access point to the tube. The surface building, designed by Leslie Green, is still standing.
Film & TV appearances
Part of the 2004 British horror film Creep was set in the Down Street tube station, although the scenes were actually shot at the disused Aldwych tube station and on studio sets.
A sequence in the James Bond film Die Another Day is set in an 'abandoned' Tube station called Vauxhall Cross. The station is supposedly used as a neutral ground for MI6 illegals (officially nonexistent agents) to be given missions by M. A visible track-side line diagram places the station north/east of Hyde Park Corner, which suggests that it is actually Down Street, but for the fact that the real station is some 2.6 km (1.6 miles) away from the real Vauxhall Cross, and trains still run through Down Street.
The TV series and novel Neverwhere are mostly set in a medieval-fantasy world with locations named after tube stations such as Blackfriars and Knightsbridge; the finale is located in an area known as Down Street, and one scene of the TV series was filmed on the remaining open section of platform at Down Street, with real trains passing by in the background.
In Billy Connolly's "World Tour Of England, Ireland And Scotland", Billy takes a tour of the Down Street station, explaining the heritage and showcasing the various rooms Winston Churchill and his war cabinet are believed to have once occupied.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
