Dalston To Wimbledon And Back
Yesterday evening, I went to Wimbledon to have a drink with a friend. It’s not a difficult journey, but I was going out in the rush hour and Victorian railway planners didn’t really expect anybody to travel from the very poor East London to the affluent South-West.
They only built two cross-river rail links east of London Bridge and one of these was a re-use of some leftover infrastructure in the shape of the Thames Tunnel. It’s got better in recent years, with the re-opening of an extended East London Line, through the Thames Tunnel and new lines in the shape of the Jubilee Line and the Docklands Light Railway to Lewisham, but if you live in Dalston and want to go south-west regularly, you’re living in the wrong part of the city.
If I’ve got plenty of time to get to Wimbledon, I have three slow routes I can take.
1. Walk to Canonbury station and take a North London Line train to West Brompton, where I change onto the District Line to Wimbledon.
2. Walk to Dalston Junction station and take an East London Line train to Clapham Junction, where I change to a train for Wimbledon.
3. Take a 76 bus to Waterloo and then get a train to Wimbledon.
The first two routes are best used at a non-busy time, where perhaps you’ve got a paper to read and the third can be very slow, if the traffic is heavy.
Because of Crossrail work and diverted buses, taking a bus to Bank for the Drain to Waterloo is not the serious proposition it should be.
To further complicate matters, the Transport for London Journey Planner, says walk to Dalston Junction and take a train to Canada Water, from where you get the Jubilee Line to Waterloo,
In the end, I took a 141 bus to Bank and struggled to Waterloo through a very crowded Drain.
Coming back, it was after eleven, so I had to wait ten minutes for a train to Waterloo, where I decided to come home via Canada Water and the East London Line. This is a good route coming home, as it means two stops on any bus, drops me just round the corner from my house.
If Crossrail 2 ever gets built, this journey will become much easier, as between Dalston Junction or the Gateway to the North-East and Wimbledon or the Gateway to the South-West, there will be only seven intermediate stations; Angel, Kings Cross/St. Pancras/Euston, Tottenham Court Road, Victoria, Chelsea Kings Road, Clapham Junction and Tooting Broadway.
So using my mother’s Ready Reckoner, Dalston to Wimbledon will take just sixteen minutes.
I’m certainly backing Crossrail 2!
Police On The Trains/Tubes In South London
I came back from Wimbledon to Dalston Junction tonight, by taking a train into Waterloo and the a Jubilee Line train to Canada Water before taking the Overground north.
South of the Thames there were police everywhere, but from Canada Water onwards, I didn’t see any sign of the boys and girls in blue.
But I didn’t see any trouble either!
One officer told me they were being careful as it was Friday night. It all seemed to be effective!
From New Cross To London Bridge
I took a train from New Cross to London Bridge to see if I could get any pictures of the Bermondsey dive-user works.
One think that is noticeable from the pictures, is the amount of space there is for the lines into London Bridge. At the present Thameslink isn’t running and it would appear there are two ready-ballasted tracks between the junction to New Cross Gate and London Bridge.
New Cross Station Is Finished
In a post last September, where I went up and down the East London Line, I took a few pictures of New Cross station. I changed trains at the station today and took these pictures.
It certainly looks a lot better. The sun helped too!
My only problem with the station is that changing trains to go south after travelling from Dalston Junction is a walk across a platform and very easy, but return journeys mean a platform change over the bridge.
Perhaps one day, they’ll extend the East London Line trains to a proper terminal at another station. like Hayes as I suggested in this post, so northwards changes would be simpler.
A Modern Take On Victorian Railway Arches
I took these pictures of the new viaduct that is being built as part of the works concerning the Bermondsey Dive-Under.
This artist’s impression is from Network Rail and shows the dive-under.
Bermondsey Dive-Under
I actually walked along the side of the East London Line Extension, which crosses under the three sets of railway lines running through the area, towards the right of the picture.
The two lines shown in my gallery are the two viaducts towards the top. Note how both are shown going into a concrete tunnel, with the other line, which will carry the Thameslink trains over the top. You can also see the viaduct being built in this Google Earth image.
