On 29/09/10 14:36, Mizter T wrote:

There's a rather dark side to the passageway though, which doesn't
really match up with it's smiley façade.

What kind of dark side? Rather more dreary decor? Dangerous to walk
down at night? Literally dark, as in lacking illumination?

I only ever used the Kings Cross Thameslink station once or twice, and I
never used the SMILE passageway.

-roy

On 29 Sep, 16:28, Roy Badami wrote:
On 29/09/10 14:36, Mizter T wrote:

There's a rather dark side to the passageway though, which doesn't
really match up with it's smiley façade.

What kind of dark side? *Rather more dreary decor? *Dangerous to walk
down at night? *Literally dark, as in lacking illumination?

I only ever used the Kings Cross Thameslink station once or twice, and I
never used the SMILE passageway.

* * *-roy

It reminds me of Moorgate and Old Street on being taken over by BR.
LU stations always seemed to be warm and bright, but give the same
basic kind of space to BR and they seemed to be able to suck all light
and warmth out of it. I've never really been able to work out how
they do it, but I guess it goes back to its BR legacy.

On 29 Sep, 14:36, Mizter T wrote:

There's a rather dark side to the passageway though, which doesn't
really match up with it's smiley façade.

Because of the Kings Cross fire? That really was one of the most
unfortuate aspects of the disaster, quite apart from the personnel and
organisational failings uncovered by Fennell.

For background, at the time of day that the Kings Cross fire happened
the passageway was closed and the Bostwick gates to it from the
Piccadilly/Victoria line platforms locked. This was because the
Midland City line (subsequently Thameslink) station was at that time
closed in the evenings for the station to be upgraded and overall roof
constructed.

If the passage had been open (or had been fitted with the emergency
unlocking devices that have become standard since the fire), then it's
quite possible that many of the passengers from the tube platforms
would have been evacuated (or evacuated themselves) that way rather
than being directed up the Victoria line escalators towards the
impending flashover. Having said that I don't think anyone could have
predicted just how violently the fire would erupt from the Piccadilly
escalator shaft.

ISTR that eventually - 30-60 minutes after the flashover - someone was
finally found who could unlock the Bostwick gates and allow trapped
people to be brought to the surface through the Pentonville Road
ticket hall.

Although the 'SMILE' panelling was part of the original 1981 KX
Midland City station construction, not installed after the fire for
the Thameslink station rebuilding.

On Wed, 29 Sep 2010, Roy Badami wrote:

On 29/09/10 14:36, Mizter T wrote:

There's a rather dark side to the passageway though, which doesn't
really match up with it's smiley fa?ade.

What kind of dark side?

The outside.

tom

--
so if you hear a chaffinch out on the pull attempting a severely off-key
version of "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys then you're not actually
going mad.

In message , at 16:28:54 on Wed, 29 Sep
2010, Roy Badami remarked:

I only ever used the Kings Cross Thameslink station once or twice, and
I never used the SMILE passageway.

I almost always used it as a way from the Thameslink platforms to the
main station. Avoids the weather, and the strange creatures of the night
who lurk in that part of town.
--
Roland Perry

On 29/09/10 18:01, Brian A60K wrote:

For background, at the time of day that the Kings Cross fire happened
the passageway was closed and the Bostwick gates to it from the
Piccadilly/Victoria line platforms locked. This was because the
Midland City line (subsequently Thameslink) station was at that time
closed in the evenings for the station to be upgraded and overall roof
constructed.

Ah, thank you for that context. I knew that some passengers (assisted
by a member of staff, IIRC) attempted to evacuate via a route that was
blocked by a locked gate, but I didn't know the actual location.

-roy

On 30 Sep, 00:44, Mizter T wrote:

Thanks - that was a question I wanted answered, i.e. whether the
'Smile' design came before or after the fire (as if it had come
afterwards, then I think further questions as to the appropriateness
of this motif could have been asked). FWIW the Fennell report appears
to state that this passageway was constructed a little later than you
suggest, in "1983/4".

