dg comments

please empty your brain below

I travelled on day one. I was very small so don't remember much except that the door to the driver's compartment was open so you could just see the tunnel ahead. There were too many grown ups for a good view!

ap | 01.09.18 - 6:40 a.m. | #

I’m glad I’m not the only one annoyed about the deactivation of the light box.

Dan | 01.09.18 - 7:11 a.m. | #

There used to be a very nice factory on the opposite corner to the station at Blackhorse Road which had a very striking tower feature at the front, this was where the famous Rael Brook shirts were manufactured, in my younger days as a DJ I was once booked for the Christmas party which took place in the canteen just below the tower, a soulless block of apartments now stand where this beautiful factory once towered over the junction.

Michael Dover | 01.09.18 - 7:29 a.m. | #

I always hated the Victoria Line, the grey tiles combined with the mainly grey interiors of the trains along with the unpainted aluminium, gave things a very cold feel, apparently Misha Black (?) thought that the passengers would add the colour.

The only good thing was that it was fast, so a change at Finsbury Park became part of the routine.

Still Anon | 01.09.18 - 8:28 a.m. | #

I'm also a day one passenger. Did the whole route from Walthamstow to Highbury, most stations not completely finished (what changes?).

The Victoria line became our local line and we had to change our line allegiance, which most Londoners have, from Piccadilly Line (Manor House) to Victoria Line.
As a kid, I remember the the test tunnel building site on Netherton Road /Seven Sisters road which held a mystic aura for us kids. A secret tunnel being built to nowhere... It was later incorporated into the running tunnels.

Not to be forgotten either, the huge (understatement) effect that the Victoria Line had on London's bus services. So many long established routes and connections withdrawn and lost for ever. So many in fact, that is difficult to choose examples. Who would now believe that the 35 once terminated at Chingford Hatch, or the 38A direct service from Victoria to Woodford and Loughton. Or even the original Willesden > Victoria route, the 46, via Sloane Square and on to Waterloo. Or lastly, the Edgware Road route 60 service replaced by the red arrow 505 and the mingy 8B service. So many unthinkable and often impossible changes were meeted out to London's buses. It was another London, pre- Victoria Line.

Steve | 01.09.18 - 8:34 a.m. | #

It's always somehow about buses, innit?

Richard | 01.09.18 - 8:39 a.m. | #

here's a comment not about buses; if Wood Street had become the terminus, it wouldn't be the interesting area it is today, with unusual shops and independent restaurants, and very few new housing developments.

amber | 01.09.18 - 8:54 a.m. | #

@amber
It was certainly the right decision not to continue the line to Wood Street. I believe it was originally planned to end the Victoria Line at surface platforms there. Imagine ...

Steve | Homepage | 01.09.18 - 9:05 a.m. | #

Sounds a lot like the plans for the New Southgate end to crossrail 2.

Toby | 01.09.18 - 9:08 a.m. | #

When I look at how many people pass through Victoria mainline station on to the Victoria line these days, I find it hard to imagine what passenger flows were like before it opened. Did passengers from south London, Kent, Surrey etc hop on a bus to go “up town” into the West End, catch the District/Circle and Bakerloo/Northern, or did we see a growth in people driving into town?

M | 01.09.18 - 9:14 a.m. | #

@ M Sorry to say it, but Buses.

@Toby.. I think New Southgate has more in common with Wood Street than you'd like to hear. I can't see the relevance of a line from there 'all around the houses' before it arrives back at King's Cross. A steering commitee, like me, thinks the branch should be routed from Dalston across the Lea towards Leytonstone. the capacity is more needed there IMO.

@Michael Dover Rael-Brook factory photo on my homepage.

Steve | Homepage | 01.09.18 - 9:34 a.m. | #

I was also at Walthamstow Central 50 years ago today. I bought a ticket as a souvenir and was most disappointed to receive a BR(E) one (it was their ticket office)with no mention of the Underground.

I remember that the journey was short and sweet but, to me, a very modern experience compared to what was going on upstairs.

James Bunting | 01.09.18 - 9:45 a.m. | #

Walthamstow will be changing soon with the new station entrance (part of redevelopment of the mall) which will help alleviate crowding.

Almost all all the stations along this original section of the Victoria line have station improvements works either underway or planned. I think Blackhorse Road is the only one that doesn’t.

Shows how incredibly successful the Victoria line has been. Today is my last day as living in London - I won’t miss the crowds from commuting on the Victoria line but I will miss her speed, reliability and brilliant interchange.

