Would highly recommend 'Heart of the Angel' a 40 minute documentary by Molly Dineen about the station and the people who worked there in 1989. You get to see the consequence of the overuse of the lifts.
Came here to comment the same thing - an excellent documentary. Really just feels like a fly on the wall letting the staff do the talking; a real slice of grim 80s London.
@@2H80vids Indeed. There are surprisingly heavy existentialist themes running throughout it; as well as the issues of the relationship between class, work, and education. "You're born, you live, you work, you die. And I want to know why"
On the 18th November 1987 I was going home from my brothers house in Dalston to my home in Harrow. I used the Angel expecting to change at Kings Cross but was prevented because of the fire there. I got home and saw the huge tragedy on the news that I had thankfully avoided. Every time I see the Angel I think about that night. RIP.
Actually saw Angelic Upstart play at the Blue Coat Boy pub next door to Angel Station, they did the Agricultural Arms down by the market a couple times too.
I used to use this station everyday myself. I always wanted photos of the old station but they are hard to come by. My good friend and the person who trained me at work actually fitted the escalators when the refurbishment was taking place.
Having arrived in London in May 1973 (from USA via Germany) I knew next to nothing about the underground. However, Angel has always been a bit special to me. My second day in London I made it to Portobello Road for the first time. Met some other raggle-taggle hippie folk and went for a wander that day - picking up discarded vegetables for a stew that night. Was invited back to their homestead (now demolished) and spent the night eating and revelling (so much no one slept that night)....early on Sunday morning I made my confused way to Angel station - heading back to Baker Street - I spent a number of bleary eyed minutes looking at this strange platform (island style) and for some reason have never forgotten it. My introduction to London bohemian life at the age of 17. Amazing, I thought, at the time. Can't remember how I got back to Baker Street - but somehow I did and am still here today. My wonder of innocent youth!!! Your videos are great.
I lived in the Angel back in 1988. I worked down on City Road near Moorfields Hospital in a timber agency. I took the tube on rainy days when I felt lazy. Fond memories of London in the late eighties. I was a Canadian timber salesman and remember how packed the Angel station was! People loved my accent and I had a great time in Islington. What a job for a young man in his twenties. :)
Top film Jago and you brought out two factoids about the station (the long escalator/short escalator and Crossrail 2) but didn't connect them. There could have been one long escalator, but because Crossrail 2 has existed as an idea since the early 20th century and the Act of Parliament for the Chelsea to Highbury line is already in place, they built a landing so any future interchange could be easily added. They don't just throw these things together you know.
Brings me right back to my London days (07, 08). I regularly visited the antiques market just down the street from Angel Station, commuting on the underground from Hammersmith. I love that market. So much to see and buy.
I used the old station back in the late 80s when at nearby City University, the island platform was grim, and the rest of the station a dump. Over the years the Underground must have spent a fortune rebuilding former C&SL platforms. Euston in the 60s (which had an island platform too), Angel in the 80s, London Bridge in the 90s and Bank in the 2020s
Many thanks, Mr. H. I have fond memories of using the station while I was working in the office block that is above the new station in the late 90s / early 00s. Witnessed a 'one under' in the 80s when there was still an island platform. It was late evening and relatively quiet, so not caused by overcrowding. So, mixed memories of Angel.
I watched it when it was first on, and it’s kind of weird rewatching and seeing all these actors who are now quite well known. Tamsin Greig as Lamia took me by surprise.
@@JagoHazzard They actually filmed at Down Street station, when Richard, Door and Hunter are having tea with Serpentine, and passengers on the passing tubes at the time reported seeing ghosts, lol.
I've been using Angel daily for about 10 years now, you really learn to dislike a station when you need to use it so often even if there isn't much wrong with it.
I used Angel about once - and that was when the platform was so thin it was asking for a disaster. My only other memory was that someone had scratched onto the woodwork of the lift the names of the 1961 Tottenham Hotspur League and FA Cup double-wining team. Thank goodness for everybody's safety it was closed.
Few more snippets James, from the now well known ‘ A street cat named Bob ‘ sold the Big Issue, with Bob the cat, outside Angel station The big white building, which I’m guessing you showed as the original station is now a nightclub, and a pub and art gallery/ cafe down the side street Boris Johnson, in earlier days was known to buy the Evening Standard outside the station Oh and my Dad used to work in the weird looking council buildings in the Councils architecture department
Not sure if its worth looking at but what I'm pretty sure parts of the Old Station can be seen down Torrens Street. I might be mistaken about the nightclub, but it is on the same road and a big warhouse type building. Wether the Arts Gallery/Candid Cafe is part of the old station I don't know. I do remember some very old station like stairs. But its not called the Candid Cafe for nothing. Don't visit if your of the prudish ilk! :D The building themselves on Torrens Street all appear to have warehouse type hoists/cranes. goo.gl/maps/dstS8RZcUMCThGEV6
Just what I was going to say. Been gone so long, these London💙 videos astonish as much as they inform and delight. Precious stuff. (Isn’t Angel where I’d have very stupidly walked up the stairs (possibly a stationary escalator), aiming for Jury’s on Pentonville Road about twenty years ago (I mean, it IS the nearest station isn’t it?) thinking I’d never reach the bloody surface, but reluctant to give up the attempt? Aaargh! Unbelievable trial of endurance!)
