Comments on: On Liverpool St Station

By: Gavin Maclennan

Gavin Maclennan — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 11:57:57 +0000

Excellent and evocative article.Liverpool St station in steam days was wonderful, a smoky cathedral of chiaroscuro light and dark, superbly Gothic and suggestive.

How its current manifestation can be described as a ‘joy’ is beyond me. It has none of the dark powerful atmosphere of yesteryear. It’s just another silly shiny glorified shopping centre, paying homage to the jackdaw frivolity and endless greed of today’s society.

By: ALISON ENGLEFIELD

ALISON ENGLEFIELD — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 12:23:15 +0000

What a tantalisingly accurate description of those sooty days. Took me right back to the smells of railway stations past…I saw a lot of them as my dad was a train driver. Thanks for the wonderful step back in time and for your beautifully described memories.

By: Martin ling

Martin ling — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 06:34:27 +0000

In the 1970s we used to travel up from Romford for exciting nights in the west end for both punk rock and jazz funk nights. The last train home from Liverpool Street was at around 1.27am, so we often would not bother rushing back and after a walk through the city arrive around 2 or 3 O’clock and kill time till the ‘milk train’ left around 4.30am full of other Essex clubbers. There used to be a booth where you could record a short vinyl record, which we did but which I sadly lost.

By: Dr Jonathan van Halbert

Dr Jonathan van Halbert — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 23:29:01 +0000

| am so glad you discovered the works of John Sell Cotman.. He was a wonderful

watercolour painter.. Every thing in our life has a purpose.. and a destiny..

I have been there done that. When I missed the last train I spent the night on the

lonely platform only to discover that my companions were delightful Hedgehogs!!

But then that was in the 1970’s …….

By: Pamela Traves

Pamela Traves — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 20:11:26 +0000

Thank You for these Wonderful Vintage Pictures!!????????

By: John Ellis

John Ellis — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 20:08:08 +0000

I remember the old Liverpool Street from the 1970’s when I used to travel each day from Cambridge to my architect office in Covent Garden. In the mornings I used to stop at the little coffee shop on the pedestrian bridge overlooking the concourse for a capuccino and sit on the terrace and watch the string of slam door commuter trains from Essex arrive and disgorge their passengers before descending to the Underground to my office.
In the evenings I was typically just in time to catch the 1812 to Cambridge and like my father would like to catch the train as it was moving, sprinting down the platform and opening the door as the train gathered speed. A family tradition that unfortunately is no longer possible with guard operated doors.
Other memories include taking the Boat Train to Harwich en route to Holland. A late night departure from Liverpool Street timed to coincide with a midnight sailing at Harwich Parkeston Quay. The clientele were very different from those travelling to Dover or Folkestone, mainly Dutch and German travellers and migrant workers.
In the steam days Liverpool Street was distinguished from other London termini by the sounds of the Westinghouse brake system that caused the tank engine locomotives to pant while at rest after bringing their commuter trains into the station.

By: Sally Jeffery

Sally Jeffery — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 19:23:24 +0000

A desolate corner of the old station, under some stairs near the taxi ramp, is fixed in my mind as the location of the scene in Ken Loach’s 1966 BBC play Cathy Come Home in which Cathy’s children are wrenched from her by police. It may not have been filmed there, but the place and the play had some resonance for me at the time, so it’s always stuck.

By: gkbowood

gkbowood — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 18:31:57 +0000

I think the brink relief of the steam train must be close to platform 9 3/4, since you can just see the train approaching…

By: stephanie brann

stephanie brann — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 15:18:20 +0000

Just like Rosie above, I read yr post & immediately thought of that moment of revelation in Austerlitz. I rushed to the bookshelf, but someone has borrowed my copy. The way I remember it is that the past comes flooding back to Austerlitz when the sidewall of Liverpool Street station is knocked down and he sees Broad Street Station behind it. Then he remembers arriving as a child on the Kindertransport. Liverpool Station was his everyday reality; Broad Street Station was the doorway to the past.
Broad Street station, ignominiously destroyed, was the most wonderful station, full of winding stairs, secret passages (through from Liverpool St Station and other places too) There were high up balconies with gothic windows edged with blue mosaic from which one had wonderful gloomy glimpses down into Liverpool Street station. It’s high walk ways were bejewelled with decoration! I and my little daughter used to scamper around the grimy heights peeping over balustrades.
Someone told me that they had to wait for John Betjeman to die before they could get away with its destruction.
At the same time they ripped up the railway line to Dalston Junction – and now look! the silly fatheads have had to rebuild it (with dreary concrete stations), because London needed that line. In those long-ago days (the 70s? the 80s?) planners thought London was shrinking away, with its ageing population and dwindling birth rate so they could knock down stations and get rid of schools.
Please, dear Gentle Author, can you show us pictures of Broad Street Station too?

By: Jill

Jill — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 15:12:55 +0000

Thanks for that affectionate tribute to Liverpool Street. It is our gateway to London and I love the sense of anticipation as the train passes through the east end and into the now smart station. I just hope we can be brave enough to do that journey again before too long. Love the Cotmans too!