It's kind of creepy being a Londoner and watching Jago's vids. It's like one of those horror movies where the monster keeps getting closer and closer to you, but you're unaware at the time. In this instance, Jago has appeared near my work. Just popping up where I am, but always out of sight, always watching and always waiting. I know when I finally see him though, it'll be too late...
I have a somewhat vague idea what he looks like. In one of his videos from two or three years ago he was filming out of the front window of a DLR train and, of course, there was a reflection from the window. See if you can find it and skip through that bit in slow motion. I am saying no more.
@@PeterGaunthe’s since appeared in a Jay Foreman video. As the commenter above me alludes to, but I wanted to ensure you had an impetus to check, like if you hadn’t heard of him or otherwise didn’t bother checking!
I like how London has an area that is like Kent, but not quite Kent. It's Kent-ish and be a type of town. And even for how old the station is, it does indeed look modern, so making it exceedingly more modern will be a good thing.
London has no areas that are even vaguely Kentish... Essexish or something equally terrible perhaps. As a Man of Kent this is a hill I'm willing to die on 😀
Q: Shouldn't it just be ups, if they're escalators? A: No! Escalators have always gone down as well as up. The word comes from the French _escalier,_ a staircase, not from the verb _to escalate,_ meaning to get higher. "To escalate" is actually a back-formation from "escalator". I'm old enough to remember when the verb first came into general use -- perhaps in the Cuban/Turkish Missile Crisis. I remember thinking "That's silly -- escalators go down as well as up!"
Found just the song for you, Nige - just Google the three key words Ups, Downs and Steeleye! One of the clips that pop up has as its picture some nice Art Nouveau tiling of the same vintage as that at Kentish Town station. Oh, and the song is set in and around a town that used to be served by the Metropolitan Line. (Posted a comment earlier along these lines, but forgot YT doesn't like you including direct links to other clips. Dashed if I know why.)
The present 1997 escalators were the second replacement. The original 1932 machines were Otis MH types, a very reliable design largely specified by the Underground Group as a result of their experience built up since their first escalator installation at Earl's Court in 1911. London Transport continued to use the MH and MY (for shorter rises) designs through to the 1970s, latterly in modernised form (MHA and MYA) using aluminium instead of wooden balustrades and steps. After the 1979 change of government from Labour to Conservative, London Regional Transport (as they became) were persuaded to cease the policy of sourcing major engineering assets from sole suppliers and to their own design, and instead adopt competitive tendering and to accept supplier's designs. The Kentish Town replacements were an early (possibly the first) result of this policy, being installed in 1983 by CNIM (a major escalator supplier to the Paris Metro}. These machines were appallingly unreliable, as were others by other manufacturers at other stations. By the late 1980s LRT commisioned a new design of their own from APV, and this became a standard for which suppliers (mostly Otis, APV and CNIM) could bid to construct. Kentish Town's 1983 CNIMs were replaced by APVs in 1997, a 14 year life which I guess must rank as the shortest ever on the Underground. It is these APVs which are now being replaced, after another relatively short life of 26 years. To the best of my recollection (as a former operations manager responsible for Kentish Town), both the 1983 and 1997 replacements were carried out one at a time, with the station remaining open and way-in passengers using the spiral stairs. I wonder if today's LUL escalator engineers have concluded that there are issues with the design and / or condition of the actual shaft which have contributed to the poor performance of two successive installations and that these can only be fixed if the entire equipment is stripped out first; hence the decision to close the station and (despite this) take as much as 12 months to do the job. However I must stress that this final point in this over-long comment is pure speculation on my part.
Thank you very much for this very interesting and informative, additional information about the escalators, which is much appreciated. It seems modern escalators seem to struggle somewhat, one hopes that a good design will come forth in the not too distant future.
It surprised me when I learned they were only from 1997. Surely most of the escalators on the Jubilee Line Extension are the same age? So why did LU not use the same models as part of that order, which seem to be much more reliable?
I was at Kentish Town the Friday before closure and I remember seeing those escalators and thinking: "Yep, those have seen better days". So at least the closure will hopefully be worth it. It'a a cool enough station as it is
The escalators at Kentish Town were installed by the same company as the ones between the Piccadilly and Northern Lines at King's Cross St Pancras. Those were installed after the 1987 fire in 1990, and also had to be replaced within 5 years.
Kentish Town was a work destination station for a year or so. My memories of the place was the wind tunnel effect when using the stairs at the bottom of the escalator, it always blew a gale down there even with no trains approaching. Also the garden tended by staff at the top pf the escalator and in front of the ticket office.
@@alanlancaster4797They put extra connecting passageways between the adjacent platforms at Kennington ahead of opening the Batrersea extension. What more could be done there, in your opinion? (Replacing the lifts with escalators could close it for quite a while).
the way i queued up history of escalator videos just as you talked about escalator enthusiasts. and truly there is a plethora of escalator content out there lol
With how often Charles Yerkes shows up I'm half expecting him to have his own fanfare or some sort of short intro. 😄 Still waiting for his netflix series...
Where the Fruit Stall is at the Front of the Station that was the original Library in the 70's and Kentish Town was once the terminus of the London Overground Barking line via Upper Holloway with the line curving around by Murphy's Plant Hire depot. My Mum lived in Leighton Road (Next to the Station) from 1969-1982 ..I have great memories of visiting there and getting a DMU from Barking-before that getting a Train from Thorpe Bay as a young lad. Thanks for uploading Jago :-) :-)
In the early 2000s I sometimes needed to get from East Croydon to the projection room of the Phoenix cinema at East Finchley. I would take the train, changing at Kings Cross Thameslink tone which stopped at Kentish Town and change again there onto the Underground. I used to go down the stairs rather than the escalator because on the stairway there was a door with a glass window in it through which it was possible to look into the escalator machine room; I don’t know of any other station where this was possible. Many years ago I did manage to get an engineer to take me into the Machine room at Marylebone when the old ‘wooden’ escalators were still there, and on another occasion into the machine room at Elephant and Castle Northern Line to see the original Otis lift machines. I was given a booklet with the instructions for hand winding the lifts in an emergency.