I hated using that old Angel Station, that single platform and the lifts/elevators. The Angel, Upper Street were all down market in the 60s, what a change in absense.
0:57 "There is still a pub called the Angel". Point of order. It is a Wetherspoon (from "Wether" - castrated ram, and "Spoon" - the means of castration), and therefore a heap of dingoes kidneys, not a pub.
Exactly. The one in my town is always worth giving a swerve, as it is always full of Tramps, Beggars, Mendicants, Hobbledehoys, Vagabonds, and other top gits.
'The Angel' is one of those parts of London that has a name that could be a good TV show title. Depending on the era it's set and the writers, it could be a crime drama, a soap opera, or a comedy.
The original Angel pub/coach house was named after the Angel coin. The name indicated that it was somewhere that this high value coin (popular with travellers/traders) could be exchanged for smaller denominations. Same with some pubs called the Crown. Elephant and castle pub was named after the reverse motiff on the guinea.
I really love your videos! The history of the tube. The occasional history of an office building or housing blocks that relates to the tube in the end. Or the beginning. Sometimes the middle. Some history about parks or art. Those usually have a connection to the tube also, somehow. I have now watched every single video on your page that is open to the public. It all has me very confused in that no one at any time had a solid cohesive plan of what the tube was going to do, why, where or how. The only driving, motivating factor was making money whitch seems to have failed for most that got involved. The London Tube seems to me as if it is the messiest, zig zagging, rail system with the most random set if stops of any underground's in the world. The upside is that it creates adventure, great stories, hidden gems of trivia while somehow also being transportation. Keep up the work as we all enjoy it a great deal. I don't think you will ever run out of quarky stories in that spaghetti bowl of a train system.
Maybe Jago could look at some other lines that never were (the possibility of a route from Strand (Aldwych) to waterloo was one, from the 1910s promotions, but generally the routes make a little sense. (1) follow the western station to the city ( Hammersmith and City to Moorgate/ Aldgate. (2) follow the new sewers along the thames (District), one through the centre from the west (central line), one for the west end - from Paddington to a southern point - Bakerloo, one from the city to the south (and north) , Northern Line. So would there be better routing (given the mainline commuter routes were already generally in place)
The escalators at Gatwick airport North Terminal to get to the bridge under which aircraft pass may be in the top ten of escalator length too. There you go Jago - another subject for a series.
The record longest (or deepest - can't remember) was the Tyne Pedestrian Tunnel escalators. Bit of a misnomer, at one point 25,000 bicycles a day travelled through their dedicated tunnel. With people riding them of course...
Excellent video as always, mate. The only thing you left out was it's right next to one of the most famous nightclubs in London, Slimelight. That's the main reason I use this station so often, and it's great to know it has an interesting history. Keep up the good work :)
I was going to say the same thing. One of the innocent enough looking doors on Torrens Street. I have fond memories of Angel from just after the refurb for this reason!
Good stuff. Thanks for making this video. I never thought about going round the back to find the old station. Yes, it has a memorable platform. (I must go to Clapham some time and see those island platforms.)
Center platform stations are certainly more convenient IMHO. E.g., when traveling from SF to Berkeley on BART (when the direct line isn't running), you can get off at 12th Street/Oakland or at 19th St Oakland, and cross the platform to the other line. And because of the way the 12th St Oakland BART is laid out, when returning late from Berkeley to SF, you go down the escalator to catch the train for SF. Where one has to go over the tracks, as e.g., at Milbrae Station to go south on the CalTrain, you must go up a rather long escalator, tag out of BART, go down the stairs to the Caltrain platform. But in the other direction, the northbound CalTrain is a straight-across walk to the northbound BART into SF.
I grew up in Islington the Angel is a very special place to me..Angel tube station old and the new holds many memories including the hell of stairs that could kill or cure you walking up them!
I remember going down the spiral stairs or the old shuttered lift at the old station in City Road. Used to love the smell of the wind coming up the stairs as a train came in.
My late father was a sheet metal roofer. He and a fellow worker built the grey zinc roof above the old abandoned Angel Station building entrance. The company he worked for was BIZ, that was once based at Laycock Street at the other end of Upper Street. Out of interest, the company was owned by Smith's and Sons, who were builders merchants that sponsored and restored the green clock tower right by the station.
I commuted to Angel in the late 80s and remember the lifts were crammed in the morning rush hour. Sometimes they would almost get to the top, but then descend again, as it was too heavy. At the bottom, a couple of people would have to get out, before the lift made a second attempt!
I too remember that scary island platform in the old Angel station. I only used a few times before the new station was built - what used to annoy me immensely was that most of the people ignored the one way system on the steps down to the platform. On more than one occasion I almost got knocked over when going down by people rushing up on the wrong side !!
So you started to use this station once it became fashionable for Upper Middle Class Yuppies. Would we find one of your old Filofaxes lost under the escalator?
I used to use the Angel station in the sixties going to school. I remember the island platform and the lifts and the trolleybuses up on the roads above.
