please empty your brain below
A laminated noticed attached to the metal railings in front of the station announces that planning permission is being sought to install a Chip and PIN reader by the ticket window. Comments should be made by 25th January.
Monday 10th January
The window frames at the southern end of the bridge have been painted white. Posters on each window warn passengers 'Do Not Touch - Wet Paint'.
Tuesday 11th January
All the grey sheeting has finally been removed from the new light fittings along the westbound platform.
Wednesday 12th January
The metal railings outside the station have been replaced by thick metal barriers, protecting the public from sections of scaffolding piled up inside. A red sign on the barriers directs pedestrians towards the station entrance.
Thursday 13th January
Looking through a new gap in the sheeting above the door in the blue wall on the westbound platform, another row of new fluorescent lights can be seen to the rear of the platform parallel to the new lights already visible above the platform edge.
Friday 14th January
Wet Paint signs are now stuck to the the remainder of the windows on the bridge.
Saturday 15th January
The station is closed again all weekend. There are workmen all over the station (at 3pm, but not at 11pm).
Sunday 16th January
Local graffiti: someone has spray-painted E3 on the new metal barriers outside the station.
Monday 17th January
Over the weekend the floor surface of parts of the ticket hall, bridge and stairwells has been stripped away. At 8am a workman stands by the top of the westbound stairwell urging passengers not to tread on the not-yet-dry bit of cement on the top step. A sign by the ticket office reads "Cution Uneven Floor"
6pm update: the spelling mistake on the main sign has been amended.
Tuesday 18th January
The blue wall in the ticket hall has been removed. Behind the wall are two areas covered by large sheets of plywood, a door and some newly-painted white panelling. It's very hard to work out why this particular corner of the ticket hall has been walled off for the last eight months.
Wednesday 19th January
Conker tree update: only one yellow shrivelled leaf remains on the tree. It falls during the day.
Thursday 20th January
Most of the pillars on the eastbound platform have been repainted in the original green and yellow colours, although some of the strips on some of the pillars are still covered by grey undercoat.
Friday 21st January
All the scaffolding has been removed from the left hand side of the front of the station. The brickwork looks a bit cleaner than it did nine months ago.
Hallelujah! The western half of the longest blue wall on the eastbound platform has been completely removed, revealing completed renovation work behind. The wall is now encased in a clean, white metallic plastic covering. On the new wall are full size 'Bow Road' roundels and a top strip (headlined in green and pink) that reads alternately 'BOW ROAD' and 'Bow Church DLR station'.
Friday 4th February
Another long section of blue wall has been removed on the eastbound platform, revealing the newly renovated wall behind. Only a short strip of this blue wall now remains.
Saturday 5th February
All the rectangular wooden panels just above floor level in the ticket hall have been repainted blue. 'Wet paint' signs are everywhere.
Sunday 6th February
The newly-revealed white wall on the eastbound platform is 79 panels long. There are 8 roundels altogether, positioned midway between every alternate pillar.
Monday 7th February
Spaced out along the new white wall are several plastic squares, taped down and covering something as yet unrevealed behind them.
Tuesday 8th February
Approximately six loudspeakers have appeared high up on the walls of the ticket hall, along with a couple of new cameras. Each is still wrapped in sheeting and sealed with tape.
Wednesday 9th February
One year on, the wooden panelling on the overbridge is finally restored and fully painted (in white).
Thursday 10th February
The window frames and woodwork on the front of the station building have been repainted (again in white).
Friday 11th February
A large wooden frame has been constructed inside the recess just inside the ticket hall on the left behind the green door.
A tall thin rectangular block has been erected to the left of the ticket machine in the ticket hall. It too has been wrapped in sheeting and sealed with tape.
Sunday 13th February
A gap in the sheeting reveals that the rear of the block is yellow, but the rest appears to be grey.
Monday 14th February
Beside the new tall block, to the left of the ticket machine, a new wardrobe-sized recess has been opened up.
Tuesday 15th February
New cameras and loudspeakers have started to be installed above the two stairwells, exactly where the grey stickers placed three months ago said they would be.
Wednesday 16th February
The top part of the white sheeting covering the scaffolding on the passenger bridge has been lowered, giving a daylight view for the first time in six months.
Thursday 17th February
The tall block in the ticket hall that was to the right of the new recess has now been moved to the left of the new recess. There are four small plastered circles where the block was previously attached to the wrong bit of wall.