You must have excellent power to convey enthusiasm, without seeming too obsessed/odd. Many readers of your note are wondering how to get insider looks behind the scenes, too... Clever you! Your pleasure, at your memory, made me vicariously pleased.
I went to Kentish town on Friday 23rd June. It became a glorious warm day, and I didn't think I'd say this, but Kentish town is one of my most well loved (top 10) stations now. Not only becasue of the architecture and infrastructure spanning the National Rail and London Underground there, but the atmosphere of the outside area overall, as a substantial town just outside the very centre of London, second to Kings Cross.
I was pleasantly surprised to see one of your videos about Kentishtown. This station always brings back childhood memories for me. The station itself has changed a great deal over the years, the booking office now also serves Kentishtown Thames Link.
When Kentish Town was first formed this was a farming area with green fields and a river (Fleet) running through it. In it's early years Londoners from the city viewed the small town as being in the countryside. How times changed over the years. Many houses were demolished to make way for the overground railway to run through the town and it gradually grew bigger as the population increased with more new streets being built over the green land. At least Parliament Hill Fields was kept green for the benefit of residents in the area....
Absolutely right, Pete. Reckon you've been reading Gillian Tindall's The Fields Beneath - amirite? If not, then get hold of a copy. One of the best local histories ever written.
That was the best all right. Bright red trains with gold lettering, and wooden floors inside with proper fabric-covered seats. Fondly remembered and much missed as a symbol of better days.
It's good that they're moving the ticket barriers. After a gig kicks out at the Forum, there is always a massive huddle at the barriers as everyone tries to head home.
I lived in Kentish Town for a year from Autumn 2021 to Autumn 2022. It's a really lovely area, I couldn't afford to live there and was only there by chance, but if the opportunity presented itself in the future I would certainly take it again. That being said the escalators at the tube station were painfully unreliable, the number of times I had to take the stairs in a rush to get to uni- for which I was invariably cutting the timing way too fine- was beyond a joke. It's good to see that the escalators are being addressed, interested as to why it's taking a whole year even with the entire Underground side closed to passengers.
I love Kentish Town. As a country person I always think of kentish Town as being the archetypal London village with pub theatres, a big Rock venue and lots and lots of stuff. As well as friends who live there. The slightly wonky tube station sums that up. I always feel I'm on a big adventure when I'm going up those escalators. Hope they don't make them too modern.
Horatio Nelson stayed here once. He said he "wanted to keep an eye on the Fleet". Late one night I did a little turning to pass along Fisherman's Lane where once the Fleet flowed over and children would go paddling and swimming.
@@johnjephcote7636 lady hamilton lived on kentish town highstreet. Nelsons uncle lived around the corner on castle road. Hence you have the lady hamilton pub opposite mcdonalds and tapping the admiral (when nelson died they stored his body in a barrel of rum, the ssilors stole the rum) pub on castle road.
If you like old escalators then Tyne Pedestrian Tunnel has longest single flight wooden escalators in the World. They're non-operational these days, but I can imagine how it must have been them all working with old lifts too c. 1956 when the Tyne still built ships.
Who would have thought that the temporary closure of an underground station at the gateway of suburbia could generate so much comment. And all of it entertaining.
I wonder if they’re going fully step free as part of this. That would help explain the long closure, especially as it sounds like they may knock down some walls
TfL are very much not making it step free, and people are very annoyed. I was surprised to hear that it actually used to have lifts. I’m not sure how they can justify not fitting lifts, given they have shafts.
Hi Jago from Spain. To me Kentish Town was a station on the Shoeburyness to St Pancras service. It later became the terminus when the trains stopped going through to St P. The stretch from Barking later became the Barking to Gospel Oak (Goblin) line.
@@quantisedspace7047 He's referring to the former London, Tilbury and Southend line, which was taken over by the Midland Railway in 1912, and which served Shoeburyness. It's too complicated to go into here, but as the Midland either owned or had access to the various connecting bits of line, it was somehow able to run one train daily from Shoeburyness all the way to its main terminus at St Pancras.
FYI: Uniquely, there's a social progression in UERL stops. Starting with the DISTRICT'S: Parson's Green. Then the PICCADILLY'S: Hammersmith, Baron's Court, Earl's Court, Knightsbridge & King's Cross. And finally the NORTHERN LINE'S: Angel. Rather than climbing the greasy pole - just take the tube instead..? 😉
I lived not 5 minutes walk from there. You know it's your local station when the staff start saying hello. There are a few nice pubs nearby, the Pineapple, the Bull and Gate, and sometimes in the Oxford, you will hear a rumble of an underground train and your pint on the bar will have a slight tremor.
had my first experience with the London Underground Last week, its weird to think how much i knew about the system before ever setting foot in london, your videos made it really easy to adapt and get around london for me!
It always surprises me how long an escalator takes to be replaced. Fingers crossed that when it reopens, the station will be all shiny and refurbished well
Lovely video thanks PS the railway canopy next to the station you can glimpse at 3:40 is from Elstree station. Remember reading this in the Camden Journal when they demolished the shanty town of minicab offices and driving school a long time ago...
That escalator that was broken when you went has been broken for weeks. I think they just decided there was no point fixing it if they were so close to the full refurb. In other news I’ve found my new walk from Camden Town relatively pleasant. The return journey at 4 is a different matter however.
we couldn't do that! That would be simply far too forward thinking, we'll have to close it again and spend more than if we just did it both at the same time in 10 years
I'm here because of Imelda May's song, she sang about this station, I heard that song in German bass in a railway station in 2012. I have a strong desire to visit London and all this and go to Imelda May's concert
I currently have a challenge to visit every station on the Underground and Elizabeth Line. Interesting to think its effectively being pushed back a year from completion because of this work, though I think it could make a good finale of sorts to visit it on the day it reopens and finish the challenge.
I came back home to Leeds from London on Wednesday last week, after I’d tried to do something very similar, using the Strut app. Luckily the areas I’d decided to visit included Kentish Town, and there were several signs to remind me to go, as I don’t know when I might return. Seeing the same adverts on the escalators in Jago’s video as I’d seen made me feel like I was back there! I like the way that some of the ticket booths in some stations have become little gardens.
