East London’s Lost Stations Dvd

Description

When travelling or walking around London, have you ever passed a building and wondered ‘Is that an old railway station?’

Chances are that your assumption could have been correct, because throughout the capital there are remains of former stations which have long since ceased to serve their intended use.

In this programme we are guided around some of these by historian and writer Jim Connor.

Jim may well be known to you as the editor of ‘The London Railway Record’ and he has also produced various books on the subject.

Having been born in Stepney, his first love has always been the lines of his native East End and here he will impart to you some of his extensive knowledge of selected local stations which are no longer open.

When he started recording them back in the mid-1960s, many still boasted substantial remains, but with the passage of time much has disappeared.

There is nevertheless a great deal which can still be seen, providing you know where to look.

Our journey starts with the Great Eastern main line from Liverpool Street where remains of the stations at Bishopgate Low Level, Globe Road and Devonshire Street and Coborn Road can still be seen.

We move on to Stratford Market, which closed in 1957, then see the impressive new Jubilee Line Extension depot which has been built nearby.

Still on the Great Eastern, we travel to Lea Bridge at the time of its closure in 1985, and we see the sad windswept platforms submerging beneath a covering of foliage.

Moving back towards the inner East End, we look at Bow Road station of the Blackwall Extension Railway.

This closed in 1949 but it was extensively recorded by Jim before its platform buildings disappeared eighteen years later.

Here we have 1960s archive film, together with recent footage showing the remains as they are today.

At Burdett Road we see trolleybuses passing beneath the bridge, where new brickwork hinted at the stations recent demolition in the 1950s.

Other former stations on the Fenchurch Street line are seen and we also include a rare piece of film showing the once extensive internal railway system in Beckton Gasworks.

On the old North London Railway we have 1960s film of Poplar line stations as viewed from a special train and look at surviving examples of the work of Edwin H. Horne.

This architect’s style became synonymous with the NLR as Leslie Green did on the various Yerkes’ tube lines.

Our programme finishes by travelling on the last train from Island Gardens to Poplar in the small hours of Saturday 9th January 1999.

Such is progress that by the end of that month, Mudchute station had already been demolished!

So sit back and enjoy this unusual armchair journey.

If you are fascinated by London and its railways, you are sure to find plenty here to interest you as this programme takes a look at stations of the East End of London which have either gone with no remains or changed dramatically where upon very little of the original is still standing.

Such locations are Liverpool Street, Bishopsgate Low Level, Coborn Road, Stratford and Lea Bridge.

Footage ranges from many periods of time including some rare archive footage.

Produced 1999.

Approx. 60 minutes.

This dvd is being sold on behalf of and with full permission of Online Video.