A walk round Liverpool Street (BR) station, 1985
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- Опубликовано: 13 сен 2024
- A video survey recording London's Liverpool Street main line station in September 1985, just as its modernization as part of the the Broadgate development was getting under way. Includes the remains of Broad Street station before its final closure the following year, and the passages leading to Liverpool Street Underground station.
(Turn on closed captions for a transcript of the commentary)
Video's like these are so important, because whether deliberate or it's the way things go, places are forever changing and this is a historic record of a time gone by. In 1985 this would be a place my dad would be familiar with.
I was so young when all this happened but for some mad reason it is a lasting memory made all the more vivid by this footage… as a kid going to London was so special and being from Brentwood obviously Liverpool St was our main terminus so I’ll always remember it because it was the point where I was overcome with excitement getting off the train into the big city!!! Nowadays I often walk around the area just to try and remember the layout … this has helped a lot!!
Thank you for a lovely film. I started work in the 1970s and commuted from Enfield Chase into Broad Street. Rush hour trains were loco-hauled slam-door stock (with Ladies Only compartments) and the off-peak services were the beloved DMUs. We left the Great Northern Line by a spur just south of Finsbury Park station and joined the North London Line going via Dalston Junction into Broad Street. Happy Days.
At 24:40 I must have walked down that passageway hundreds of times on my way to work in the 70/80s. Off of the Southend train, down to the Central Line to Oxford Circus. Thanks for posting this it has brought back so many memories.
One thing I remember about the underground in the 1980s is one of the adverts. At 24:23, the yellow posters on the left wall are advertising a health club that two versions, the one with the woman running had 274-0198 (?) at the bottom of it and the one with the man with a mustache had 274-5284 at the bottom of that one. I forget the name of the health club they advertised. Do you remember?
It was such a dark and dingy place but that was just the way it was then, all stations were that way because why make them light and airy places when not long before they were smoke filled choking hell holes!! I just remember the smell and the dirtiness… but truth is I loved these places far more than the generic, characterless stations of today!! What I would give to go back!!!
When train stations felt like a trains station eh? Tend to agree. The ‘new’ stations are little more than generic shopping malls with zero charisma and an overpriced service.
I travelled through LS.just before the "refurbishment" happened and then a few years afterwards. Travelling to Norwich on one of the loco hauled trains with the "Mk1" Carriages with their wood panels and comfy squashy seats. I'm not a fan when the smother everything in upvc and plastic either. Charing cross suffered similarly.
This is fascinating. Thank god they redeveloped it though, I used this station almost daily in the late 1990s. The direct access from the mainline platforms to the tube was vital part of my commute. This looks like such a dingy rabbit warren of bridges, underpasses, stairs, and walkways, I'm so glad they sorted it out. As of Dec 2023 Liverpool Street is the busiest station in Britain, and is about to get another upgrade.
Watched this via a link posted in a comment from the very excellent London Inheritance weekly blog. Highly recommend & this video is a gem.
This is excellent. Of all the videos I've seen of the era I feel that this might capture the cacaphony-bordering-on-chaos of a busy station best of all of them. I appreciate the narration in it, too, as this configuration of Liverpool Street was before my time (I would have been 2, or at best 3, when this video was made).
Brings back good memories from visits to London during childhood then my time at college in Earls Court. Thanks.
Really fascinated by this. The works they did really changed it a lot and I'm glad for the commentary otherwise I'd be totally lost! Thanks
1980's video cameras - they never quite seemed to nail the focus!!
This was before autofocus became available🙁
Great to see this, I starting work and commuting through L/Pool St from Billericay in Jul 80 so would have passed through all these spaces hundreds of times by the time this video was shot, yet now I struggle to remember what it was like before it was done up. I recall using the station all through the revamp without even noticing how it was changing around me, until it had changed! Great to see what it was actually like back then.
wow what a great video. I remember getting the train with my dad there to Ipswich many times on a Sunday, at about the same year this was filmed. It looked just as portrayed here. Very nostalgic
A fascinating video of the Liverpool St i once knew. Used to love the walkway going all around the station. Fond memories.