The infividual patterns on the walls, unique to each station, were designed for easy identification of them in mind, also as not all coukd read the station names. Althought the latter may have significantly improved, the same thinking was behind the tile motifs on the Victoria Line platforms, which opened mainly in the 60's.
They’d better raise the platforms for level boarding while they’re at it too! Even if it’s another 10, 20, 30 years before they add a lift shaft or convert an escalator into a lift, having it done now will reduce the cost and time of those works. Of course it would be even nicer if they made it step-free accessible while they’re at it, but I’m guessing this is being done partly because small renovations/upgrades are cheaper and more sustainable right now than larger refurbishing/additions works.
there's an old shaft they could put a lift in, it's not like they'd be digging one from scratch, but since when has policy in this country ever been forward thinking
@@grassytramtracks I wonder if it would need to be expanded to fit modern equipment. But that’s really great to know! In some locations it would require sacrificing an escalator. But indeed, given our track record, probably nothing will get installed until 2055…
@@frankmurray1549 Bit of a walk? Kentish Town West Station is less than half a mile from Kentish Town Station. You'd easily walk it in under 10 minutes.
@@frankmurray1549turn left out of Kentish Town West station onto Prince of Wales Road, turn left and walk up Anglers Lane and you are on Kentish Town Road - quick and easy.
I used it every day for three years when I did my degree at NW Poly in Prince of Wales Road. On decimalisation day I took back the new 20p ticket as I only wanted a 2/- one...they exchanged it! Still feel weird passing through now even being over half a century ago.
One summer evening in 1950 I had a two-shilling piece in my change when I bought a ticket at Kentish Town. It was a silver one dated 1889, quite worn. I still have the coin.
I see that there has been a huge escalation in the battle for the worst pun recently. Who can rise to the challenge? A good pun is one that moves people to groin loudly. A kind of a people mover on a stairway to pun heaven.
I saw a mention of Otis earlier which reminded me of the famous Cole Porter song, Miss Otis Regrets, based on the saga of a society maiden who has loved not wisely, but too well, and slain the lover who betrayed her. The news is delivered by her butler who reports, 'Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today'. It would become a very famous song sung by Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole, amongst many others ... and that reminds me of the wit of a lift engineer, who having inspected a defective lift, put up a notice announcing ... 'This Otis regrets it's unable to lift today'!!!.
Not really an escalator or elevator enthusiast, but I work for a company that was acquired by UTC, and at the time, Otis was part of that company. Further mergers happened and now Otis is a separate company. So not quite as complex as the Underground companies through history, but - almost.
The different tile patterns at every station were because many people at that time were illiterate and needed some way tell which station they were at.
It's good they are sorting out the ticket barriers and ticket hall. At some point, a weatherproof cover over the rail bridge so one can interchange in inclement weather between Thameslink/Tube would be very helpful!
Manour House - Stepney Green could be an interresting challenge? I recently developped the drainage lake there for Crossrail. Just ruins, but respected the landmark.
Possibly selfishly, I want almost all stations to be closed and renovated so they can make them accessible. I have loved the tube since I was little and riding it was a highlight of any trips down to London but as things are, CZcams videos are all I can see as I’m now disabled androgen unable to access most of the network (in particular the stations I tend to visit most like Piccadilly Circus, Tower Hill, Camden Town and Covent Garden - I know; such a tourist!) Admittedly I don’t even know if it would be possible to make these stations accessible. Perhaps someone with more knowledge that I have could tell me? Thank you Jago for letting me still see the tube in your wonderful videos.
Kone installed incline lifts on all the new Elizabeth line stations where required (aka funiculars) and some old stations have already benefitted to be converted to step free on last year or so Inc Debden,Mill hill, Harrow on hill,Sudbury on hill, Wimbledon south etc where new lifts installed in existing stations. Escalators and stairs can indeed be adapted to carry disabled passengers ( As start of message ) but like anything time cost, benefit and revenue. Tfl lost bucket loads in COVID as not many travelling hence the ulez expansion but that's another story!
I think the problem they have with making the central London stations accessible is that they'd have to close them, confusing tourists and losing revenue. I do agree that it should happen at some point though
Tower Hill does now have lifts, with money & officials who have a 'can do' mindset there will be very few (if any) that cannot be made accessible - stations with sharply curved platforms will be especIally challenging.
@@simplesimon2802 for those, it's probably not possible to have level gap free boarding, but they could still make the platforms accessible, and another question: why didn't they put in a lift when they built the new corridor to the central line at Bank? There are also other cities which have really improved access on their networks: almost all stations in Barcelona are step free, there are only 10 that aren't yet. Vallcarca wasn't when I went to Barcelona in 2017 (you use it to go to Parc Güell) but it now is
3:52 does anyone else have this when they’re going up a long escalator on the tube but to me it looks like it’s going vertically and it always freaks me out
As for escalators that are out of service for maintenance or upgrading or whatever -- here in Stockholm we have a mighty competitor! Our escalators (and lifts for extra points) are out of service all the bloody time. It gets really old really fast unfortunately.
Devastating to hear that about Stockholm. I've always cherished the notion that Sweden enjoyed a degree of efficiency comparable to that (reputedly) of Germany.
At 2:48 there is a reference to what were then viewed as the suburbs of London (still in what we might call Inner London these days) and I find it interesting to research how London developed during the early part of the twentieth century, particularly as improved transport links and more suburban housing egged each other on. I can't find any reference on the internet today but I have heard it said that 100 square miles of housing were built between 1919 and 1939 in what is now Greater London but was then Middlesex and parts of Essex, Hertfordshire, Surrey and Kent, i.e. in what we might call Outer London now, but with only a very minimal increase in the population.
Can they make it warmer and less windy in winter? In 1986 I frequently rode that frigid escalator for a year. Now my daughter lives in Kentish Town when I visit her, I revisit the same freezing and breezy nostalgia-triggering experience. Perhaps something to do with the seemingly more direct access to the North and Southbound platforms straight from the street, than other stations on the line that raises wind speed? Clapham South is similar.
