The railways over Great Suffolk Street
 

Evening all,

I was strolling down Great Suffolk Street in Southwark earlier today, and
as i went under the railway bridge (where both the Charing Cross and
Blackfriars lines cross), i noticed two things.

Firstly, the viaduct carrying the Blackfriars line looks insanely steep.
Does anybody know how steep? Or was i imagining that?

Secondly, there's a very railwayish building on the east side of the road
just north of the railways. Was there ever a station here?

tom

--
We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that
needs to be done. -- Alan Turing

The railways over Great Suffolk Street
 

"Tom Anderson" wrote in message
h.li...
Evening all,

I was strolling down Great Suffolk Street in Southwark earlier today, and
as i went under the railway bridge (where both the Charing Cross and
Blackfriars lines cross), i noticed two things.

Firstly, the viaduct carrying the Blackfriars line looks insanely steep.
Does anybody know how steep? Or was i imagining that?

Steep enough to rise from the level of the east-west line to Charing Cross
to that of the north south line to Elephant and Castle that is on an over
bridge just west of where you describe.


Secondly, there's a very railwayish building on the east side of the road
just north of the railways. Was there ever a station here?


Yes, there was a Southwark station temporarily in the 1860s before what is
now Waterloo east opened, and a Blackfriars south of the Thames before the
river was bridged. Could be one of these, I believe the earlier Blackfriars
was used as a goods depot.

Paul

The railways over Great Suffolk Street
 

On Sat, 11 Feb 2006 19:27:42 +0000, Tom Anderson
wrote:

Evening all,

I was strolling down Great Suffolk Street in Southwark earlier today, and
as i went under the railway bridge (where both the Charing Cross and
Blackfriars lines cross), i noticed two things.

Firstly, the viaduct carrying the Blackfriars line looks insanely steep.
Does anybody know how steep? Or was i imagining that?

There are three railway-like bridges there; the northernmost in fact
carries a roadway. perhaps is the steep one you saw.

Secondly, there's a very railwayish building on the east side of the road
just north of the railways. Was there ever a station here?

Not a passenger station - it was the Ewer Street Grand Vitesse depot
handling fruit and veg from the continent. The roadway referred to
served that depot, and probably still serves the upper level of the
site. The undercroft of the depot remains - in use as a car park.
--
Peter Lawrence

The railways over Great Suffolk Street
 

On Sun, 12 Feb 2006, Peter Lawrence wrote:

On Sat, 11 Feb 2006 19:27:42 +0000, Tom Anderson
wrote:

I was strolling down Great Suffolk Street in Southwark earlier today,
and as i went under the railway bridge (where both the Charing Cross
and Blackfriars lines cross), i noticed two things.

Firstly, the viaduct carrying the Blackfriars line looks insanely
steep. Does anybody know how steep? Or was i imagining that?

There are three railway-like bridges there; the northernmost in fact
carries a roadway. perhaps is the steep one you saw.

Aaaah - the bridge in question was indeed the northernmost one. It was
much lower than the one behind it, and looking on the googly maps, it's
clear that i was in fact looking at the roadway bridge:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?t=h&ll...00992,0.002511

Secondly, there's a very railwayish building on the east side of the
road just north of the railways. Was there ever a station here?

Not a passenger station - it was the Ewer Street Grand Vitesse depot
handling fruit and veg from the continent.

Brilliant! How did that work, then?

From the photo, which shows the roof of the building occupying a parcel of
land a couple of hundred metres long right next to the railway, apparently
level with the tracks (or a few feet lower), and with a long, tapered neck
to the east, i'd guess that there was a junction just east of Southwark
Bridge Road, from which a track ran out and into sidings on the depot
roof. I think the stuff you can see on top of Great Guildford Street, with
a little mini-gantry, is the remains of the access route.

Do i win a lolly?

About a hundred metres to the north, on the west side of the road, i
noticed the 'Grand Vitesse Business Park'; i'd assumed it was an attempt
to cash in on the Eurostar or something (not that that goes anywhere near
here!), rather than a name reflecting long-standing local industrial
heritage!

The roadway referred to served that depot, and probably still serves the
upper level of the site. The undercroft of the depot remains - in use
as a car park.

Certainly looks like it on the aerial photo.

