Stephen Furley wrote:
wrote:
Thanks - it certainly is. Interesting to see the old subway will be
brought back into use and extended. I wonder if this will include
re-opening the original ticket hall - at least as an exit.
They're re-opening the old subway which used to be the only access to
platforms 9-13 as they used to be, but not the long subway under
platform 3/5, which used to be the access to all of the other
platforms. People who complain about the long walk between 5 and 10
must have either never used the station in those days, or forgotten
about it.
I remember it well.
Stratford station was a real dump in the '70s and '80s, but it used to
absolutely fascinate me. I remember when I first went through the
place, being puzzled by what seemed to be a four-platform station, with
the platforms numbered 3,5,6 and 8. then one day I got out, and
discovered the low-level 1 and 2, 2 reached directly from the old
subway, and 1 over the old concrete footbridge, still there I think,
alongside the new one. Later I found 9, 10 (now 10a) and 11. There
was no way of getting to 12 and 13, it was an island then, as the
subway had been long bricked up beyond the stairs to 11.
The entrance was just behind where the tank loco is now displayed, and
there was a subway under Great Eastern Road, which came up inside the
shopping centre. This was the only normal entrance to the shopping
centre at this end, there was a door, roughly where the present ones
are, but that was just a fire exit. When you walked out of the old
booking hall, and up the stairs there were the remains of two old
posters high up about Easter train services. The exit must have been
at street level before the exit subway was built.
There was also a ramp up to street level here as well as the subway
leading to the shopping centre - in fact it is still there albeit
disused. There was also another subway entrance leading to the loco
depot but I think this is now blocked.
Looking at this plan now it amazes me how tiny the original ticket hall
was compared to the current and proposed facilities! Thanks too for
jogging my memory about all the other passageways and stairs through
this amazing place.
Are the large areas at each end of the mezzanine level, beyond the
stairs, to serve some useful purpose at last? They're totally wasted
space at the moment.
It has always seemed to me that these must have been provided in
anticipation of future extensions or alterations. From the plans it
appears the western end of the mezzanine will connect to the new DLR
platforms and the eastern end to a new entrance on the proposed
pedestrian link bridge.