There's an abandoned station on one of the busiest streets in Kensington. What gives? Join me for a tale of theatre, war and organised crime. Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/jago... Patreon: / jagohazzard
I think Yerkes was sadly misunderstood. It seems he got things done. AND by the way he founded the Yerkes Observatory which was only wound up around 2010 or so.
I would like you to look at the history of the South Kensington walkway which connects the station to the museums and Royal Albert Hall as I used it every time I went to The Science Museum.
The entrance from that subway to the V & A would have been very handy when I was commuting on the Piccadilly to my job at the museum. Unfortunately it was blocked off for whole of my time there because of worries over potential IRA attacks.
The thing about people who get difficult things done, like Yerkes and Rickover (submarines) and Churchill, is that they are determined and ruthless, so they are not necessarily pleasant people to deal with.
@Professor McClaine - DODGY RUSSIAN OLIGARCH: "I will ask you once again, professor - Where. Is. Your. Boy?" MAC: (Checks watch) At this very minute, he'll be setting demolition charges in the shaft, to bring your computer hub screaming down, sixty odd feet, and will be exiting the site by the roof of an adjacent building with the use of a jet pack." DRO: Laughs uncontrollably, and ushers MAC into the Brompton evening. (As MAC drives off, there are several dull thuds, and the ground shakes. The DRO looks up and sees something bigger than a bird, smaller than a plane, shoot into the sky. As the DRO looks at Brompton Road station, it collapses into a huge pit, leaving only the Leslie Green oxblood tiled façade standing. Brickdust and plaster flutter down like snow. The DRO clenches his fists in impotent rage.)
Many people who are senior managers even nice ones had to have made difficult decisions on the way up. I think many managers have an iron hand in the velvet glove (to quote from Biggles books).
It was the town head quarters for the University of London Air Squadron (ULAS) until it was sold by the MOD. Apparently if you look through the letterbox it still says 'Welcome to ULAS' on the front desk.
Excellent. Especially right at the end after Jago asks Dimitro not to sue him and then immediately says "you might like to subscribe..." I wonder if Dimitro WILL subscribe? Another great video Jago. Thanks once again for the history and entertainment.
I've walked nearby, but never knew there were station remains to be seen. Strange how such an underused station got to be immortalised in literature. (I think a song too). Good video. Thanks for putting it up.
When I was working as Piccadilly Line train crew in the late 1970s Covent Garden was closed on Sundays. On one particular occasion the train describer was showing the train's destination of Arnos Grove and below it "For Non-Stop Stations Change at Holborn". The non-stopping of stations has ended in 1939. I passed Brompton Road more times than I care to think about. Between Brompton Road and South Kensington there are two reverse curves with a severe speed restriction and South Ken platforms are separated vertically. Is there another tale from the tube in that arrangement I wonder?
There's an old rumour that it has an additional emergency exit shaft in the nearby Brompton Square garden / park. That would be typical of MOD bunkers of the era, a second small shaft nearby but far enough that a bomb hit on the main entrance wouldn't collapse it as well. It would just be something small, a small staircase or series of ladders, nothing like as big as an UndergrounD spiral stair shaft. There's a small brick hut there, which might be a trace of it, but explorers could never confirm it.
I remember another rumour that there is a secret exit in Holy Trinity Church, although if its true, then its not very secret. Quite a plausible rumour though!
I'm going through the backlog of videos. I just love that this is such a niche channel that all the people watching it love it too. Hence the 4k likes and 9 dislikes.
When is Hollywood going to realise, that 'Tales From The Tube' is a blockbuster, just waiting to happen? I can see Gene Hackman cast as Charles Jerkes, and Jim Broadbent as Jago Hazzard.
Hollywood would turn into some crappy action "thriller" with Jago having to save Ye Olde Londone Heritage(e) from the Evil Ghost of Charles Tyson Yerkes. Or possibly the other way round, as Hollywood can't cope with the concept of a British hero and an American villain.
When I'm travelling on the Picadilly line, heading east of South Kensington or west of Knightsbridge, I lean out of the carriage and shout "Passing Brompton Road!" just before the train leaves. I then look and see the bewilderment on other's faces!
I was literally walking there yesterday and saw the abandoned station…I didn’t know what it was at the time, but it certainly looked like a tube station. This morning I woke up to this video! Illuminati confirmed.
Brompton Rd. Was used as tunnel ventilation shaft who's plant I used to maintain in the '70's. Access could only be made from the cab of a train from Sth. Ken on to the old platform
I lived and worked in Rutland Gate for some years and often walked along Cottage Place. Knowing something of the history of the Underground, I reognised this building as a former Piccadilly tube station. I have to say that I would have liked it to be a working Tube station. To get the Piccadilly Line I had to walk either to South Ken or to Knightsbridge, and being an idle sort, found both of them just a bit too far. Anyway, thank you for this video about the history of Brompton Road station - it's always good to learn more about the history of familiar places.
So the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway, not to be confused with the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway. Or the Great Brompton, Northern and Piccadilly Railway, or the Piccadilly and North Brompton Great Railway 🙎♂️
Very interesting stuff, thanks! I’ve always adored that deep red glazed façade of these stations, their overall period design. It all speaks of solidity and steadfastness to me, which is a bit discouraging given that so many of them are decommissioned!
