RARE Alley to a railway foot crossing in London! 

I'm in my fifties now and these little alleyways were everywhere near rail-lines when I was a kid in the 70's, nowadays they really are quite rare.

Something so simple as an alleyway but built so beautifully, bricklaying at its best.

I never used to get these kind of videos in my RU-vid recommendations. Geoff and Vicki have got a lot to answer for...

An architectural gem. I doubt if such a thing would be even planned these days let alone built so beautifully. Thanks for sharing.

That brought back memories. I used to live close to the A102 side of the crossing before the road was built and the crossing was a short cut to the fish and chip shop in Woolwich Road. Up some steps, across the crossing, down the steps, through the alleyway, turn left down to Woolwich Road, turn right and the fish and chip stop was just along on the right.

There was such a quiet beauty about how you shot your video. Don’t know why it was in my recommended’s but glad it was!

Found this randomly and thought 'WHAT, nearly 8 minutes of filming featuring an alley - and its got 400,000 views? Is any nudity involved??!!' Was going to pass it by until I scanned the comments - and glad I did. Surprisingly, a brilliant video. Thank you.

Wow, this is a blast from the past for me. I used to take this shortcut to get to Asda each Saturday with my Dad (we lived on Foyle Road1986 -1999). Thanks for sharing.

It is absolutely amazing how a little opening leads to so much! Love this video! Years ago, my two cousins and I went exploring over the rail lines on a footbridge in Faversham, Kent. It felt like we were doing something illegal, but in fact, it was a public footbridge over all the rail lines. This little alleyway almost makes it feel like we, the viewers, are doing something illegal by trespassing when in fact, it is a public right-of-way, as well!

A video of absolutely nothing and I LOVED IT!!! Quite relaxing in a funny sort of way.

When my husband was a kid he had a freight train pass close to the end of his back yard. He used to wave at the engineers and they used to throw huge thick pieces of chalk to him. They used it for marking train numbers on the yard chalk board. He loved it.

Yay the ally from Westcombe to Charlton, we used to tell the kids it was a magic ally when they were small, we use it all the time to go to the shops :) thank you for sharing a little piece of our hometown.

What a brilliant video, unless you live in this area you would never know about this pathway to Westcombe Park Station. As a retired Southeastern driver I was stopped a few times over the years for the freight to Angersteins Wharf to cross over at the Junction, but of course with the track non-electrified never went there myself, very interesting, thanks for the upload.

Smooth camera work

An Amazing difference in the sound level from Fairthorn Road to the tracks! Some people complain of the noise from trains which don't run continuously, but the noise from the constant traffic on highways is actually very annoying.

I suppose I am a sad person, but little alleys and railways and foot bridges adds colour to life. Thanks for posting. Oscar on the way.

Their are numerous such crossings in London, many of them around Wimbledon. They are mostly so concealed that only local people know that they exist.

Guy walks like a 90's computer game character.

Fascinating. Thousands of people must walk by there every day, without a clue as to what lies down that path. Thanks for sharing!

What a gem at the end of the alleyway. I always wanted to live somewhere right next to a railway line. Used to fancy an old station or stationmasters house but I’m at an age now whereby I’m not fussy. I just want to be able to hear trains and see them from my house. It is just in my dreams now, im never likely to move which is a pity.

Very common - almost all Victorian terraced housing uses alleys, ginells back lanes or pads (likely lots more local names too). My grandma's house was an end of terrace. The rear access was in the middle of the block, so a long walk round to get stuff into the yard. In those days all deliveries and collections - like the bin men (garbage collection) was to the back. House entrance was direct off the pavement (sidewalk) straight into the front room, or parlour, which was only used for extremely formal visits, like the vicar. Never by the family. Only two small rooms plus kitchen downstairs, three rooms upstairs (bath was a tin bath kept in the shed used every week!) Family was 11 kids.

What a gem of a location. Many thanks for the video.

