I nearly got caught up in that fire. The tube I was in stopped, the area was full of smoke and the driver didn't open the doors and drove the heck out of there. I don't know if he was told to do so or if he just went "nope".
Someone I know was in the Tube train due into the station next. Suddenly the train stopped, the lights went out and they could hear the sound of the fire and their train was filled with smoke and they smelt the smell of barbecuing meat. Which they later realised was the smell of the victims being burnt.
Smoking had been officially banned on The Underground a few weeks before that fire. It started when the accumulated debris under the escalator caught fire, possibly/probably by a discarded cigarette. I remember reading in news of one young Italian tourist who'd only been in London for a day was one of those killed. She was about 21, I think. London Underground had started a refurbishment programme for the network but just a bit too late for this station
Yes and certain Tube stations had up lighters on the escalators. The aesthetics were gorgeous. Necessary changes were made, and the lovely look of the underground has gone.
@@mitchellminer9597Macy’s department store (in NYC), is the only structure that has wooden escalators (dating back to when the store originally opened in 1858, but had the first wooden escalators put into the building in 1902)
They worried the design wouldn't 'fit in' with the surroundings - shame the same issue wasn't in mind when building other buildings like the Shard & the Walkie Talkie 😅😅
Remember that the Eiffel tower was only meant to be there for 20 years (the time Eiffel was to be allowed to commercially exploit the tower, as most of the funds to built it were financed and to be recouped that way). And yeah, lots of people hated it as it would not “fit in”, yet the public loved it and it became rather useful for radio and TV transmissions (a jammer helped disrupt german communications during WW1, slowing the Central Powers’ advance and helping the Entente win first Marne). Now it is nearly impossible to imagine it being not there.
@@frofrofrofro900 yes, if you like playing sim city, in reality they are hideous and should not have been built in London....but I suppose that is the least of Londons problems at the moment.
Another quiver to the great man's bow, also easily missed as it's hidden in plain sight; is an arched roof support in the final stretch of the W&C line passenger walkway just where it joins the Bank station's exits to the surface. It is, of course, the outer ring of his shield no less!
It's doesn't compete with Rome, though. Rome is an open-air museum. London is not, so it's not true that wherever you look you see history. It's evident you have never been to Rome. London doesn't have the warmth, the colours and the beauty of the Eternal City. No city has.
Thank you for this background. I remember the fire, as l had just left the station and was on my way home when l heard about it happening. Had totally forgotten the old escalators were wooden!
One of the last wooden escalators was in a station in Sydney (Town Hall or Central I think), only taken out recently. I remember my blind friend wasn’t able to take his guide dog on it because his claws would get stuck.
Not to use. I was living in North London at the time,( London Borough of Brent), and went to this station about a month before the fire. It's deep underground, requiring 2 (steep) escalators, and l vowed never to go there again as it 'creeped' me out. My instincts were, unfortunately, proved right. I admit l was worried about being trapped(or falling) as they appeared unsafe, rather than a fire. The victims of the fire died of smoke inhalation + 'crush' injuries, sustained in their attempts to get out 😢 It was 'rush' hour, and totally packed with people going home from work.
@@lisette2060 yes, l seem to remember that there was a pile of rubbish (cardboard boxes) underneath the escalator that ignited due to a cigarette being dropped, and nobody noticed that it was alight until the escalator had also already caught on fire. Simple human carelessness by management, cleaners and a member of the public useing the 'tube', leading to all those deaths 💔
@@helentee9863 Just imagine - the person responsible for starting that fire and the deaths of 31 people probably was and still is completely oblivious what they caused.
I can say that Marylebone (Bakerloo line) still had wooden escalators up until at least 1998, as I used the station occasionally and it always stood out to me as I found the (bigger) wooden treads hard to stand level on. Also: Following employment at London Underground (And being driven out by homophobic abuse) I started smoking, and still do to this day. I'm _stupidly_ careful about putting my butts out/avoiding ash fires, and I imagine the LUL staff fire training video of the time has a lot to do with that...
I so concur...👍 Marc Brunel son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel completed his father works, and perfected the tunnelling shield, which almost claimed his life during a breach.
That's tunnelling shield, not travelling shield. Marc Brunel's invention was rectangular and propelled forward by screw jacks. The idea for a cylindrical shield combined with cast iron tunnel segments was Peter Barlow's. Barlow held a number of patents, with several more pending, by the time of his death but he never actually constructed a tunnelling shield to his own design. Greathead was Barlow's pupil and he took the idea, improved it and added hydraulic propulsion to push the shield forward against the tunnel lining rings. There's an abandoned shield at Bank station. The modern tunnel boring machine is a direct descendant of Greathead's shield.
When you try to look smart but just end up looking foolish... Why do people do this?.. you think you know something clever that no one else does, when in reality you're just wrong and look stupid.
