On Thu, 6 May 2004 at 11:01:05, MetroGnome
wrote:
(N.B. I'm snipping massively here!)
(and London Bridge has interesting
curved gates in the Jubilee - Northern interchange subway).
Do we know what these are for? Or were they just to keep the Great
British Public out before the line was open? They would certainly
provide no protection in the event of fire or flood.
# Finsbury Park and Arsenal - deep tube platforms that aren't that deep,
and are accessed from the street only by stairs (with, at Finsbury Park,
spiral staircases in the former lift shafts to the main line station
high above).
What happened to those lifts, and why are they no longer used? Going up
to the high-level platforms from the Tube is a serious pain if you like
climbing stairs as little as I do!
# Finsbury Park (southbound Piccadilly line), Highbury & Islington
(northbound WAGN), Euston (northbound Northern Line, City branch) -
tracks diverted in the 60s to give cross-platform interchange with the
new Victoria Line, with the old course just about visible at each end
of the diversions. (Similar tunnels also visible on the Northern Line
near Angel, London Bridge and Borough, albeit for somewhat different
reasons.)
And at Stockwell, didn't the Northern Line swap a track with the
Victoria Line to enable cross-platform interchanges?
# Greenwich - DLR tracks surfacing beneath the main line station building.
And at Lewisham they're tidily tucked underneath the main line station,
too.
I must explore some of these parts of the Beckton branch! I like the
big flyover where the Lewisham branch turns right going to Canary Wharf,
and also just past Poplar, where the Eastbound Beckton branch crosses
the Stratford branch.
Some "non-LUL/DLR" items might also be worth a look -
# Heathrow Central (Heathrow Express) - cavernous entrance shaft
containing lifts and escalators at the T2/T3 end, which only exists
because of a tunnel collapse during construction (the shaft had to be
sunk in order to "reclaim" the area where the collapse occurred).
I remember that happening - the collapse, I mean!
# The Kingsway Subway - both entrances to the former tram subway (one in
the middle of the road just north of Holborn station, the other on the
Embankment under Waterloo Bridge) can still be seen, as can the former
entrances to Holborn tram station (staircases, now covered with grills,
in the middle of the road outside Holborn LUL station). Ride through
the Strand Underpass (road tunnel built through part of the disused
subway in the mid 60s) on a northbound 521 bus during Mon-Fri peaks.
We drove through it on Wednesday night, but I didn't find it easy to
tell where was original tunnel, and where was new construction. There
are a variety of metal doors giving exit from the tunnel ("Why," asked
my husband, "are pedestrians forbidden, yet there's a footpath, and
cyclists forbidden, yet there's quite a wide potential cycle lane!"),
but not obvious to what, or where.
--
Annabel Smyth
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/index.html
Website updated 8 March 2004