I'm glad that London's ghost stations exist. Sure you might not see them, but ghosts are still residents of London and they deserve to have their own dedicated stations just as much as the living do. Just saying! Seriously though, continue your rambling, it's good tea.
I rather like the sense of community among producers on RU-vid so I was amused when I heard on Auto Shenanigans: "When I see an abandoned building I'm on it like Jago Hazzard up a tube line." When you're become a metaphor then you've truly made it. Keep up the great work.
Ah yes, replacing one piece of British heritage like a train depot with another piece of British heritage, Tesco...perfectly balanced, as all things should be. Even more British when the Peppa Pig bus tour at 6:17 drove past it
Actually, until fairly recently, the Borough Rd end arches were home to a very large and active London Black Cab repairs and servicing garage. It used to be fair jammed most days. Now gone - a casualty of Uber, I guess. Black taxis - that's a piece of British heritage, no?
I work at London South Bank University, former Borough Poiytechnic, still postal address in Borough Road, with the National Bakery and Refrigeration Schools. Not.much demand these days for the original Farrier school for shoeing horses 🐎🐴. Borough Poiytechnic was one of the original Polys along with Regent St and Woolwich. I'm near the former Kilburn Poly founded in the Early 20th century by Middlesex County Council, to address London falling behind the continent in skilled trades. Unfortunately closed by Brent, along with the former Willesden Town Hall, the Granville baths and 2 sets of public toilets. How about a doc on the 4 stations of Kilburn / Kilburn High Road and the LGOC depot opposite the former station entrance to the London to Birmingham / LNWR railways?
Frank's Cafe - fond memories from nearly 10 years working in Southwark in the 00's. Loved all the arches that one could walk around and photograph . Jago, thanks for the memories !
An interesting point you referring to the number of station staff it’s about the number that you’d expect to be at Buggleskelly . Now I can’t get out of my mind the thought Will Hay , Moore Marriott and Graham Moffatt working there
1) You’re the last person I’d ever call an idiot Jago. 2) I don’t know about everyone else but I love a decent ramble, some of the most entertaining people to listen to off on massive tangents, Billy Connolly is famous for going off on a sideline and getting lost. In other words part of the reason I come here is for your ramblings, I love them.
As Armorer94 said, your rambling is entertaining. It actually demonstrates your enthusiasm for what your doing. Trying to communicate every last bit. Ramble on.
I lived in Elephant and castle for 8 years and used to walk to work along Borough road and Southwark Bridge road, it's nice to see the old streets again and Learn some of the history
Fascinating stuff. I worked on Borough Road in the 90s (actually next door to the Duke of York- or Goose & Firkin as it was) and I never knew this disused station existed, although I must have sat opposite it with a beer for many hours.. There was 'allegedly' an MI6 office at the eastern end of Borough Rd but it was deserted by the looks of it...
Another excellent video! I love hearing your ramblings in your videos. To those of us who don't live there, your ramblings are interesting, informative, and entertaining. I was in England and London for two weeks in 1992 and loved it very much. Hearing you go on about all these topics in your videos is quite lovely and enjoyable for me. Well done, sir! Cheers!!!🙂♥️
I live here in London and have found Jago's video to be fascinating, full of information I was previously unaware of and give me great suggestions for places to go to every weekend when I am out on a 'Street Photography' walk.
That last shot was on my old walk to work. It was always interesting walking from Waterloo to St. Paul's, either along the river or down all those rabbit-warren-like back streets with all their arches and criss crossing lines.
I absolutely love this part of London. Used to be based in Camberwell so when I had a few hours off I would walk up the line all the way to Blackfriars, sometimes even further. So many interesting hidden spaces to be found amongst the viaducts, bridges, arches and junctions.