On the evening of the King's X fire, I remember changing trains there, and walking through tunnels between platforms with many other tube travellers, walking through thick, knee-high smoke with several people exchanging glances as if to say: is this 'normal'? As my train left the platform, the draught from the train made the smoke curl up to the roof of the platform tunnel: an image I'll never forget.
Proves we can still make things that look old, because when I tell you I would never have known that statue wasn't erected in 1897, if he hadn't said 1997...
Well, to be completely honest, London Underground tube stations and network still to this day don't have enough safety measures and ventilation... It needs A LOT of improvement....
I remember that fire. I was working in Holborn and could see the flashing blue emergency services lights all the way up Greys Inn Road from Chancery Lane tube station.
There are lots of examples like this. Many new art installations are also bollards or obstacles to prevent car going into pedestrian area (either lost control or an attack like we began to see in Europe a while a ago). They would stop a tank.
From personal experience with engineering students Having a Useful Solution that doubles as decoration is possibly the best gift an engineer could ever get
Maybe an inspiration for the future era gigantic statues in the TV series "The Peripheral" where they disguise atmospheric scrubbers filtering the post apocalyptic air.
I remember that being built and being a little puzzled by it. Now I know. I also vividly recall the Kings Cross fire. I was caught up in the massive traffic jam.
We have a similar statue in Newcastle found close to the back of Fenwick department store to deal with the city's underground metro. (An idea borrowed from the Victorians)
Now that's a clever idea. It fits the aesthetics and honors a great engineer.
Exactly my thoughts. I wish this concept wouldn't be so hard to grasp these days. Everything is an eye sore.
It follows the Victorian ethic of practical should also be beautiful
The Victorians have a lot to answer for and isn't for the best either..
@@ORDEROFTHEKNIGHTSTEMPLAR13 Is there anybody you approve? Apart from yourself beloved, of course?
I'm so sad that everyday items aren't made to be beautiful anymore
@ORDEROFTHEKNIGHTSTEMPLAR13 If you judge historical society by your modern leftist standards, then everyone in the past is like Hitler for you
@@ORDEROFTHEKNIGHTSTEMPLAR13
Well the victorians are all dead.
It’s in the past.
It’s history.
I nearly got caught up in that fire. The tube I was in stopped, the area was full of smoke and the driver didn't open the doors and drove the heck out of there. I don't know if he was told to do so or if he just went "nope".
Someone I know was in the Tube train due into the station next. Suddenly the train stopped, the lights went out and they could hear the sound of the fire and their train was filled with smoke and they smelt the smell of barbecuing meat. Which they later realised was the smell of the victims being burnt.
@@ThatsnewsTVoh my god! 😢
Those poor people 😢
My father was a Operator on the Victoria.
he told me they got a Radio Call
( Carrier Wave) not to stop at KXSP or open doors due to emergency
Smoking had been officially banned on The Underground a few weeks before that fire. It started when the accumulated debris under the escalator caught fire, possibly/probably by a discarded cigarette. I remember reading in news of one young Italian tourist who'd only been in London for a day was one of those killed. She was about 21, I think. London Underground had started a refurbishment programme for the network but just a bit too late for this station
Omg poor girl. My condolences to her family 😢
I think we can all appreciate the efforts of Greathead.
I had no idea they had wooden escalators
Sorely missed, but necessary alas.
The whole UndergrounD is a lot more clanking and screeching now, alot louder than necessary.
Yes and certain Tube stations had up lighters on the escalators. The aesthetics were gorgeous. Necessary changes were made, and the lovely look of the underground has gone.
I remember riding a wooden escalator somewhen back around 1965. Somewhere in the USA, deffo not London. I recall being skeptical of it.
@@mitchellminer9597 Macy's were early adopters apparently and kept them too. Maybe it was in one of their stores.
@@mitchellminer9597Macy’s department store (in NYC), is the only structure that has wooden escalators (dating back to when the store originally opened in 1858, but had the first wooden escalators put into the building in 1902)
They worried the design wouldn't 'fit in' with the surroundings - shame the same issue wasn't in mind when building other buildings like the Shard & the Walkie Talkie 😅😅
Sharp and walkie are great and match other buildings. Iconic view on all of them
Remember that the Eiffel tower was only meant to be there for 20 years (the time Eiffel was to be allowed to commercially exploit the tower, as most of the funds to built it were financed and to be recouped that way).
And yeah, lots of people hated it as it would not “fit in”, yet the public loved it and it became rather useful for radio and TV transmissions (a jammer helped disrupt german communications during WW1, slowing the Central Powers’ advance and helping the Entente win first Marne). Now it is nearly impossible to imagine it being not there.
@@frofrofrofro900 yes, if you like playing sim city, in reality they are hideous and should not have been built in London....but I suppose that is the least of Londons problems at the moment.