I remember applying for a temp job based at Angel with the charity that raised funds for Guys Children’s Hospital in City Road during my summer vacation when at university in Summer 1991. I was asked in for an interview and duly arrived on the northbound tube. When I got off the train, I remember the overwhelming sense of trepidation as I walked along the narrow plank that masqueraded as a “platform” as the train from which I had momentarily alighted seems to rush past at warp speed and threaten to drag me into the mystic portal (or “northbound tunnel” as it is better known). 😳 Having escaped death, I managed to compose myself sufficiently to brave the return, albeit I confess I waited at the top of the small flight of steps that were at the end of the platform until the train was entering the station! 😅 Funnily enough, I eventually got used to it and actually kind of enjoyed the quirky jeopardy of the daily “work or death” game in the end 🤔 Once summer was over, I didn’t return again to Angel until the late 90s for a gig and could barely recognise the place, not least as of course you came out into a snazzy new station rather than the “old house with favela-town tin shed extension” feel of the former building, and the dizzying length of the new escalator was a far cry from the stuffy old lift with unbearably loud door alarms 🚨 Although I frequented and lived by Tooting Bec (see previous naff comments on previous videos by yours truly) for a few years, I never alighted at the Clapham stations, until attending a festival at Clapham Common in 2012, and was equally amazed and delighted to see that the island platform remained. Once again I felt that sense of trepidation, largely because my then girlfriend experienced what I had all those years before and was terrified! I must admit though, this platform did seem wider than the old Angel one…🧐 Nah, probably the same! 😃 But those platforms were/are narrow. So much so that at Angel, the old style red-framed dot matrix indicators that were then a newly installed were too long to fit end on and had to overlap above the foot of the stairs! 🤭 Thanks as ever chap. Always look forward to a Jango (late) Breakfast Edition 👍🍻
@@ds1868: Er...bit of an unnecessary- and a somewhat rude- comment. I am merely conveying my memories. If you actually read what I wrote, I soon got used to it, but relived the initial trepidation when I experienced my then girlfriend's wariness because there were a lot of people in a very narrow space. And when those platforms are rammed they do make one feel trepidation. Why be so miserable anyway? 🤷🏻♂️
The tipping point for Angels old layout came in the late 80's with the death of a man down on the old island platform. It was believed the victim was pushed into the path of a train speeding into the station whilst at the crowded exit end of the platform... the aftermath was pretty horrific (even for the tube which has a suicide every three days) and caused the station to be closed until the next day. Posters asking for more witnesses were at the station for several months afterwards, though I dont remember the case ever getting any further?
Good to be reminded of its old island platform days - used that a few times. Are there plans to change the layout at those other stations - maybe they don't have the passenger numbers or South London isn't a priority?
@@cerneuffington2656 Well when they are modified the features tend to stay visible. Of course the reworked Bank and London Bridge were also Island Platforms , and had narrow platforms
Wow, what a cool southbound platform! The island design looks terrifying... Thank goodness it was modified. Evidently safer to descend the nosebleed escalators drunk than on skis...
I remember using the old Angel station in the late 1980's - it was a real time warp. I have only had one occasion to be in that particular part of London so I haven't ever seen the replacement station. The island platform was dangerous IMHO!
I finally know why the platform is so wide, thank you. It was bugging me for years, but that makes total sense. It is my favourite station because the platform doesn’t give me anxiety like most of the others.
Hallelujah! My favourite fact about Angel station is that it's the closest underground station to an Austrian restaurant / café with divine food & angelic cakes. Thank heavens for it! 😊😇
Yes I used this station to get wood veneers in curtain road , I remember with shock how many people are crowded on the platforms with trains either side at speed , wow !
My family lived in Islington in 1977 and Angel was our tube stop. My main memory was my brother and I deciding to take the stairs up rather than wait for the elevator once. It felt like climbing Everest -- I'm not surprised that the escalators are notably long. Going down the stairs wasn't as big a deal (with gravity's help) and we did that all the time.
I first came across the original station in 1985, I continued to use it after reconstruction in 1992, I remember well the original station building, problems with lifts and that stairwell, the overcrowded platform at peaks, reconstruction was 30 years ago, liked it the way it was, as takes to long to get to platform level.
Another superb and informative video. So good, in fact, that as well as clicking the like button I have also sung a few hosannas (although I very nearly missed your exhortation to do so). Thank you Mr H. Simon T
Prague has an Angel station too (Anděl), the original name alluded to Moscow as a sign of international friendship, because it was built in the 80s and it was cool then. It was so cool that Moscow also built a station named after Prague and they were opened at the same time. When that friendship stopped being cool, Angel got its name after a nearby house that used to stand in the area. The look, also heavily Soviet-inspired, stayed to this day, and when you got to the shot at 4:50, I really had to do a double take. The white ceiling, the colour scheme of the tiling, and even the pattern on the floor are a really good match. I would find it highly ironic if someone got inspired from another Angel station (before it was even called that), but looked west instead of east! Sorry for the long-ass comment, it just really surprised me how similar they are (and perhaps you would appreciate this story)
Right down the bottom of the comments is a mention of "The Angel, Islington" being a (downmarket) "stop" on the Monopoly board. Thought I would save some people having to scroll right down.
I wonder how much is left of the old booking hall and lifts .... I used to like the 'cubes on a string' that showed you where the lifts were - but I imagine they've all been swept away by modernisation....