Bermondsey Dive-Under
I think the viaduct is being built alongside the rail line closest to the top-right of the image. Are the white shapes, the concrete shells of the arches shown in the gallery?
The sets of lines from top to bottom are as follows.
1. This set of lines along which I think the new arches have been built will take trains on the South Eastern Main Line between London Bridge and New Cross and on into Kent.
2. This set of lines also takes services between London Bridge and New Cross, although at the moment no trains are running on these lines.
3. This set of lines will take Thameslink services to New Cross Gate and beyond.
4. This set of lines links London Bridge and New Cross Gate.
It’s all very complicated and if anybody can correct anything or add more, please let me know.
I do think that untangling the spaghetti left by the Victorians, probably caused a lot of sleepless nights amongst Network Rail employees.
I also wonder, whether Network Rail will be creating small business units in the large number of new arches.
Would This Be The Easiest Station To Build In The UK?
Provision was made for Surrey Canal Road station when Phase 2 of the East London Line Extension was built a few years ago.
The pictures show that the work to create a new station wouldn’t be too great. They have decided to rename it to New Bermondsey station. The new station is close to Millwall FC as this Google Earth image shows.
Millwall FC And New Bermondsey Station
The station is in the bottom right-hand corner of the image, where the railway crosses Surrey Canal Road and construction could start this year.
Exploring Around The Bermondsey Dive-Under
As the post entitled Uncovering The Past On Thameslink showed, the railway lines around South Bermondsey station are complicated to say the least and at the moment they are more so due to the construction of the Bermondsey Dive-Under. This Google Earth image shows the main viaduct out of London Bridge as it goes south east.
Exploring Around The Bermondsey Dive-Under
The top left corner of the image shows the old Peek Frean biscuit factory and at the bottom right there is Millwall’s ground. I took these pictures as I walked around.
The arches are certainly a good example of Network Rail’s extensive collection of railway arches used for non-rail commercial pyrposes.
Is Violence Really In Decline?
The respected study from Cardiff University on violence as reported on the BBC’s web site is saying that injuries due to violence is at a new low. This is the first two paragraphs.
The number of violence-related injuries in England and Wales is at its lowest level for at least 15 years, an annual study suggests.
Cardiff University’s survey of 117 hospital units showed about 211,000 victims of violence went to hospital in 2014 – 10% fewer than in 2013.
All sorts of explanations have been offered and they’re probably all a bit responsible.
Since I moved here to Dalston in 2010, one of the biggest differences, is that the streets just feel so much safer. It’s only a personal view and not backed by any statistics, but generally everything just seems a lot quieter.
Why?
I put it down to an long list of little factors, which have worked together to create the improvement. The Overground has opened, pavements, the built environment and buses have improved, there are busy cafes everywhere and generally you see more families and older people on the street.
I think it’s probably mainly down to the beneficial link between a better environment and improved behaviour, that has been suggested by Stephen Bayley and other commentators.
Am I The Supermarkets Worst Customer?
There has been a lot of reports lately about misleading special offers in supermarkets, like this one in the Independent.
As I’m a 67-year-old widower living alone, who because I don’t drive, has to carry everything home from the supermarket, I only rarely buy any bogofs, but then only with something that doesn’t have sell-by date like washing tablets, soap, tissues or bottles of cider or olive oil.
If I’m cooking a casserole that needs one onion, one carrot, a leek and say two hundred grams of mince then that is what I buy.
I also have given up on fresh herbs and use the dried ones in pots , as I don’t like throwing the unused ones away.
As I regularly complain about the bags in Waitrose at the Angel, they must consider me a bad customer, especially as I usually enter with a half-full bag of bread, biscuits and lemonade from the Marks and Spencer next door.
A Surprising Election Leaflet
I have got quite a bit of electoral junk mail this election, but one today was different.
It was the usual A4 or A5 well-printed flyer, from a party I have voted for in the past, but my name and correct address was actually printed on the glossy paper.
Admittedly, they had used last year’s register with my incorrect name, but that was understandable, as the register was only finally corrected a couple of weeks ago.
Perhaps, we need a law to say that nothing goes through a letter box, unless it is properly addressed.
I’d probably get about four letters a week.
The Anonymous Widower 