Remember the Apples and Pears pub but hardly used it.
I lived just one stop away in Bethnal Green but I'd normally walk or occasionally bus it.
In 1985 quite rare and expensive to have a domestic video camera, no doubt with full size video cassettes.
The days before digital cameras. In the day the film would have been considered useless BS but now it´s a real bit of history. Amazing to think this is getting on for 40 years. Probably this was the first bit of investment for LS since the 1840´s.
Thanks so much for sharing this! Amazing to see a bit Broadstreet and Liverpool st
This was really interesting. I only ever visited Liverpool Street station once when it was like this and remember it being dark, dank and cavernous. Many years later I used to walk through the station every day going to work, and it was light and airy, but just as busy. Although I have a certain nostalgia for how it was, from a traveller's perspective I think it became much better post-improvement.
Absolutely fascinating . I worked around there ( 99 Bishopsgate ) and my daily lunchtime walk was around the station - normally to Brows Mags and one of the 2 WH Smiths ...you get so busy looking at the new stuff, you forget how the old stuff looked . I used Fenchurch Street daily and that has also changed a lot
27:15 I would love it if these guys knew this film is here, nearly 40 years later. I hope they are still as happy as they seemed back in '85.
Was thinking the exact same thing!
This is awesome 👌 you're the original Geoff Marshall. I was 5 when you filmed this. Little did i know years later in 1999-2001 it would be my station for my london college of fashion campus.
It is strange that I was using this station 5 days a week at this time. In fact almost certainly the day this was filmed and I do not remember any of this. I must have been walking around with my eyes closed.
Wow... My best friend, Made an excellent video. I really liked it. Beauty is extraordinary. Thank you very much for the video.
Crikey this brings back some memories !! I remember it being dirty,ding , smelly ( the toilets flushed directly onto the tracks and the rubbish swept onto them by the sweeper ) and full of weird people, trying to steal mailbags or old tickets ,especially late at night ! I remember that alleyway between Liverpool Street and Broad Street (there used to be an entrance to it from Liverpool Street station through a small door ). ! If you turned right at 03:52 ,where that Copper is standing with the Traffic Warden and walked past the front of Broad Street Station ,turned right and a little bit further there was a Greasy Spoon Cafe / Restaurant called the Copper grill !! Full of Taxi / Bus Drivers and Bus Conductors and LT Underground workers !! A good breakfast or meal at good prices ! A hectic and lively place ! The serving staff sure as hell earned there money there ! As I remember there was a pub on the lower concourse , on the Bishop's Gate side , and it was always full of Guards and Train drivers and when a train didn't move at the time it was supposed to and the Driver or Guard was missing the first place they would look would be in this pub . Another member of staff would be sent to find them ! They got fed up with this run - around and a phone line was installed directly from the Train Crew Manager on the Broad street side , so he could just pick the phone without dialling and a speak directly to the barman in this pub and say " is Driver _____ there ? " Or " Is Guard ______ there ? " Can I speak to him please !?" .
What an amazing historical document, thanks for sharing!
Nice to see the station before redevelopment. Lots of nice memories. Shortly after it was a complete mess until the work was completed.
I have this weird sentimental connection to Broad Street station despite being born after it's closure and only visited London once.
I walked down Sun Street passage on my first day of work in August '67. Can't believe everything was so filthy back then. Also, surprised the BT police didn't swoop on the camera bod. They were prone to getting above their station (sic) back in the day.
Wow what a mess that temporary station is that would never be allowed to stay open now
And a lot of the new Broadgate construction we see here has since been redeveloped again, together with the new Elizabeth line station & entrances, unbelievable how dark and litter strewn it used to be, now with retail and food outlets.