_Blimes, was always in the King’s Head, once upon a time, even if the divier Highbury Corner end of Upper Street suited me better..._ another example of a sort of building like the Edwardian re-built Angel pub is the building on the southern corner of the intersection of Parkway and Camden High Street (not the bank, the one that’s been everything from ‘phone shops to sandwich eateries). Think it was called _The Britannia;_ you could truly once see an entirely different London, travelling back in time, just from being sat on the top deck of a double decker. A lot of those pubs served the same purpose originally, the _Assembly House_ in Kentish Town having the most obvious name. All aimed at letting people travelling North congregate so they could journey together and not get waylaid. Grew up in Camden and had loads of school mates in Islington, and taking the motor to act as the weekend drunk taxi, it was genuinely striking how meandering and difficult a drive it was. It’s still not realised by many Londoners just how industrial even agricultural (cattle sale yards) that northerly triangle of land stretching out between the separating lines from St Pancras and King’s Cross was. Though those not too old will remember the pre-regeneration clubs around York Way and those dominating gasometers. The real knife throwing dives were the pubs around Pentonville where you could always run into the crims who’d only recently been released from _”The Ville,”_ great fun.
A friend of mine from 6th form days worked nights as a security guard at Angel when the escalators were being built. Apparently to prevent a repeat of an incident where a disgruntled/drunken contractor tipped a large quantity of sand down the shiny new escalator, which resulted in it being shiny, new and broken.
Or you could say “Angel of the North London”. I’ve been to Angel as there is a exhibition centre nearby and it’s quite a nice busy area in North London.
Back in the 70's, I used to wander over to the Angel regularly, heading for Saddler's Wells theatre - a Gilbert & Sullivan fan (I also liked Punk rock, odd mixture). That old, narrow, single platform looked and felt really weird and unnerving, especially since you could only approach it from stairs at one end. I would not have wanted to be on it during rush hour.
Just call me Angel of the Northern, Angel
Just touch my Chiswick Park before you leave me
lovely reference lol
Clever boy.
Would highly recommend 'Heart of the Angel' a 40 minute documentary by Molly Dineen about the station and the people who worked there in 1989. You get to see the consequence of the overuse of the lifts.
Came here to comment the same thing - an excellent documentary. Really just feels like a fly on the wall letting the staff do the talking; a real slice of grim 80s London.
I took your advice. Some grim, depressing stuff but worth watching. Thanks for the suggestion.
Link for those interested, nice camera work as well.
ruclips.net/video/HuRWKb2Q1RQ/видео.html
@@Recessio All shows how low morale was on the tube.
@@2H80vids Indeed. There are surprisingly heavy existentialist themes running throughout it; as well as the issues of the relationship between class, work, and education.
"You're born, you live, you work, you die. And I want to know why"
The Glasgow Subway had island platforms at every station until it was refurbished. They were quite narrow. I found them a bit unnerving.
still has a few islands in glasgow, they didnt get rid of them all
On the 18th November 1987 I was going home from my brothers house in Dalston to my home in Harrow. I used the Angel expecting to change at Kings Cross but was prevented because of the fire there. I got home and saw the huge tragedy on the news that I had thankfully avoided. Every time I see the Angel I think about that night. RIP.
Let there be puns. And behold there were puns. And it punned and it punned for forty days and forty nights.
And then there was a day of rest, for that was the day of the Punday service!
@@davidyoung5114 ENOUGH
Jago is quite the pundit.
Punnits are good to hold your strawberries
I punned that like thumbs up button for your 40th like. * halo *
With all those puns, you can now consider yourself an Angelic Upstart.
Actually saw Angelic Upstart play at the Blue Coat Boy pub next door to Angel Station, they did the Agricultural Arms down by the market a couple times too.
I used to use this station everyday myself. I always wanted photos of the old station but they are hard to come by. My good friend and the person who trained me at work actually fitted the escalators when the refurbishment was taking place.
Many thanks for featuring my map design at 2:08 - Cheers! :D
I've just checked it out in the article on the Londonist. It looks great! Very sensible design decisions in my opinion.
I like the high-speed wheel-chair symbols. It's good to know where to look out for that sort of thing on the tube.
Love how he remembered to credit you on screen.
@@IJMacD Many thanks for this, although the version on Londonist is a good 3 years old or so.
@@brandonroyal939 Much better than the "standard" wheelchair icon IMO.
Having arrived in London in May 1973 (from USA via Germany) I knew next to nothing about the underground. However, Angel has always been a bit special to me. My second day in London I made it to Portobello Road for the first time. Met some other raggle-taggle hippie folk and went for a wander that day - picking up discarded vegetables for a stew that night. Was invited back to their homestead (now demolished) and spent the night eating and revelling (so much no one slept that night)....early on Sunday morning I made my confused way to Angel station - heading back to Baker Street - I spent a number of bleary eyed minutes looking at this strange platform (island style) and for some reason have never forgotten it. My introduction to London bohemian life at the age of 17. Amazing, I thought, at the time. Can't remember how I got back to Baker Street - but somehow I did and am still here today. My wonder of innocent youth!!! Your videos are great.
Sounds like my kind of fun :)
I lived in the Angel back in 1988. I worked down on City Road near Moorfields Hospital in a timber agency. I took the tube on rainy days when I felt lazy. Fond memories of London in the late eighties. I was a Canadian timber salesman and remember how packed the Angel station was! People loved my accent and I had a great time in Islington. What a job for a young man in his twenties. :)
Those escalators are a full interval with ice creams job. You can feel yourself ageing as it descends.
that made me ActualLOL. Bravo.
Top film Jago and you brought out two factoids about the station (the long escalator/short escalator and Crossrail 2) but didn't connect them.
