Great video as always! I lived just off Lordship Lane in the 90's and we regularly used to walk our dog in the woods near the first tunnel. One night we had friends staying and after a few beers decided to take the dog up to the woods, we crossed the wooden footbridge about 200 yards from the Northern portal and walked for a while before heading home. On the way back there was a guy standing on the footbridge wearing a snorkel parka with the hood zipped right up. We all said good evening or whatever to him as we went through the turnstile and he just nodded back. Not one of us thought there was anything strange about a bloke in the middle of the night standing on the bridge and it wasn't until the next day someone mentioned it and we all started questioning why we just casually walked by and said hello to him and none of us were freaked out or even discussed him straight afterwards. Went to the pub that night and was chatting to two old boys that we used to sometimes drink with, I remembered about the bloke in the woods and told them, one of them immediately said, 'Oh yes, that will be the ghost, there was a man killed in those woods in the seventies.'
Hello Paul and Rebecca, I've just got there straight from Geoff's channel and I subscribed immediately. I love your video about Crystal Palace High Level
I was born in East Dulwich and lived in Forest Hill from 1975 to around 1989ish. I've lived in Kent ever since. It's good to see my old stamping ground again. Great video guys.
Vaulted roof was surely the phrase on the tip of your tongue. The route of that old railway is one that I took with a friend a few years ago. I seem to recall wheeling a bike down a very steep path at one point. Paxton Tunnel was, of course, named after Joseph Paxton, who was designer of the revolutionary pre-fabricated modular system used for the building of Crystal Palace (and based on work he'd done designing the greenhouses at Chatsworth House where he was head gardener). It allowed the 563 metre long building to be put up in just 8 months. Paxton was also a director of the Midland Railway, so quite appropriate I guess. He went on to become an MP and proposed to a Parliamentary Committee the "The Great Victorian Way" which was to be a 10 mile long arcade, complete with houses, shops, a road and an atmospheric railway which would run in a loop round much of central London. The design started off with just 4 tracks, but Paxton amended it to have 4 in each direction, including an express service. These were to be elevated of course, on either side of the great, roofed arcade. It would have been quite an alternative to the Circle Line. You do have to admire the industriousness and imagination of these Victorians.
What a nicely put together clip. This is broadcast quality! "The Abandoned Crystal Palace High Level Railway" is something I didn't know I didn't know. Nice choice in background music ...
"The real golden age of railways was not the 1920s/1930s but the years before WW1" I heard this on a railway documentary. Very apt for this one. You can just imagine Victorian Londoners travelling on this line. Super video as always.
I couldn't agree more Robin. The coming of the buses and freedom given from the slow but inevitable use of the car was the nail in the coffin. I would suggest that the highest use of railway per head of population was probably between 1890 and 1920
Hi, just jumped over after watching Geoffs videos, love lost history, we have an old line running through our village which I hope to capture fully one day.
More tunnels, yummy! I knew about these tunnels and I intend to visit them someday, but it’s good to see them in advance, so thank you. It all looked quite accessible. Thanks for another great video.
Hi there, First, came here through Geoff's London's Lost Railways video. And Second: Thanks to you and Geoff for giving me the correct pronounciation of Sydenham. As I thought it started with Side and not Syd. Regards, Aaron.
I remember this line well. I took a picture of the south portal of Paxton tunnel in 1988 and there was a little model of a railway engine on the right of it! It looks from your video as if it is now obscured by greenery! Loved your video - thanks!
How cool - I like Geoff and Vicky and am subbed to his channel too, need to catch up on his vids too - very knowledgeable on the trains in London! Great vid too!
Fantastic stuff - really interesting to see the different perspective of the same line from both yours and Geoff’s perspectives... always like it when youtubers do “a collab” (as my 9 year old calls it!)
At 9;57 Rebecca, you should've sunk your teeth into that! It would've made great video! Love your stuff guys. Not sure how I stumbled on it all but I'm enjoying it immensely.
Excellent video, as always. I was actually in London when this video was released, with my girlfriend in Staines, seeing her for the first time (for our 6 month anniversary). So good to have been out of my local area for a while. I also did 33 new tube stations (getting the labyrinths at all but 2 (Ickenham is missing, West Brompton has a covid one way no entry sign stuck over it), bringing my tube station total to 85/270) and 17 new mainline stations (all SWR, bringing my mainline total to 281/2570?) while on my trip, as well as seeing the remaining 24 class 707s with SWR (6 have transferred to SE so far, 003-008). On my next trip in about 5-6 weeks, I'll be doing more tube/overground/SWR stations, maybe even going to do some stuff with Southern and SouthEastern, since I've literally just done Charing Cross to London Bridge on SE. I didn't watch any youtube while I was away, so this weekend is just me catching up with the 100+ videos I've missed... Next up, Geoff's video.
Hi all , my late Mum used the branch towards the end before closure . She said that sometimes glass would fall from the high level roof and the station was very run down . She would then get the tram outside to travel home . Great video , well done everyone
@@pwhitewick Mum also used to say that birds would be up on the roof and they probably caused the glass and other bits to fall . No Pigeon netting then !!
