When I worked as a Guard on the Piccadilly Line in the late 1960,s there was a staff canteen behind the curved windows that you can see above the station entrance. I lived at Finsbury Park but was based at Northfields Depot, this meant that I had to catch a staff bus to work at about 2am when I was on early shifts and I would then get a "driving trip" on the way home by popping into the front cab and asking the driver (or should I say Motorman). The following week I would be on a late shift so it was reversed, driving trip to work and then staff bus home arriving at about 1am. I enjoyed my time on the Underground but this continual changing of shifts ruined my social life (I was only 18/19 tears old) and left me exhausted. I eventually left to pursue a career with more regular hours. There were still quite a few of the now iconic 1938 stock in use and I actually preferred them. I think they must have been heavier that the later stock and gave smoother ride in my opinion.
So there was an Underground canteen just across the road from the canteen in Wood Green bus garage! I imagine if they had tried to combine them into one the two sets of staff would have objected!
That was fascinating to hear thanks I actually remember these type of rolling stock and also remember the lovely wooden escalators with the lovey sound they made too!
@@emjayay thank you kindly! for now I don't move due to me not taking the vaccine ok! Perhaps one day I might as for the last 22 years I have lived in France and with my mum after my dad died and now mum has passed on aged 95! So I am getting over that too you see! Sorry for all that info!!
And yet .. without this "anti-hero" we might not have some or all of three highly useful tube lines (Bakerloo, Northern, Piccadilly). Yerkes got them opened over a 3 year period (1905-7). London Transport didn't manage another completely new tube line until 1967 (Victoria).
Perhaps a video about CT Yerkes at some point - particularly his history prior to his involvement in London’s underground - his involvement with trams in Chicago - and the reasons why he had to leave the Windy City?
Perhaps Jago should get the Tim Traveller (sorry, I forget his real name), who is a muso, to compose something in the syle of piano accompaniments to Victorian melodrama.
My usage of Wood Green was when visiting the London Model Railway show. I never used Alexandra Palace. I’d get the W3 Bus to the show from over the road , but on the way often enjoyed walking back to Wood Green through the park. Happy days.
Seeing the trains reminds me of when I was a teenage Tube fan discovering the few 1928 Standard Stock cars which could be found on the Hainault loop even in the 1980s. These 1973 trains have been the same stock on the Piccadilly Line for literally as long as I can remember.
So many of the Piccadilly Line's stations from this era and section of the line look fantastic; and this one is no exception. How marvellous, how pretty. And how wonderful that the station finally got built! Great video!
Fascinating, thank you for this! While I lived in London from 2006 to 2015, I worked for a home accountant in Wood Green and am ridiculously familiar with that station. This really makes me miss those days...
Wood Green was my Home station. I lived about a 5-minute walk from it. I was using this with my parents from 1954. In the sixties, a mate of mine and I used to take it in turns to race the tube to Turnpike Lane ( about 1 mile away ) one would get the tube and the other run to Turnpike lane. Despite the tubes being very frequent the one running usually won. Don't think I could beat it these days. There was one day in the late 50's when my Mother and Grandmother took me shopping at Derry & Toms in Kensington. We were inside all day. when we arrived back at wood Green there was a Pea Souper ( very heavy Fog ) Outside the station there were Fires lit in oil barrels to provide enough light for the road junction, most of the Trolly Buses had men walking in front with Red flags. You could literally not see more than about 10 feet.
Used Wood Green tube station twice every weekend when I was at the Met Office training school in Stanmore. I would take the tube from Stanmore to Wembley Park, the the Met to Baker street, Circle to Kings Cross, then Piccadilly to Wood Green where I caught the City Coach Company's bus to Southend. The reverse journey was made on Sunday except that I went to Preston Road where my digs were, instead of Stanmore. I don't remember the tube fare but the bus fare was five shillings return.
Worth pointing out to non-North Londoners that Wood Green tube station is a whole half mile from Ally Pally overground station. Just as well they have different names
Just to add some trivia around the reversing - when the Aldwych shuttle was still alive, for reasons beyond me, the train wasn’t kept at Aldwych or Holborn overnight, but went to Northfields depot, reversing at Wood Green. So a three car (I think) train ran out of Wood Green about 20:30 each night to Northfields. I’m guessing a similar thing happened early in the morning as well.
No wonder I never knew where half a train had gone on a late evening sojourn on the Piccadilly Line. I suspect it was not a stabling move - a train probably was at Aldwych for the morning, but a servicing one to rotate stock about ?
