LONDON DO NOT ALIGHT HERE WALK SUNDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2018

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1 LONDON DO NOT ALIGHT HERE WALK SUNDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2018 Parkland Walk Site of Former Crouch End Station Travel Arrangements We will be catching the 9.20 am train from Biggleswade. A one-day travel card is required. With a railcard, this costs and the same for groups of three or more under the Group Save Scheme (no railcard needed). This ticket covers all travel in and out of London and on the Underground. We will alight at Finsbury Park station at 9.55 am. Those proposing to make their own way there should meet us at the Station Place exit of the main line station (not the Underground) at this time and let the leader know that you expect to be there at least 24 hours before hand. The walk will end at Tower Hill Underground at around 4:00 pm. We can then get the Circle line to catch the Great Northern train for Biggleswade at Kings Cross. Anyone proposing to stay on in London should ensure that their Group Save party all travel together. The trains for Biggleswade are semi fast at 22 minutes past the hour taking 41 minutes and fast at 10 minutes past the hour taking 29 minutes. Thus the will arrive back at Walk Details The walking comprises two separate linear walks morning and afternoon, each of about 5 miles. The morning walk uses parts of an old railway track bed and can be muddy, while the afternoon walk is all on hard surfaces. Boots or sturdy foot ware are recommended. [NB I have added historical notes at the end to keep the walk details simple.] From Finsbury Park station we enter the Park itself for several hundred yards before joining the Parkland Walk along the railway track bed for a well wooded two mile stretch to Highgate tunnels. There were two stations en route at Stroud Green and Crouch End, but little remains other then the platforms at the latter. Near Stroud Green in an alcove along the remaining wall is a life size statue by an artist Marylyn Jones. It is supposed to be a spriggan (a Cornish spirit creature) that allegedly haunted the area. At Highgate tunnels, we have to leave the track bed and join the busy Archway Road. After taking a minor detour to see the remains of Highgate Upper station, we turn off the road to enter Highgate

2 Wood. The track bed between Highgate and Cranley Gardens is not accessible because it is partly taken up with Northern Line s Highgate Depot, see part of the tracks to the left as we enter the wood. We will have our morning coffee break here where there are toilets (free) and seats. After the coffee break, we traverse the wood to exit near the former station at Cranley Gardens, now built over, and re-join the Parkland Walk for about ¾ mile before entering the grounds of Alexandra Palace. There was a further station at Muswell Hill, but this also has been built over. We have been gaining height slowly since leaving Finsbury Park and there are soon excellent views to the right of the City skyline and Docklands. A few hundred yards through the grounds brings us to the Palace itself on a prominent position at 292 feet. The railway terminus was at the back of the Palace but is currently blocked off by building woks. To end the walk we descend the hill, cross the East Coast Main Line and reach Wood Green Underground after a short walk. We then take the Piccadilly Line to St Pancras for our lunchtime stop at about At we will re-join the Piccadilly Line for the short journey to Holborn station. The station itself is of interest, see below, as is the tram tunnel under Kingsway outside. We go down Kingsway to the Aldwych to see the exterior of the former Aldwych Underground station, passing Bush House, formerly the headquarters of the BBC s World Service. Moving on past St Clement Danes, the central church of the RAF, and the Law Courts, we take Chancery Lane up to High Holborn to see the former entrance to Chancery Lane Underground, which was used as a deep level shelter in World War II. Entrance to Former Aldwych (Strand) Station with Beggar The next area of railway interest is in the vicinity of City Thameslink station, which we reach by crossing Holborn Viaduct. Just north of the station was an earlier one called Snow Hill down the road opposite of that name. The City Thameslink station entrance on Holborn Viaduct itself occupies part of the site of an earlier terminus station called Holborn Viaduct. To access the south entrance of City Thameslink station on Ludgate Hill, we pass the entrance to the Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey. Near this entrance was yet another former station called Ludgate Hill. St

3 Paul s Cathedral is just a short distance up the hill and we take a tea break there. There are toilets in nearby Paternoster Square (50p charge). We exit the Cathedral complex onto Cheapside and pass the church of St Mary le Bow (the Bow bells associated with Cockneys) to reach the Bank road junction. We move on to King William Street, the site of the Bank terminus of the first ever tube line from Stockwell. Disused when the Northern Line was extended northwards, it is now being used as a building site for improvements to Bank Underground. The final leg of our walk takes us past The Monument, Pudding Lane the starting point of the Great Fire, and the former Billingsgate Fish Market (now in Poplar) to the Tower of London complex. Tower Hill Underground has had a complicated history, see below, and, before we reach Tower Hill proper, we pass the entrance to one of its former sites on the corner of Byward Street and Seething Lane. Before Tower Bridge was built, a pedestrian subway was built under the Thames from Tower Hill in A small cylindrical tower marks the entrance. It closed after the bridge was built. There are toilets at this point (50p charge). Returning to Tower Hill Underground for the homeward journey, we can see a series of plaques in Trinity Square Gardens marking the execution of notable public figures such as Sir Thomas More. Tony Sheward tel: mobile: E:mail: tony.sheward@btinternet.com