@Darcysbeau I like the Shard, but the 'Walkie Talkie' is hideous and broke all the planning laws.
Ikr those buildings are absolutely repellent
St Pancras is the patron saint of the Pancreas.😌
Another quiver to the great man's bow, also easily missed as it's hidden in plain sight; is an arched roof support in the final stretch of the W&C line passenger walkway just where it joins the Bank station's exits to the surface.
It is, of course, the outer ring of his shield no less!
Wherever you look at in that city you will see a huge history behind!! Love London ❤
It's doesn't compete with Rome, though. Rome is an open-air museum. London is not, so it's not true that wherever you look you see history. It's evident you have never been to Rome. London doesn't have the warmth, the colours and the beauty of the Eternal City. No city has.
Thank you for this background. I remember the fire, as l had just left the station and was on my way home when l heard about it happening. Had totally forgotten the old escalators were wooden!
What a brilliant solution combining engineering, science, the arts and culture. These are the sort of solutions the world is dying for.
One of the last wooden escalators was in a station in Sydney (Town Hall or Central I think), only taken out recently. I remember my blind friend wasn’t able to take his guide dog on it because his claws would get stuck.
I’ve been a taxi driver for 33 years, driven past it many times, never noticed the statue 😂
christ. Hopefully I will never need a taxi in London then
@@cplcabs probably busy watching the road and trying not to run over pedestrians 😁
Great idea. Love statues, and nice street furniture and hate those that have to deface or damage it.
Thank you for showing this "little things"😊🖖
This is why I enjoy living in London and grateful for the extra enlightenment and future 'must peek at places'.......keep up the good work ❤❤❤❤
His sister was particularly keen to get married as soon as possible to change her surname I hear
She had many suitors because of the family name.
Wooden escalators in 1987? How fascinating!
Not to use.
I was living in North London at the time,( London Borough of Brent), and went to this station about a month before the fire.
It's deep underground, requiring 2 (steep) escalators, and l vowed never to go there again as it 'creeped' me out.
My instincts were, unfortunately, proved right.
I admit l was worried about being trapped(or falling) as they appeared unsafe, rather than a fire.
The victims of the fire died of smoke inhalation + 'crush' injuries, sustained in their attempts to get out 😢
It was 'rush' hour, and totally packed with people going home from work.
@@helentee9863Fact was another careless smoker dropped a cigarett causing the catastrophy!
@@lisette2060 yes, l seem to remember that there was a pile of rubbish (cardboard boxes) underneath the escalator that ignited due to a cigarette being dropped, and nobody noticed that it was alight until the escalator had also already caught on fire.
Simple human carelessness by management, cleaners and a member of the public useing the 'tube', leading to all those deaths 💔
@@helentee9863 Just imagine - the person responsible for starting that fire and the deaths of 31 people probably was and still is completely oblivious what they caused.
I can say that Marylebone (Bakerloo line) still had wooden escalators up until at least 1998, as I used the station occasionally and it always stood out to me as I found the (bigger) wooden treads hard to stand level on.
Also: Following employment at London Underground (And being driven out by homophobic abuse) I started smoking, and still do to this day. I'm _stupidly_ careful about putting my butts out/avoiding ash fires, and I imagine the LUL staff fire training video of the time has a lot to do with that...
Pioneered the use of the travelling shield.
Patented in 1818 by Marc Brunel, and used to dig the Thames Tunnel before Greathead was born.
I so concur...👍
Marc Brunel son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel completed his father works, and perfected the tunnelling shield, which almost claimed his life during a breach.
That's tunnelling shield, not travelling shield. Marc Brunel's invention was rectangular and propelled forward by screw jacks. The idea for a cylindrical shield combined with cast iron tunnel segments was Peter Barlow's. Barlow held a number of patents, with several more pending, by the time of his death but he never actually constructed a tunnelling shield to his own design. Greathead was Barlow's pupil and he took the idea, improved it and added hydraulic propulsion to push the shield forward against the tunnel lining rings. There's an abandoned shield at Bank station. The modern tunnel boring machine is a direct descendant of Greathead's shield.
When you try to look smart but just end up looking foolish...
Why do people do this?.. you think you know something clever that no one else does, when in reality you're just wrong and look stupid.
In the middle of the street! GREAT!
On the evening of the King's X fire, I remember changing trains there, and walking through tunnels between platforms with many other tube travellers, walking through thick, knee-high smoke with several people exchanging glances as if to say: is this 'normal'? As my train left the platform, the draught from the train made the smoke curl up to the roof of the platform tunnel: an image I'll never forget.
There’s a “little ben” in Victoria which serves the same purpose I believe?
This is educational.
Just learned from you 💬
Thnx that you don't have propaganda in your clips.
Like this channel 🎉🎉🎉
Proves we can still make things that look old, because when I tell you I would never have known that statue wasn't erected in 1897, if he hadn't said 1997...
