|
|
| Monday, 31-May-2004 00:00 |
Email | Share |  | Bookmark |
|
Silver Jubilee: Stratford
|
|
Opened: Thursday 20th June 1839
Jubilee platforms opened: Friday 14th May 1999
Distance from previous station: 1.5 km
Change here for: Central line, Docklands Light Railway, North London line and 'One' (somebody please sack the incompetent PR gibbon who thought that name up)
Change here soon for: Eurostar services to St Pancras and Paris, via the new Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
Fact file: Stratford station used to be a bit of a dump. But it was completely rebuilt between 1996 and 1999 and is now a bit of a stunner, although it's still a heck of a long walk out of the station from the Jubilee line platforms. Coming soon, just to the north, Stratford International.
5 things I found outside this station: Meridian Square, a big bus station, a purple steam engine called Robert, scores of people, my local shopping centre.
Nearby: Stratford Market train depot (formerly a fruit & veg market), the Cultural Quarter (Theatre Royal + Stratford Picturehouse + Stratford Circus).
Nearby (maybe): Olympic Park 2012
Local history: no, no, no - this place has a local future.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Sunday, 30-May-2004 00:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Silver Jubilee: West Ham
|
 |
|
Above Jubilee platforms
|
|
 |
|
Main concourse
|
|
 |
|
Outside the station
|
|
|
Opened: Monday 16th October 1854
Jubilee platforms opened: Friday 14th May 1999
Distance from previous station: 1.6 km
Platform: exit to the right of the train
Change here for: District, Hammersmith & City, c2c and North London lines
Fact file: West Ham station is 1½ miles from West Ham football ground, which must fool a lot of away supporters. You want Upton Park instead, you do.
5 things I found outside this station: Ibstock bricks and small glass squares, Costcutter Express, a mini-roundabout, Memorial Avenue, a chippy under new management (shame, because the old management served right tasty cod)
Nearby (eastward): the East London Rugby Club, a few houses.
Nearby (westward): no houses, Bow Back Rivers, light industrial sprawl, Olympic Park 2012, the site of the old Big Brother House.
Local history: In the 1850s West Ham was the eighth largest town in the country. Keir Hardie became the first ever Labour MP when he was elected to represent West Ham in 1892.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Saturday, 29-May-2004 00:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Silver Jubilee: Canning Town
|
 |
|
Double-decker station
|
|
 |
|
Entrance, with memorial
|
|
 |
|
Westbound, below eastbound
|
|
|
Opened: Monday 14th June 1847
Jubilee platforms opened: Friday 14th May 1999
Distance from previous station: 1.7 km (beneath the River Thames yet again)
Platform: exit to the right of the train
You are now entering: the London Borough of Newham
Change here for: Docklands Light Railway and North London line
Fact file: This is a double decker station, with the DLR platforms directly above the Jubilee line platforms. The eastbound DLR runs directly above the westbound Jubilee, but in the same actual direction.
5 things I found outside this station: a big flyover on the A13, an MFI superstore, a teeming bus station, Purvi newsagents, a large stone memorial commemorating the nearby Thames Ironworks (HMS Warrior was built here in 1860)
Nearby: Bow Creek, Leamouth, Trinity Buoy Wharf (London's only lighthouse)
Local history: Ronan Point was once a typical new 1960s tower block, at least until Mrs Ivy Hodge woke early one morning in 1968 to make herself a cup of tea. She struck a match to light the gas on the cooker in her kitchen, and the resulting explosion caused all 23 floors in one corner of the block to collapse. Amazingly only five people died (not including Ivy) but Britain's high-rise tower block dream died with them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Friday, 28-May-2004 00:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Silver Jubilee: North Greenwich
|
|
Opened: Friday 14th May 1999
Distance from previous station: 1.7 km (beneath the River Thames again)
Platform (eastbound): exit to the left of the train
Platform (westbound): exit to the right of the train
You are now entering: the London Borough of Greenwich, zone 3
Fact file: North Greenwich station is even bigger than Canary Wharf station, but serves a local population of virtually zero. The station contains over 150000 tonnes of reinforced concrete and is sort of purple-themed. There are three platforms here rather than the usual two, just in case anyone ever wants to build a new branch line out to Beckton and the Royal Docks.
5 things I found outside this station: a carelessly-discarded Dome, WH Smiths, a bus station in the middle of nowhere, a 1000-space car park, Group 4 security.
