Mornington Crescent: The Antidote to Panel Stations | Hidden London Hangouts (S07E08)
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- Опубликовано: 26 май 2023
- In this episode, the team head to a classic Leslie Green station that was refurbished in the 1990s before becoming the icon of the Radio 4 panel game - I'm sorry I haven't got a clue.
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If you’re curious to see how it looked before the massive closure and refurb, here’s a vid from museum friend Fred Ivey showing the neglect and how much work was done:
ruclips.net/video/D2ekNrywRIM/видео.html
Wow! I have really mixed emotions watching that. Fortunately, climbing the stairs to ticket hall, (1:56 to 2:10) and the lovely tiles and incandescent lighting was uplifting, and if trapped in time, I could certainly do well there, but at track level? I withhold comment. I feel trapped just watching it.
I just watched it again. It's haunting, much of which perhaps is down to my sojourns back in London over the decades. Scenes from 'The Shining' flash...
Great footage Alex!
Love how people had the foresight to take loads of recordings of stations before refurbishment
Alex I really enjoy these and I think you are right -- a pretty station. Wanna see more!
The lovely Samantha could have been your guide to the disused lifts. She is an expert on elevators. She knows her way around a shaft, and is especially knowledgeable where going down is concerned 😊
😂😂
Poor poor Samantha; expert authority on shafts and going down, for well over fifty years! 😂
Interesting fact for when you're sitting on the dock of a bay. OTIS Lifts are based in Reading England. As i learned on Radio One many years ago. They phoned the company live on air, who answered "Hello, OTIS Reading" 🤣🤣
Otis is the surname of the founder…
@@allangibson8494 It probably was. The song quoted was by Otis Redding and the company OTIS is in Reading. It was supposed to be a (very old) joke.
I think they used to be in Kennington for many years
I prepared the signage scheme for this station. Unusually, the normally grey frames around the signs were coloured bronze, in order to enhance the heritage nature of the station
Tell us more! I’d like to know all the detail and thought. It’s a gorgeous station
Well done for using Mornington Crescent old school rules, so many people use modern rules but I'm a self confessed purist.
Excellent, really good.
Lovely touch the plaque to Willy Rushton and recalled memories of wonderful Humphrey Littleton who used to chair that radio show with his ever glamorous assistant Samantha
Please note he was Willie RUSHTON, not Rushden!
Always enjoy the visits. Re Mornington Crescent, that wasn't the name of the program; it was called 'I'm, sorry I haven't a clue'. I think Willy Rushden was one of the comedians on the panel. The original question master was Humphry Littleton.
It's still going, sadly now without Tim Brooke Taylor, Barry Cryer and of course, Humph and Willie Rushton.
It started as a 'spin-off' from the sketch show I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again, starring some young, relatively unknown comics named Tim Brooke Taylor, Graham Garden and Bill Oddie (later known as the Goodies) and a young man named John 'Otto' Cleese.
Why 'Otto' was never established.
Grahame is the only original member of the quiz panel still going, sadly, but as far as I know, Mornington Crescent is still an essential part of the show.
Mrs.Trellis would insist on that
Was a daily user of Mornington Crescent station from the mid 70's for a decade but haven't revisited since refurbishment. The lift(s) - there was only ever one in use on a daily basis back then, used to have a travelling lift operator. I recall the the usual operator was a large, jolly West Indian chap whose name evades memory. Also faded from memory but pretty sure the lift operator also issued tickets from his booth inside the lift. They certainly checked them. The original spiral staircase was a regular route down when in a hurry and occasionally up when the old lifts were playing up. I'm certain the walls were lined but it was a dingy place to be with very dim lighting in the stairway - and damp.
In those days the platforms were a typically scruffy place compared with the present day but it always seemed to have a unique charm about it - and that smell of the tube emitting from the tunnels instead of the hoped for '59 stock to get home!
Was my Grandfathers local station and, I bought a Northern Line mug from your museum which had the reopening of Mornington Crescent on it. 😊
Brings back so many memories of being involved in the refurbishment of the station in the 90’s.
We had a great team working closely with the main contractor carrying out the work.
Tell us what was done? I’m so nosey
I was in charge of the new communications systems (PA/CCTV/ Customer Information System/ Station Management Systems)
From memory the station had been totally gutted and we were starting from scratch.
The Project Manager Fred Healy was also responsible for the original upgrades at the south end of the NL Clapham/Balham/Tooting’s Kennington etc and we used similar cable management systems to those at Mornington Crescent. I know a further upgrade was carried out between 2007-2010 which was part of the standardisation of systems across Tubelines Limted sites.