There could have been one long escalator, but because Crossrail 2 has existed as an idea since the early 20th century and the Act of Parliament for the Chelsea to Highbury line is already in place, they built a landing so any future interchange could be easily added. They don't just throw these things together you know.
aww, Angel tube. Many many times waiting for the first tube after a night out at Slimelight. Great memories!
a scene from Neverwhere a great mini series
Brings me right back to my London days (07, 08). I regularly visited the antiques market just down the street from Angel Station, commuting on the underground from Hammersmith. I love that market. So much to see and buy.
I enjoy a browse there myself. Lots of treasures.
And the old-school London characters there just make it a treat!
@@JagoHazzard Half of it is tramcar (trailers?) depots
I used the old station back in the late 80s when at nearby City University, the island platform was grim, and the rest of the station a dump. Over the years the Underground must have spent a fortune rebuilding former C&SL platforms. Euston in the 60s (which had an island platform too), Angel in the 80s, London Bridge in the 90s and Bank in the 2020s
Didn't know you worked at Ryman's 😂👍
Damn, you got there before me, well played 😂
Many thanks, Mr. H. I have fond memories of using the station while I was working in the office block that is above the new station in the late 90s / early 00s. Witnessed a 'one under' in the 80s when there was still an island platform. It was late evening and relatively quiet, so not caused by overcrowding. So, mixed memories of Angel.
We used to use the Angel when visiting Saddler's Wells in the 50s/60s. The narrow island platform was always exciting!
Skiing the Angel was the first youtube video I ever saw.
I first read that as 'Sky-ing the Angel'...and that wouldn't have been too far outta place lol
Great Vlog, thanks with a halo to you too, and never mind the "stairway to heaven" when you can use an escalator ...Drew
The landing between the escalators is the passive provision for Crossrail 2.
Which I suspect will never be built.
@@ds1868same was said of Crossrail.
I remember well the switch from island to 2 platform station and my first rode on that ever so long escalator. I’m a closet tube nerd. 😂
Info- and humor packed: yet another great Jago Hazzard video👍
Peter Capaldi as the Angel Islington... Wasn't Neverwhere just fantastic?! :)
I watched it when it was first on, and it’s kind of weird rewatching and seeing all these actors who are now quite well known. Tamsin Greig as Lamia took me by surprise.
The graphic novel of it is quite superb. Especially Down Street...
@@JagoHazzard They actually filmed at Down Street station, when Richard, Door and Hunter are having tea with Serpentine, and passengers on the passing tubes at the time reported seeing ghosts, lol.
I've been using Angel daily for about 10 years now, you really learn to dislike a station when you need to use it so often even if there isn't much wrong with it.
I used Angel about once - and that was when the platform was so thin it was asking for a disaster. My only other memory was that someone had scratched onto the woodwork of the lift the names of the 1961 Tottenham Hotspur League and FA Cup double-wining team. Thank goodness for everybody's safety it was closed.
Few more snippets
James, from the now well known ‘ A street cat named Bob ‘ sold the Big Issue, with Bob the cat, outside Angel station
The big white building, which I’m guessing you showed as the original station is now a nightclub, and a pub and art gallery/ cafe down the side street
Boris Johnson, in earlier days was known to buy the Evening Standard outside the station
Oh and my Dad used to work in the weird looking council buildings in the Councils architecture department
Not sure if its worth looking at but what I'm pretty sure parts of the Old Station can be seen down Torrens Street. I might be mistaken about the nightclub, but it is on the same road and a big warhouse type building. Wether the Arts Gallery/Candid Cafe is part of the old station I don't know. I do remember some very old station like stairs. But its not called the Candid Cafe for nothing. Don't visit if your of the prudish ilk! :D
The building themselves on Torrens Street all appear to have warehouse type hoists/cranes.
goo.gl/maps/dstS8RZcUMCThGEV6
Boris bought the *free* Evening Standard? I reckon the Angel has shone a light upon the nation's Spending Priorities.
@@teresastolarskyj Before 12 October 2009 it wasn't free so maybe he paid for it during his first year as Mayor.
Ah Jago, you are a blessing, your videos always worth watching, soothing with no unpleasant surprises. 💙🐾
I would just like to say, thank you for these videos, they seriously help with homesickness, iv been away from the UK too long...
Just what I was going to say. Been gone so long, these London💙 videos astonish as much as they inform and delight. Precious stuff.
(Isn’t Angel where I’d have very stupidly walked up the stairs (possibly a stationary escalator), aiming for Jury’s on Pentonville Road about twenty years ago (I mean, it IS the nearest station isn’t it?) thinking I’d never reach the bloody surface, but reluctant to give up the attempt? Aaargh! Unbelievable trial of endurance!)
What a great story! Thanks so much for this Jago.
Verily, this is angelic indeed; hosanna in excelsis!
Glo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-riaaah in exelsis Deee-o!
I've walked past that theatre/pub thousands of times over many many years, who knows how many time I walked past Jago pulling pints
Out of ALL the tube stations Angel is definitely my favourite. (the escalators make it even better)
Halo and goodbye....love it! Another heavenly video from Jago 👑
Always interesting and informative!
Keep up the good work fella and stay safe 🚂
I hated using that old Angel Station, that single platform and the lifts/elevators. The Angel, Upper Street were all down market in the 60s, what a change in absense.