JAGO,another beautiful,inspiring video,and South London,really does need to get its due!! If I could propose a follow-up video,on the ongoing series! Could you do a series on the trams,as the literally ran from Elephant &Castle,to Mansion House,via the Kingsway Subway! And to top it,there were several circular services,that literally made a figure 8,very interesting!! Oh,yes,add a cable car line,and conduit operations,made for a real mix of equipment and history!! Thanks again for your labors,and excellent editorial work!! Thanks!!
Thank you. Right in my immediate neighbourhood and I never knew! That's a heck of a long station platform - from the alleged Borough Road exit to the one on Webber St is 200yds/185m. Also, the widely separation between the twin tracks can't be just to accommodate the station platform. The wide median extends north another 100m to the Glasshill St viaduct but there's no corresponding gap south across the Borough Rd crossing.
Like a lot of boroughs in London Southwark has witnessed the demise of Londoners who were born and bred there, living there for generations until regeneration kicked in and kicked the lot of them out, by displacing and relocating many Londoners outside the fringes of London and further afield to places they have no connection with. And in its place a lot of these new redevelopments in my opinion look sterile and clinical in their design. And borough market has become a snobby place for rich kids to visit and look down on us all, ordinary Londoners who gave London its original character.
A reopening of Borough Road station wouldn’t be so far fetched, if Thameslink had been predicted on the same basis as Cross-Rail- as an intra London train service. The distance from Blackfriars (much reduced since to opening of the southern station) to Elephant & Castle (likely to remain a road junction rather than a neighbourhood) is still quite a way. Stratford to Maryland is considerably less. Direct connections from this area to the new Central London hub at Farringdon would be one benefit, but also access to London stations on the Kings Cross and St Pancras branches of Thameslink.
Yes, not far fetched. I moved into the area (about 400 meters away from this station) 25 years ago. The change has been incredible to watch - apart from the Peabody/Corporation flats on Borough Rd, the Rockingham and Scovell Estates and enclaves like Trinity Church Square, the resident population was minimal. Now, there are high rises springing up everywhere, markets, universities and building generally on every spare scrap of land. Much of this area was essentially derelict when I came. The resident population now would certainly justify a renewed Borough Rd station.
@@alastairbarkley6572 With the usual caveat - would this justify the delays for every other station down the line for the extra stop, and would an alternative be better? Given BRd's proximity to Borough and Southwark tube stations, would Camberwell have a stronger claim for reopening instead?
It's a bit amazing that Borough Road didn't even last until WWI, when the railways shut many stations and halts "temporarily" and in many cases, forever. Perhaps the station closures made more men available to beat back the Boche? Or just an easy way to close stations without having to run a parliamentary train?
I’m pleased you’ve made your subtle points clear by including subtitles because some of us are far too unsubtle to have understood the meaning. Please continue to dumb down for us hard-at-thinking Sun readers.
Oh no, please do continue rambling; I, for one, quite enjoy it! For one thing, you usually ramble about interesting or amusing things. And then, I also tend to ramble when I start talking about stuff I like and it’s nice to know I’m not the only one!
worked in southwark s.e.1 for many many years,there are many hidden places tucked away,and plentry of old cafes that are gone,and as for guys hospitol,yeah try looking under it,lots of hidden tunnels,which i have walked
I knew all the cafés with good cakes... right by Guys Hospital had a great selection, one near the gallery in Borough High St, another on the corner of Borough High St and Southwark St, plus of course Konditor & Cook by the Citroën body shop nr Waterloo East - still there, I believe, but others all gone.
It has some similarities with the former St James station in Liverpool, which closed during the First World War and never re-opened. Similarly serving an inner city working-class neighbourhood, with most people living within walking distance of their workplace, and only 20 minutes or so walk from the city centre. Also given the death blow by a frequent tram service. However this is actually now on a high priority list for re-opening. The demographics of the neighbourhood have changed radically recently and the area is a destination as well as an origin for many people. I wouldn't write off the chances of re-opening for Borough Road.
