I'm wondering when either of these stations had any external
refurbishment done. If I were running Great Northern I would have
erected signs to advertise the 7-day service - I suspect the cost of
doing so would have been dwarfed by the cost of running the weekend service.

Essex Road in particular looks like the station that time forgot - I
can't even tell if the sign over the door is in the colours of the
current franchise holder or some long-forgotten one, but shouldn't it at
least say Essex Road *Station*? The BR sign at the corner is still in
Network Southeast colours, but for some reason is very easy to not see
even when you know it's there. I bet there are people living around the
corner for years who don't even know it's a station, especially if they
moved there after it was expunged from the tube map.