0:57 "There is still a pub called the Angel". Point of order. It is a Wetherspoon (from "Wether" - castrated ram, and "Spoon" - the means of castration), and therefore a heap of dingoes kidneys, not a pub.
Zing!
Exactly. The one in my town is always worth giving a swerve, as it is always full of Tramps, Beggars, Mendicants, Hobbledehoys, Vagabonds, and other top gits.
Before the Wetherspoons, it was a Ravel shoe shop.
'The Angel' is one of those parts of London that has a name that could be a good TV show title. Depending on the era it's set and the writers, it could be a crime drama, a soap opera, or a comedy.
Jago the theatre mogul. Absolutly brilliant.
I half expected a chorus of: 'You are the wind beneath my wings' (although that sounds disrespectful) - thanks for another great insightful vid.
The original Angel pub/coach house was named after the Angel coin. The name indicated that it was somewhere that this high value coin (popular with travellers/traders) could be exchanged for smaller denominations.
Same with some pubs called the Crown.
Elephant and castle pub was named after the reverse motiff on the guinea.
I really love your videos! The history of the tube. The occasional history of an office building or housing blocks that relates to the tube in the end. Or the beginning. Sometimes the middle. Some history about parks or art. Those usually have a connection to the tube also, somehow. I have now watched every single video on your page that is open to the public. It all has me very confused in that no one at any time had a solid cohesive plan of what the tube was going to do, why, where or how. The only driving, motivating factor was making money whitch seems to have failed for most that got involved. The London Tube seems to me as if it is the messiest, zig zagging, rail system with the most random set if stops of any underground's in the world. The upside is that it creates adventure, great stories, hidden gems of trivia while somehow also being transportation. Keep up the work as we all enjoy it a great deal. I don't think you will ever run out of quarky stories in that spaghetti bowl of a train system.
Maybe Jago could look at some other lines that never were (the possibility of a route from Strand (Aldwych) to waterloo was one, from the 1910s promotions, but generally the routes make a little sense. (1) follow the western station to the city ( Hammersmith and City to Moorgate/ Aldgate. (2) follow the new sewers along the thames (District), one through the centre from the west (central line), one for the west end - from Paddington to a southern point - Bakerloo, one from the city to the south (and north) , Northern Line. So would there be better routing (given the mainline commuter routes were already generally in place)
You didn't want to remain stationary at Ryman's?
I guess he wasnt a Staple of their employment.
Maybe he pushed the envelope too far! 😱
@@bryan3550 Letters not stamp on Jago's form of address.
@@bryan3550 Copy that.
The escalators at Gatwick airport North Terminal to get to the bridge under which aircraft pass may be in the top ten of escalator length too. There you go Jago - another subject for a series.
The record longest (or deepest - can't remember) was the Tyne Pedestrian Tunnel escalators. Bit of a misnomer, at one point 25,000 bicycles a day travelled through their dedicated tunnel. With people riding them of course...
A way more interesting video than I had any right to expect. Entertaining and very informative as always.
Not sure why, but I always expect at least a tidbit of how it was purposed in WW II.
Titbit.
Pity the lifts were replaced, in one way; what an awesome challenge the emergency stairs would have been 🏃♂️😰
it was as high as 15 storey building so…
I've walked up them a couple of times, back when the lift wasn't working or the queue was too long. It's a long way up 😬
@@phillwainewright4221 I walked up the ones at Covent Garden once. Halfway through you begin to regret it but there's no point turning back.
Excellent video as always, mate. The only thing you left out was it's right next to one of the most famous nightclubs in London, Slimelight. That's the main reason I use this station so often, and it's great to know it has an interesting history. Keep up the good work :)
I was going to say the same thing. One of the innocent enough looking doors on Torrens Street. I have fond memories of Angel from just after the refurb for this reason!
Good stuff. Thanks for making this video.
I never thought about going round the back to find the old station.
Yes, it has a memorable platform. (I must go to Clapham some time and see those island platforms.)
Center platform stations are certainly more convenient IMHO. E.g., when traveling from SF to Berkeley on BART (when the direct line isn't running), you can get off at 12th Street/Oakland or at 19th St Oakland, and cross the platform to the other line. And because of the way the 12th St Oakland BART is laid out, when returning late from Berkeley to SF, you go down the escalator to catch the train for SF. Where one has to go over the tracks, as e.g., at Milbrae Station to go south on the CalTrain, you must go up a rather long escalator, tag out of BART, go down the stairs to the Caltrain platform. But in the other direction, the northbound CalTrain is a straight-across walk to the northbound BART into SF.
I grew up in Islington the Angel is a very special place to me..Angel tube station old and the new holds many memories including the hell of stairs that could kill or cure you walking up them!
Expected standard reached! Many thanks!
I sometimes wondered why one platform at Angel was so wide.
Growing up locally Angel was always more interesting than old street because of Island platform gave a sense of excitement
So Jago used to work for Ryman? Surprising as I didn't think he'd be into anything that was stationary. :-)
Ryman at the Angel only sold Lettraset fonts that had serifs in.
I remember going down the spiral stairs or the old shuttered lift at the old station in City Road. Used to love the smell of the wind coming up the stairs as a train came in.