Trams down Anerley Hill from Crystal Palace were replaced by trolleybuses in the mid-late 1930s. So she could have been catching them, but not just before closure. Nice to near exactly how run-down it was before closure.
That was our playground as children, the station was still there and there was a turntable at the end of the platform, I think that there was a 60's film that used it as a set. by Ken Russell. We had a swing ontop of the Northern portal of the Crescent wood tunnel tied to a branch of a tree when you swung out you were 100 ft up. The tunnels were open we regularly walked through. We knew the station atop the tunnel as Sydenham wells station, which was near the Dulwich woodhouse pub which was at one time an early radio station.
Thank you for solving the puzzle of where Crystal Palace station was. Such magnificent style, those tunnels. Shame they are not open as a through walk.
Watched both versions and thoroughly enjoyed them both! I was lucky to go inside Paxton Tunnel many years ago! The northern portal in the playground had the steel doors slightly ajar, so I went inside. I took a few photos. I didn't venture in too far in case some one locked me inside. This was the time before digital cameras. Needless to say, they didn't come out very well!
This link is to part 1 ( of 5) which, when I watched at least) had part 2 as next and as you went on they appeared in order. Definitely a movie from a different time i'd agree. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Au24RVeQcE0.html
@@C2K777 Oh yeah,don't get me wrong,i live within an hours drive of Crystal Palace and have always been interested in the history of the place.This film was the first i'd seen of it in moving pictures after it's closure and most definitely a film of it's day
I used to walk along part of the country over 50 years ago, when I lived in that area to visit friends. I noted that there was a green area of a defunct railway particularly what was Brenchley Gardens. I would walk from the end of Peckham Rye (Cheltenham Road) along Brenchley Gardens to Honour Oak to Forest Hill and back.
Hi. Loved the item on Crystal Palace tunnels, brought back memories of messing about in them back in the late 6os when we were kids. I think the Sydenham Hill woods area was nicknamed "The Grange".
Yes I remember it being called The Grange, we used to walk through both of those tunnels when we were kids in the 60s, the underpass from the High Level station site, we thought that was a Roman temple. We also used to play in the big signal box and climb the ladder to the roof.
Nice to see most of my favorite railway people in one video. Different styles, and all lovely people. Keep up the great work! (“Most”? Yes, throw in Jago Hazard and the kid from “Another Station, Another Mile”, sadly the man from “Shropshire Railways” is no longer with us...)
@Paul and Rebecca Whitewick Me too. He died about two years ago. He had posted that there would be no new videos for a while, but unfortunately he didn’t recover...
Interesting video, I lived in one of those houses just to right at 3.04 back in the early 70's and me and my mates used to walk up to the back of the estate and through the wire fence and onto the old track bed along to the tunnel when there were just railings to block the tunnel off, we were able to squeeze through and walk to the other end, it was pitch black but none of us used to think of any danger lol.
I grew up near Crystal Palace High Level railway and in the 1960s my friends and I used to explore the station site shortly after it had been demolished and we were fortunate enough to explore both tunnels on several occasions, but for me, the jewel in the crown has to be the subway beneath the road linking the station to the Crystal Palace exhibition ( now a Grade 1 listed building ). The link below contains the story of the railway and many pictures of the line and its stations, well worth checking out, it also had a turntable on the other side of the bridge at Farquhar Road, picture available within the link. www.disused-stations.org.uk/c/crystal_palace_high_level/
This used to be my Sunday afternoon hangover walk when I lived in Sydenham! The vaulted ceilings of the underpass underneath CP Parade are amazing, had a couple of halloween parties in those tunnels too, before they were sealed
Based on the commentary of both videos, it makes sense that the Southern Portals of the tunnels were decorated. The platforms of the next station close enough to see the tunnel entrances so the LC&D would want to create a good impression on the travelling public
The original plans for the LCDR Metropolitan Extension showed a different line to Crystal Palace than that which was built. There is also yet another scheme shown on a Dulwich Estate map of 1860. both of these routes started from a point north of Penge Tunnel and involved severe gradients to get up to the palace
I saw down into the turntable end of the High Level station some time during the 1950s, after the line had closed in 1954. It was dusk and really spooky for a small boy, but fascinating nonetheless. The Middleton Press book on the line has some fantastic shots of the routs and CPHL station as well as a great track plan.
Ah! The crossover episode. Now all we need is the great ensemble movie where everyone teams up to take on the true puppet-master supervillain: the reincarnation of Dr. Beeching!
Yes, that is the original house at Upper Sydenham. The site of the High Level station at Crystal Palace is quite extensive because of the large number of sidings to stable stock. The line was electrified at time of closure. One of very few electrified lines to be closed.
I believe the platforms at Upper Sydenham were buried when the area was landscaped. When I visited the site many years ago the platform ends by Crescent Wood Tunnel were still visible.
HI Geoff. We here in NZ have just watched your vblog on the crystal palace railway. I went to school in south norwood and was told of the Crystal Palace pneumatic railway. can you trace that today at all. A mystery line. All the best. keep up the good work.
If Mr H was up for a collab, that could be quite funny. Might be a good way of him doing a "face reveal" or ~ maintaining his anonymity, even 𝒊𝒏 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒕 of the camera, could be a fun challenge.😁