St John's Wood and Swiss Cottage have some nice "replica style" escalators, whilst being metal to comply with the fire regulations, the colour scheme and the "uplighters," particularly at St.John's Wood, give them a sympathetic feel of the past.
@@LeedsInAHat I don't think an idiot would be involved in escalator design. Building an escalator takes much more intelligence than, for instance, making comments on CZcams.
To an American, it seems odd that you Brits build actual buildings for your stations. Here in NYC, a station is nothing more than stairs leading down from a hole in the middle of the sidewalk (and sometimes an elevator/lift on the surface for a few of the newish stations) with the actual station "building" underneath the street.
Most of the tube stations have buildings, but some are essentially underground with stair access, such as at Piccadilly Circus, and some lines are above street level in certain sections.
The Kentish Town Express - now is that the fast train or the local newspaper. (anyone remember LBC in the 1980s when the newspaper reviews always mentioned the Ham and High ?
Be great if they could do refurbishment works at Highgate, Tufnell Park, Camden, Euston, Angel, Old Street and Moorgate at the same time as Kentish Town.
I saw a video where the station roundels and nameplates on the platform were covered in graffiti, apparently there was a secret entrance. I can’t find it now so I don’t know how long ago that was but it may extend the closure …
Sorry to be a lift nerd, but I thought the reason for the station closure was that the escalators were non-standard TfL escalators and can't be fixed.... TfL is replacing the escalators with "standard" ones.
Goodbye but not farewell to Kentish Town - former gateway to the lost and lamented Skate Attack shop, and inspiration for that well-known shanty familiar to hopeful visitors to Camden Lock, "Bugger We've Gotten Off A Stop Early".
It's kind of creepy being a Londoner and watching Jago's vids. It's like one of those horror movies where the monster keeps getting closer and closer to you, but you're unaware at the time. In this instance, Jago has appeared near my work. Just popping up where I am, but always out of sight, always watching and always waiting. I know when I finally see him though, it'll be too late...
Michael Portillo was making use of trains in and around London this week. I kept wondering if he was going to bump into our hero, Jago?
I have a somewhat vague idea what he looks like. In one of his videos from two or three years ago he was filming out of the front window of a DLR train and, of course, there was a reflection from the window. See if you can find it and skip through that bit in slow motion. I am saying no more.
I had a jago close encounter at Waterloo. Don’t think I saw him, he may have seen me.
@@PeterGauntHe looks just like Harry Beck. Just ask Jay Foreman.
@@PeterGaunthe’s since appeared in a Jay Foreman video. As the commenter above me alludes to, but I wanted to ensure you had an impetus to check, like if you hadn’t heard of him or otherwise didn’t bother checking!
Sometimes, when you’re on the Northern Line, if you listen really carefully, you will hear a lot of whingeing
I think you mean "when yer on 'Northern Lyne, yell 'ear alottawhinjin"
@@JohnDoe-gc1pmit goes that far north, huh?
on mobile, this is the top comment, and it cuts off the "of whingeing" part, it was hilarious when i tapped to see it lol
Wot’s all this then?
@@JohnDoe-gc1pm You mean the Norvn Larn.
I like how London has an area that is like Kent, but not quite Kent. It's Kent-ish and be a type of town. And even for how old the station is, it does indeed look modern, so making it exceedingly more modern will be a good thing.
London has no areas that are even vaguely Kentish... Essexish or something equally terrible perhaps. As a Man of Kent this is a hill I'm willing to die on 😀
It's a very Dave Gorman like thing 😊
Modern-ish.
A station I knew well as I worked in Kentish Town for many years. A place I'm happy not to have to go to anymore😂
Canniston, but don't quote me
Thanks for a great video, Jago. I used to be an escalator enthusiast, but that has its ups and downs, so I took steps elsewhere.
Q: Shouldn't it just be ups, if they're escalators?
A: No! Escalators have always gone down as well as up. The word comes from the French _escalier,_ a staircase, not from the verb _to escalate,_ meaning to get higher. "To escalate" is actually a back-formation from "escalator". I'm old enough to remember when the verb first came into general use -- perhaps in the Cuban/Turkish Missile Crisis. I remember thinking "That's silly -- escalators go down as well as up!"
I used to be a farm vehicle enthusiast. Now I'm just an extractor fan...
@@bernardsmith1329 😀
Further steps will be taken over the next 12 months or so.
Found just the song for you, Nige - just Google the three key words Ups, Downs and Steeleye! One of the clips that pop up has as its picture some nice Art Nouveau tiling of the same vintage as that at Kentish Town station. Oh, and the song is set in and around a town that used to be served by the Metropolitan Line.
(Posted a comment earlier along these lines, but forgot YT doesn't like you including direct links to other clips. Dashed if I know why.)
The present 1997 escalators were the second replacement. The original 1932 machines were Otis MH types, a very reliable design largely specified by the Underground Group as a result of their experience built up since their first escalator installation at Earl's Court in 1911. London Transport continued to use the MH and MY (for shorter rises) designs through to the 1970s, latterly in modernised form (MHA and MYA) using aluminium instead of wooden balustrades and steps. After the 1979 change of government from Labour to Conservative, London Regional Transport (as they became) were persuaded to cease the policy of sourcing major engineering assets from sole suppliers and to their own design, and instead adopt competitive tendering and to accept supplier's designs. The Kentish Town replacements were an early (possibly the first) result of this policy, being installed in 1983 by CNIM (a major escalator supplier to the Paris Metro}. These machines were appallingly unreliable, as were others by other manufacturers at other stations. By the late 1980s LRT commisioned a new design of their own from APV, and this became a standard for which suppliers (mostly Otis, APV and CNIM) could bid to construct. Kentish Town's 1983 CNIMs were replaced by APVs in 1997, a 14 year life which I guess must rank as the shortest ever on the Underground. It is these APVs which are now being replaced, after another relatively short life of 26 years. To the best of my recollection (as a former operations manager responsible for Kentish Town), both the 1983 and 1997 replacements were carried out one at a time, with the station remaining open and way-in passengers using the spiral stairs. I wonder if today's LUL escalator engineers have concluded that there are issues with the design and / or condition of the actual shaft which have contributed to the poor performance of two successive installations and that these can only be fixed if the entire equipment is stripped out first; hence the decision to close the station and (despite this) take as much as 12 months to do the job. However I must stress that this final point in this over-long comment is pure speculation on my part.
