On 27 Dec, 00:18, Adrian wrote:
On Dec 26, 9:08 am, Paul G wrote:

...sadly vandals and the otherwise bored and useless of London decided
to spend Christmas Day at Mile End station. Graffiti artist(s) evidently
had plenty of time to put meaningless scrawls on most surfaces and
hoardings on the platforms. I didn't bother venturing off the very
crowded train to see if they had defaced the booking hall.

--
Paul G
Typing from Barking

Who, here, believes that this would have happened, in the UK on
December 25, 1957?

Adrian

I don't know if that specific type of incident would have happened,
but I've a cutting from The Times, dated May 30 1960, and headed "Wave
of Hooliganism Sweeps British Railways".

It mentions units at Victoria with smashed windows and damaged seats,
fittings missing and door locks unscrewed. The Southern Region were
operating a special squad of 50 men who worked every Sunday to repair
units ready for Monday. It reports 5472 separate items of deliberate
damage during the preceding month.

It also says that: "The Midland Region said that ceilings, walls and
draught strips had been damaged on new stock for the Manchester - Bury
electric trains. Window sealings had been ripped out, transfers
removed from windows, mirrors broken, maps damaged, and seats ruined
within a few weeks".

And if you go to the Railways Archive, you can read the report into
the accident at Smedley Viaduct, Manchester, in 1959. It was caused
by vandals interfering with signalling equipment, and some of the
comments are worth reading:

http://tinyurl.com/32xfgp

It's a problem that's been around for a long time.