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.
An Unusual Office Property
I went to see this property at Highams Park, as it was featured in Open House.
The refurbishment is not complete yet, but it would make a lovely small office for a professional, who needed a lot of light. In fact the developers will be using it themselves as part of a favourable deal with Network Rail, that would appear to ensure that the signal box gets sympathetically restored.
Obviously, you’d have to like trains.
There’s more on the signal box and its history on the Highams Park Forum.
One point to note in the pictures is the subway under the tracks, shown in the picture with the train approaching. Was this subway dug under the tracks to stop idiots crossing when it wasn’t safe? And was it dug without disrupting the train service?
Is Essex Road Station Ripe For Redevelopment?
Essex Road station in London, is architecturally-challenged to say the least. if you venture underground to the trains, there are a couple of large clean lifts and dimly-lit passages to stations, that still have echoes of Network South East.
Essex Road Station
But things are looking up on the trains front, in that the new Govia Thameslink franchise has committed to running more trains through the station, including later on weekday nights and at weekends. It also looks like Crossrail 2 has decided on its route and it would appear that the chances are, the new line will by-pass Essex Road station.
The station sits on a prominent and quite large corner site as this aerial view from Google shows.
Essex Road Station
So it would appear that a whole lot of reasons exist for the site to be redeveloped as perhaps much-needed quality housing. Transport links, size and location are all good and the deep-level station is in crying need of a refurbishment. The only constraint is that provision might need to be left for a very unlikely new rail or Underground line.
Properly developed it would be an asset to the area.
And The Winner Is!
This dreadful building called Woolwich Central won the Carbuncle Cup 2014.
Woolwich Central
You do wonder about Tesco, in that two buildings on the shortlist were their supermarkets.
Perhaps, the previous CEO was architecturally-challenged.
A Design Crime – A U/S Building
It is a common term amongst engineers, that might by used by others too, to describe something as U/S or useless or unserviceable. There’s a discussion about the use of the abbreviation here.
So I was surprised to see this building with a big uS sign on it.
But it probably deserved it, as it was on the short-list for the Carbuncle Cup 2014.
I’ve tagged this with Crap Marketing, as who’d want to lve in a uS building?
Return To de Bohun School
de Bohun School was my Primary and Junior school.
It looks like it could do with a lick of paint. But it’s still very much as I remember it!
The Viewing Platform At Kings Cross
I came across this viewing platform at Kings Cross.
The pictures show the platform and some of the views.
It’s on the path that leads between Kings Cross Station and Granary Square, by the Regent’s Canal.
Building sites should have more of these!
