The Gherkin And The Light
The sun this December has been astounding.
I was trying to get a picture of the light reflections on the Gherkin and the other buildings and took these images.
What Is Happening At Highbury Corner?
Highbury Corner is a notorious junction, which I used to avoid when I drove, as it could often cause a lot of delay.
These pictures show barriers going up and the crossing outside Highbury and Islington station.
It would also appear that a new crossing is being built about fifty metres up Holloway Road. The guy in the paper shop told me that the main crossing will be closed and that the old Post Office will be demolished. I found this summary of the works here on the TfL web site. All the work is to replace a weak bridge and it says this about the old Post Office in particular.
The empty Post Office building needs to be demolished, and we expect to start work in the week beginning Monday 5 January 2015. The demolition work will be completed by March 2015.
We will make every effort to minimise the impact of noise and dust during the demolition.
The footpaths next to the old Post Office will remain open, although hoardings around the demolition site will make the footpaths narrower. This might create some crowding at busy times, impacting journeys in and out of the station.
In 2015, the main works to replace the bridge will begin.
I think it will be a good idea for pedestrians and drivers to avoid the area until 2017, when the article says that the bridge works will be complete.
The station is at a location where development would surely be worthwhile. Especially, if it put right all of the mistakes of the 1960s, which produced a Victoria Line station for the fit, agile and young. Below ground it’s a dump!
At least though it would appear that the western side of the roundabout will have reduced traffic levels and bus/Underground/Overground connections will be easier. The centre of the roundabout with its trees would also be opened up to the public.
My hopes for the bus/train interchange would include.
1. The 277 bus go right around to terminate in front of the station, ready to pick up passengers arriving at the station.
2. Easy interchange at the station from the 277 to either the 43 or the 271 to go north up Holloway Road towards Archway, Highgate and Barnet. At present you need to use two light-controlled crossings to cross two busy main roads, to affect the change.
3. The reverse journey on a southbound 43 or 271 to catch a 277 eastwards is probably more difficult, unless the buses cut through the western side of the roundabout.
But I think, I’m asking for too much!
I doubt though the development will be as grand as the original.
The Old Highbury and Islington Station
The entry on Wikipedia says this about the history of the station building.
The NLR station was damaged by a V-1 flying bomb on 27 June 1944, however, its main building remained in use until it was demolished in the 1960s during the building of the Victoria line. The original westbound platform buildings remain, as does a small part of the original entrance to the left of the present station entrance.
The Victoria Line might have had world leading automatic train operation when it opened, but most of the architecture and building of the stations, was some of the worst in the UK in the 1960s.
Hanwell Station Gets A Second Entrance
Hanwell station, which will become a stop on Crossrail, is a Grade II Listed building, which according to Wikipedia, English Heritage says is in very poor condition.
A second entrance on the South side of the line has now been opened.
If this is the standard to which the rest of the station will be refurbished, I suspect that English Heritage will be pleased to update their view of the station.
As I’m writing this, I’m listening to Radio 5, where there has just been a piece talking about a shortage of bricklayers. Obviously, some very good ones were working hard on Hanwell station.
When I visited Hanwell station in October, I gave it a score of 3/10 and said it was a relic from the past.
I now have high hopes, that when this station opens fopr Crossrail, that it will be one of the jewels in London’s new train line.
A Heritage Station With Four Clocks
After writing my piece about the Northern Line Extension, I went to have a look at Kennington station.
It is a Grade II Listed building, but to me one of its best features is the four clocks.
The layout is unusual in that the two Southbound platforms are underneath the two Northbound ones. But both pairs of platforms have level access between the platforms. So if you came up from Morden and wanted to go to say Tottenham Court Road, you’d just walk across to the Charing Cross branch, if you were on a train going via Bank.
When the Northern Line Extension opens, this will probably mean that there is cross-platform access from the extension to the Bank branch.
It would certainly seem that when the station was substantially rebuilt in 1926, that whoever redesigned the station had the foresight (luck?) to design a station that could be easily linked to a branch to Battersea and Clapham Junction.
The Titanic, Ipswich
This was my nickname for the Odeon cinema in Ipswich which was built in 1991.
I gave it the nickname, as I thought it would never be a success and would sink as the ill-fated liner did. According to this report from the Ipswich Star it lasted until 2005.
C and I only ever saw one film in the cinema.
It’s all very sad!
Is This Building Too Good For A Shop?
The Ancient House is one of Ipswich’s eleven Grade 1 Listed buildings.
The Ancient House, Ipswich
But is it too good to be shop?
The tenant incidentally is Lakeland, so it must be their grandest shop.
Victoria Gets A Posh Umbrella
Manchester Victoria was a terrible station, with a difficult connection to Manchester Piccadilly. The connection improved with the Metrolink, but as they are now rebuilding Victoria, it’s got worse again. As I’m now familiar with the walking route, I was able to put a couple right about the way to go.
There must be something in the Manchester civic psyche, that likes to confuse people.
But Victoria seems to be getting on with its rebuilding, which includes a posh roof over everything and a new footbridge.
Unfortunately, the electrification to Liverpool Lime Street seems to be having problems and it will be some months before Class 319 electric trains are working the route, hopefully before next spring.
It does look to me, that when complete, anywhere on the tram routes in Manchester will have easy access to the electrified Trans-Pennine links at Manchester Victoria, which could become an architectural icon of the North. You’ll get the tram to Victoria and then totally under the new roof, you’ll go through the ticket gates and across the fully-accessible footbridges to the appropriate platform to await your train.
In addition, those who arrive from London and the South at Piccadilly and are perhaps going on to places like Burnley, Blackburn and Hebden Bridge from Victoria, will have a completely dry route, which is of course important in Manchester, using the trams. The trams must use contactless bank card tickerting though to be compatible with what other cities, like London, are doing.
This is Network Rail’s page on the £44million work.
I think everyone will agree that it’s all a bit different to the concrete crap that British Rail built forty to fifty years ago, like Euston and Manchester Piccadilly, when those with special access needs or advanced age didn’t exist, as everybody was adult and fit as a butcher’s dog.
I can remember meeting a friend in the newly-opened extension to Kings Cross station and looking with amazement at the structure that had been created.
Why shouldn’t other rail stations be given an added wow factor?
Especially now, when we have the architects, computers, techniques and materials to build them in an affordable manner. How many stations could be rebuilt using the same methods as New Cross Gate?
Good stations, like good clean electric trains, have one common problem. They are passenger magnets and very often attract so many extra paying passengers, that we have to expand the system.
I have a feeling that after they see the completed scheme, they’ll be wanting some of their other architectural disasters like Salford Crescent and Oxford Road stations, at least given the treatment that Network Rail have applied at Huyton.
Dinner In The Gherkin
I went to a dinner last night at the top of the Gherkin, that was organised by an event club to which I belong.
The dinner itself was pretty good and the views were superb.
The View From The Gherkin At Night
But the club has been recently taken over and the new organiser was showing all the skills that Ed Miliband has shown with the Scottish Labour Party.
I doubt I shall be going to any of their events again.
The Gherkin At Night
I’ve never been close to the Gherkin in the dark. I took these pictures.
We need more innovative designs like this, rather than the dreaded Shard.
De Beauvoir Square In Autumn
I took these pictures today, as I walked past De Beauvoir Square.
Even in autumn, it still has some flowers.
Hackney, which is not the richest of London boroughs, has a few squares like this, including Fassett Square, where if things had turned out differently, might have been where the BBC filmed East Enders. As it was, the set was modelled on that square.
The Anonymous Widower 