please empty your brain below
I only found out about the non contactlessness when I was on the train to Stansted, I hadn't looked beforehand as you definetly used to be able to do that

Was listening to announcements on the train so got off at Tottenham Hale to avoid a fine

Rachel | 28.11.24 - 7:32 a.m. | #

A fine read, thank you, and I am now intrigued by the story of Sir Henry Wilson.

I wonder what the ratio of retail space to passenger space is within the station perimeter?

Waterhouse | 28.11.24 - 7:58 a.m. | #

I like Liverpool St. Even pre-pandemic it never seemed too busy, so I really don't understand the desperate need to knock any of it down to increase capacity.

Slightly astonished there is a Gregg's now thoughn

Herned | 28.11.24 - 8:11 a.m. | #

I remember driving down a ramp onto a platform, I think it was platform 12, to meet my fiancee off a train. This would be late sixties. Several London termini had similar setups.

Malcolm of Kent | 28.11.24 - 8:27 a.m. | #

Not sure which WHSmith you found underwhelming, but the main shop is worth a look for its elaborate decorated ceiling. It occupies a former function room of the Great Eastern Hotel, as does the Hamilton Hall pub which is on the floor above it.

Jeremy | 28.11.24 - 8:30 a.m. | #

Great blog. I often use this station and even though it is now Londons busiest it never feels to me as claustrophobic as Waterloo and London Bridge before it was re-modelled.

Keith the Kraut | 28.11.24 - 8:41 a.m. | #

A fine station and a very fine writeup. I will look n at the redevelopment and the inevitable controversy with interest.

I am pleased the passenger lounge is fully available - it’s so well hidden I never find it worthwhile to search it out and use it.

I appreciate the Kindertransport Memorial is outside the scope of today’s writing, but I find it and its companion pieces at Harwich very moving.

Michael T | 28.11.24 - 10:34 a.m. | #

Ronan McGreevy's book 'Great Hatred. The Assassination of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson MP' (Faber, 2022, ISBN 978 0 571 37280 5) will tell you a lot about this event.

Alan S | 28.11.24 - 10:38 a.m. | #

I do miss the drama of the flappy board, the build-up, the mild elation for the chosen few whose train has appeared followed by the migration to the relevant platform.

I'm glad I knew these stations in the past times of slamming doors, Royal Mail vans, queues for the phones etc.

Still Anon | 28.11.24 - 11:27 a.m. | #

Coincidentally I was there yesterday and after a wander around, I met a friend by the war memorial. He was Googling the sorry tale of Sir Henry Wilson. We then also read the astonishing story of Merchant Seaman Captain Charles Fryatt, whose memorial plaque is adjacent. Such was the regard for his heroism, there are hospitals and pubs in Essex - and a mountain in Canada - named in his memory.

Frank F | 28.11.24 - 11:47 a.m. | #

The early 80's, before/during the rebuild; the small on-platform cafe by a pillar that did piping hot tea and two Marmite toasts.

David B | 28.11.24 - 11:52 a.m. | #

I first used the station in 1944 and 45, when the layout was considerably different. Do other readers recall it looking really grubby?

Bruce Perkins | 28.11.24 - 12:22 p.m. | #

I hope you told the security guard that you were the famous DG out on another worthy project.

Bloke Down The Road | 28.11.24 - 12:32 p.m. | #

All the London termini were incredibly grubby until the demise of steam locomotives in the 60s (as were the city’s buildings before the Clean Air Act of 1956). I remember being taken to Liverpool Street as a child in the 50s “to look at the trains”, which also involved purchase of a 2d platform ticket. Great fun for me, possibly not so much for my parents in the reek, though all that steam and smoke created a wonderful, romantic atmosphere of excitement and expectation — so sadly lacking at St Pancras, for example, where the UK’s only international trains are segregated and neutralised behind glass screens.

Labourer | 28.11.24 - 2:57 p.m. | #

It's fairly bearable during the weekday peaks, but at the weekend there's plenty of folk down from Essex for a day of drinking, and late on a Saturday afternoon the crowds give it a vaguely threatening aura.

It still feels quite bijou compared to the likes of Waterloo or Victoria though - maybe that's just because I'm used to it.

martin | 28.11.24 - 6:36 p.m. | #

You separate the mainline from the tube at the start of today's post: at one time this would not be so easy. The tracks on platforms 1 and 2 used to continue and join the Circle and Metropolitan lines, I believe, although I've never seen pictures of this. I find it hard to visualise, in much the same way I can stand in Waterloo and never work out how some trains could continue on to Waterloo East and beyond.

MartinL | 28.11.24 - 10:42 p.m. | #

This is my most used and familiar main termini during years of college to Liv st then via the Central line then work via tube or walk to Barts hospital for fulltime work.

However on recent visits , I really do not like the long tedious walk required from the Liz line to the mainline station, which feels like an eternity.

Patrick | 01.12.24 - 4:05 p.m. | #

At the end of the western arm of the mezzanine is Moshi Moshi the lovely Japanese restaurant. It's easily missed, but I'd highly recommend its reasonably priced, very good food. There are tables by the windows to watch the trains arriving and departing, and the interior design is impressive.

One year we celebrated my birthday by having our main course there and then getting the train to Highams Park where I was living at the time and eating dessert in the signal box by the level crossing :-). Sadly the latter is long-closed, but do check out Moshi Moshi.

Colin | 04.12.24 - 1:04 p.m. | #











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