please empty your brain below
This is not the only station on the Underground where one might expect to see "weed pushers". Feels like an old stereotype when applied to Brixton.

Frank F | 24.07.21 - 6:34 a.m. | #

The main reason the tunnels continue way beyond the platforms is so that the trains can enter the platform at maximum speed and still have sufficient 'overlap' to comply with signalling safety rules.

Otherwise they would have to crawl in and 36tph, or anything like it, would not be possible.

Pedantic of Purley | 24.07.21 - 8:04 a.m. | #

I don't understand Princess Alexandra travelling to Pimlico if it opened later.

kev | 24.07.21 - 8:20 a.m. | #

When do you take these photos of tube stations without a soul on them?

davews | 24.07.21 - 8:33 a.m. | #

I don't understand the absence of posters opposite the platform. Sure you can't see them when there's a train in, but that applies at all stations, not just termini.

Malcolm of Kent | 24.07.21 - 9:34 a.m. | #

Kev - To catch a train back again!

It was ideal as the platforms were sufficiently complete and no need to deal with members of the public issues e.g. security. Also a chance to see work in progress rather than just another bland nearly-identical Station.

Pedantic of Purley | 24.07.21 - 9:48 a.m. | #

Back in the 1980 there was a "Station Arcade with its entance to the left of the station entrance. This was concurrent with and part of the wider station structure, but treated separately. From your photo it doesn't look as if it's there any more.

Shops were present only on the right hand side, and I'm not sure if they were ever all in use at the same time. It formed a neat link-up with Brixton's many other market arcades.

The busiest unit was always one selling Chinese ornamental goods - I bought a paper lampshade there around 1982, (which moved with me to various addresses and survived until 2016, when the ever-rolling stream of time finally caused it to bite the dust).

cau1khead | 24.07.21 - 10:03 a.m. | #

I see real plants in the photo of the ticket hall. Vauxhall also has some (or did, last time I visited). Which makes me wonder how they survive in such a subterranean environment.

David | Homepage | 24.07.21 - 10:26 a.m. | #

Malcolm, as a terminus with a REALLY frequent service, there will almost always be a train waiting in a platform, which will be the first train out, and the one passengers go to.

Thus on that platform you will hardly ever see the far wall, making posters pointless.

Mikey C | 24.07.21 - 10:41 a.m. | #

The 'station arcade' mysteriously closed in the early 2000s, but is still there and pretty much untouched since then. Given the huge success of Brixton's other markets and arcades in recent years, it's quite surprising that it has not been reopened - especially given TfL's ongoing efforts to maximise their commercial income.

David | Homepage | 24.07.21 - 10:41 a.m. | #

It was quite a thing when Starbucks opened to the right of the station entrance - from your picture it now looks closed - a quick search and it seems to have shut in 2019 and there is some discussion online about why Starbucks moved out.

Surbitonian | 24.07.21 - 11:02 a.m. | #

Thanks David. It looks like the entrance is fronted by a pair of double doors towards the left of DG's photo.

cau1khead | 24.07.21 - 11:53 a.m. | #

If only TfL beefed itself up and construct another colossal station along the Overground directly above.

Patrickov | 24.07.21 - 1:42 p.m. | #

I’ve just looked at your 2018 post about Highbury & Islington, where you commented on having blog space because “the other large railway project I expected to be writing about has been postponed”, and a comment said “Hopefully it won’t still be postponed when you finish this in 2021”. Went well, then, I think.

dg writes: I'll finish this in September 2022 (by which time it should be running).

Labourer | 24.07.21 - 1:45 p.m. | #

One can see into the arcade through a slither of clear glass in the windows on the doors at the Electric Lane end. After the station was rebuilt, the arcade was used by contractors when the crossover was reconstructed and line equipped with the new trains. That's a long time ago now, and its continued closure is something of a mystery. Opening it would help lift Electric Lane out of its current use as a giant urinal. An ambitious new cafe premises has just been built next door, so it wouldn't take much for things to turn for the better again, as and when.

NickW | 25.07.21 - 10:13 a.m. | #











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