The Anonymous Widower

Before Overground – Hackney Downs

Could Be A Great Station With Imagination – Rating 3/10

Hackney Downs station is rather a dump at present, as the pictures show.

But because it is four platform station with rooms all over the place, it could with imagination be turned into the Crystal Palace station of the North.

The pictures show how the bridge over Dalston Lane has been restored, so at least a good start has been made. As the station has a lot of ironwork, I wonder if a Leadenhall Market solution could be applied. Instead of using expensive painters for all the ironwork, the City of London laid down the scheme and paid art students to do it. Hackney Downs obviously isn’t as grand, but if some of the ironwork in the station and others on the Lea Valley Line were to be properly painted, it might liven up a series of otherwise drab stations.

I also think that the large island platform, may be a suitable place to put a nice bronze sculpture that is deemed to be too valuable to display, as it might get nicked.

The station is a bit like one of those large rambling Victorian houses with umpteen rooms, that are advertised with tremendous potential.

September 19, 2014 - Posted by AnonW | Transport | Before Overground, Lea Valley Lines, London Overground