How To Improve A Station
Clapham Junction station is one of the busiest in Europe and on some measures the busiest station in the UK.
I had only been twice before. One was in the 1960s, when I was looking to see some of Bulleid ‘s steam engines, like the Merchant Navy class. The other was a few years ago, when I was going to Southampton from Suffolk.
Since those days, the station has had a makeover. The most impressive feature is the rebuilt bridge with lifts to all the platforms and the new south-eastern or Brighton Yard entrance to the station.
I’ve tried to annotate the pictures correctly, but if you have better captions please let me know.
I should say that in the future Clapham Junction will be important to me, as I will be able to get a direct train to the station from Dalston Junction using the Overground, which will mean, I can get to the south and south west without having to struggle to Waterloo or Victoria. Incidentally, the design of the Overground Platform 2, shows how with a bit of innovation, you can squeeze wide easy-to-navigate platforms into a small space. Once complete passengers arriving on the new East/South London line will just have to walk a few metres to catch the West London line and vice-versa.
Just like with Stratford, it shows how by using good design and a sensible amount of money you can create a good interchange to take the pressure off the main London termini.
I think it is true to say, that the new bridge is the most impressive feature of the redevelopment. If you are changing trains, at the station, it is the ideal place to wait with interesting views, cafes and shops. It is also well-provided with information and has lifts to all platforms.
How many other stations would benefit from a similar makeover?
West Hampstead – This has been proposed and probably will happen. I would certainly benefit, as I could take the North London line to pick up the Jubilee line or Chiltern line to Birmingham.
Hackney Central and Hackney Downs – This could be an important interchange in north-east London, as I indicated here.
Willesden Junction– Connected to both Stratford and Clapham Junction by the London Overground, it should be developed as a link to the north. Selected Virgin expresses should stop at the station.
West Croydon – This needs to be sorted and linked properly to East Croydon. At present it’s easy to go from West to East, but the other way is difficult.
Get these and other interfaces sorted and a lot of pressure could be taken off the main London termini.
Up and Down the Stairs at Hackney Downs
I went for supper to Walthamstow tonight.
The easiest way is to get a bus to Hackney Downs station and then take a Chingford train. It works well if you just catch a train.
But I just got to the top at Platform 2 to see the train disappearing out of the station. It looks like I’d have to wait for twenty minutes, but a stationman said there was another train in ten minutes on Platform 4. So it was down the dreaded staircase again and then up another one.
Surely for passenger convenience, all Chingford trains should leave Hackney Downs from the same platform. Or if for operational reasons they can’t then perhaps there should be a display at the bottom of the stairs, that lists all departures in order together with the platform. The Overground has such a display at both Highbury and Islington and Dalston Junction stations. Even the bus stop outside Hackney Downs has a display showing the details of the next few buses.
Could A Hackney Junction Station Be Created?
Today, I was returning from Stratford station and did what I often do now and that is get off the Overground at Hackney Central station and get a 38 bus to just round the corner from my house. Ideally, I would like to take the disused Eastern Curve to walk from Dalston Junction station. But this would be a difficult route to reinstate. It would also be expensive, with not much change left from a million pounds.
The change at Hackney Central only takes a few minutes, but it involves using an overbridge to cross the North London line and a U-shaped walk to get to the bus stop on Graham Road.
The other problem at Hackney is getting between the two stations of Hackney Central and Hackney Downs. I walked it at ground level and it doesn’t take too long. There are some pictrures here.
But I wouldn’t like to do it in a few years or with a child in a buggy or in a wheelchair. There used to be a walkway at track level, but this was demolished, when the North London line was truncated to Dalston in 1944.
So could anything be done to improve the station? Let’s start by looking at an aerial view of the two stations and the surrounding roads coutesy of Google.
Map of Hackney Central and Downs Stations
The first thing you will notice is that there is a surprising amount of greenery and trees, especially along the line running westwards from Hackney Central station.
There is also car parking to the north of Hackney Central on Amhurst Road, which could be developed for something more worthwhile.
Returning to ground level, I took this picture of the old station building for Hackney Central, which sits on the corner of Mare Street and Graham Road.
The Old Hackney Central Station
This is surely worth preserving and using for something better than as a prop for the railway. Note the alleyway that leads to the new station buildings at the side.
This station is very similar to Camden Road station, also on the North London line, and like that station, I suspect Hackney Central also featured an underpass to get to the line on the other side. If this could be reinstated, this would remove one of the main problems of the station and that is having to use the overbridge to get to and from the westbound platform. I can manage it OK after a stroke, but I couldn’t if I was a young mother with twins in a double buggy.
I’m no architect, but I feel that a good one, with an understanding of structures could create an imposing station at the Hackney Central end of the combined station. As I said before there is space to the north of the station, which could be used as either a bus interchange, a square with cafes and other meeting places or niche retail. Or perhaps all three to create somewhere you might go to meet someone before walking the Lea Valley, going shopping at Eastfield or to the football at White Hart Lane.