If that station was still operational it would have made it so much easier to get to LSBU when I studied there. Particularly during the Northern Line Bank branch closure. Travelling from Birmingham, I could have gone from Euston to St. Pancras and jumped on the Thameslink to Borough Rd. Friends of mine who commuted from Luton would’ve found it even easier.
Jago you should do a video on the eastern gateway bridge over the Thames and how there is a leftover stump of a bridge north of Gallions reach DLR, known as the Beckton Ski Jump!
I attended Borough Road 3 days a week from September 2018 to August 2019. I photographicly remember every corner of Borough Road and the exact environment of it.
Interesting train of thought there and not a single mention of Beeching. Just proves that not all closures were down to the dreaded Dr's axe (or hacks)...
No, but it was loosely connected. A Dr. B Ching had arrived on a ship in 1889 at Limehouse and had quickly become employed by various railway companies in the London area for his economic astuteness. He rose rapidly through the ranks to managerial status and apparently it was HE who advised the closure of Borough Road. (And if you believe that you'll believe anything). His son, Ker, also proved to be adept in the manufacture and development of mechanical tills....hence Ker Ching! (Sorry, too much wine at lunch 😃)...
Add more note: there was a person of real world wide fame from South London,but now relegated to the side lines,I refer you to Stan Laurel,the half of Laurel & Hardy,the great comedians of the 30's and 40's, whose labors are known only by the cognizant scholarship of the enlightenment! Thanks for your labors!! Thanks again 👍!
The phenomenon of stations just short of termini and West End or City stations being weeded out by subway, tram and bus competition is not limited to heavy rail. One of the longest journeys on the Underground is from Liverpool St to Bethnal Green. When the LPTB was planning this Central Line section ih the 1935 New Works Programme, it decided not to insert a stop at Shoreditch (e.g. to interchange with the northern end of the Metropolitan's East London Line) bc surface modes had collared too much potential traffic. There are comparable gaps on the mainline exits from London Bridge, Paddington and Euston, though Vauxhall near Waterloo has more services than in the 1950s- thanks to its somewhat labyrinthine interchange with 1967's Victoria Line.
We love all stations, alive or ghosts. I’m interested in old or abandoned stations, so yes, more please. I’m particularly attached as it were to East Brixton, I was planning a model railway based on East Brixton and Londons Elevated Electric Railway. Ahh, now there’s a subject for you to get stuck into. 😊
Thx for yet another informative and enjoyable video, Sir. Two new videos in as many days, even?! You're like the proverbial squirrel saving up his late summer acorns before the autumn sets in. BTW, how did Southwark ever become Suddok when pronounced? When I sang at the Abbey, we always thought of our contemporaries across the river as our poor cousins. It would appear, at least in terms of railways, it is the other way around.
Well you did it Jago. You bloody well fanned the flame with your videos and now I've just sent in my application to be a traindriver. Engine driver? Machinist. Soz for any 'English as a second language' train jargon faux pas.
I lost it at Reversal of Fortunes. It's not how bad a crap pun is, it's how you tell 'em. Well done. If the track was quadrupled, did that mean widening the viaduct? That would be quite an expense. I do enjoy a good ramble. Ramble in the brambles. It's that time of year. Though talking to yourself in the bushes might get you funny looks. People will avoid you which is understandable because of the very prickly natur...oh hell you got me at it now.
The viaduct is actually two 'identical' parallel spans - and nothing to say they they were built at the same time. Quite possible one was added later. I'll check it out next time I'm there.
@@alastairbarkley6572 Very likely. The LCDR was pretty impecunious so would have started with a standard double track line. Then when traffic took off and the demand was clearly there, they could scrape up the cash for the parallel viaduct.
How on earth did only 2 horses pull that heavy tram? Poor horse's I bet they didn't have long lives. Thank goodness they became electrified in 1904. Thank you for a great video Jago.