I did enjoy that, great stuff, team. And a nice nod to" I'm sorry I haven't a clue" and good old Humph!
Beautifully refurbished station but the main takeaway for me as a foreigner was learning about this quirky game played nicely by the team!
I hope you're playing using one of the appropriate variations such as: Standard Metropolitan Variation, Central Standard Rules or the Ancient Ceramic League Ruling.
It’s taken us three years and over a hundred moves to get to it. This could be a record game!😂
I often think of Victorian/Edwardian eras as being bland and colourless, but seeing those lovely coloured tiles proves how beautiful and vibrant they must have looked walking through those Stations. 👏👏👏
I have never been to Mornington Crescent. It’s somewhere on the bucket list now
I used to use this station in the late 80s to 1991 but hated the spiral staircase, especially if people were coming the other way and you had to walk on the narrow part of the steps. I’m sure the walls of it were tiled back then. When on the platform, sometimes you’d think your train was coming but it would just be the echos of a train going from Camden Town around the Bank branch
I love all of the Lesley Green stations. Not enough of this style has been saved. This is the first time I've seen Mornington Station post-refurb, and a respectful refurb it is too. Alex rushing on ahead, like an excited little boy. Bless. He would be playing catch-up with me, though. Loved it.
I’ll race ya
@@alexgrundon2346 Haha. When I get my wheels fixed, you're on.
Just Brilliant- the 1st episode that I have watched (almost) live.
The lift machine room gave me fond memories when I did two stints at Mornington Cres. in the mid to late Eighties.
The access to the lift machine room was up a vertical fixed ladder, the old lifts were still running and I remember the glass framed Electric shock warning posters with Edwardian men pictured.
Rescuing passengers stuck in a lift was hazardous using levers that caused arcing and fusing.
A nice renovation but those original tiles ❤
I think it was you who gave me added desire to visit to film. So glad you did. Gorgeous place
Absolutely thrilled that the team visited there.
Regents Park might hold some interest..
When I regularly used it in the 80s, it felt like it was a station designed with the option of enlargement towards the City branch lines which are close by. The lift access cross-tunnels ended in blank plastered, untitled walls just past the lifts. And what about the second footbridge over the platform - there didn't seem to be any way to get to it then.
I think it’s just part of the corculation round the lifts - identical to the passage on the episode, if that’s the one you mean?
I hope getting to Mornington Crescent isn’t the end!
Fear not - it will be a long while before we call the late arrivals at the Hidden London Ball.
Looking forward to some central line galore soon:)
Good to know that there’s always someone outside the lifts who are trained to help if they breakdown
❤
Mornington Crescent was first heard in series 6 of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, broadcast on 22 August 1978. Well before the refurbiishment.
Would love to know how they thought that up, esp as wasnt in the early series in the mid 1970s, I only really got ISHAC from 1980 onwards
@@highpath4776 if you write to Jon Naismith at the BBC he may well be able to answer. I asked what brand of swannee whistle they use, and I got a reply!
The original lift before the refurbishment used to contain a booking office; tickets were normally sold inside.
What an impressive station ....as a former wireman of industrial panels and motors I really admired the lift gear installation.
I lived in Arlington Rd in the late 80s and early 90s, and this was my station. I loved it because it wasn't busy but it was so. dark. The whole station looked like the stairwell with the 46 steps. The tiles and the wood were dingy with a layer of neglect. There was a sense of the beauty underneath just waiting to be revealed. I'm so happy to see that it is back to it's well-lit glory. Thanks for the tour!
Totally agree - beautifully put
Ok the Mornington Crescent game brought back a flood of memories. So bold… When I retire, which is soon , I will make tiles or at least have a lot of cleaning products. You guys are just brilliant. You encapsulate a really interesting explore when we can’t go there ourselves. So enjoyable… much love Alex.
LOL at the reference to I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue.
Thank you that’s appreciated - I thought carefully about the title. If you know - you know!
@@chrisnix6352 Brilliant, although it's a shame that you didn't spell "antidote" correctly!
Great video HL team and fantastic to see this famous station - I have played Mornington Crescent and today I have seen the lovely station in 2023.
How awesome indeed! I love the engineering tech, the tiles, and the talk! Cheers
Thank you thank you for showing me Mornington Crescent. I’m a Leslie Green fan. I have added this station on my list of ones to visit.
Thankyou team for going to Mornington crescent it was one i wanted to see and i mentioned it to you last year . I was not disappointed thankyou .
Warren.
I lived in Golders Green when I spent the summer in England. Mornington Crescent was closed for refurbishment at the time.
I worked at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, and I still regret not visiting Aldwych while it was still in regular service. I wasn't enough of a transit nerd at the time, though I did visit the Transport Museum and bought several books there.