4 Northern Line Extensions LONDON DO NOT ALIGHT HERE WALK SUNDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2018 HISTORICAL NOTES The Northern Line Extensions were part of the New Works Programme, which was intended to improve transport links around London, reduce congestion and provide employment opportunities after the Great Depression. Basically, the LNER steam operated branch lines from Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace, Edgware and High Barnet were to be linked into the existing Northern Line system and operated by tube trains. Before World War II led to the suspension of work in 1941, the High Barnet Line had been completed, by linking in the Northern Line Archway branch to East Finchley, part of the Edgware branch completed to Mill Hill East and Highgate depot established between Park Junction, where the Alexandra Palace branch diverged, and East Finchley. After the war the remainder of the scheme was scrapped. LNER passenger services on the Alexandra Palace branch limped on to 1954 and freight was discontinued in the late 1960s. The Parkland Walk has been created on parts of the main branch from Finsbury Park to Park Junction and the Alexandra Palace branch from there. Alexandra Palace Alexandra Palace was built as a people s entertainment complex to rival the Crystal Palace in South London. Although it opened in 1873 it was almost immediately destroyed by fire and the existing building opened in Since 1900 it has been operated by a charitable trust to prevent any redevelopment for housing. It is perhaps best known for being the home of the BBC s television service, which started in 1936, until Currently, it includes an ice rink and several halls which can be used for concerts and exhibitions. Two of the old BBC studios are open as a museum. We pass an interesting time line on the walk. Holborn Underground Station The present-day Piccadilly Line was an amalgam of two separate lines, the Brompton and Piccadilly Railway and the Great Northern and Strand Railway. When powers were granted to link the two, this left a short branch from Holborn station to Strand station (later called Aldwych). The Holborn station that opened in 1906 only served the Piccadilly Line. The eastbound and westbound tracks were made on different levels so that trains could run easily to and from the Aldwych branch without conflicting movements. Some blocked up passage ways to the branch platforms can still be seen. The Central Line did not have a Holborn stop, but a station to the west near the British Museum. In 1933 a combined station for the two lines was built on the current site and the British Museum station was closed. After World War II only a shuttle service ran on the branch from Holborn to Aldwych and this was closed in Kingsway Tramway Subway When the Kingsway and Aldwych area was redeveloped in the early years of the 20 th Century, it incorporated a subway tunnel for trams, which opened in This ran from a ramp off Theobalds Road near Holborn station under Kingsway and the Aldwych to emerge on the Thames Embankment. There were two intermediate stops near Holborn station and in the Aldwych. Trams were withdrawn in 1952, but in 1964 part of the southern section between the Waterloo Bridge approach and the southern part of Kingsway was opened as a northbound road tunnel. Most recently part of the north end of the subway has been used for Crossrail works.

5 Chancery Lane Underground Station The old station building, when opened by the Central London Railway in 1900, had four lifts to and from the platform. As traffic built up after World War I, problems with overcrowding began to occur. A new station entrance with escalators was build 400 yards to the east and opened in 1934 and the old entrance closed. City Thameslink Area What is now the Thameslink route from Farringdon to Blackfriars was built by the London Chatham and Dover Railway in 1866 to connect to the Metropolitan Railway and access Smithfield Market and Moorgate station. Snow Hill station, later called Holborn Viaduct Low Level, opened in 1874 and closed for passenger traffic in Freight services continued into the 1960s, but the line was revived by the Thameslink scheme with a new station, City Thameslink, in The London Chatham and Dover Railway also built a higher-level line in 1874 terminating at Holborn Viaduct station with an intermediate station at Ludgate Hill. Some services continued to use Holborn Viaduct station until displaced by the Thameslink scheme, when the station was demolished. King William Street Terminus The very first undergound line with tunnels roughly the size of our modern tubes was built by the City and South London Railway. It ran from Stockwell to King William Street and was opened in By 1900 an extension had been built to Moorgate via Bank and this left the King William Street terminus as a disused stub. Currently there is a development scheme in progress at Bank station to improve access and connections between lines. Part of this involves widening the narrow Northern Line platforms. As access in this part of the City is at a premium, the King William Street terminus has been taken over to carry out the works, as evidenced by the surface building site. Tower Hill Underground What we now call the Circle Line was not build continuously or by a single company. The Metropolitan Railway built the first part of the circle from Paddington to Farringdon in It extended its line both westwards and eastwards so that by 1868 it had reached South Kensington and by 1876 it had reached Aldgate. In the meantime, a separate company, the Metropolitan District Railway, completed its line from Gloucester Road to Mansion House in The two rival companies found it extremely difficult to agree on how to close the gap between Aldgate and Mansion House and it took years for a suitable scheme to be agreed. Eventually, in 1882 the Metropolitan Railway completed an extension from Aldgate to Tower Hill with a station known as Tower of London on the site of the current station. The Metropolitan District Railway then finished its extension from Mansion House to Tower Hill in 1884 with a new station called Mark Lane to the west of the Metropolitan s Tower of London station. The latter was then closed and Mark Lane continued in use until 1967, but changing its name to Tower Hill in By the 1960s increased traffic had brought about a need for a terminating platform at Tower Hill for trains from the west. As it was not possible to expand on the current site, a new three platform station was built on the site of the old Metropolitan Railway station. Thus, the new station opened there in 1967.