Thank you very much for this very interesting and informative, additional information about the escalators, which is much appreciated. It seems modern escalators seem to struggle somewhat, one hopes that a good design will come forth in the not too distant future.
Have Hidden London done this one , and are they (knowledgeably critical) about such things ?
It surprised me when I learned they were only from 1997. Surely most of the escalators on the Jubilee Line Extension are the same age? So why did LU not use the same models as part of that order, which seem to be much more reliable?
thank you escalator nerd. 🙂
Ah yes, replacing the known working design with competitive tender really improved efficiency and cost-effectiveness 🙄 well done Maggie
1:02 You can’t enter the research rabbit hole without bumping into this guy.
He's _everywhere_
My mums from Kentish Town and she says she's Kentish Townish
I think there should be a statue of CTY erected somewhere, possibly on a slightly crooked column.
There’s a big picture of him near the ticket barriers for the Circle line at Kings Cross/St Pancras
The column would have to be slightly crooked, give that it's CTY.
@@LeedsInAHat
Thank you. Not having lived in London for a number of years, I would never have known that.
I was at Kentish Town the Friday before closure and I remember seeing those escalators and thinking: "Yep, those have seen better days".
So at least the closure will hopefully be worth it. It'a a cool enough station as it is
The escalators at Kentish Town were installed by the same company as the ones between the Piccadilly and Northern Lines at King's Cross St Pancras. Those were installed after the 1987 fire in 1990, and also had to be replaced within 5 years.
My favourite hat was sucked into the northbound tunnel some time around 1990 but I doubt if they will find it.
Kentish Town was a work destination station for a year or so. My memories of the place was the wind tunnel effect when using the stairs at the bottom of the escalator, it always blew a gale down there even with no trains approaching. Also the garden tended by staff at the top pf the escalator and in front of the ticket office.
I have that experience on the actual escalators at Tooting Bec. Want a gale in your face, whatever the weather?
Now, all they have to do is close Camden Town for a year for a complete rebuild. And then split the line shortly thereafter.
Exactly! Sort out Kennington too, and then call one of them the Yerkes line.
@@alanlancaster4797They put extra connecting passageways between the adjacent platforms at Kennington ahead of opening the Batrersea extension. What more could be done there, in your opinion? (Replacing the lifts with escalators could close it for quite a while).
the way i queued up history of escalator videos just as you talked about escalator enthusiasts. and truly there is a plethora of escalator content out there lol
With how often Charles Yerkes shows up I'm half expecting him to have his own fanfare or some sort of short intro. 😄
Still waiting for his netflix series...
We need a 'jarring chord' or 'sting' to announce him, like that which announces that noone expects the Spanish Inquisition
Cue dramatic gothic organ chord.
“Charles T Yerkes!” to the theme of Dragnet
@@phaasch Pity you can't fit his name to the opening bars of Bach's famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor.
Whenever I watch a new video, Yerkes and Holden are in the battles of the Charles to see who gets mentioned first!
This Otis regrets it's unable to lift today.
Where the Fruit Stall is at the Front of the Station that was the original Library in the 70's and Kentish Town was once the terminus of the London Overground Barking line via Upper Holloway with the line curving around by Murphy's Plant Hire depot. My Mum lived in Leighton Road (Next to the Station) from 1969-1982 ..I have great memories of visiting there and getting a DMU from Barking-before that getting a Train from Thorpe Bay as a young lad. Thanks for uploading Jago :-) :-)
In the early 2000s I sometimes needed to get from East Croydon to the projection room of the Phoenix cinema at East Finchley. I would take the train, changing at Kings Cross Thameslink tone which stopped at Kentish Town and change again there onto the Underground. I used to go down the stairs rather than the escalator because on the stairway there was a door with a glass window in it through which it was possible to look into the escalator machine room; I don’t know of any other station where this was possible.
Many years ago I did manage to get an engineer to take me into the Machine room at Marylebone when the old ‘wooden’ escalators were still there, and on another occasion into the machine room at Elephant and Castle Northern Line to see the original Otis lift machines. I was given a booklet with the instructions for hand winding the lifts in an emergency.
Must have been very interesting. I missed the wooden escalators, came to London too late
You must have excellent power to convey enthusiasm, without seeming too obsessed/odd. Many readers of your note are wondering how to get insider looks behind the scenes, too... Clever you! Your pleasure, at your memory, made me vicariously pleased.
I went to Kentish town on Friday 23rd June. It became a glorious warm day, and I didn't think I'd say this, but Kentish town is one of my most well loved (top 10) stations now. Not only becasue of the architecture and infrastructure spanning the National Rail and London Underground there, but the atmosphere of the outside area overall, as a substantial town just outside the very centre of London, second to Kings Cross.
I was pleasantly surprised to see one of your videos about Kentishtown. This station always brings back childhood memories for me. The station itself has changed a great deal over the years, the booking office now also serves Kentishtown Thames Link.
Me too
When Kentish Town was first formed this was a farming area with green fields and a river (Fleet) running through it. In it's early years Londoners from the city viewed the small town as being in the countryside. How times changed over the years. Many houses were demolished to make way for the overground railway to run through the town and it gradually grew bigger as the population increased with more new streets being built over the green land. At least Parliament Hill Fields was kept green for the benefit of residents in the area....
Absolutely right, Pete. Reckon you've been reading Gillian Tindall's The Fields Beneath - amirite? If not, then get hold of a copy. One of the best local histories ever written.
Love the old rolling stock. My childhood memories of the tube areall about 38 stock though.
That was the best all right. Bright red trains with gold lettering, and wooden floors inside with proper fabric-covered seats. Fondly remembered and much missed as a symbol of better days.