Flare | 01.09.18 - 10:19 a.m. | #

M: when going from Croydon to the West End pre Victoria line, I used to catch the train to London Bridge and change for Charing X (or, even better, catch a through Caterham/Tattenham Corner train).

Another M | 01.09.18 - 10:39 a.m. | #

Didn't get yourself arrested as a suspected terrorist then!

Drew | Homepage | 01.09.18 - 10:59 a.m. | #

Walthamstow Central used to be endowed with three ticket offices. I'm not sure when the one on the Station Approach side of the Overground closed, but it was extant until fairly recently. The tube one was still serving until 2015, and the Selbourne Road entrance still has a ticket office.

They recently did some work and uncovered an UndergrounD roundel at one of the entrances. I thought that would have predated the opening of the line, but perhaps BR got it wrong...

martin | 01.09.18 - 11:20 a.m. | #

6.30am for the first train ever from Walthamstow? How is this crappy myth even being perpetuated on this anniversary day?

Rog (1LondonBlog) | Homepage | 01.09.18 - 11:49 a.m. | #

@Rog
i suspect that TfL themselves who have put the 06.30am train from Walthamstow are correct, because it's in their Press Release:
[press release]

Why, do you know better? Please enlighten us, with a source

DP.

DaveP | 01.09.18 - 11:57 a.m. | #

1) It was a Sunday service.
2) The official timetables show the first train as 07.32am on Sundays.
3) The news reports mention it too as 07.32am, they even give the name of the driver who drove that train.

TfL is just sooooo wrong.

Lucky I'm here...

Rog (1LondonBlog) | Homepage | 01.09.18 - 12:02 p.m. | #

@rog

Okay! where can we see the timetables? Can you share/point us all to an online resource?

Which news report? Got a link to that? Would be sooooo great to see

DP.

DaveP | 01.09.18 - 12:05 p.m. | #

Some sources are given in my post.

Times are even given in the 1968 & 1969 handouts for the opening of the Victoria Line.

Rog (1LondonBlog) | Homepage | 01.09.18 - 12:25 p.m. | #

Thanks Roger!

(you have paper copies of these that are scanned in? that's amazing. are you old enough to have got these in person, or been handed them down?)

DaveP | 01.09.18 - 12:54 p.m. | #

Could the time discrepancy be due to TfL using the UTC time as opposed to BST?

Alex | 01.09.18 - 1:18 p.m. | #

I have been particularly impressed by the Victoria-line-blue-ness of the sky this anniversary day.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 01.09.18 - 1:27 p.m. | #

I love the architecture and design scheme of the VL. As a child of the sixties I think it's groovy baby. Viewed from the c.21st there's a nascent hi-tec vibe with the machine-like finishes and details - full of optimism for the scientific future. I hope some day to see all of the shabby bits renovated.

drD | Homepage | 01.09.18 - 2:23 p.m. | #

As a young child i sometimes imagined getting on a tube train and popping out the other end at another station 50 or so years in the future. Would it be apocalyptic or a utopia?...what would people be wearing, what sort of vehicles would be on the road?, etc. Have to say i'd be slightly disappointed...

Grumpy Anon | 01.09.18 - 4:29 p.m. | #

@DaveP: I have had some of these for years, the times comes from a LT timetable book for 1968 that I bought. Some stuff was scanned at the British Library.

BTW here's a reputable source which too confirms the times of the first train (proving everyone claiming it was 6.30am totally wrong.) This source too gives the name of the driver of the very first train - the same info as what I have in my archives :)

Rog (1LondonBlog) | Homepage | 01.09.18 - 4:46 p.m. | #

I too traveled on the first day. Walthamstow got a new bus station at the same time. This was done by blocking Selbourne Rd level with the south end of the BR platforms and widening the road to make a turning circle at this point. Before this buses stopped in Hoe Street on the bridge over the railway. The current bus station being built on the site of the much lamented Selbourne Park.
I was always told that Blackhorse Rd was not listed as an interchange as it was a separate station at the time being over the road adjacent to the shirt factory.

PaulM | 01.09.18 - 4:48 p.m. | #

A look at what might have been;
https://www.flickr.com/photos/30539114938

Moquette | 01.09.18 - 5:44 p.m. | #

Do the Men Who Like Maps know when Blackhorse Road was first shown as an interchange on LU station maps and in-car line diagrams? False memory syndrome is telling me it was later than the BR station rebuild/relocation.

Pimlico Pete | 01.09.18 - 6:22 p.m. | #

Thanks DG for this reminder.