Next silly question: why are there two 'Great
Place-Not-Anywhere-Near-Here-Or-To-Where-You-Might-Go-From-Here-From-Anywhere-Important
Streets' round here? The usual explanation is that they're the names of
noblemen, but i'm not aware of a Lord Guildford of note ...

tom

--
SCIIIIIEEEEEEEENNNNNNCCCCCCCE!!!

The railways over Great Suffolk Street
 

In article ,
says...
On Sun, 12 Feb 2006, Peter Lawrence wrote:

On Sat, 11 Feb 2006 19:27:42 +0000, Tom Anderson
wrote:

I was strolling down Great Suffolk Street in Southwark earlier today,
and as i went under the railway bridge (where both the Charing Cross
and Blackfriars lines cross), i noticed two things.

Firstly, the viaduct carrying the Blackfriars line looks insanely
steep. Does anybody know how steep? Or was i imagining that?

There are three railway-like bridges there; the northernmost in fact
carries a roadway. perhaps is the steep one you saw.

Aaaah - the bridge in question was indeed the northernmost one. It was
much lower than the one behind it, and looking on the googly maps, it's
clear that i was in fact looking at the roadway bridge:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?t=h&ll...00992,0.002511

Secondly, there's a very railwayish building on the east side of the
road just north of the railways. Was there ever a station here?

Not a passenger station - it was the Ewer Street Grand Vitesse depot
handling fruit and veg from the continent.

Brilliant! How did that work, then?

From the photo, which shows the roof of the building occupying a parcel of
land a couple of hundred metres long right next to the railway, apparently
level with the tracks (or a few feet lower), and with a long, tapered neck
to the east, i'd guess that there was a junction just east of Southwark
Bridge Road, from which a track ran out and into sidings on the depot
roof. I think the stuff you can see on top of Great Guildford Street, with
a little mini-gantry, is the remains of the access route.

Do i win a lolly?

About a hundred metres to the north, on the west side of the road, i
noticed the 'Grand Vitesse Business Park'; i'd assumed it was an attempt
to cash in on the Eurostar or something (not that that goes anywhere near
here!), rather than a name reflecting long-standing local industrial
heritage!

The roadway referred to served that depot, and probably still serves the
upper level of the site. The undercroft of the depot remains - in use
as a car park.

Certainly looks like it on the aerial photo.

Not sure whether it's still there but two years ago I noted a pub name
'Fox & Hounds 1884' on a building by the junction of Great Guildford
Street and Southwark Bridge Road. At the time I discovered that this
pub was listed on a Victorian London site as being at Little Guildford
Street. Little Suffolk Street is now known as Sudrey Street.

HTH

The railways over Great Suffolk Street
 

"Tom Anderson" wrote in message
.li...

The roadway referred to served that depot, and probably still serves the
upper level of the site. The undercroft of the depot remains - in use as
a car park.

Certainly looks like it on the aerial photo.

Is the fruit and veg depot covered in portacabins with temporary steps up
from the car park, and is thiswhere the Thameslink project offices are set
up? Presumably in use it was a bit like Bishopsgate goods with all the
wagons on the roof, with distribution below?

Next silly question: why are there two 'Great
Place-Not-Anywhere-Near-Here-Or-To-Where-You-Might-Go-From-Here-From-Anywhere-Important
Streets' round here? The usual explanation is that they're the names of
noblemen, but i'm not aware of a Lord Guildford of note ...

Could Great Guildford St be a former direct route towards er Guildford? The
road layout will have changed over the years when there weren't so many
bridges over the Thames.

Paul

The railways over Great Suffolk Street
 

On Mon, 13 Feb 2006 07:24:07 +0000 (UTC), Jim Brittin
[wake up to reply] wrote:

Not sure whether it's still there but two years ago I noted a pub name
'Fox & Hounds 1884' on a building by the junction of Great Guildford
Street and Southwark Bridge Road. At the time I discovered that this
pub was listed on a Victorian London site as being at Little Guildford
Street. Little Suffolk Street is now known as Sudrey Street.

This "pub" has been converted into a block of flats. It was never a working
pub in my experience (and I lived across the street from 1994-1998).

Did a Google on Great Suffolk St, and found this:

http://www.aaron.atte.southwerk.mcma...s/HstOblsk.htm

It was known as Dirty Lane until the beginning of the 17th century. I expect
that there was a bit of a program to spruce up the street names as that part
of Southwark (and of course the rest of the city) became more accessible as a
result of Westminster Bridge being built.
--
Chris Hansen | chrishansenhome at btinternet dot com