There's truth in both dates, curiously enough! The major construction
work was largely complete in 1981 (a friend of mine had a pub with a
bird's eye view down to the KX Midland City station site), but because
of the industrial relations issues caused by the proposed DOO on the
Class 317s the service was delayed for somewhere around a year, with
the old trains soldiering on and the nice new electrics sitting in the
sidings.

I believe it was May 1983 that the electric service finally started,
despite the infrastructure having been there for around 18 months.

Incidentally, I read recently that the KX Midland City tunnel made use
of tunnel segments ordered for the Jubilee line extension (abortive
GLC version), which explained the 1976 or 1977 dates stamped on them
that I saw (and puzzled about) when part of the tunnel was retiled as
part of the Northern Ticket Hall project.

On 28 Sep, 08:28, Roland Perry wrote:
I have no idea what that is (and therefore how long that is), sorry. For
example, are we talking more or less than the distance between the
platform faces?
The visible portion is slightly shorter than the distance between the
platform faces of the northern line.

At the end, does it disappear to the left, or the right?
To the right (the north)

However, we now seem to have cleared up the confusion between "facing
the opposite way", and "turning round" (which at first sight are the
same activity)... and therefore the new passage would seem to head east
and not west. That is much more consistent with being a link to the
other new lifts which are on the reconstructed Pentonville Road passage,
and (if they also have a "secret doorway") would link all three of the
new deep lifts together for emergency purposes.
No, it faces west. All phrases such as "facing the opposite way" and
"turning round" should be interpreted so that you face west at the
end. Go there yourself, and you'll see. The passage faces west. Its a
physical thing, and no amount of argument about semantics will ever
change the way it actually physically faces.

On 30 Sep, 00:35, Mizter T wrote:
On Sep 29, 4:28*pm, Roy Badami wrote:

On 29/09/10 14:36, Mizter T wrote:

There's a rather dark side to the passageway though, which doesn't
really match up with it's smiley façade.

What kind of dark side? *Rather more dreary decor? *Dangerous to walk
down at night? *Literally dark, as in lacking illumination?

I was a bit hazy on the details, so I've just taken the opportunity to
look at an authoritative source - the Fennell Report into the King's
Cross fire. This is available on the Railways Archive website as a PDF
(which is text searchable) - see:
http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/eventsummary.php?eventID=138

What follows is just my interpretation based on a pretty quick and
distinctly incomplete scan through of the full report, so please don't
take it as gospel.

On the night of the fire, one member of LU staff redirected some
passengers to this passageway leading to the Midland City exit so as
to escape from the fire, but unbeknown to him it was blocked by locked
gates - these passengers then returned and some understandably gave
him some stick.

Why didn't they direct anyone to the northern line's emergency stairs?
They still seem to be there (behind aluminium slats on a narrow door
on each of the platforms), even now after all this building work. And
they would have lead outside the ticket hall area back then.

Or the piccadilly line stairs (assuming they are still there after the
victoria line was built - the lobby is certainly still there).?

What's the point of having emergency stairs if they are ignored when
there's an emergency.

In message
, at
03:55:18 on Sun, 10 Oct 2010, lonelytraveller
remarked:
I have no idea what that is (and therefore how long that is), sorry. For
example, are we talking more or less than the distance between the
platform faces?
The visible portion is slightly shorter than the distance between the
platform faces of the northern line.

At the end, does it disappear to the left, or the right?
To the right (the north)

However, we now seem to have cleared up the confusion between "facing
the opposite way", and "turning round" (which at first sight are the
same activity)... and therefore the new passage would seem to head east
and not west. That is much more consistent with being a link to the
other new lifts which are on the reconstructed Pentonville Road passage,
and (if they also have a "secret doorway") would link all three of the
new deep lifts together for emergency purposes.
No, it faces west. All phrases such as "facing the opposite way" and
"turning round" should be interpreted so that you face west at the
end. Go there yourself, and you'll see. The passage faces west. Its a
physical thing, and no amount of argument about semantics will ever
change the way it actually physically faces.

Please excuse me if your description:

"If you go in from the ticket hall, turn round and face the SAME
way as the door you came in through."

....and your later clarification that when you go in that way you have
your back to the escalators and are therefore facing west, confused me.

Because if you turned round and faced the door you came through, you'd
be facing east. That's not semantics.
--
Roland Perry