On Sun, 15 May 2011, Paul Terry wrote:

In message . li, Tom
Anderson writes

It seems a bit mad that those four steps even exist. What are the spaces on
either side of them?

The problem at Hainault is that the Central line runs on an old viaduct built
for a little-used Great Eastern branch line. The following shows the original
tiny building:

http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/thr...ult-Station%29

Much of the modern station has to fit between the arches of the old viaduct
and the main road that now runs past the station, so the site is very
constrained:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ha...n_building.JPG

Horizontally constrained, i can see. Is it vertically constrained? What
prevents the higher floor in the original photo (the link to which has
since been trimmed) being 67 cm lower, so there is no need for steps down
to the lower floor?

It looks like the higher floor is a cross-passage running between a ticket
hall and something else, which also receives steps down from the street.
Making it four steps lower would mean adding four steps to the staircase
leading from the street, which would in turn mean shuffling the passage a
metre or so further away from street (to the left in the photo). What's at
the other end of the passage? Could that also be lower?

tom

--
a moratorium on the future