I remember the station being closed can you remember what year
Alex, lovely to see your excitement at Mornington. I agree not enough blue in the world. It was great meeting you and Chris at the recent filming, I won't give it away. I didn't take a photocopy but was very tempted 😉
WE LOVE YOU!!!! Your welcome to the station at the gate was gold. So glad you like our shows. We adore you. Xxx
Thanks for an amazing trip round my local station, always a stunning place to travel through, great to see parts of the station not normally open to the public.
Great episode which I’ve watched in the hotel gym in New York. Been using the subway system here, and I cannot wait to get back on our London Underground TfL system. The subway here isn’t a patch on what we are so lucky to have back home!
Another brilliant episode guys. A station I've only ever passed through, but it's definitely worth a look around. 😊
Be careful not to get yourselves in nid!
Only a few minutes in watching the vid, but have to comment on the lights, even further to your excellent observations: It's not just the amount of light that's increased dramatically, it's the colour temperature, *even if* the modern ones are filament bulbs, they are 'burning' at a much hotter temp, thus far more blue content to the spectrum (reaching up to UV).
❤
@@alexgrundon2346 Although the camera angle is different, the spacing of lights looks similar to those in Fred's video, so perhaps the numbers are the same? A pre-1990s update perhaps?
I really wish I had been more aware of what was going on there before and immediately after its closure. I was at school and then uni in London during that time and just remember the hoardings on the platforms and the campaigns to reopen it when a lack of cash nearly forced its permanent closure. But what’s there now is such a feast for the eyes
@@alexgrundon2346 Yeah...A lot of persons put the change in 'atmosphere' of older photo stills to the photo medium, when in fact much or most is due to lighting.
It's ironic now that plentiful light is (relatively) cheap and awash, attempts are made to move it away from the 'harshness' of the intensity to something much warmer and more 'relaxing' for the eyes. The difficult part is doing that without losing lumens.
Fabulous station. It's so beautiful and tastefully done. Thanks again for another amazing episode.
I believe the number of cables is to provide the traction needed when accelerating and braking the lift in normal operation, rather than just the redundancy.
Thanks for a great video, it didn't seem to be a very busy station, compare to some of the others you have been too
Can't believe you attempted a game of MC and no one came up with Dollis Hill. Samantha would have been shocked. Expect a letter any day from a Mrs Trellis of North Wales.
I've been looking forward to this episode. Such a beautiful station and I love the cobalt blue tiles!
The best visit I have seen so far
Mornington Crescent! 'I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue' how you came up with the idea of visiting this station!
A station I use on occasion when seeing a show at the Koko Club which is just across the road.
Great episode! Seeing the blue plaque honouring Willie Rushton reminded me of a novelty song he recorded in 1972 entitled 'Neasden'- very funny where he mentions that you can travel there by the Bakerloo which is a bit out of date now. Maybe the team could visit the station or even the depot which would be very interesting I should think.
Missed the live stream, gutted but will watch this with the wife (she's a new fan) tomorrow.....have a goid weekend
Another brilliant episode !!
10:52 66 steps to the Northen line platforms.
As there's 18 steps in a floor, that would be somewhat between 3 (54 steps) and 4 storeys (72 steps) deep.
Love the ISIRTA reference!
I've always wondered why you guys didn't carry some spray cleaner and a cloth with you so you could show off the tiles you find. At least a small cloth would really come in handy for when you guys get your hands so dirty.
Loved this episode, the station is beautiful and the restoration was obviously done with a lot of love here.
So nice to see that gorgeous green tile in the entry, and that beautiful cobalt blue original tile was stunning.
Alex is the _sine qua non_ of wet wipe wanderers.
Was there with a colleague. Pointed out Willie's plaque. He said: "oh he's dead, I liked him."
True dat
I'll be watching, Ive left a blankety blank space in my diary.
I remember when they closed it for a while!
unkle - be there 🖤
Many years ago I managed to get myself taken into the machine room at Elephant & Castle when the original lifts were still in service.
Does the museum have in its collection a copy of the booklet ‘REGULATIONS CONCERNING THE OPERATION OF LIFTS AND ESCALATORS’ dated 1978? It covers amongst other things the procedure for hand winding the old lifts.
Oh.... the old Otis lifts - that eerie, almost whistling, sound from the old lift-motors, none of the videos I have came across have been able to catch it even close to the way it was. Back when I started snooping around, there were just the ones at Edgwere Road /B'loo, Mornington Crecent and Aldwych left.... can just kick my behind that I just missed the last original 1902 Central London Sprague lifts. Anyone with recollections of them?