Did Spa Valley Railway yesterday (well bits of it , the Interconnection is a neccessary evil of time due to houses on the line. From London the walk through Tunbridge Wells is not too bad, hourly service, 45 mins to East Croydon. Then wretched wait to attempt to get to Peckham Rye (without extra payment for tram to run round to West Croydon , or going via Zone 1 - an unnecessary payment to attempt to find correct platform back out at Victoria (and Thameslink was Cancelled - lack of train staff ) . So basically its either spend loads of money on a train ticket for an hour to london, or live in Zone 2 and its half an hour but your rent costs and arm and a leg
Shame you cut away from that Routemaster before I could read the numberplate. One of the tea bus tour RMs was the last Routemaster to operate in Reading when Reading Mainline closed down.
Borough road sounds like a BBC soap and the LCD boys a SAW boy and. Talking of SAW I was chatting to Pete Waterman on Thursday, I managed to persuade SWMBO that we needed a day out in Chester,lunch ,retail therapy and most importantly I could go to the Cathedral to see Making tracks 2, the latest large model railway by Pete's team, well worth a visit if team Jago can travel outside the ULEZ.
I've been stuck at Blackfriars....no, wait, that was the one in Edinburgh and that Blackfriars is a pub and I had a pint in my hand! Ma bad....carry on, nothing to see here! 😉🍻
Another great video. I grew up on the Old Kent Road and was recently on side by side maps and saw it too once had a station in between South Bermondsey and Queens Road Peckham how I wish that was there growing up would have made life so much easier. Its funny because now I am a train driver I can clearly see where lines used to be London and the south was covered in them Deptford seemed like one big depot.
Splendid stuff! So many stations to choose from around there too. This one of several that I had always looked to find out more about but was far too much of a lazy g!t to do so 🙄 Obviously there’s the old Blackfriars (which I am sure you have already done at some point) and a few more scattered east of London Bridge (again I’m sure you may have done a couple of them too). I really don’t know if there’s much left of Bricklayers Arms but that is an interesting station in itself 🤔 I rather like the area too. Although it is distinctly contemporary (in the sense of it teeming with various persons of various types in an almost relentless pursuit of something to experience that they are convinced will leave their friends avid with jealousy at how cosmopolitan they are for trying something exotic like Tapas or whatever) it is also refreshingly Victorian in its feel because of the multiple viaducts and short strange streets and cul-de-sacs that one can’t help but expect to see in a decently budgeted remake of some drama or other set in the capital in the late 19th Century. And some of the architecture is simply wonderful (and probably, ironically, completely overlooked by its contemporaries as it was so de rigour at the time) and just sort of frames everything superbly, enough even to distract this old grouch from moaning at Borough Market when someone just unexpectedly stops right in front of me or cuts in without batting an eyelid for the tenth time that day 🙄😅 Enjoying this catch-up lark! 😉🍻🍀👍
Ahh Frank's Cafe best cafe in all of London and probably all of England. Such a shame it closed permanently during the lockdowns. Last time I ate there was the day we all got sent home for the first lockdown. I'm still missing the Frank's fry-up and Thursday curry day.
You mentioned that eventually they couldn't compete because the City & South London railway as well as the trams were electrified, but clearly the SE railway was electrified later at some point. When did that happen, and why weren't the original railways more aggressively pursuing it? Also, on the topic of electrification, why is everywhere south of London almost exclusively third rail and why was that never used elsewhere in the country (apart from Merseyrail)?
A DLR type service serving the congested streets of London calling Holborn Viaduct/ Blackfriars / Borough Road / Elephant / Camberwell etc could be useful , but tricky to fit it in space and headway wise.
I just looked this up on Google Maps. I'm somewhat annoyed that if it hadn't shut I'd have a Thameslink station less than five minutes from my flat. How short-sighted of the railway company not to take into account the convenience of someone who wouldn't be born for over fifty years.
I suppose you could have bundled Spar Road station into this video ( the original teminus for the L & GR - was that London's very first terminus?) or maybe that's for another day Jago?