The Hackney Downs end on the other hand doesn’t offer such a good collection of buildings on which to create a statement as you could at Central. So perhaps you just do something with the staircases and give it a good or as I said earlier, a wild coat of paint.
To connect the two stations you have three options.
- The simplest would probably be to signpost a preferred route, perhaps cutting the current distance slightly by sneaking in at the back of Hackney Downs.
- You could also put controlled crossing in at the two stations, so that the bus routes that served both stations could be used to bridge the gap.
- Or you could create a Hackney Skywalk alongside the two railways, above the streets below. Whether this could be done meeting all of the safety regulations, I do not know, but it would be a statement of intent of two rail lines and one station.
Finally, the buses in the area need a bit of reorganisation, especially if the North London Line continues to carry more and more passengers and the stations get full step-free access.
- Some buses for instance, like the 30 and the 277 almost parallel the line from Hackney Wick to Highbury and Islington, so perhaps some simplification could be envisaged.
- The 38 goes all the way to Victoria from Hackney, as does the 73 from Stoke Newington, so perhaps if Hackney had better connections to the Victoria line, some passengers might take that route.
- The new North London Line has shown that if you provide good east-west links in North London, they’ll get used. So perhaps, there is a need for a bus from somewhere like Archway to Walthamstow.
If nothing with this ramble, I’ve proved one thing. There are endless possibilities about what can be done to improve public transport in Hackney and up the Lea Valley.
To be fair to, to the Council, they have a lot of useful information and alternative plans on their web site.
A Plan For Tottenham Is Emerging
It would appear that Spurs are on the point of dropping their bid to take over the Olympic stadium according to the BBC.
I have looked at the plans for the new stadium and feel that the way it would be built is innovative and good project management, making the best use of all the resources.
A deal seems to be being working out with the Mayor and the Government about improving public transport in the area. As I said earlier, I believe this should be achieved by giving some or all of the Lea Valley lines to Transport for London and adding them to the Overground. The trains, track and power supplies are not the worst, but improving the stations with their dreadful access and especially the link at Hackney Downs to the North London line and to buses must be done. A point here, is that this access traps the locals in the area, whether they like football or not.
It would also help London and Tottenham Hotspur, if a large Park and Ride was built somewhere to the north of White Hart Lane station on the Cheshunt line by the M25. London and the City lacks a decent Park and Ride and parking at most stations to the north and east of London is inadequate and overpriced.
So in my view a proper modern railway run to the same reliability as the Overground would transform the whole area from Bethnal Green, through Hackney and Tottenham to Enfield and the M25.
Finally, it has always irked Spurs supporters that Arsenal have their own Underground station. So why shouldn’t White Hart Lane be renamed Spurs?
Connecting Hackney Central and Hackney Downs Stations
It says this in Wikipedia under the entry for Hackney Downs station.
The station is a short walk from Hackney Central, on the North London Line. Until Hackney Central’s closure in 1944, a passenger connection linked the two stations. However, when Hackney Central reopened in 1985, the footway did not reopen, and passengers transferring between the two stations are obliged to leave the station and transfer at street level.
Last night, I took the Overground to Hackney Central and then walked to Hackney Downs station.
It was quite an easy walk, but not the most obvious.
These pictures show how close the lines are and some of the local area.
It may not be possible to reinstate the walkway, but surely something better can be done, incorporating sensible bus interchanges as well.
I see this very much as an opportunity for Hackney.
Hackney Downs Station
I wanted to go to Tottenham today, to answer a few questions that had arisen in my mind after the trip yesterday to IKEA.
I started at Hackney Downs station.
To say it is a dump would not be fair, as I suspect that staff try hard to keep a station that has lacked investment for years, working well.
It could be a very good station and I think it could be made into a major interchange by just a few changes and perhaps by borrowing ideas from the Overground.
The access to the platforms, which is by steep staircases, must be improved. I’m not disabled, but do appreciate the problems of those who are. In a wheelchair, unless accompanied by say four of Her Majesty’s squaddies, you wouldn’t stand a chance.
It is dark and dingy too and desperately in need of an imaginative repainting. Hackney has lots of artists, so perhaps they could help or design a scheme. Has a station ever been converted into an art gallery? I know the Musee d’Orsay was formerly a station, but they threw the trains out. Babies and bathwaters come to mind.
How about adding a food shop and a coffee bar?
The interface to the buses underneath the station is poor, as the picture in the gallery shows. There should be a light-controlled crossing over Dalston Lane.
But there is a lot going for the station.
It is close to the open space of Hackney Downs.
It is well served by services going to Enfield, Tottenham, Chingford, Cheshunt, Hertford and of course, Liverpool Street.
A walkway did link it to Hackney Central and this could be reinstated to create a true rail interchange for Hackney.
The Anonymous Widower 