"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 11 Aug 2006 12:54:05 +0100, Greg Hennessy
wrote:

On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 21:59:19 +0100, David Boothroyd
wrote:

55 Broadway?

snippitty So LU shouldn't do anything to reflect its heritage, its history
and its
design excellence?

We (those LU employees who work there) should just be shoved in some
modern office equivalent of a battery hen shed should we?

All of the stations that are excellent examples of historical designs
should be flattened and replaced with mindless railway versions of a bus
shelter? Do you have shares in Metronet and Tube Lines as I'm sure they
would much prefer to bring in some prefabricated load of crap rather
than deal with the existing stations we have with all of their
difficulties and foibles? I'm sure they'd much rather not have to worry
about heritage features, design and special material requirements.

True Story - Back in the happy days when we were a railway and the company
plan was but a twinkle in somebody completely Dagenham's(1) eye there was a
little depot called Arnos Grove. It was a happy place, friendly, quiet,
spares on the end of an autophone in the public bar of the Arnos Arms(2)
that kind of thing.
The train crew locker/messroom was reached via a door trainside of the
barrier in the booking hall. Although appearing to be made of wood this door
weighed so much as to be made of pig iron and with monotonous frequency
would physically pull the screws holding the hinges from the concrete door
surround. Eventually one of us would wake/sober up enough to notice and
wander down to the SM to report the defect.
A repairman would, in the fullness of time arrive and amid much sucking
of teeth announce that "well guv, yer problem is that the door's to heavy,
what you need is a completely new door and frame..." you know, gentle reader
what's coming next "...but this is a listed building see, so we're
b*ggered." He would then fill up the gaping screw holes with yet more
concrete, wait for it to set and rawplug the "Black Gate" back into the
wall, safe in the knowledge that he had a job for life. Of course, once the
dark side gained control, and the company plan arrived in all it's evil
majesty, the little friendly depot was closed, it's inhabitants scattered to
the four corners of the combine, the locker/messroom was converted into a
palatial GSM's office. First thing on the conversion? Yep, replace that
bloody door!

(1) Dagenham - Mad, several stops past barking.
(2) Those of you who live at the east end of the Picc think it's rough now,
in those days if a train sat down in the platform with no relief, you had to
wait for the guard to finish his pint and the driver his game of pool before
we turned a wheel.

Trust me I'm a DMT, would I lie to you?
--
Cheers, Steve.
Change from jealous to sad to reply.