I remember being well aware of the planned new line and where it went, its automatic operation and its novelty. Even though I was a great fan of the tube, and loved watching the guards (on the other lines), it did not occur to me to go on it on the first day, or any other day until it formed part of a journey that I needed to make. Strange really, but I was a strange teenager.

AT | 01.09.18 - 6:36 p.m. | #

Thanks for a great nostalgia-fest! When the line opened i lived just a couple of blocks away from Blackhorse Road Station, but as I have lived in Canada for most of my adult life, it's been a while since I visited the old 'hood.

James Webber | 01.09.18 - 6:54 p.m. | #

You can also celebrate 50 Years of the Victoria Line at the Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum on Sunday 2nd Sept

http://e17pumphouse.org.uk/Events.html

dg writes: See Thursday's post.

I went on Saturday and recommend it.

dg writes: Excellent, thanks.

Tony | 01.09.18 - 8:51 p.m. | #

@Pimlico Pete
Here's one from c 1973 (Strand closed for building the Jubilee Line, but Charing Cross not yet called Embankment) with no Blackhorse Road interchange.

And here's one from a few years later (Jubilee Stage 1 now open, but Blake Hall also still open, so between 1979 and 1981) in which an interchange is shown at Blackhorse Road.

Barbara | 01.09.18 - 9:36 p.m. | #

Thank you very much for telling me about the anniversary celebrations at the stations.
The Victoria (sponge) birthday cake was very enjoyable. I had a piece at Seven Sisters - let's hope it held out as far as Highbury & Islington! The booklet has some interesting photos.

Bob L-S | 01.09.18 - 10:12 p.m. | #

@Pimlico Pete
@Barbara

That 1973 map *does* have a BR double arrow alongside Blackhorse Road. As does my 1971 version, which I have just checked.

Man of Kent | 01.09.18 - 11:01 p.m. | #

Linked to the wrong one.

Interchange missing in 1970.
Present in 1972.

So probably added around the same time the Brixton extension was opened.

Barbara | 01.09.18 - 11:56 p.m. | #

@Rog - great reporting about the race to finish construction on your blog, thanks. The stations north of Highbury still feel (and are) unfinished to this day.

I wish they had maintained the original backlit station name roundels and end bulkhead clocks etc. I like the grey-on-grey tiles and the silvery 'futuristic' look they went for then; Pimlico is probably the closest to the original design state of any of the stations. Anyway, thumbs-up for the good ol' Victoria.

NickW | 02.09.18 - 12:12 a.m. | #

@NickW thanks! It was a lot of work researching so fully appreciate your comments.

I dont think the stations north of Highbury were ever intended to be finished. They upped the ante when it came to King's Cross & southwards however. They wouldnt have wanted the Queen to see their awful stations & probably why they didnt get her to open the first bit lol

Rog (1LondonBlog) | Homepage | 02.09.18 - 12:46 p.m. | #

Hey Rog, your blog is unreadable.

All I get is:
> Secure Connection Failed
> The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.
> The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified.

| 02.09.18 - 8:47 p.m. | #

Thank you Barbara and Man of Kent for the responses re the Tottenham Hale interchange thing.

Pimlico Pete | 03.09.18 - 10:53 a.m. | #

@Rog

Your statement is not quite correct. You should have written 'all stations north (east) of Seven Sisters station'. Seven Sisters was completely fitted out, right from from the beginning. I guess that at the the time of planning, nobody ever expected passenger numbers at Tottenham Hale, Blackhorse Road & Walthamstow Central ever to be as high as on the rest of the line. They certainly weren't for at least the first ten years or so.
In fact, I would also go as far as to say that the long established provision of direct rail connections to the City (Liverpool Street) from North East London led to Chingford, Walthamstow, Edmonton & Tottenham inhabitants preferentially taking City jobs rather than West End jobs. That certainly changed after the opening of the Victoria Line.

Steve | Homepage | 08.09.18 - 11:25 a.m. | #

@Steve - Seven Sisters was not complete as videos on You Tube show. It has two entrances perhaps that from the main line was but the one from High Road wasnt as builders were trying to complete it.

Rog | 08.09.18 - 12:51 p.m. | #

@Rob Sorry, a misunderstanding I think. I wasn't referring to completion on the opening day. I was referring to the lack of platform ceiling covering of the tunnels from Tottenham Hale to Walthamstow Central.
I do remember the builder's yard previously on the site of the new Seven Sisters Road station entrance.

Steve | Homepage | 09.09.18 - 4:17 a.m. | #

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