J
Jamie of Hackney
Guest
Guest
As mentioned on another thread, my dad used to work for London Underground and this lead to a chance meeting with a very nice man who agreed to give me a tour of the location.
I've put this in 'Other Sites' rather than 'Underground' as only one section was underground. The pictures are not brilliant and I didn't really take that many (this being back in the grim days before I had my digital camera) but I thought you might like to see them.
The tour began here:
This was the only place I could not get inside as my guide did not have the key - it had been padlocked by a building company and was apparently filled with their equipment anyway.
The old above-ground platforms were completely gone by this stage with no visible sign they had been there at all. There was one small building remaining:
Which was empty. This was followed by the highlight of the day: the old platforms, complete with tatty remains of original posters.
From here we moved to the old generator building. I have a pretty bad memory, but still remember two bits of trivia concerning this location: 1. It used to provide the power for the London Underground, and 2. a bit of The Mummy Returns was filmed there.
It had been used as extra parking space for the BBC, but it only had one car when I was there.
One of the offices at the back of the generator building, and probably the best of the pictures in my opinion:
We visited one of the old 1903 exhibition halls. There are more of these left, some still being used, but this one was on the verge of falling apart.
Here's the picture:
You couldn't walk under it as lumps of concrete (some the size of footballs) had begun falling from it. It had grooves in the floor that allowed for the building to expand/contract but they had filled with so much pigeon shit that they could no longer contract and as a result the floor was larger than the rest of the building. This was why two of the walls were no longer connected to each other (or the roof). It had some enormous cracks in it and...
...an underground line running right underneath it - part of which was uncovered. Every time a train went underneath the whole building moved by rather a visible degree. According to LUL the building was 'at danger of imminent collapse'. Good thing it didn't collapse when a train was going underneath it.
I also visited the depot, but sadly have no pictures. At the time it was actually listed as condemned but was still in use as they had nowhere else to keep the trains.
Last of all was this building:
Can't remember much about this one, to be honest.
This was when they were preparing to demolition the whole site. I was so pleased I got to see it, I just wish I'd had my DSLR with me at the time.
I've put this in 'Other Sites' rather than 'Underground' as only one section was underground. The pictures are not brilliant and I didn't really take that many (this being back in the grim days before I had my digital camera) but I thought you might like to see them.
The tour began here:
This was the only place I could not get inside as my guide did not have the key - it had been padlocked by a building company and was apparently filled with their equipment anyway.
The old above-ground platforms were completely gone by this stage with no visible sign they had been there at all. There was one small building remaining:
Which was empty. This was followed by the highlight of the day: the old platforms, complete with tatty remains of original posters.
From here we moved to the old generator building. I have a pretty bad memory, but still remember two bits of trivia concerning this location: 1. It used to provide the power for the London Underground, and 2. a bit of The Mummy Returns was filmed there.
It had been used as extra parking space for the BBC, but it only had one car when I was there.
One of the offices at the back of the generator building, and probably the best of the pictures in my opinion:
We visited one of the old 1903 exhibition halls. There are more of these left, some still being used, but this one was on the verge of falling apart.
Here's the picture:
You couldn't walk under it as lumps of concrete (some the size of footballs) had begun falling from it. It had grooves in the floor that allowed for the building to expand/contract but they had filled with so much pigeon shit that they could no longer contract and as a result the floor was larger than the rest of the building. This was why two of the walls were no longer connected to each other (or the roof). It had some enormous cracks in it and...
...an underground line running right underneath it - part of which was uncovered. Every time a train went underneath the whole building moved by rather a visible degree. According to LUL the building was 'at danger of imminent collapse'. Good thing it didn't collapse when a train was going underneath it.
I also visited the depot, but sadly have no pictures. At the time it was actually listed as condemned but was still in use as they had nowhere else to keep the trains.
Last of all was this building:
Can't remember much about this one, to be honest.
This was when they were preparing to demolition the whole site. I was so pleased I got to see it, I just wish I'd had my DSLR with me at the time.
