Manchester Oxford Road Station
Manchester Oxford Road Station, is that rare animal, a modern station with a Grade II Listing.
Probably, the most significant thing about the listing of Manchester Oxford Road station, is that there are few stations, built in the 1960s, worthy of any merit.
A Walk Around White Hart Lane Station
I took these pictures as I walked around the area between White Hart Lane station and Tottenham Hotspur‘s White Hart Lane stadium.
Looking at the station, I come to a few conclusions.
- It certainly isn’t fit for serving a 61,000-seater football stadium.
- The access to the platforms with staircases and no lifts or escalators is terrible and not much better than it was when I used it regularly in the early 1960s.
- The platforms look like, they might be able to handle a twelve-car train.
- The platforms are on top of what looks to be a solid well-built viaduct.
- Walking away from White Hart Lane towards the South, there would appear to be few important buildings alongside the viaduct.
I think this all leads to a unique situation you don’t often find in the rebuilding of a station. It would appear that if you clear the land on both sides of the railway along Penshurst Road and Love Lane, you can create a station that encloses the railway and gives access underneath. A similar situation was exploited at Haggerston and Hoxton stations to create very passenger-friendly stations.
This visualisation from the Architects Journal shows the station from the East.
I’ll repeat my nearest picture.
I think that it looks good.
Note that the rightmost arch, which is partially hidden in the second picture, is the rightmost arch in the visualisation.
If you look at the other pictures in the Architects Journal, it would appear that the two staircases go up in two sections to the platforms, in a similar way to they do in several of the Overeground’s rebuilt stations.
At least in common with London’s two other big club grounds at Arsenal and West Ham, White Hart Lane is served by several Underground and rail stations.
This station certainly, looks like it will handle its share.
I think there could be controversy, as there have been reports that Tottenham Hotspur would like to sell naming rights to the stadium and possibly the station, as other clubs have.
Renaming the stadium would probably not be controversial, but renaming the station could well be. It will certainly be expensive, as Transport for London would have to change a large quantity of maps.
As someone, who supports Ipswich, I don’t care.
The Crossrail Mile End Park Ventilation Shaft Is Revealed
The hoardings have been partially removed from the Crossrail Mile End Park Ventilation Shaft.
The top line of pictures were taken from the top of a 277 bus, whilst the others were taken a day later from the ground.
It’s certainly starting to look like the visualisation.
This humble ventilation and evacuation shaft could be one of the most-copied features of Crossrail.
Is This How To Do Small Business?
Opposite Ed’s Shed in De Beauvoir Town is an old factory block of indeterminate age, with little architectural merit.
So what is happening?
It is being turned into a series of units for small businesses called the De Beauvoir Block.
Surely, we need more initiatives like this?
I should say, that although De Beauvoir Town is mainly residential, tucked into lots of the nooks and crannies , there are small business units.
Like the De Beauvoir Block, many have been created by the landowner, the Benyon Estate.
The estate are not distant, like many of the owners of large parts of our cities, but seem to want to create a vibrant and prosperous community.
After all, modern economics says they would make more money by flattering the block and building tower blocks of buy-to-leave flats.
The biggest tragedy of the area is that parts of De Beauvoir Town were demolished in the 1960s to build anonymous local authority housing, some of which has already been rebuilt.
The good thing though, is that there are still more nooks, crannies and factories to do some more creative development.
Ed’s Shed
This house is in the heart of De Beauvoir Town, which is the area of London, where I live on the Northern edge.
Ed’s Shed
It is an unusual modern house to sit amongst all the Georgian ones. It is not the only one in the Conservation Area.
It’s called Ed’s Shed and there is a web site.
I like it!
Why don’t we get more adventurous modern houses? Architects are creating the future and we don’t want uniformity!
Edinburgh Haymarket Station Gets It Right
Edinburgh Haymarket station is another example of Network Rail’s stations with a wide bridge over the tracks, like Leeds, Derby and most spectacularly Reading. London Bridge will join the club in the next couple of years.
As most trains stop at both Waverley and Haymarket stations in Edinburgh, I think passengers will ask themselves, why they would ever use the truly dreadful Waverley station?
- Access to the trams at Waverley means using endless steps and escalators to get to Princes Street and then an uncovered walk to the tram.
