A walk round Liverpool Street (BR) station, 1985
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- čas přidán 24. 09. 2022
- A video survey recording London's Liverpool Street main line station in September 1985, just as its modernization as part of the the Broadgate development was getting under way. Includes the remains of Broad Street station before its final closure the following year, and the passages leading to Liverpool Street Underground station.
(Turn on closed captions for a transcript of the commentary)
Video's like these are so important, because whether deliberate or it's the way things go, places are forever changing and this is a historic record of a time gone by. In 1985 this would be a place my dad would be familiar with.
I was so young when all this happened but for some mad reason it is a lasting memory made all the more vivid by this footage… as a kid going to London was so special and being from Brentwood obviously Liverpool St was our main terminus so I’ll always remember it because it was the point where I was overcome with excitement getting off the train into the big city!!! Nowadays I often walk around the area just to try and remember the layout … this has helped a lot!!
Thank you for a lovely film. I started work in the 1970s and commuted from Enfield Chase into Broad Street. Rush hour trains were loco-hauled slam-door stock (with Ladies Only compartments) and the off-peak services were the beloved DMUs. We left the Great Northern Line by a spur just south of Finsbury Park station and joined the North London Line going via Dalston Junction into Broad Street. Happy Days.
This is fascinating. Thank god they redeveloped it though, I used this station almost daily in the late 1990s. The direct access from the mainline platforms to the tube was vital part of my commute. This looks like such a dingy rabbit warren of bridges, underpasses, stairs, and walkways, I'm so glad they sorted it out. As of Dec 2023 Liverpool Street is the busiest station in Britain, and is about to get another upgrade.
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It was such a dark and dingy place but that was just the way it was then, all stations were that way because why make them light and airy places when not long before they were smoke filled choking hell holes!! I just remember the smell and the dirtiness… but truth is I loved these places far more than the generic, characterless stations of today!! What I would give to go back!!!
This is excellent. Of all the videos I've seen of the era I feel that this might capture the cacaphony-bordering-on-chaos of a busy station best of all of them. I appreciate the narration in it, too, as this configuration of Liverpool Street was before my time (I would have been 2, or at best 3, when this video was made).
Watched this via a link posted in a comment from the very excellent London Inheritance weekly blog. Highly recommend & this video is a gem.
Brings back good memories from visits to London during childhood then my time at college in Earls Court. Thanks.
wow what a great video. I remember getting the train with my dad there to Ipswich many times on a Sunday, at about the same year this was filmed. It looked just as portrayed here. Very nostalgic
Great to see this, I starting work and commuting through L/Pool St from Billericay in Jul 80 so would have passed through all these spaces hundreds of times by the time this video was shot, yet now I struggle to remember what it was like before it was done up. I recall using the station all through the revamp without even noticing how it was changing around me, until it had changed! Great to see what it was actually like back then.
A fascinating video of the Liverpool St i once knew. Used to love the walkway going all around the station. Fond memories.
The days before digital cameras. In the day the film would have been considered useless BS but now it´s a real bit of history. Amazing to think this is getting on for 40 years. Probably this was the first bit of investment for LS since the 1840´s.
This was really interesting. I only ever visited Liverpool Street station once when it was like this and remember it being dark, dank and cavernous. Many years later I used to walk through the station every day going to work, and it was light and airy, but just as busy. Although I have a certain nostalgia for how it was, from a traveller's perspective I think it became much better post-improvement.
Really fascinated by this. The works they did really changed it a lot and I'm glad for the commentary otherwise I'd be totally lost! Thanks <3
1980's video cameras - they never quite seemed to nail the focus!!
It is strange that I was using this station 5 days a week at this time. In fact almost certainly the day this was filmed and I do not remember any of this. I must have been walking around with my eyes closed.
Absolutely fascinating . I worked around there ( 99 Bishopsgate ) and my daily lunchtime walk was around the station - normally to Brows Mags and one of the 2 WH Smiths ...you get so busy looking at the new stuff, you forget how the old stuff looked . I used Fenchurch Street daily and that has also changed a lot
Thanks so much for sharing this! Amazing to see a bit Broadstreet and Liverpool st
This is awesome 👌 you're the original Geoff Marshall. I was 5 when you filmed this. Little did i know years later in 1999-2001 it would be my station for my london college of fashion campus.