The New East London Line
I have always been an advocate of calling the East London Line, the Brunel Line as it goes through the tunnel that father, Marc, and son, Isambard, built under the Thames.
It is now just a few weeks away from reopening the line as a major part of the London Overground, reaching from Highbury and Islington in the north to Crystal Palace and West Croydon in the south. So on Friday, I thought, I walk the line and take some photographs.
I started by taking a train to Whitechapel.
Gillespie Road Lives
Gillespie Road is the original name for the London Tube station, that is now called Arsenal.
There is some wonderful Edwardian tiling, that shows the original name and the design wasn’t changed, when the station was renamed.
Gillespie Road Tiling
The tiling is not original as when the station was restored, it was found to be in poor condition and had to be replaced. The details are on the Transport for London website.
This picture shows the detail of some of the new work.
Gillespie Road Tiling
Although, we’d all have loved to see the originals preserved, I think they have done a very good job as a fallback. It would have been so easy to just put in plain white tiles and be done with it.
But they didn’t!
I’d love to know who made the new tiles in the style of Leslie Green, the original designer.
A Clock at Tooting Bec Station
Tooting Bec station on the London Underground has two of these clocks.
Tooting Bec Station Clock
It would appear that someone has the good sense to keep them working. Whether it is still the original movement I do not know.
They are labeled Self Winding Clock Co of New York. You will find quite a few references to these clocks on the Internet, but only a short article about the actual company on Wikipedia.
I’ve travelled extensively on the London Underground, but I’ve only seen these two clocks. There may be others.
The Anonymous Widower 