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Old North Woolwich station, 1980

i quite like going into the city of london at the weekend - it empties out on a friday night and is a pleasant, almost serene place on a saturday/sunday
 
Seeing as the section between Silvertown and North Woolwich is set to close this year, I took myself back to North Woolwich on the weekend and grabbed a few shots.

The station has been tarted up and turned into a small museum, but with the Tate & Lyle factory still in production, the area still has a pleasing air of post-industrial dereliction (well, I like that kind of stuff)

But all that's set to change soon when the DLR comes into town, so aficionados of docklands factories and rusting things, get down there quick!

http://www.urban75.org/london/woolwich.html

Feature on Silvertown station coming very soon!
 
Anyone know what's on that land now ??

From memory, there's a BT land station around there now, as well as the infrastructure and roads for the Woolwich ferry and bus ternminals.
 
editor said:
But all that's set to change soon when the DLR comes into town, so aficionados of docklands factories and rusting things, get down there quick!
Click to expand...
You can really see the change that the DLR extension to LCY through Silvertown has caused. The place has really been tarted up, and back up to Canning Town and the new bus/rail station. Even the transport cafe has been shuttered up, the old bonded warehouse at the roundabout (scene of various armed robberies over the years on a regular basis!) has been razed.

It's all progress I suppose, and the improved transport links are one small step to recompense locals for the neglect the area has had for years. But yes, I'm another industrial london junkie and a small selfish part of me mourns its passing :(
 
It's not the only old Victorian station on that line closed down and replaced with a down-platform portakabin - viz. Hackney Central. I'd love to see a photo of that in its heyday...

Victorian building was of course recently given a total refurbishment and refit to open as a....nasty nightclub.
 
Some of the surrounding areas were sealed of today as an unexploded bomb from ww2 was found on the Excel site.
Probably be more to come, the way the area is being redeveloped
 
Did you ever take any pic sof the old Lea Bridge station or Temple Mills goods yards?
Temple Mills was the biggest railway goods yard in Europe.
 
Major Tom said:
ie, its a complete shit-hole :D
Click to expand...
It always was a shit hole. A great day out/ somewhere to go when bunking off school in the 70's and 80's for us kids around Leyton and Walthamstow was to take the 69 bus and go down to North Woolwich and take the ferry across the river and back again. We were easily pleased!
 
a picture

shitsville.jpg


actually this makes it look better than it really is.
 
Stobart Stopper said:
It always was a shit hole. A great day out/ somewhere to go when bunking off school in the 70's and 80's for us kids around Leyton and Walthamstow was to take the 69 bus and go down to North Woolwich and take the ferry across the river and back again. We were easily pleased!
Click to expand...

Our babysitter used to take us there and let us loose!!!

We used to put chocolate over my little sister's face so she could get on the busses etc for free and we would use her fare for sweets.

We were horrid :D
 
Stobart Stopper said:
It always was a shit hole. A great day out/ somewhere to go when bunking off school in the 70's and 80's for us kids around Leyton and Walthamstow was to take the 69 bus and go down to North Woolwich and take the ferry across the river and back again. We were easily pleased!
Click to expand...
As an adult on the dole living in Leyton that was a good day out for me too :)
 
nino_savatte said:
No more North Woolwich station.:(

Are they keeping the ferry, now that the DLR is being extended south?
Click to expand...
I'd imagine so - there was a huge backlog of cars queuing up to use the ferry on the northern side.

Seeing as it's a Grade II listed building the station will survive, but I assume that it'll be left disconnected from the network after the line switches to the DLR operation.
 
editor said:
I'd imagine so - there was a huge backlog of cars queuing up to use the ferry on the northern side.

Seeing as it's a Grade II listed building the station will survive, but I assume that it'll be left disconnected from the network after the line switches to the DLR operation.
Click to expand...

Shame.:(
 
editor said:
Seeing as it's a Grade II listed building the station will survive, but I assume that it'll be left disconnected from the network after the line switches to the DLR operation.
Click to expand...

What about the Silverlink trains that come round from Richmond? I thought they came to North Woolwich? :confused:
 
Roadkill said:
What about the Silverlink trains that come round from Richmond? I thought they came to North Woolwich? :confused:
Click to expand...


They do, though I suppose they'll begin/terminate at Stratford or Canning Town instead
 
exosculate said:
Lovely bit of collated research that.
Click to expand...
Cheers. I've got a miserable cold at the moment so it was a real battle!

I've just realised that I've got a load of photos of the old church by Silvertown that I took in the 1980s when it was a burnt out shell - but I forgot to take a picture of it when I was there on Sunday.

So it looks like another trip will be needed soon!
 
I am a little confused by the DLR extention bit. Is this a new extention that will serve Silvertown and North Woolwich or are they just shutting it because of the new extention to King George V?
 
the Richmond - Stratford - North Woolwich seriices will terminate intially in the present low level station and will then relocate to a new high level pair of platforms on the north side of the station.

The plan is to run an enhanced frequency from Stratford to Richmond - up to 8 tph an hour after resignalling of the North London line as far as Willesden -
 
davesgcr said:
the Richmond - Stratford - North Woolwich seriices will terminate intially in the present low level station and will then relocate to a new high level pair of platforms on the north side of the station.
Click to expand...
Have you got a source for that? I couldn't find any definitive info.
 
Definite - I work within the rail industry and part of something called the Cross London Route utilisation study has this factored in as a must do for the future NLL service plan.The new platforms will be 6 car length minimum - probably 8 car and are needed by circa 2008/9 depending on the dosh being available.

Another snippet of rail history is the planned relocation of the sidings called Thorntons Field - where some of the GE sets sit of a daytime - to a new location called Lea Interchange pre Olympics.Thornton was a 19thC manager of US origin for the Great Eastern Rly thus showing that American influence i Londons railways is nothing new.Have a look at the excellent Quil maps which you can get in the Ian Allan bookshop down the Cut at Waterloo - .....

Somebody I worked with was a relief SM at Stratford in the 1960s and recalls trains of Danish bacon to Stratford Market worked by steam from Harwich - one one occasion the bacon carcasses were moved in open wagons with no sheets - so it was "smoked" en route.Imagine that with todays food regs !
 
spring-peeper said:
Our babysitter used to take us there and let us loose!!!

We used to put chocolate over my little sister's face so she could get on the busses etc for free and we would use her fare for sweets.

We were horrid :D
Click to expand...

Is this some weird bygone public transport regulation, that kids with messy faces get free bus fares? Does it still apply? If so, I shall have to tell various friends with kids of this novel way of saving money!

Giles..
 
editor said:
I've just realised that I've got a load of photos of the old church by Silvertown that I took in the 1980s when it was a burnt out shell - but I forgot to take a picture of it when I was there on Sunday.
Click to expand...
D'you mean this? It's the Brick Lane Music Hall - recently restored I believe.
72940722-M-1.jpg


More ferry:

72940020-M.jpg
 
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