Friday 18th February
The four plaster circles have been painted over, so you'd (almost) never know they were there.
Saturday 19th February
The smell of wet paint is in the air, again, although it's not immediately obvious precisely where.
Sunday 20th February
A lot of discarded scaffolding is piled high inside the grey metal fencing outside the front of the station.
Monday 21st February
White metallic covering has appeared on the walls behind the eastern end of the longest blue wall on the westbound platform.
Tuesday 22nd February
A sign has been affixed to the wall above the tall block in the ticket hall, but covered by sheeting and taped up so that you can't possibly read it.
Wednesday 23rd February
Two white-framed glass globes have appeared above the westbound stairwell, and three above the eastbound stairwell. An egg-shaped bulb lies at the centre of each. These new light fittings look very odd and extremely out of place. Meanwhile, at the foot of the westbound stairwell, a short section of blue wall has been removed to reveal an old door repainted grey.
Thursday 24th February
The large wooden panel just inside the ticket hall has been removed, to reveal a huge sheet of glass behind which is a never-before seen (empty) room.
Friday 25th February
The green doors at the front of the station have been repainted, green.
Saturday 26th February
While the station is closed for the weekend, workmen are fitting another globe light at the foot of the westbound stairwell.
Sunday 27th February
Two more mysterious tall blocks are being installed, this time spaced out along the new white wall along the eastbound platform.
Following the latest weekend closure, I spy the following:
• The floors in the ticket hall and across the top of the stairwells have been sort-of concreted.
• A new sign on the wall at the south end of the ticket hall reads District and Hammersmith & City lines
• Six new wiry-metal benches have been installed along the eastbound platform. Each has four seats and two yellow armrests.
Tuesday 1st March
All five globes above the westbound stairwell and all three globes above the eastbound stairwell are now illuminated.
Wednesday 2nd March (report from Mr Kim)
The "curfew" has been lifted!!! Without a single word of publicity, as far as I can see, Bow Road station is open til 'close of traffic' (to use the official parlance). I was told this earlier in the week by a Bow Bells' 'regular', and last night at Mile End, decided to stay on board the train and 'chance it'. Sure enough, again without any announcement, the train slowed to a halt on the EB at Bow Road and the doors magically opened, allowing a number of surprised people to jump up at the last minute and get off! (Thanks Mr Kim)
Thursday 3rd March
A sixteen-panel section of new white wall has been revealed on the westbound platform, just to the west of the foot of the stairwell.
Friday 4th March
A further four panels have been revealed, along with another twenty at the western end of the westbound platform.
Saturday 5th March
The remainder of the longest blue wall on the eastbound platform has been removed, so that a white wall now runs all the way from the stairwell to the far end of the platform.
Sunday 6th March
One new panel on the white wall close to the foot of the eastbound stairwell shows a diagrammatic map of the stations on the District line to the east of the station.
Monday 7th March
The new striplights above the west end of the eastbound platform are now illuminated. About two thirds of them are working.
Tuesday 8th March
Workmen are busy fitting out the new room behind the large pane of glass in the ticket hall. On the far white wall there's a heater, a loudspeaker, a lot of cables and a (not yet functional) digital clock.
Wednesday 9th March
A new layer of flooring has been laid across the passage joining the top of the two stairwells, stuck down by strips of yellow and black tape.
Thursday 10th March
A photo booth has been installed in the alcove beside the ticket machine in the ticket hall.
Friday 11th March
All of the posters and signs have been removed from the remaining section of blue wall in the middle of the westbound platform.
Saturday 12th March
The remaining section of blue wall in the middle of the westbound platform has been removed, revealing a new stretch of white panels along the indented triangular platform wall.
Sunday 13th March
Each new white panel had a small green numbered sticker to ensure that workmen assembled everything in the right order. For example, the westernmost roundel on the westbound platform is still labelled EC PCPTO-DVI 62.1 50432.
Monday 14th March
The remaining scaffolding across the front and side of the station building has been dismantled, leaving just a few supporting poles across the overbridge.
A new electronic Emergency: Do not enter sign has been affixed to the wall outside the station to the right of the station entrance. It is not illuminated. In fact, it is hard to imagine credible circumstances under which it might one day be illuminated.
But I was wrong, t'was DG himself.