Awesome alleyway. Great piece of history still in service. Thanks for sharing.

I often see this branch line behind the big ASDA in North Greenwich. It goes across a nice bridge on Bugsbys Way and you get a very clear view of the Class 66s and their aggregates hoppers near there. You also get a decent view of the planes landing at LCY.

Glad there were no dementors in the alleyway. It’s kind of hard to conjure up patronus when filming a video..

I used to live a stones throw away in Calvert Road (in between Maze Hill and Westcombe Park) for 3 years, 20 years ago and didn't know this crossing existed, which is a shame, I would have liked to have checked it out!

Thank you for taking me on a walk through the backstreets of my home town - looking mighty pretty from this far away on the Indian Subcontinent. Great camera work.

What a gem of a find on the Internet and in real life. The alley is so "simple" and beautiful. Well filmed too. Thanks for sharing.

I was on at least three of the ships that used to run up to Angersteins Wharf back in the late 1990's and early 2000's before I retired in 2005. Never knew about the rail link - interesting...

That's wonderful. Just imagine having that treasure in your back garden !.

I kept seeing this video show up in the suggested list at the right. I said, "This better be good". And it was. Thank you for a very pleasant surprise. I enjoyed every minute of it. You did a wonderful job of it.

Outstanding video - Amazing how you timed your arrival at the line in time to photograph the train. I wouldn't feel safe walking that path after dark. You kept your camera very steady to produce a smooth video so very well done.

Fascinating! I have driven up and down the A102 many times, but never realised that there was a parallel Branch line running so close by!

This popped up on my RU-vid recommendations today. No idea why, as I'm not into this sort of thing. Crikey though, I was hooked immediately once I started watching it. Brilliant camera work and such a beautiful hidden part of London. I was transfixed! Thanks for making this.

I see the train on my travels. Thanks to you I know know what it carries and where it comes from. Thank you

Thoroughly enjoyed your wee tour and info...felt like I was there...was based in London back in '83 and lead singer in a band...lived in a street similar to this and instant memories...been a few years since my last visit and your vid has put me in the mood for another one fairly soon... Cheers!

I've often wondered where that footbridge over the A102 goes, I never realised that you can continue on it over the Angerstein Wharf line, so this video was very interesting, thanks!

In all the years of crossing this line, I have never seen a freight train, thanks for posting!

Really interesting. London really is a city of amazing contrasts. The whole video feels surreal, almost like something from a game. Could quite happily spend a day there wandering.

It's like jumping from a quaint South-Eastern village straight into a bustling metropolis.

A nice qwerky visit to London with a bonus freight train hauling aggregate rock for concrete.

Well that was perfectly timed:)

Very interesting to watch. Love the fact the entry looks like any other terraced house back entry. You never expect it to actually lead somewhere. There is another unusual terraced house somewhere in London I saw on a documentary once but can't recall where it actually is, but it is a frontage of a three storey Georgian terraced house which is not a house at all but a railway bridge complete with false doors and windows, you'd find that interesting.

Fascinating - thank you for the film and the history / views of south east London :) It is very rare to have a foot crossing like this. Network Rail are busy shutting them as fast as they can. I've subbed :)

the top flat on the right of the alleyway was sold in Aug 2017 for an attractive £255,000. It had a short lease and in need of refurbishment

The old 66069 I know it well. A friend of mine is a spotter so I often hear what is that number while he looks to see if he has it ticked off. Admittedly not down an alleyway but used to live in an area which was built around a farm so you would walk around the corner and straight across a railway line which would lead into the town and because people were crossing with such regularity there were a number of casualties when I was younger as unlike this one it was on a mainline so very easy to become blasé about it. I have always lived very close to railway lines completely unintentionally.

Super video. How 160 people have taken the time to watch the video, and then dislike it, is completely beyond me!

Walked through that tunnel to the station loads of times when we lived in Gurdon Road.

Brilliant! Now I’m going to get my A to Z, track it down and visit on my next holiday to the UK!