- Trams at Haymarket are just a short level walk outside.
- Taxi drop at Waverley is difficult with more steps. It’s on the level at Haymarket.
- Tickets to Edinburgh allow you to go to either station.
- Coming from the West and needing the tram, will passengers increasingly change at Edinburgh Park station?
Don’t fall into the trap of getting off at Edinburgh Waverley, which now always seems to be called just Edinburgh.
My only reservation about Haymarket is the station’s size.
Is it big enough for an important rugby match at Murrayfield, where the savvy will arrive at Haymarket and take a tram?
And will it be big enough, when the trams are extended, as they surely will be?
It’s Not April The First
This story could be titled Architect Benedict O’Looney Discovers Lost Victorian Waiting Room In Peckham.
But in their article the BBC has used Peckham Rye station’s ‘lost’ waiting room to re-open after 50 years.
This is said.
It was once considered to be one of the grandest station waiting rooms in South London, but for decades the space at Peckham Rye railway station was bricked up and forgotten about.
Abbey Wood Station – 9th June 2016
I took these pictures at Abbey Wood station.
If you look at the various pictures I have taken over the past months of this station, the station is progressing and the builders seem to be managing to always have a working station amongst all the construction work.
Certain factors have helped in this important aim.
- The previous station was unloved by everyone and had absolutely no architectural merit.
- There are no heritage issues.
- Good design of a temporary step-free pedestrian bridge, that appears to be morphing into a permanent one, has aided passengers.
- There always seems to be cheery staff on hand for lost and puzzled passengers.
- Traffic is heavy in the area, but not unmanageably so.
But I think most importantly, the Crossrail portal is some distance away from the station, keeping the two projects effectively separate.
Compared to some station rebuilds, I’ve encountered in the past, so far it has been a textbook example of good project management.
Improving Imperial Wharf Station
In the June 2016 Edition of Modern Railways, there was an article entitled Turning South London Orange.
One of the proposals is to create a walkway across Battersea Railway Bridge to give access to Imperial Wharf station from the South Bank of the River Thames.
This Google Map shows the station, the river and the South Bank.
Just to look at this map, shows that the scheme has potential.
- I estimate that the distance is probably about five hundred metres.
- The walkway would also give access to the Thames Clippers at Chelsea Harbour Pier.
- The walkway would give better walking routes in the area and across the river.
Unfortunately, the design of the station is possibly not one, that could accept passengers walking in and out at track level, so without a lot of work at the station, passengers might have to climb down and up to get between the walkway and the platforms.
Battersea Railway Bridge is also a Listed structure and it may be difficult to add a walkway.
These pictures show the station and the bridge.
However, it would appear that help is at hand. There are plans for a new footbride called the Diamond Jubilee Footbridge, which will be directly upstream of the railway bridge. This page from the Diamond Jubilee Footbridge web site has a picture and the reasons, why it should be built.
Incidentally, there used to be a Battersea station on the South bank of the River, in the area of Battersea High Street.
This Google Map shows the area.
The Location Of Battersea Station
Although, it looks like the station, which was destroyed in 1940s by German bombing, could be rebuilt, I feel that the Diamond Jubilee Footbridge, is a much better way to spend the money.
Is A Big Row Developing Over The Northern Line Extension?
I have just read this article in the Evening Standard, which is entitled Northern line extension: Battersea Power Station’s Tube bill ‘to rise by £240m’. This is said.
The Standard understands that the changes relate to a section of the 39-acre site known as Prospect Place, a dramatic cluster of apartment buildings designed by the Californian “starchitect” Frank Gehry.
The new plans envisage more ambitious “over station development” (OSD) than in the original Battersea Power Station masterplan from Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly.
Obviously, the more you put on top of a station, the stronger the box that encloses the station needs to be.
Hence the redesign of the box and the greater cost.
I do think that some architects are a bit precious and over-ambitious, whereas others create spectacular buildings, that seem to cost a fraction of those by the so-called architectural superstars.
Some schemes only seem to be capable of being built at enormous cost.
Architects never learnt from the fiasco of building the Sydney Opera House.
And it’s usually the poor taxpayer who picks up the bill for bad design.
The Anonymous Widower 