An Alternative Lift At Caledonian Road and Barnsbury Station
I went to look at something this morning, that might have made a post for this blog.
But as it wasn’t worth photographing, I decided to come home and decided to take a train home from Caledonian Road and Barnsbury station.
The station is of a slightly unusual design, which is described in Is Caledonian Road And Barnsbury An Ideal Four-Track Station?.
There is a wide island platform, where the Overground trains call on either side, which is connected to the station exit, by a half-bridge with lifts.
It was an affordable way to make the station accessible for all.
But today the lift on the island platform had failed.
- As I approached the bridge on entering the station, a London Overground station-man was waving at me from the island platform.
- He shouted at me, that the lift on the island platform had failed.
- So I took the working lift and then walked across to the central lift tower, with its failed lift.
- He met me at the top of the stairs and offered to escort me down.
- But I said, that if I could go down the right hand side, with my good arm on the rail, I’d be OK.
- He said that would be fine and he watched me descend, which I did safely.
- Whilst I was there, two mothers with young children in buggies arrived on a train. So after a quick chat, the mothers carried their children up the stairs and he carried the buggies.
London Overground had certainly setup an alternative approach, that should work well until the lift is repaired.
Getting Home From Caledonian Road and Barnsbury Station
The Balls Pond Road of Round The Horne and Beyond Our Ken fame in the 1950s and 1960s, runs between Highbury and Islington and Dalston Junction stations.
- I live about half way between the two stations and as, what would have been my nearest station; Mildmay Park closed in 1934, I have to get a bus from Dalston Junction to get home.
- Today, though, I took a slightly longer route, but one with minimal walking.
- I took a train four stops to Hackney Central station.
- I used the bridge with lifts to cross the tracks at Hackney Central station.
- I exited Hackney Central station through the second exit on Graham Road, that was opened in 2022.
- After crossing Graham Road on a light-controlled crossing, I was able to catch a 38 bus to within a hundred metres of my house.
There would be no case for reopening Mildmay Park station, but as I get older this route is the easiest.
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The Anonymous Widower 
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