Essex Road Station – 16th November 2020
These pictures show Essex Road station.
Note.
- It is a station of little architectural merit.
- It is not by any means step-free.
- The atmosphere could be better.
- In the last few weeks, I have witnessed two falls, that could have been serious with a little less luck on those dreadful stairs.
It is certainly not the best station in Islington, let alone North London.
The Anonymous Widower 
What a dreadful looking station inside – looks like nuclear bunker tunnels, and not in a good way.
The exterior station building looks good and has style, but the National Rail sign is invisible from a distance. Are the upper floors used for anything?
Inside, the station is crying out for life – what an enormous difference from even the poorest Underground station, which has colour tiles, adverts, TfL signage and notices.
Even painting some colour bands on the passageway and platform walls will greatly increase the atmosphere. It’s a wonder anyone uses this station.
A supreme example of how not to decorate a station.
Comment by Long Branch Mike | November 17, 2020 |
It’s a relief to get on board the air-conditioned trains.
Comment by AnonW | November 17, 2020 |
One of the few central London stations I have yet to visit. I believe the platform walls have recently been retiled, along with other Northern City line stations, which must be some improvement. The stairs do look quite steep and wide and lacking a central handrail. Being rather claustrophobic I try to avoid lifts but am reassured to learn there is a spiral staircase. The exterior building looks rather nice to me. I
Comment by Davud Richards | November 17, 2020 |
You’ve not missed much!
Comment by AnonW | November 17, 2020 |
Ijust used the station and the spiral staircase is labelled for Staff Only!
Comment by AnonW | November 18, 2020 |
Was my local station in my early years but we normally used the 611 Trolley Buses instead.
Essex Road was once part of plans for Crossrail 2 although changes in route might have replaced that and anyway that still remains a long time away if ever !
Despite the financial troubles of TFL it seems discussion has been on going between DFT and Deputy Mayor Heidi Alexander about transfer of Moorgate GN services to TFL as part of replacement for TSGN which has now delivered Thameslink project. So TFL might get this route back again making it easier to plan major upgrades to stations north of Moorgate which is getting upgraded as part of Crossrail although I noticed that lift which serves Northern Line doesn’t stop at GN Platforms which are directly above !
Comment by Melvyn | November 17, 2020 |
Visualisations show a direct route between the Northern City Line and Crossrail, This appears to be level, If there were lifts to the surface on this route, the direct lift might have been forgotten.
Comment by AnonW | November 17, 2020 |