Nearby: Millennium Dome, Millennium Way, Millennium Village, Millennium Quay, Millennium Sainsburys, big fat Millennium zero.
Nearby, but a 5 minutes detour by road: the Blackwall tunnel
Not nearby enough: Greenwich, civilisation.
Local history: It's hard to believe today but until the mid 19th century this was all farmland. The South Metropolitan Gas Works were built here in 1889, once the largest gasworks in Europe (they closed in 1985 but the giant gasholder still serves south-east London). The government chose to site the Millennium Dome here rather than in Birmingham because planned transport links were so good. The Dome opened on 31st December 1999, was universally slated by the press, failed to reach over-ambitious visitor targets and closed a year later having tainted the career of every politician who'd ever been involved with it. I quite liked it. Nobody comes to see the Dome any more, they come to catch buses to Charlton and Bexley. How are the mighty fallen.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Thursday, 27-May-2004 00:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Silver Jubilee: Canary Wharf
|
 |
|
New eastern entrance
|
|
 |
|
New eastern escalators
|
|
 |
|
View from main escalators
|
|
|
Opened: Friday 17th September 1999
Distance from previous station: 2.4 km (beneath the River Thames)
Platform: exit to the right of the train
You are now entering: the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Change here for: Docklands Light Railway (quite a walk, though)
First photo shows: the new eastern entrance to the station, opened last month (and still fairly quiet).
Fact file: Canary Wharf tube station is an award-winning architectural masterpiece designed by Sir Norman Foster, buried within the former West India Dock. The station is so big that the whole of the largest nearby skyscraper could fit inside lengthways with room to spare. Nothing quite prepares you for your first descent down the bank of escalators into the vast subterranean space.
5 things I found outside this station: Docklands, One Canada Square (Britain's tallest building), a sculpted head lying on its side, Jubilee Place shopping centre beneath Jubilee Park, four clocks on poles.
Nearby: a forest of skyscrapers, over-priced flats, far too many posh shops and bars, new Billingsgate Market, the Museum In Docklands.
Local history: Canary Wharf used to be an insignificant cargo warehouse beside the West India Docks (opened 1802), so named because many of its imports came from the Canary Isles. West India Dock finally closed in 1980, the year in which the London Docklands Development Corporation was set up. The docks were filled in and major reconstruction began, with the huge tower at One Canada Square completed in 1990 (my television reception has never recovered). Without Canary Wharf the Jubilee line extension would never have been built. Tens of thousands of people now live and work in Docklands, rather more yuppie financial types than the swarthy dockers of old. Full history here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Wednesday, 26-May-2004 00:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Silver Jubilee: Canada Water
|
 |
|
Canada Water atrium
|
|
 |
|
On the platform
|
|
 |
|
Through the round window
|
|
|
Opened: Thursday 19th August 1999
Jubilee platforms opened: Friday 17th September 1999 (1 month later)
Distance from previous station: 1.1 km
Platform: exit to the right of the train
Change here for: East London Line
Fact file: There didn't used to be a station here on the East London line before the Jubilee line came along. Rotherhithe station is only 300m away.
5 things I found outside this station: a big round glass drum, a bus station, large tracts of open space awaiting redevelopment, Surrey Quays Shopping Centre, Canada Water (complete with bird raft and wind turbine).
Nearby: Harmsworth Quays (where the Daily Mail and Evening Standard are printed), Rotherhithe (which is actually rather lovely, down by the river at least), the entrance to the Rotherhithe Tunnel, the cinema I went to last night, Millwall FC.
Local history: The Surrey Docks on the Rotherhithe Peninsula closed in 1969. During the subsequent redevelopment almost all of the docks were filled in, but one section of the old Canada Dock remains and this is Canada Water. Locals continue to campaign to make their voices heard as redevelopment continues.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Tuesday, 25-May-2004 00:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Silver Jubilee: Bermondsey
|
 |
|
Escalators
|
|
 |
|
Foot of escalators
|
|
 |
|
Bermondsey station
|
|
|
Opened: Friday 24th September 1999
Distance from previous station: 1.9 km
Platform: exit to the right of the train
You are now entering: zone 2
Fact file: Bermondsey station is "a synthesis of heroic engineering structures animated by light, topped off by a sleek, transparent box at ground level."