If only the developers of 1 Poultry had been so considerate about the aesthetics of the area.
Other than his great achievement, I admire the last name "Greathead". Just fabulous 😅
"Fabulous?" 🤔 Usually a certain group of men use that word 😁
They can make everything pretty if they wanted too.
Wooden escalators is a mindfuck I had never even considered
Cool. Thank you for sharing!
I love your videos.
Keep them coming.
Well, to be completely honest, London Underground tube stations and network still to this day don't have enough safety measures and ventilation... It needs A LOT of improvement....
And the parts that the public sees barely scratches the surface of the dangers of the crumbling infrastructure.
Thank you so much for putting us in the picture!! 😮❤
Brilliant! One of my favourite places in London and I never knew that.
i feel like a statue of an engineer being an engineering solution is very funny
Make sure that Shatit Khan doesn't see this, he might just erase that and put something spurious there !
Beautiful, traditional and useful. So many cities would be more human places if they followed this trio as much as possible.
Wooden escalators??? Wtf? 😂
I remember that fire. I was working in Holborn and could see the flashing blue emergency services lights all the way up Greys Inn Road from Chancery Lane tube station.
Fascinating....thank you for 'adding to my knowledge ' !😊
This is a new one!!! I can usually spot ventilation shafts in the open, but '95 was a few years before I worked in the city.
There are lots of examples like this.
Many new art installations are also bollards or obstacles to prevent car going into pedestrian area (either lost control or an attack like we began to see in Europe a while a ago).
They would stop a tank.
Sure they'll find a reason to tear it down
That wooden escalator looks wonderful😍
I don't know why but wooden escalators sound wild to me.
From personal experience with engineering students
Having a Useful Solution that doubles as decoration is possibly the best gift an engineer could ever get
Brilliant combination of form and function
That fire changed some laws too !
Maybe an inspiration for the future era gigantic statues in the TV series "The Peripheral" where they disguise atmospheric scrubbers filtering the post apocalyptic air.
Remembering watching the docu when i was a kid.
I remember that being built and being a little puzzled by it. Now I know. I also vividly recall the Kings Cross fire. I was caught up in the massive traffic jam.
An engineer would love that a tribute to him is also a functional piece of engineering.
Being an engineer I think he would have loved it.
No engineer is greater than Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Now that's functional design!
Greathead was remembered for one thing.
A thousand times better than our high heel catcher method.
The state of that statue plinth is indicative of the air quality underground.
We have a similar statue in Newcastle found close to the back of Fenwick department store to deal with the city's underground metro. (An idea borrowed from the Victorians)
Absolutely great, looks old and really fits in
....wooden escalators? You would imagine that it would wear down far to quick even ignoring the fire concerns.
Now that's a Greathead!
Phew someone’s thinking out of box!
Greathead what a name to live up to.
The fire in the underground station actually happened in 1987
Cool, must check it out next time I go back!?😊
They must have enjoyed choosing Henry😊
Wooden escalators? Wow!
Can't believe there were wooden escalators in 1987
You had wooden escalators? Until 1987?! You guys know you won that war, right?
Crazy how James Henry Greathead is actually an ancestor of your mom who carries the great head name
at the beginning i was thinking it would be the pyramid
Ironically he didn’t have a great head. Just a normal head
Wooden escalators all the way into the 80’s. Crazy
Those escalators would never of been allowed in any other type of industry
whoever could have predicted making escalators out of wood was a bad idea?
Huh?! If people are "overlooking" the statue, it means that they are NOT "NOTICING" IT!
Good way to honor a Great head!
You could say he's the great head of the Vent
Very interesting and attractive solution. Thanks
Oh God I feel old - I actually remember that 😢😢😢
What is that pyramid in the foreground?
information board
Hightec once stolen in Egypt?
"It's Gra-theed!"
Amazing!
A statue of a Great African
Well There's Your Problem has a good episode on that fire.
Surnames often reflect physical traits of a person or their career/trade/skill. Any guesses what Greathead was? 😅
That is brilliant.
The next possible name for the statue was Charles David Spankme.
Sadistic designer adds vents instead of exita: 'Next time, we'll hear them scream...'
Ive never heard of a wooden escalator. If it existed, this new design seems a vast improvement.
So informative!
Greathead by name
Greathead by reputation
Greathead Crescent in Newton Aycliffe is named after him.
How long before they fund out he had "problematic" views and throw his statue in the Thames?
Meanwhile, I'm wondering about the pyramid at the opening of this bit
That's brilliant
Walked past that so many times but would never have known or noticed the grill
1994? The filth running down the plynth is quite concerning.
You'd think it was much okder to be that dirty, the air quality must be shocking.
Wow this henry guy has a brilliant idea, i wonder what's his last name will be