It's good that they're moving the ticket barriers. After a gig kicks out at the Forum, there is always a massive huddle at the barriers as everyone tries to head home.
I lived in Kentish Town for a year from Autumn 2021 to Autumn 2022. It's a really lovely area, I couldn't afford to live there and was only there by chance, but if the opportunity presented itself in the future I would certainly take it again. That being said the escalators at the tube station were painfully unreliable, the number of times I had to take the stairs in a rush to get to uni- for which I was invariably cutting the timing way too fine- was beyond a joke. It's good to see that the escalators are being addressed, interested as to why it's taking a whole year even with the entire Underground side closed to passengers.
I love Kentish Town. As a country person I always think of kentish Town as being the archetypal London village with pub theatres, a big Rock venue and lots and lots of stuff. As well as friends who live there. The slightly wonky tube station sums that up. I always feel I'm on a big adventure when I'm going up those escalators. Hope they don't make them too modern.
Horatio Nelson stayed here once. He said he "wanted to keep an eye on the Fleet". Late one night I did a little turning to pass along Fisherman's Lane where once the Fleet flowed over and children would go paddling and swimming.
@@johnjephcote7636 lady hamilton lived on kentish town highstreet. Nelsons uncle lived around the corner on castle road. Hence you have the lady hamilton pub opposite mcdonalds and tapping the admiral (when nelson died they stored his body in a barrel of rum, the ssilors stole the rum) pub on castle road.
If you like old escalators then Tyne Pedestrian Tunnel has longest single flight wooden escalators in the World. They're non-operational these days, but I can imagine how it must have been them all working with old lifts too c. 1956 when the Tyne still built ships.
@@johnjephcote7636 It's called Anglers Lane, not 'Fisherman's.
so,in a sense , the London's London basically
Who would have thought that the temporary closure of an underground station at the gateway of suburbia could generate so much comment. And all of it entertaining.
I wonder if they’re going fully step free as part of this. That would help explain the long closure, especially as it sounds like they may knock down some walls
It would be a good idea.
it's not mentioned on the plan: tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/improvements-and-projects/kentish-town-station-closure
What happened to the original lift shafts?
@@JP_TaVeryMuchvery well done
TfL are very much not making it step free, and people are very annoyed. I was surprised to hear that it actually used to have lifts.
I’m not sure how they can justify not fitting lifts, given they have shafts.
Hi Jago from Spain. To me Kentish Town was a station on the Shoeburyness to St Pancras service. It later became the terminus when the trains stopped going through to St P. The stretch from Barking later became the Barking to Gospel Oak (Goblin) line.
Ok, I'm completely lost with this one.
@@quantisedspace7047 He's referring to the former London, Tilbury and Southend line, which was taken over by the Midland Railway in 1912, and which served Shoeburyness. It's too complicated to go into here, but as the Midland either owned or had access to the various connecting bits of line, it was somehow able to run one train daily from Shoeburyness all the way to its main terminus at St Pancras.
@@KrzyszczynskiThat deserves a video all of its own.
@@johnm2012 Jago MIGHT have done (or mentioned ) one on the Midland/LTS / Gospel Oak service etc
@@highpath4776 I'll have a look and see if I can find one.
FYI: Uniquely, there's a social progression in UERL stops. Starting with the DISTRICT'S: Parson's Green. Then the PICCADILLY'S: Hammersmith, Baron's Court, Earl's Court, Knightsbridge & King's Cross. And finally the NORTHERN LINE'S: Angel. Rather than climbing the greasy pole - just take the tube instead..? 😉
There used to be Lord’s, of course.
@@JagoHazzard Pity the DukeDogs or Duchess class locos didnt run to them
From a rank (rather than railway) point of view, Knightsbridge is out of sequence.
@@JagoHazzardI thought that Lords was a Metropolitan Railway station, not UERL
Subtitles are telling me the line goes to Houston... I hope there are toilets, that's quite a commute.
'Bakerloo Non Stop'. Ted Heath
The UK answer to 'Take The 'A' Trsin' by Duke Ellington.
I lived not 5 minutes walk from there. You know it's your local station when the staff start saying hello. There are a few nice pubs nearby, the Pineapple, the Bull and Gate, and sometimes in the Oxford, you will hear a rumble of an underground train and your pint on the bar will have a slight tremor.
Great, fine video Jago.
Yerkes rears up again 😬😬😬
I'm not sure what it would look like if the underground extended into Kent but I imagine that this is the best approximation.
had my first experience with the London Underground Last week, its weird to think how much i knew about the system before ever setting foot in london, your videos made it really easy to adapt and get around london for me!
It always surprises me how long an escalator takes to be replaced. Fingers crossed that when it reopens, the station will be all shiny and refurbished well
The escalator ride has to be the windiest on the London Underground… you definitely need to hold onto your hat!
Lovely video thanks
PS the railway canopy next to the station you can glimpse at 3:40 is from Elstree station.
Remember reading this in the Camden Journal when they demolished the shanty town of minicab offices and driving school a long time ago...
UERL: We standardise - on magnificent moustaches!
That escalator that was broken when you went has been broken for weeks. I think they just decided there was no point fixing it if they were so close to the full refurb. In other news I’ve found my new walk from Camden Town relatively pleasant. The return journey at 4 is a different matter however.
Kind of like a town in Kent
Uxbridge English Dictionary!
@@richardharrold9736 Mornington Crescent
ish...
I heard Yerkes at 1:08, so I drank! It's dangerous playing the Yerkes drinking game while watching a Jago video.
As a denizen of KT, the closure is frustrating - particularly as Kentish Town won't be made step free in this process.
we couldn't do that! That would be simply far too forward thinking, we'll have to close it again and spend more than if we just did it both at the same time in 10 years
I'm here because of Imelda May's song, she sang about this station, I heard that song in German bass in a railway station in 2012. I have a strong desire to visit London and all this and go to Imelda May's concert
Jago's cleaning and maintenance is surely needed to prepare him for whatever the future decades throw at hime
I currently have a challenge to visit every station on the Underground and Elizabeth Line. Interesting to think its effectively being pushed back a year from completion because of this work, though I think it could make a good finale of sorts to visit it on the day it reopens and finish the challenge.