5 things I found outside this station: Jamaica Road, an electronic display welcoming you to Bermondsey station, two cashpoints, Feltor Carrington estate agents, densely-packed council blocks.
Nearby: more densely-packed council blocks, Southwark Park, the Pool of London, King's Stairs Gardens (Edward III had a house here).
Not quite nearby: Bermondsey
Local history: Peter Tatchell infamously lost the Bermondsey by-election in 1983, which is the only reason Simon Hughes still has a career. Jade from Big Brother grew up here, giving the lie to estate agents' claims that Bermondsey is now somehow trendy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Monday, 24-May-2004 00:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Silver Jubilee: London Bridge
|
 |
|
London Bridge platform
|
|
 |
|
Tooley Street entrance
|
|
 |
|
Between the platforms
|
|
|
Opened: Sunday 25th February 1900
Jubilee line platforms opened: Thursday 7th October 1999
Distance from previous station: 1.3 km
Platform: exit to the right of the train
Change here for: Northern line and mainline services
Fact file: There are now two exits from this station, the original beneath the mainline station and a new exit onto Borough High Street. More photos here.
5 things I found outside this station: London Bridge, the London Dungeon, Borough Market (selling posh organic food for Observer readers), Southwark Cathedral, Guy's Hospital
Nearby: The Clink (a notorious medieval prison), the Golden Hinde (a reconstruction of Drake's famous galleon), the Greater London Assembly and, one day soon-ish probably, the 1016ft high London Bridge Tower (controversial pointy skyscraper)
Local history: The Romans built the first London Bridge across the Thames in AD43. The first stone bridge appeared in 1176, famously lined by rickety buildings and traitors' heads on spikes. A new bridge followed in 1831, only to be shipped to Lake Havasu in Arizona in the 1960s and replaced by a desperately dull concrete span.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Sunday, 23-May-2004 00:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Silver Jubilee: Southwark
|
 |
|
Blue heaven
|
|
 |
|
Climbing the stairway to heaven
|
|
 |
|
Southwark station
|
|
|
Opened: Saturday 20th November 1999 (the newest station on the Underground)
Distance from previous station: 450m
Platform: exit to the right of the train
You are now entering: the London Borough of Southwark
Change here for: mainline services from Waterloo East
Photo shows: the vast mid-level concourse, one wall of which is covered by blue glass triangles. Wow, go see.
Fact file: Three separate escalators lead down to the platforms from the big blue cavern, each burrowing down between separate arches of the Victorian viaduct above.
5 things I found outside this station: a circular entrance lobby lit by a central glass drum, Waterloo East station (via dedicated exit), Blackfriars Road, a building site dominated by a towering blue crane (any buyers for a new glassy office building?), 'The Ring' public house
Nearby: not a lot
Not quite nearby enough: Tate Modern, Oxo Tower, Globe Theatre.
Local history: Southwark has long been the dark side of London, with the southern banks of the Thames home to brothels, bear-baiting and some bloke called William Shakespeare.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Saturday, 22-May-2004 00:00 |
Email | Share | | Bookmark |
|
Silver Jubilee: Waterloo
|
 |
|
The very long travelators
|
|
 |
|
Waterloo station
|
|
 |
|
Jubilee line platform
|
|
|
Opened: Saturday 10th March 1906
Jubilee line platforms opened: Saturday 20th November 1999
Distance from previous station: 1.0 km (beneath River Thames)
Platform: exit to the right of the train
You are now entering: the London Borough of Lambeth
Change here for: Bakerloo, Northern and Waterloo & City lines, and mainline services
First photo shows: the two very long moving walkways that link the Jubilee line to all other connecting services.
Fact file: Waterloo station has 23 escalators, more than any other underground station. The Jubilee platforms are 30m below ground.
5 things I found outside this station: Waterloo mainline station, Waterloo Eurostar station, a giant illuminated elephant's head at the top of an escalator, an IMAX cinema, homeless people.
Nearby: The South Bank = Saatchi Gallery + London Aquarium + London Eye + Jubilee Gardens + Royal Festival Hall + Queen Elizabeth Hall + Hayward Gallery + Golden Jubilee Bridges + National Film Theatre + National Theatre
Local history: Waterloo mainline station (opened 1848) was named after nearby Waterloo Bridge (opened by Prince George 18th June 1817), originally due to be called Strand Bridge but renamed to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo (18th June 1815).
|
|
|
|
|