@@PerCPH2200
No, not a line that I use very often. Which station were the last ones at? Were they electric or hydraulic?
My regular. Love it ❤
"...before becoming the icon of the Radio 4 panel game - I'm sorry I haven't got a clue. "
Sorry but the station was an icon on the radio series LONG before the refurbishment.
Mornington Crescent, the game, first appeared in the opening episode of the sixth series of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, broadcast on 22 August 1978.
I would love to acumpun you on one of those tours of those magnificent places I'm quite happy to act just like a tripod because going places you guys go looks fun and interesting to me but I'm quite happy just acting like a tripod
If you see some of the things we see you might even resemble a tripod sometimes. We try to keep our excitement in check but fail dismally 😉
I used to live just round the corner from it… looking forward to watching 😁
They made a huge effort to make you think that Mornington Crescent spent a century in suspended animation.
A lift is one of the safest things you can travel in. But I get that people may be afraid of using one due to claustrophobia or being packed in with many strangers.
Elisha Graves Otis stressed the safety of his lifts by cutting the lift cable & proving it could not drop to the bottom of the shaft.
Aldwych had very few passengers and the original lifts needed replacing. Which was never going to happen.
For Alex, the Fan of Blue, and lover of music:
_I'm Blue, daba-dee daba-di, daba-dee daba-di, daba-dee daba-di..._ 🎶🎶🎶
Love your vids! You’ve turned me into such a Moquette fan! Do you know anywhere I can obtain a piece of Roundel bullseye 1947 Moquette? It’s utterly gorgeous.
Oooh now. Have you tried the museum depot?
Dual Hampstead rule 😆
This station is in my top 3❤
Thanks team for another tantalising trip into the time/tube tunnel and congratulations Siddy if I may and here's to a happy honeymoon.
Nice trio, I like them best,
Absolutely lovely station and nice to see it's retained most of original features and any parts replaced have done faithfully to the originals. I especially like the old style opal glass lights. Any thoughts on exploring British Museum Station please? I know there's no street access and you would have to enter at track level, the same as your visit to Brompton Road. I'm sure it would be fantastic.
Hi Gary - yup it’s on the list! We sent Siddy and the Secrets team down there for telly. We’ll do a deeper dive at some point. X
@@alexgrundon2346 Thank you Alex! Looking forward to it! Keep up the good work all of you!😄👍
I, too, have always wanted to see British Museum but now that it's been aired on the Siddy and Tim show, I have to say that it is pretty underwhelming unfortunately.
My brother was a fireman for 27 years and when people get stuck in a lift you never realease the brake and lower the lift, you wind it up to the next floor on a ratchet ........
I love the old stations, I never understood the obsession of putting in new just for the sake of new.
Updated fire regs is the reason trotted out.
11:29 Look how they shine ~ across the ages.
Oh no! I'm in danger of turning into a tile fan.
Help!!!
Been to a victoria line station that still uses the spiral stair cases
Just up the road from me. I live a bit closer to Euston but always avoid and go to Mornington Crescent if going north and Warren Street if going south.
Was also the title of an album by My Life Story and an album track by Belle and Sebastian
I really like that poster @
24:43
I love your vlogs, I have a question, can I use the underground with a wheelchair as I'm looking to make a visit to London this year.
Hi Christopher! Yes - much of it. Have a look at the Tube Map which shows the bits that will be easy for you to navigate. And if you’re in need of help just ask tube staff or a Londonner. We’re all a friendly bunch x
@@alexgrundon2346 thank you
Wonderful story - I love blue too - though it does take a beating on older cars. Please: try to avoid talking over each other; the echos are hard on the ears. Also, you promised a ride in the lift! Don't worry though: as a boy I did ride once the Mornington lift in about 1949.
An old Londoner here!
Rodney Vancouver Island Canada
Hi Rodney - I’d love to ride on the roof of one with an engineer one day but apparently the paperwork is too much to make it happen….. damn red tape
No memorial plaque to Tim Brooke-Taylor?
I remember using that station after Kings Cross fire
❤great
This station was always bogus to me in the 1960's 70's and 80's. I always thought it was never open.
I think in ISHAC "Mornington Crescent" was in use before the refurb, as even then part of the Joke was it was closed more often than open (wasnt it weekdays only at some time)
Indeed we know that. But you can’t do the station without marking the pertinence to national radio.
@@alexgrundon2346 yes, but you implied MC on the show was after the refurb. (another commenter gave the exact Series 6 date, which is on you tube ). Interestingly ?! I have walked the full length of Mornington Crescent ( Road ) , which feels like it should be a Joolz Guides thing.