In London for our daughter's wedding in Sept 2016 , No 2 son and I were making our way along ..some busy street,,,,,one where the WRNS chapel is....and lo! on the other side of the street was a Leslie Greene station ( ret'd). Made my day. ...your LevinNZ correspondent.
Such great memories of working on the area throughout the '90's and '00's. You could drive down Cottage Place back then as I remember parking my van outside the station and working next door in Brompton Oratory in a monk's cell!! There's a funny story attached to that, but that's for another day....
Well, it's a bit long-winded and I hope there's no Catholics reading this, so here goes. I get a job in Brompton Oratory to clear a fault on a phone line in this monk's cell. I think they have some kind of priest's school there. He had on this long dress, hood, everything, and I thought they wouldn't let me work in there as I'm a women, but he did, and he showed me to this tiny cell where he was living, with a single bed and a small cupboard squeezed in. So, I'm like, where's the socket, and he says behind the bed, so, I say, you'll have to pull the bed out, which we manage to pull out about a foot away from the wall. So, I have to lay down flat on this bed to get to this phone socket, and there I am, laying on this bed with my arse in the air and a monk leering over me, who was very red in the face, and I'm trying not to laugh and thinking to myself that this is the only woman he's ever gonna have on this bed! Anyway, I cleared this fault and left unscathed. I hope he went to confession and said three Hail Mary's!
@@angienorthey I’m a Catholic and think it’s a great story. He could probably hammer nails in with what you left him with, under his cassock, poor soul. But you don’t ever have to go to confession for anything sinful that you think, just for what you do. And I’m sure when you left he had a really, really good hard think, that night.
Dissing the Russian Mafia? Make sure you don’t end up as part of the London Underground infrastructure……that would really cement your place as a RU-vid legend…..if you get my drift?
Another excellent tale from the tube! I noticed an erroneous “title text here” at 2:51 (yay for iMovie) - I wondered if it was anything to do with the HTB sign that appeared at the same time!
On the Dandenong line was General Motors, a platform for employees working at General Motors Holden car company. Only one or two trains stopped each day in each direction. For the rest of the day the recorded announcement said “ Not Stopping General Motors”.
Always worth watching for your circuitous wit. Humour and information combined. as a teenager and more I passed by the station on the bus to- and from my places of work I wondered WT* - wht was it still there? Somewhat sililar in feeling to that of the Hyde Park Corner station entrance to another station before they closed that one down.....
You know, Jago, I've known about many 'businessmen' (a/k/a 'robber barons' or 'shady characters') of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras like Carnegie, Morgan, Mellon, et.al. for a long time. I had never heard of Charles Tyson Yerkes 'til I started watching your channel. Now, he's the only one of the lot that I recognise at a glance!
I got distracted by my phone for a few moments and... it was a jarring transition from "run-down abandoned tube station" to "Russian Oligarch arrested for bribery"
Fascinating! I've been to the church on the sign (HTB) multiple times before and never even noticed that Green (Red) facade. London is so full of stories and history!
When TFL get their computers to do the analysis of oyster card usage, Jago's must be on some weird outlier curve. Another interesting video, I love how you can blatantly see the facade to his left at the start and know what is coming!
Lots of interesting new info as always. The legacy of Brompton Road lives on in the unusually long gap between Knightsbridge and South Ken. Always regretted that LT didn't use the "passing stations" idea by using the Northfields loop and missing the stations between Hounslow and Acton Town which would speed up Central London to Heathrow by 10 minutes. The "all stations" mentality. Another missed opportunity is not linking the Piccadilly line to the Brentford loop near Osterley, which would give a direct Heathrow-Clapham Junction service connecting all round southern England. It would fit quite nicely with the fast trains - the Clapham Junction trains would join at Osterley just after the express passes.
The weekend that the LT Museum’s Hidden London Hangouts does the second part of their episode about Knightsbridge, Jago does an episode about the station that closes after the expansion, escalator installation and relocation of the station entrances of Knightsbridge
A few years ago, you could find 3D panoramic views of the gun control rooms installed in the circular stairwells of the station. Nothing can be seen from the trains, as, like Down Street, not far away, it was walled off. A fascinating site, though. And a good video. Nice one.
in the 1980's and 90's it also was home to the London University Air Squadron. Initiation for new members was to run stark naked from the building to end of Brompton Rd past Horrids and back usually but not exclusively at night time.
The one at Euston is to be demolished to make way for a new HS2 station next to the existing station at London Euston. Which I think it’s so sad but at least it will not be forgotten.
Whenever I visit London my local tube station is Gloucester Road. The original Leslie Greene station seems to be where the money exchange and flower shop are while the actual station is just off to the side. I was wondering what the history of this station was?
Kensington possibly not wanting a Tube station being too well ‘healed’ reminds me of when I visited Washington DC and hearing how they didn’t want Tube stations in their areas of the city and why it doesn’t have many stations!
The nefarious Yerkes and someone... uh... nefariouser.... in the same Tube video! Brilliant! Not gonna name the successor to Yerkes' title, mind you. I've no one to open my mail....
Great video. Will you look further down the Piccadilly line at some point in the future at Hatton Cross station? Really stark contrast to the Central London stations and a really interesting looking building.
