More London’s Lost Stations Dvd

Description

Online Video invites you to join Jim Connor and Barbara Butler of the London Railway Record for a guided tour around some of London’s disused stations and lines.

Starting at the Cox’s Walk footbridge, we then embark on a short but enjoyable ride along the Crystal Palace High Level branch using rare archive film taken from the last passenger train in September 1954.

Remaining in south London we look at remains of the long-closed stations at Waterloo Necropolis, Grosvenor Road, Battersea Park Road, Camberwell New Road, Southwark Park, Spa Road and Blackfriars SER.

The underground has also closed many stations including York Road, Brompton Road and Wood Lane.

Many of these stations which have been demolished and very little remains have been captured in this programme.

Many other features include walking through disused tunnels plus much more.

Beside the former entrance to Blackfriars we see stone name-panels where remnants of incised lettering continue to display part of the station’s name and that of its original company.

Remarkable survivals indeed, particularly when one considers that the last train called at the end of 1868!

Moving to East London we visit the one-time ‘Commercial Street Office’ at Bishopsgate Low Level with its eerie subterranean passageways.

Like a number of inner-suburban stations Bishopsgate closed during the First World War and never re-opened.

Continuing with the subterranean theme we encounter some abandoned stations on the Underground network, including York Road, Down Street and Brompton Road.

Although screened from passing trains for many years, much of the original platform-level tilting at Brompton Road remains in good condition, even some of the name panels remain.

The views featured in the programme were filmed during a special visit organised for the London Railway Record editorial team back in 1997 whilst research was being carried out in connection with the best-selling book ‘London’s Disused Underground Stations’.

Other underground locations are visited including the old Central London Railway Station at Wood Lane, closed in 1947.

Here we join a tour party during an ‘Open House’ weekend in 1999 and take a look at the premises which were in the process of being removed during 2003.

More recent closures have been the Jubilee Line platforms at Charing Cross and the temporary Heathrow Express station at Heathrow Junction.

The latter opened in January 1998 and ceased to function just four months later.

We complete our travels by joining a steam-hauled train from North Woolwich to Palace Gates, looking at the various stations along the route.

Their green and cream paintwork may have faded but the positively oozed with character and created an atmosphere which has now been completely lost.

This programme includes much more, but sadly space will not permit everything being listed in full.

So sit back and enjoy an armchair journey around some of London’s lesser known stations.

It is a trip that you will probably wish to make again and again.

Produced 2005.

Approx. 60 minutes.

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