I came back home to Leeds from London on Wednesday last week, after I’d tried to do something very similar, using the Strut app. Luckily the areas I’d decided to visit included Kentish Town, and there were several signs to remind me to go, as I don’t know when I might return.
Seeing the same adverts on the escalators in Jago’s video as I’d seen made me feel like I was back there!
I like the way that some of the ticket booths in some stations have become little gardens.
Oh, I have the same challenge, I went to visit Kentish Town last month after I heard of this to get it ticked off
The infividual patterns on the walls, unique to each station, were designed for easy identification of them in mind, also as not all coukd read the station names. Althought the latter may have significantly improved, the same thinking was behind the tile motifs on the Victoria Line platforms, which opened mainly in the 60's.
3:50 I’m an escalator enthusiast. No subject is too obscure indeed.
It has its ups and downs 😁😁😁😁
My old station. It was in need of renovation in the 1980s, so it's good that they finally got round to it.
I just moved from West Hampstead out of London. I don't know how I would've survived without the Kentish Town thameslink / northern line connection
Super fantastic Video😊
Thumbs Up and best greetings!
They’d better raise the platforms for level boarding while they’re at it too! Even if it’s another 10, 20, 30 years before they add a lift shaft or convert an escalator into a lift, having it done now will reduce the cost and time of those works. Of course it would be even nicer if they made it step-free accessible while they’re at it, but I’m guessing this is being done partly because small renovations/upgrades are cheaper and more sustainable right now than larger refurbishing/additions works.
there's an old shaft they could put a lift in, it's not like they'd be digging one from scratch, but since when has policy in this country ever been forward thinking
@@grassytramtracks I wonder if it would need to be expanded to fit modern equipment. But that’s really great to know! In some locations it would require sacrificing an escalator.
But indeed, given our track record, probably nothing will get installed until 2055…
You can also use the London Overground “Kentish Town West” Station to reach the area while the Tube station is closed.
Kentish Town West is a bit of a walk from Kentish Town underground station, being situated on Prince of Wales Road.
@@frankmurray1549 Bit of a walk? Kentish Town West Station is less than half a mile from Kentish Town Station. You'd easily walk it in under 10 minutes.
@@frankmurray1549turn left out of Kentish Town West station onto Prince of Wales Road, turn left and walk up Anglers Lane and you are on Kentish Town Road - quick and easy.
Thanks Jago.
Hi Jago, please tell me you walked down the road to get some footage at Tufnell Park Station yes I am still looking out for that film 😀😀
I used it every day for three years when I did my degree at NW Poly in Prince of Wales Road. On decimalisation day I took back the new 20p ticket as I only wanted a 2/- one...they exchanged it! Still feel weird passing through now even being over half a century ago.
One summer evening in 1950 I had a two-shilling piece in my change when I bought a ticket at Kentish Town. It was a silver one dated 1889, quite worn. I still have the coin.
Wouldn't have been any use in the ticket machines of those days. Straight to the coin-reject cup!
Being an escalator enthusiast must be uplifting 😊
I see that there has been a huge escalation in the battle for the worst pun recently.
Who can rise to the challenge? A good pun is one that moves people to groin loudly.
A kind of a people mover on a stairway to pun heaven.
@@RebMordechaiReviews there's better jokes in the comments section tbh
The area Kentish Town should be split in two and one half renamed Town of Kent 😀
Built across/over a specially-created arm of the Fleet River, to be named the Medway?
00:59 Throws stressball at monitor
Yerk the jerk
Yerkes the jerkes
I saw a mention of Otis earlier which reminded me of the famous Cole Porter song, Miss Otis Regrets, based on the saga of a society maiden who has loved not wisely, but too well, and slain the lover who betrayed her. The news is delivered by her butler who reports, 'Miss Otis regrets she's unable to lunch today'. It would become a very famous song sung by Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole, amongst many others ... and that reminds me of the wit of a lift engineer, who having inspected a defective lift, put up a notice announcing ... 'This Otis regrets it's unable to lift today'!!!.
I like how Leslie Green's stations are all red.
Closing the booking/ticket office? Ugh, sounds horrible. Not everyone uses and understands systems; we still need help when we visit 😞
you are really escalating the quality of tube blogging on youTube.
Thank you!
Heart attack time! I thought from the title TfL had decided to demolish a Leslie Green!
1:00 - Ah yes, that's our great friend Charlie over there!
Not really an escalator or elevator enthusiast, but I work for a company that was acquired by UTC, and at the time, Otis was part of that company. Further mergers happened and now Otis is a separate company. So not quite as complex as the Underground companies through history, but - almost.
Another informative video
The different tile patterns at every station were because many people at that time were illiterate and needed some way tell which station they were at.
It's good they are sorting out the ticket barriers and ticket hall. At some point, a weatherproof cover over the rail bridge so one can interchange in inclement weather between Thameslink/Tube would be very helpful!
Manour House - Stepney Green could be an interresting challenge? I recently developped the drainage lake there for Crossrail. Just ruins, but respected the landmark.
Possibly selfishly, I want almost all stations to be closed and renovated so they can make them accessible. I have loved the tube since I was little and riding it was a highlight of any trips down to London but as things are, CZcams videos are all I can see as I’m now disabled androgen unable to access most of the network (in particular the stations I tend to visit most like Piccadilly Circus, Tower Hill, Camden Town and Covent Garden - I know; such a tourist!)
Admittedly I don’t even know if it would be possible to make these stations accessible. Perhaps someone with more knowledge that I have could tell me?
Thank you Jago for letting me still see the tube in your wonderful videos.
Kone installed incline lifts on all the new Elizabeth line stations where required (aka funiculars) and some old stations have already benefitted to be converted to step free on last year or so Inc Debden,Mill hill, Harrow on hill,Sudbury on hill, Wimbledon south etc where new lifts installed in existing stations. Escalators and stairs can indeed be adapted to carry disabled passengers ( As start of message ) but like anything time cost, benefit and revenue. Tfl lost bucket loads in COVID as not many travelling hence the ulez expansion but that's another story!