I always look forward for you're fantastic videos Sir...✊✊✊
My late father was a sheet metal roofer. He and a fellow worker built the grey zinc roof above the old abandoned Angel Station building entrance. The company he worked for was BIZ, that was once based at Laycock Street at the other end of Upper Street. Out of interest, the company was owned by Smith's and Sons, who were builders merchants that sponsored and restored the green clock tower right by the station.
I commuted to Angel in the late 80s and remember the lifts were crammed in the morning rush hour. Sometimes they would almost get to the top, but then descend again, as it was too heavy. At the bottom, a couple of people would have to get out, before the lift made a second attempt!
I too remember that scary island platform in the old Angel station. I only used a few times before the new station was built - what used to annoy me immensely was that most of the people ignored the one way system on the steps down to the platform. On more than one occasion I almost got knocked over when going down by people rushing up on the wrong side !!
So you started to use this station once it became fashionable for Upper Middle Class Yuppies. Would we find one of your old Filofaxes lost under the escalator?
I was never respectable enough to be a yuppie.
@@JagoHazzard But were you a sweet little cherub when young ?
Sans Hesitation, Sans Repetition, Sans Deviation. Hallelujah in the highest. Bravo Jaco, another veritable masterpiece of aural and visual delight.
Ah, the Angelic puns at the end, heavenly.
Better than being 'The Arsenal of the Piccadilly Line"....
Arsenal and Bond Street are the only stations on the London Underground that have a name of a place that doesn't exist.
I used to use the Angel station in the sixties going to school. I remember the island platform and the lifts and the trolleybuses up on the roads above.
I remember applying for a temp job based at Angel with the charity that raised funds for Guys Children’s Hospital in City Road during my summer vacation when at university in Summer 1991. I was asked in for an interview and duly arrived on the northbound tube. When I got off the train, I remember the overwhelming sense of trepidation as I walked along the narrow plank that masqueraded as a “platform” as the train from which I had momentarily alighted seems to rush past at warp speed and threaten to drag me into the mystic portal (or “northbound tunnel” as it is better known). 😳
Having escaped death, I managed to compose myself sufficiently to brave the return, albeit I confess I waited at the top of the small flight of steps that were at the end of the platform until the train was entering the station! 😅 Funnily enough, I eventually got used to it and actually kind of enjoyed the quirky jeopardy of the daily “work or death” game in the end 🤔 Once summer was over, I didn’t return again to Angel until the late 90s for a gig and could barely recognise the place, not least as of course you came out into a snazzy new station rather than the “old house with favela-town tin shed extension” feel of the former building, and the dizzying length of the new escalator was a far cry from the stuffy old lift with unbearably loud door alarms 🚨
Although I frequented and lived by Tooting Bec (see previous naff comments on previous videos by yours truly) for a few years, I never alighted at the Clapham stations, until attending a festival at Clapham Common in 2012, and was equally amazed and delighted to see that the island platform remained. Once again I felt that sense of trepidation, largely because my then girlfriend experienced what I had all those years before and was terrified! I must admit though, this platform did seem wider than the old Angel one…🧐
Nah, probably the same! 😃 But those platforms were/are narrow. So much so that at Angel, the old style red-framed dot matrix indicators that were then a newly installed were too long to fit end on and had to overlap above the foot of the stairs! 🤭
Thanks as ever chap. Always look forward to a Jango (late) Breakfast Edition 👍🍻
The island platforms were a bit narrow but they weren't that bad. You're over playing it.
@@ds1868: Er...bit of an unnecessary- and a somewhat rude- comment. I am merely conveying my memories. If you actually read what I wrote, I soon got used to it, but relived the initial trepidation when I experienced my then girlfriend's wariness because there were a lot of people in a very narrow space. And when those platforms are rammed they do make one feel trepidation.
Why be so miserable anyway? 🤷🏻♂️
Splendid! Thank you so much for these little adventures.
The tipping point for Angels old layout came in the late 80's with the death of a man down on the old island platform. It was believed the victim was pushed into the path of a train speeding into the station whilst at the crowded exit end of the platform... the aftermath was pretty horrific (even for the tube which has a suicide every three days) and caused the station to be closed until the next day.
Posters asking for more witnesses were at the station for several months afterwards, though I dont remember the case ever getting any further?
Good to be reminded of its old island platform days - used that a few times. Are there plans to change the layout at those other stations - maybe they don't have the passenger numbers or South London isn't a priority?
They do talk about it from time to time.
Chris Amies
I reckon Clapham Common has the passenger numbers to warrant separate platforms so maybe it is a North London bias.
@@JagoHazzard Clapham North Needs it, maybe with improved interchange to Clapham High Street
I would like to see one of those stations preserved.
@@cerneuffington2656 Well when they are modified the features tend to stay visible. Of course the reworked Bank and London Bridge were also Island Platforms , and had narrow platforms
Thanks for including the map.
After watching this I’ve realised I’ve a sick sense of humour, thanks Jago!
Wow, what a cool southbound platform! The island design looks terrifying... Thank goodness it was modified.
Evidently safer to descend the nosebleed escalators drunk than on skis...
I remember using the old Angel station in the late 1980's - it was a real time warp. I have only had one occasion to be in that particular part of London so I haven't ever seen the replacement station. The island platform was dangerous IMHO!
Islington has changed so much!
Another great video Jago... but why no mention of a certain board game?
I’ve been playing with the idea of covering that in a separate video.
Huh? Do please share.
@@SecretSquirrelFun it’s on the UK version of the Monopoly board. That’s how I know it best.