Where would we all be without sea-dredged aggregate?

Some years ago I went down there on a 'spotters' trip. When we got to the crossing my husband had got all our friends and neighbours to come along and wave, and there was a big crowd waiting there when we stopped.

Had no idea this existed, don't live too far. I'll visit it eventually! That's the great thing about freight lines, got quite a few little gems and unique stuff.

There used to be "Treacle Cock Alley" in Bingley, West Yorkshire that went under the railway line to the canal three rise locks. It was filled in when they built the bypass in the 2000's unfortunately. Progress kills the history and unique parts of the UK all the time!

there is a crossing like this to the west of alesford road crossing on the main line between Strood and Maidstone on the Tonbridge line,like this it has a wharf and a gavel depot

I was half expecting to see Del boy and Rodney appear ! Well done for showing this little gem, best wishes .

This is why I love London. All these hidden gems. You won’t find this in New York.

Interesting bit of footage, thank you for sharing it with everyone!

I’ve cycled past the wharf many times and see dredgers unloading the aggregate via a series of belts over the Thames path.

Amazing, I've lived in the area all my life and only discovered this the other day and here you are putting it up on YT!

I dont know why but i loved that video. I find old london so interesting. Imagine back in the day? Thank you!

This is sensational! A ginnel between two houses that leads ti a freight line bizarre, the sort of thing you could dream about? You have to be congratulated for this super footage, and bringing it to our attention.And to finish off with an EWS 66, what could be better? Do tbe 59's pass by, and when was this video shot? Thankyou once again highly enjoyable cheers Nick.

The alley must be a public right of way, but the owner of the house on the left most likely has a room or two rooms (front and back) above it. I wonder how responsibility for maintenance works out. Great to have a back gate from one of those gardens into the alley if you had to make a quick getaway!

There is a foot crossing between Trumpers Way, Hanwell and Windmill Lane, Southall that also crosses a freight line. There is a second crossing about 100m up the line taking the footpath from Windmill Lane into the Brent Riverside park.

Just checked the terrace house prices on this clip - flat £330,000 - house £550,000, I knew London was expensive, but this is crazy money !!

Graffiti ruins everything. You don't see that in Japan or Singapore and everything looks so clean.

Hi, Morthren, what a great little video! Very much enjoyed watching it. That's a sweet little twichell leading to the crossing; it was good fortune you didn't meet someone coming the other way - might have got a little tight in there! You may like to visit the twichell in Wimbledon that leads between Graham Road and Hartfield Crescent, just a few yards shy of the Dundonald Road stop on the Wimbledon-Croydon tramlink line. This passageway is a little out of the ordinary in that it has a small 'kink' about half-way through, where the back gardens of the houses on the two roads are not perfectly aligned! I can't think off-hand of any pedestrian-only crossings (at ground level) in my neck of the woods; as for pedestrian-only BRIDGES in London that are not directly associated with stations, there's the Alt Grove footbridge just outside Wimbledon station, the Elm Grove-Merton Hall Road bridge a little further southwest, and the two West Barnes Lane footbridges in Raynes Park. In addition, the Alric Avenue-Dukes Avenue bridge in New Malden.

Just imagine all those trucks full of aggregate that are NOT on our roads thanks to this one train. Thanks to the foresight of people keeping this little railway line open. The alleyway was nice. I know it sounds weird, but I was bought up in alleyways in my boyhood years. The streets where I lived all had a network of alleys. I used to walk the two miles or so to school through this tortuous network of alleys, crossing streets every now and then. It was safe then, and great memories.

Used to play on that railway line as a kid, if you walked up the line to the right it went to the river, but before getting to the river was overgrown waste ground, disused warehouses and a WWII pill box, it was one giant adventure playground. Nowadays its ASDA.

My wife walked past while I was watching this and tutted.