I think the problem they have with making the central London stations accessible is that they'd have to close them, confusing tourists and losing revenue. I do agree that it should happen at some point though
@@bobsteryt This is the sort of thing that DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) was supposed to help fix.
Tower Hill does now have lifts, with money & officials who have a 'can do' mindset there will be very few (if any) that cannot be made accessible - stations with sharply curved platforms will be especIally challenging.
@@simplesimon2802 for those, it's probably not possible to have level gap free boarding, but they could still make the platforms accessible, and another question: why didn't they put in a lift when they built the new corridor to the central line at Bank? There are also other cities which have really improved access on their networks: almost all stations in Barcelona are step free, there are only 10 that aren't yet. Vallcarca wasn't when I went to Barcelona in 2017 (you use it to go to Parc Güell) but it now is
Yep, worked for Otis for 24 yrs. I used to manage the 2 larger escalators at EUSTON to the lower level from the mainline. They were MYA’s!
5:09 Former lift shafts on the right. Hidden London Hangouts went there Christmas 2022.
3:52 does anyone else have this when they’re going up a long escalator on the tube but to me it looks like it’s going vertically and it always freaks me out
As for escalators that are out of service for maintenance or upgrading or whatever -- here in Stockholm we have a mighty competitor! Our escalators (and lifts for extra points) are out of service all the bloody time. It gets really old really fast unfortunately.
Devastating to hear that about Stockholm. I've always cherished the notion that Sweden enjoyed a degree of efficiency comparable to that (reputedly) of Germany.
I’m just a Melbournian in cairns watching a British guy talk about trains
At 2:48 there is a reference to what were then viewed as the suburbs of London (still in what we might call Inner London these days) and I find it interesting to research how London developed during the early part of the twentieth century, particularly as improved transport links and more suburban housing egged each other on. I can't find any reference on the internet today but I have heard it said that 100 square miles of housing were built between 1919 and 1939 in what is now Greater London but was then Middlesex and parts of Essex, Hertfordshire, Surrey and Kent, i.e. in what we might call Outer London now, but with only a very minimal increase in the population.
Thanks again for a little diversion
I was literally at kentish town a few days ago, kinda creepy seeing you do a video on it!
I hope they keep most of the vintage look the same!
Can they make it warmer and less windy in winter? In 1986 I frequently rode that frigid escalator for a year. Now my daughter lives in Kentish Town when I visit her, I revisit the same freezing and breezy nostalgia-triggering experience. Perhaps something to do with the seemingly more direct access to the North and Southbound platforms straight from the street, than other stations on the line that raises wind speed? Clapham South is similar.
3:07 that destination sign is comically large
...And then he said it..."Yerkes and his syndicate"...And then my brain went "OMG! If only I was a musician I'd name my band The Yerkes Syndicate!"
I like to go to Kentish Town for the fantastic Kentish food they have there
I wonder if the dodgy escalators at Kentish Town are made by the same clowns that made the escalators at Haymarket on the Tyne and Wear Metro
Another good vid, Jago! Are you going back to report its re-opening, with the all the changes, next year?
Indeed I am!
There's nothing left for Escalator enthusiasts on the tube.
Nothing but distant memories. The sights, the sounds...
The deadly fire disasters.
St John's Wood and Swiss Cottage have some nice "replica style" escalators, whilst being metal to comply with the fire regulations, the colour scheme and the "uplighters," particularly at St.John's Wood, give them a sympathetic feel of the past.
@@emjayayWhat kind of an idiot would create escalators out of wood?!
@@LeedsInAHat I don't think an idiot would be involved in escalator design.
Building an escalator takes much more intelligence than, for instance, making comments on CZcams.
My hero is 'Kentish Town West'. I don't even know where the 'Kentish Town' station is, I must have seen it at some point though...
To an American, it seems odd that you Brits build actual buildings for your stations.
Here in NYC, a station is nothing more than stairs leading down from a hole in the middle of the sidewalk (and sometimes an elevator/lift on the surface for a few of the newish stations) with the actual station "building" underneath the street.
Well that's just barbaric. Sort of thing the French would do.
Have the famous 'kiosks' all gone now?
Most of the tube stations have buildings, but some are essentially underground with stair access, such as at Piccadilly Circus, and some lines are above street level in certain sections.
@@tooleyheadbang4239 Kiosks??? Wha'choo talkin' 'bout, WIllis?
@@tbjtbj7930 LoL 🙂
The Kentish Town Express - now is that the fast train or the local newspaper. (anyone remember LBC in the 1980s when the newspaper reviews always mentioned the Ham and High ?
Thanks!
And thank you!
I do hope they keep those tiles, inside and out.
Be great if they could do refurbishment works at Highgate, Tufnell Park, Camden, Euston, Angel, Old Street and Moorgate at the same time as Kentish Town.
The ubiquitous Mr. Yerkes!
Jago Hazzard welcomes members of the Society for Escalator Movingstairway and Elevator Nerds. Applications for membership by French letter only.
You seedy person you.
@@hb1338 Apologies, no offence meant. Just a joke!
I saw a video where the station roundels and nameplates on the platform were covered in graffiti, apparently there was a secret entrance. I can’t find it now so I don’t know how long ago that was but it may extend the closure …
1 year station closure due to re-construction gives a new meaning to tubeless
Sorry to be a lift nerd, but I thought the reason for the station closure was that the escalators were non-standard TfL escalators and can't be fixed.... TfL is replacing the escalators with "standard" ones.
Also the road bridge deck infront the the station is being renewed by Network Rail in 23/24
Goodbye but not farewell to Kentish Town - former gateway to the lost and lamented Skate Attack shop, and inspiration for that well-known shanty familiar to hopeful visitors to Camden Lock, "Bugger We've Gotten Off A Stop Early".
*got
@@DadgeCity Just in time there .... was about to alert the AAS (Anti-Americanisms Squad) of the Grammar Police.
@@Krzyszczynski Not American, just a recipient of a D in GCSE English. Damn you Keith Joseph!!