@@nickmoore385 Oh of course, thanks so much for replying. You rock 🙂❤️🐿
I finally know why the platform is so wide, thank you. It was bugging me for years, but that makes total sense. It is my favourite station because the platform doesn’t give me anxiety like most of the others.
The area was named after the station, which was named after the inn, which was named after the coin with an angel on the back.
Loved the old lifts at the Angel.
Back in the 70s the lifts were still staffed with a lift attendant who controlled the lift and opened the gates.
Used to work in the office building above - climbing those escalators from the train in the morning was always a good cardio work out...
Hallelujah! My favourite fact about Angel station is that it's the closest underground station to an Austrian restaurant / café with divine food & angelic cakes. Thank heavens for it! 😊😇
I’ll have to look that out next time I’m in the area.
@@JagoHazzard it's called Kipferl 😊
Yes I used this station to get wood veneers in curtain road , I remember with shock how many people are crowded on the platforms with trains either side at speed , wow !
Those Escalators are fun when staggering out of Slimelight at 7am!
Thanks for this very informative presentation. I had no idea of the depth of the escalators.
My family lived in Islington in 1977 and Angel was our tube stop.
My main memory was my brother and I deciding to take the stairs up rather than wait for the elevator once. It felt like climbing Everest -- I'm not surprised that the escalators are notably long. Going down the stairs wasn't as big a deal (with gravity's help) and we did that all the time.
Absolutely angelic puns, Jago! And interesting about the station's layout
I first came across the original station in 1985, I continued to use it after reconstruction in 1992, I remember well the original station building, problems with lifts and that stairwell, the overcrowded platform at peaks, reconstruction was 30 years ago, liked it the way it was, as takes to long to get to platform level.
I used to own this place - when playing Monopoly.
The Clapham stations have island platforms like the old Angel used to
I'm amazed there was never an accident.
Another superb and informative video. So good, in fact, that as well as clicking the like button I have also sung a few hosannas (although I very nearly missed your exhortation to do so). Thank you Mr H. Simon T
Prague has an Angel station too (Anděl), the original name alluded to Moscow as a sign of international friendship, because it was built in the 80s and it was cool then. It was so cool that Moscow also built a station named after Prague and they were opened at the same time. When that friendship stopped being cool, Angel got its name after a nearby house that used to stand in the area. The look, also heavily Soviet-inspired, stayed to this day, and when you got to the shot at 4:50, I really had to do a double take. The white ceiling, the colour scheme of the tiling, and even the pattern on the floor are a really good match. I would find it highly ironic if someone got inspired from another Angel station (before it was even called that), but looked west instead of east!
Sorry for the long-ass comment, it just really surprised me how similar they are (and perhaps you would appreciate this story)
Thank you for the new angle on Angel
Ah, that long gone island platform, such are the nightmares of my student days made
Right down the bottom of the comments is a mention of "The Angel, Islington" being a (downmarket) "stop" on the Monopoly board. Thought I would save some people having to scroll right down.
Must be the only Road stop that is a place, not a street ( argue about Trafalgar Square)
Not downmarket today. Property in Islington is stratospheric.
I wonder how much is left of the old booking hall and lifts .... I used to like the 'cubes on a string' that showed you where the lifts were - but I imagine they've all been swept away by modernisation....
'Halo and goodbye' got a good chuckle from me
_Blimes, was always in the King’s Head, once upon a time, even if the divier Highbury Corner end of Upper Street suited me better..._ another example of a sort of building like the Edwardian re-built Angel pub is the building on the southern corner of the intersection of Parkway and Camden High Street (not the bank, the one that’s been everything from ‘phone shops to sandwich eateries).
Think it was called _The Britannia;_ you could truly once see an entirely different London, travelling back in time, just from being sat on the top deck of a double decker. A lot of those pubs served the same purpose originally, the _Assembly House_ in Kentish Town having the most obvious name. All aimed at letting people travelling North congregate so they could journey together and not get waylaid.
Grew up in Camden and had loads of school mates in Islington, and taking the motor to act as the weekend drunk taxi, it was genuinely striking how meandering and difficult a drive it was. It’s still not realised by many Londoners just how industrial even agricultural (cattle sale yards) that northerly triangle of land stretching out between the separating lines from St Pancras and King’s Cross was. Though those not too old will remember the pre-regeneration clubs around York Way and those dominating gasometers. The real knife throwing dives were the pubs around Pentonville where you could always run into the crims who’d only recently been released from _”The Ville,”_ great fun.
A friend of mine from 6th form days worked nights as a security guard at Angel when the escalators were being built. Apparently to prevent a repeat of an incident where a disgruntled/drunken contractor tipped a large quantity of sand down the shiny new escalator, which resulted in it being shiny, new and broken.
Or you could say “Angel of the North London”. I’ve been to Angel as there is a exhibition centre nearby and it’s quite a nice busy area in North London.
@0:52 Hey, I've relaxed and eaten a few meals at the Witherspoons in Angel a few years back..
Greetings from Philadelphia!
Back in the 70's, I used to wander over to the Angel regularly, heading for Saddler's Wells theatre - a Gilbert & Sullivan fan (I also liked Punk rock, odd mixture). That old, narrow, single platform looked and felt really weird and unnerving, especially since you could only approach it from stairs at one end. I would not have wanted to be on it during rush hour.