Opposite the entrance to the station is the Lyttelton Arms pub, named after Humphrey Lyttelton the original presenter. There's an ongoing campaign to have the names of Humphrey Lyttelton and Tim Brooke-Taylor added to Willie Rushton on the blue plaque.
The Zodiac bar is just down the road from Mornington Crescent, Mr Zodiac. Is it yours?
@@alexgrundon2346 I know of the Zodiac bar but it's nothing to do with me 😊 I took the name from the pilot and hero of Fireball XL5
❤️
How did a person clearly in to design (Lura) really not know the term "door furniture"?
Hi evening
I’m sorry, I haven’t a clue!
So this will be the last video that you guys ever make then is it? Once you land on Mornington Crescent it is literally "game over".
❤
What is the retangular box that Alex is leaning on at about 23 mins ??
Wasn't this station used by the spy ring in the fifties as a meeting place to exchange files?
25:45
😃
"ANTIDOTE" (sp.) P.S. - See me after class.
This made me roar. Thank you for a proper belly laugh. God knows who named it. We’ll give them detention or lines.
3:11 "This station hasn't changed massively sicne it open in 1907" - 6,000,000 CCTV cameras 🤣😂🤣
All the better to see you with, my dear….
What always puzzled me about the lifts on the underground is they were oblong or square, yet the lift shafts were always round. Therefor they must of had large gaps to each side.
Yes that’s right. The originals were trapezoidal. They used the space in the shaft more fully but the new ones have plenty of space for the counterweights.
And if there's still two in a shaft, they have a 'secret' door allowing access to the other one for emergency egress!
Help me, please. I'm struggling to figure out what a "panel station" is.
🌟🌟🌟⭐⭐
Why don't they call the handrail brackets, 'wall furniture'?
I thought you would have found a maker's tile though....
I suppose there is the trio of stations that need to be considered in a row (and are they on the same tunnels to Camden Town ?) South Kentish Town, Mornington Crescent and the Original Euston station
Hi High. All three have their own hangout. Just search hangout followed by the station name. We’ll revisit Euston sometime
@@alexgrundon2346 yes, but some kind of compare and contrast on them would be good, And did both routes of Northern Line go to the Euston Station or was there another Euston (daft question I know) . Also for this Episode is it not convention that Mornington Crescent Station is shown on the Charing X Route on the Left (west) side of the City Tunnels, but it is actually to the right (east) of them as those tunnels take a western curve to approach Camden Town ?
YOU DONT WIND A LIFT DOWN YOU HAVE TO WIND THE LIFT UP EVEN IF ITS A FEW INCHES AWAY FROM THE BOTTPM LANDING - THE RULES ARE YOU WIND THE LIFY UP THE SHAFT NO MATTER HOW FAR YOU GOT TO GO
Which makes sense as it is the ground level exit.
This isn't as hard as it might sound because of course of the counterweight.
@@JP_TaVeryMuch EVEN IF THE STATION IS THE OTHER WAY ROUND IE THE PLATFORMS ARE ABOVE THE STN - EXAMPLES MILL HILL EAST, GOLDERS GREEN, THEY STILL HAVE TO WIND THE LIFTS UP. NOT DOWN
@@THEFORBIDDENMAN-lk7of Oh. Thinking about it, that'll be because of the fact that the counterweight is designed to be balanced only when the lift cabin is at half capacity.
So, all things considered, it's more likely than not that winding up will be easier than down.
@@JP_TaVeryMuch WINDING UP IS HARD WORK, AS THE BRAKE HAS TO BE EASED AND HELD OFF AND THE WINDERS TAKE THE WIGHT OF THE LIFT AND THE PEOPLE INSIDE IT AND HAVE TO WIND THEM ALL THE BRAKE IS APPLIED WHEN THE WINDERS NEED A REST OR IF THE BRAKE CANT BE HELD OFF ANY LONGER SO THE MORE STAFF THEY CAN GET HOLD OF TO TAKE TURNS THE BETTER.
When you use without noticing
Shame about the platform tiles, as they never matched the originals, also, we’re those titles at ticket hall level the same as at Holloway Road please?.
If I recall correctly the ticket hall tiles at Holloway Road are the pomegranate variant rather than the acanthus leaf at Mornington Crescent.
@@chrisnix6352 I loved the ticket hall at Holloway Road way back in 1985, those ticket office windows were open selling tickets, similar hanging lights hanging from the ceiling, there were no ticket barriers, there was an old man in London Transport uniform in a box collecting tickets, non the less Chris, another excellent video, looking forward to the next one with Siddy.
What was Alex leaning against at 23:31?
I genuinely had no idea, hence no comment. But it’s been there for ages