DG you're bonkers about Bow, and those comments above are boring, sorry.
dg writes: It's the best that Haloscan will allow, I'm afraid. It's that or 50 minutes slow.
We're talking Modern Urban Saga here - an exquisitely drawn out and acutely observed tale of incremental struggle towards a denouement of new normality. When the tension betwixt yearning and resolution will be but merely transferred to another platform. [Eastbound].
[Note to editor: Please send more medication - I'm trapped]
Now I know that you don't look like David Jason, btw...
dg writes: Oh boy, 'Diamond Geezer' starring David Jason is on ITV this Sunday. Better prepare for the Google onslaught.
(unlike the adult in the nice bow road illustration - what's he trying to get the kid to do? and what's he holding in his hand? all looks very neverlandy to me.)
A security camera has been installed on the outside of the station above the left-hand entrance.
• All of the remaining scaffolding has been taken down.
• The ironwork bolted to the ceiling above the railway tracks has been painted blue to match that above the platforms.
• A black plastic rumble strip has been installed close to the edge of the eastbound platform to aid visually impaired passengers.
• A red alarm box has been installed in the new control room.
• The digital clock in the new control room is now functional.
• The two short blue walls on the platforms closest to the foot of the stairwells have been removed. Absolutely no renovation work of any kind appears to have taken place behind these walls for the last 12 months, just a lot of cabling.
• The sheeting has been removed from two tall blocks along the eastbound platform, revealing two fully functional Help points.
• Another black plastic rumble strip has been installed one third of the way along the westbound platform.
• The last blue wall, at the east end of the westbound platform, has been removed. Again, absolutely no renovation appears to have taken place.
• A small TV monitor has been installed high on the wall in the ticket hall.
• A large (still-wrapped) sign has been fixed above the ticket machine in the ticket hall.
• The black plastic rumble strip now stretches two thirds of the way along the westbound platform.
Along the westbound platform I counted 24 security cameras and 28 microphones.
The Help Point in the ticket hall and another at the top of the eastbound stairwell have been unwrapped and now appear to be functional.
Conker tree update: New leaves have appeared in golfball-sized buds at the end of every branch.
Two miracles have occured.
• "Next train" indicators have been installed on each platform. They don't yet work, but their presence suggests that this redevelopment may have been worthwhile after all.
• The blue sign on the front of the station reading "BOW ROAD STATION DISTRICT & METROPOLITAN LINES" has been replaced by a new blue sign which simply states "BOW ROAD STATION". Which, for the first time in 15 years, is a true statement.
Two new metal roundels have appeared on the unrenovated wall at the east end of the westbound platform, and another at the east end of the eastbound platform.
Conker tree update: The leaf buds have opened.
• All four doors at the entrance to the station have been repainted green.
• All the new Help Points throughout the station have a sticker taped to them reading Not in service
• Half of the rumble strip along the westbound platform has been peeled away, leaving several short strips behind.
Seven computer monitors and a large microphone have been installed in the new control room off the ticket hall.
The four doors halfway along the westbound platform have been repainted black (gloss).
A digital clock has been installed on the brickwork above the western end of the westbound platform. It is not yet functional.
The digital clock in the new control room has not been advanced an hour for Summer Time.
Conker tree update: The tree now looks green again. Stalks that will soon drip with blossom are rising up from the end of each branch.
A new poster has just been put on display in the ticket hall. It reads:
Station returns to normal opening hours
Update February 2005
We are pleased to announce that Bow Road will return to normal operating hours from February 28th...
The bureaucratic incompetence demonstrated by the appearance of this poster more than one month late is absolutely staggering.
The digital clock in the new control room has finally been advanced an hour to British Summer Time.
The entire (new) black plastic rumble strip along the edge of the westbound platform has been removed.
Yet again there are Wet Paint signs stuck to the green doors at the entrance to the ticket hall.
Two replastered patches on the ceiling of the ticket hall each have a couple of short stumpy electrical cables sticking out of them.
The viewscreen high on the wall at the end of the ticket hall is now functional, displaying live pictures from the security camera positioned next to it.
A new poster board and a small metal bracket have been installed on the wall opposite the top of the westbound stairwell.
The red electrical box on the wall of the new control room (beneath the digital clock) has been removed.
The red electrical box has been repositioned on the wall, precisely one box height below its original location.
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