Wonderful. Lovely to see the old station again. It had so much character. I don't know who designed the layout but the walkways were like something from Harry Potter.
Liverpool Street, like St Pancras, has some lovely architecture, but the way they've turned them into shopping centres with a few trains running to them gets in the way of it
Superb detailed video of two stations I knew and loved well. But even I never noticed the access to the Post Office Railway nor the stone work along Bishopsgate. Thanks for recording this piece of railway history so well. Sad to see Liverpool Street redeveloped and Broad Street gone completely. They tell me that is progress, but I call it vandalism.
hi. totaly agree with you,total vandalism of a great station
@@petersmith4455 Thanks for your support, Peter. Well, is two great stations really.
Liverpool st when it felt like an adventure and you felt you’d arrived. Now the Southend Victoria trains pull into a dingy hole that feels oppressive and depressing. Sure the concourse looks a bit cleaner but it really lacks soul. All for putting up office blocks. They won’t be happy until the whole place is transformed into a look a like Euston.
Definitely changed of course but not for the better.
I haven't been here since 1965 so it's all new to me. I spent most of my life going through here on the Underground.
This is gold. I remember the red walkways and the general griminess. What happened to the long underground walkways, were they just covered over?
It's so dark in the daytime. What on earth was it like at night!!
I was very young when this massive changed occurred at Liverpool Street, and travel fairly frequently to the station, what’s there now looks like a whole different station to this, there is nothing recognisable. Looks more like they bulldozed what was there and started from scratch!
One thing I like about these old videos is seeing how relatively well dressed everyone seems, no tracksuits or hoodies, wearing clothes that fit! And not seeing people staring down at their phones but actually looking where they are going!
Crikey, was that the way all passengers had to go to get to Broad Street ? Nowadays that'd be a Hard Hat 👷♂️ zone.
Yup, that was the only way to access the station in its last days. By that time it was only served by a few rush-hour trains.
Fond memories of the high level walkways and a Deltic giving the Norwich Express the full beans leaving Platform 10
Broad Street Station looking forlorn by this point. The signal box overlooking a single temporary platform would have once controlled the third busiest station in London, with over 27 million passengers a year.
Nick did you shoot this or is it something you've found? There's no doubt that the old station didn't meet capacity needs and could be improved in so many ways. But I see over and over, particularly with the railways, that in our rush to modernise we destroy architectural heritage little thought. Over and over, from Euston Arch, to the rebuilding of Golders Green, the public loss of the St Pancras ticket office, and of course Crossrail and HS2. And of course in this video both Broad Street and Liverpool Street, which I'd say lost something magic in the renovation and which is undergoing further destruction in 2024. Very interested to hear your thoughts.
Yes, Guy, I shot this. As for our architectural heritage, I feel it's impractical to preserve everything. London needs to be a living city, not a dusty museum. Older buildings are expensive to maintain and are often inadequate to meet present day needs and expectations. So while I regret the loss of the Euston Arch, I understand the need to replace outdated facilities with something newer and better.
@@NHGMitchell thank you so much for your foresight in shooting it, and for sharing it with us
@@ahumsaidtheplum The funny thing is, I was planning to document Liverpool Street Underground station that day, but thought I'd start with the main line stations. But by the time I'd finished with them it was getting late, i was tired and my batteries were running low, so I called it a day. Never did finish the job!
With this type of video I always like to see what shops and eateries were there, and what products were being advertised. It seems that there was just a dreary wine bar!
I was a postman in the city of London back then trying to remember was that building site the beginning off Broadgate
I wonder why during the 80s redevelopment there appeared no archaeological work, they did extensive investigation and digging during Crossrail construction and found much from mass graves to a Roman road.
And it might get rebuilt again and we loose daylight again 😢
I started work around this time and I’d forgotten that there was an English accent. Today it’s a mid Atlantic monstrosity.
5:10 never trust modern day Bovis homes
Well, I have to say, you could have had a better microphone.