This is my second time to watch this video. It is really interesting! I showed this to my son also since he went to London a couple years ago. I hope you have more videos like this because I subscribed to ya!

Love the Dalek-steady camera views. I could sit and watch your perambulations all day. Well done *morthren!*

I absolutely love this fantastic, quirky video! Now I want to trace your steps through this alley in person.

I agree with most the comments here. Great smooth filming of really nothing, but I liked it a lot, but then in all honesty I'm a bit of a nosey bastard. Keep up the good work. 10 out of 10.

This was thoroughly enjoyable

Very nice indeed, like the alley seems like an old river passed through there and under the railway many decades ago by the shape and it was cleared away for the houses but the developers left it there and once the railway was built they turned it into a foot crossing. Someday I'd love to visit that. Seems very intriguing indeed. Wonder how those people feel about having freight trains pass by their houses all the time. Great Video also :) !

I'm from Woking and we pass huge heaps of aggregate just a little way from the main train station there and I never knew where it comes from until now.

Fascinating. Very enjoyable walk, viewed from New Zealand... I have just looked at Rail Map Online, and it is amazing how many railways and tramways were in and around the banks of the Thames.

Wall built in 1951. None of it Victorian. Re-built again in 1960 due to a derailment. Crayfaire Peach (Builders) Job No.23453.

So sorry to read from Alastair Austin that footpath now closed. Thsi is such a great video, I love seeing these little known paths and footbridges.

I live in Windsor, on the outskirts of Sydney, and there is a pedestrian only level crossing at Cox St, adjacent to the Windsor railway station. There used to be a car crossing, but this has been closed down with locked gates, so only pedestrians can cross. The crossing has warning lights and automatically closing gates.

Wow amazing how tucked away this is! Great vid 👍

You learn something new every day thanx

Really very interesting. Loved this video and its simplicity. Little nooks and crannies like this are rare in the States and from what I gather in the UK as well. Nice job.

The great industrial achievements of yesterday , carrying the shame of our graffiti , today , in a very sensible , quiet video. Thank you.

From the start I was expecting you to come out in Diagon Alley

Best video I've watched all day. Don't know why, it's just nice.

Can you imagine anyone designing a street pattern like that today? "Hey guys, let's just stick a railway crossing between these houses where children will probably be playing." The health and safety crowd would absolutely freak. But I guess back when they built this, they were working from the silly idea that parents were responsible for their children.

Very enjoyable, and will be paying a visit there soon tosoak up the atmosphere. What baffles me is why there are so many dislikes on this video?

I wonder how that alleyway going through the house affects the layout of the house? Fascinating video - and close to me, too, so I will have to give it a visit. The trick will be working out when trains run. Looking at real time trains, it seems that most of the working time table trips don't run, and it's the occasional STP and VAR that does.

Surely that can’t be right? It’s active even today? That’s awesome, I love it.

It would be pretty neat to live in those houses next to the line on Fairthorn Road and Farmdale Road! But i think the crossing needs some warning lights at the bottom of the stairs!

Very well filmed. Railway lands hold many secrets. This is true in all developed countries.

Nice little vid, you wouldn't even know that access tunnel was there if you weren't looking for it, that looked a pretty long freight train too. Just subscribed you, looks some interesting stuff on here. 👍

Very informative. Thanks for filming it. Barry.Devon.

Nicely shot, nicely edited, nicely captioned. Good Job.

The steadycam and silence make this look like a videogame

Good video. What stabiliser are you using?

Really fun video. I love the beautiful old bricks. Incredibly sad that taggers don't respect the old or the fact that it is someone else's property and still do their ugly spray paint. I strongly dislike the damage they do!!! Thank you for the upload.

oh that road is so noisy but so nice to hear the bird song almost! over it...

Great piece of information for Londoners and for people like me, *who have spent some time in London*. This video also make me reminiscent of the time of the time I spend in Woolwich, how I often used to take train from Plumstead Station for London Bridge or 422 / 472 bus for North Greenwich.