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.
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.
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. :)
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.
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.
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 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? 🤷🏻♂️
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.
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'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 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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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!
My friends and I used to slide down the middle of those escalators sitting on our bags on the way to school back in the mid 90s. Was a sad day all around when they installed those signs to stop us from doing it.
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.
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...
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 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 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 !!
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.
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...
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?
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 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.
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 !
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.
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?
I use to study in Islington 31 years ago never been there since I started working exactlly just above the station 4 years ago in an office block in what is called Angel square magnificent old building full of character . the upper Street becomes lively . Love the place
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
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!
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)
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)
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.
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.
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.)
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....
@@luxford60 OK, no worries. To explain, the band's 1979 album is "Angel Station". The single I remember is a cover of Dylan's "You Angel You" which was kinda my gateway to the band at the time (older songs that are part of the soundtrack of my childhood notwithstanding).
In Melody Maker - 2 April 1979 Manfred related the following: “Themes for albums are better of they surface in a natural way, rather than being predetermined. I didn’t predetermine anything. There are lots of angels, but it’s purely accidental - although you sometimes wonder how can there be so many accidents? I just drove past the tube station - I’ve never even been in it - and it seemed a good name for an album.”
I used to use this station for work. One morning the up escalator had a big queue but the down escalator was stopped so i thought 'i feel pretty fit, I'll jog up the static escalator. After about twenty steps the evil staff switched it on and i was suddenly trying to run up a downward escalator!! I tried to see if i could out beat it but eventually gave up and could here commuters chuckling as i was taken all the way down again... Bastards
In Australia, we call this process, "gentrification". 03:11 Those platforms seem very narrow. (I'm comparing them to Sydney and Melbourne underground stations)
Green Square Station in Sydney (Airport Line) has rather narrow platforms which are causing some concern due to the greatly increased patronage caused by new high rises being built in the area. (It's not an island platform BTW). An unusual feature of the Sydney Underground lines is that they can be accessed by freight and coal trains, and sometimes are when there is trackwork on the Main Northern Line between Strathfield and Hornsby.
@@ktipuss - I never travelled on that line, I just remember the the stations along Paramatta, the city and out to Chatsworth, when I lived in Sydney. Those platforms were fine. (I'm from Adelaide)
I'm pretty sure I used that escalator at one of my visits to London, but I have no idea what I was doing in Angel. Oh well, I have been to London 5 to 8 times, can't even remember how often, I guess I'll never know! Also thanks for giving me a distraction from my arm, got the vaccine and no one told me that this hurts so much!
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!
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.
Although I had nothing to do with the construction of this line or station. I do remember seeing (from beyond the grave) a BBC documentary on the station was repeated on BBC 2's 'Tube Night' many years ago. The original documentary was from the 70's or 80's pre rebuild.
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.