There is also a shunt repeater signal in PG sidings so that when the Aldwych shuttle was reversing you knew that the shunt signal was off and left the siding.
It's been sometime since the old boy has crowbarred in Charlie Yerkes. One day, I can see C. T. Yerkes possibly having his own fan club on this channel.
I'm a fan of Yerkes. He stopped the crooked JP Morgan from setting up their rival mess and took over the United Tramways under the nose JP Morgan. Yerkes was a visionary loveable rogue and we have him to thank for the backbone of one of the best deep Metros in the world . Come now Jago,, you must be a south Londoner 😜
@@willhovell9019 "get over it..." must be the most over-worked cliche now on the internet. It's used by people who think they have made the definitive pronouncement, and are therefore terminating the debate. Well, you haven't. Jago is not that down on CTY, actually, and he lives in west London. (You'd know both of those facts if you actually watched many of these videos). The "Yerkes transport super-villain" stuff is 90% light audience banter - yes, a bit of fun. Get over it.
A treat for me as a train-obsessed toddler in the 1970s: go to see Nan in Wood Green, have a ride on the tube. Just a single station and return for the sake of it. Some great (but rather hazy) memories here.
Secrets of Wood Green Piccadilly Line station. For many years Wood Green was a reversing point for eastbound trains with a siding in between the running tunnels. There was no airflow between the inner end of the siding and the running tunnels and so the air was somewhat stale. There was a signal box originally, later moved to Arnos Grove, and a traincrew booking on point the entrance to which was at the front end of the eastbound platform. The small mess room was not a pleasant place to spend an eight hour shift if one was rostered as a spare. Above the shops on the High Street was a staff canteen where the products of London Transport's catering department could be enjoyed. Anything from a full breakfast or dinner to a toasted teacake were on offer at reasonable prices. Traincrew customarily made their own tea, in a tea can, which was shared with one's "mate". When returning to Northfields depot the Aldwych shuttle unit reversed here, the Northfields crew which had worked the service being relieved by (I think) an Oakwood crew.
You always knew when your train had come from that siding. None of the customary muffled roar followed by the rush of displaced air - just a sort of ker-THUNK sound, and there it was, drawing up to the platform.
My uncle used to drive the tube on Piccadilly line. I used to get in the front with him and drive it as a 13yr old. That was the days with a conductor.
Interestingly if it wasn't for the Depression my late father's parents would never have met. His father left Yorkshire for London to get work and met his London Irish mother, got his job, married and lived in South London. I used to go to Wood Green to go to a training course in the late eighties and I miss the shops that used to be there, like an independent department store, an indoor market and bakers whose sausages rolls were better than any I've had since. The area was declining, since then it's changed a lot, not what it was. But that happens everywhere. Even in my local area an independent department store vanished along with another bakers whose bread my late mother brought until they shut, in the eighties. Recent demolition in my local High Road, revealed their basement oven area, before flats were built in that location. Most of the buses in the area of Wood Green, serve North East London, only a few go to the west, so the rail links to the area are essential to get there from elsewhere in London, if you don't have a car, etc.
8.00..... Nooooo, when you were coming up the escalator, you stopped filming too soon and missed one of Wood Green Stations nicest features. As you reach the top of the escalator, the inwardly curved wall of the ticket office meets the outwardly curving wall of the stations exterior wall in a nice symmetrical point. It's only really appriciated from the angle of the upward escalator and no doubt this is a deliberate feature Holden put into his design. There isn't anything else quite like it on the underground - look up next time you exit the station and you'll see what I mean
Wow...the research you put into the historical facts in the video was absolutely amazing. I guess that's why I keep tuning in to your channel Jago. You hold my interest in railways, an London's railways in perticular. It's in the commentary mate. Well done!
Was my local stop from 97-00 when I was a student at Middlesex Uni and lived in the Halls there. I also worked in the Wetherspoons at the cinema complex where Jago shoots the exterior from. A good experience was one of my regulars at the Wetherspoons was a Tube driver [Lowenbrau Steve in case he's reading] and he'd come in for a pint when he'd finished his shift and I'd have a bit chat with him... One morning when I was at Arnos Grove waiting for Tube to Oakwood... he pulled in to change drivers, noticed me on the platform and waved me into the cab. I went two stops at the front with the cab view. Dunno how many average Tube travelers can say they've been in the front.... can't imagine it's many.
I'm one of them. I fell asleep on the tube on the way home and ended up at Cockfosters. I was standing forlornly on the platform at silly am, when a very kind driver said he could give me a ride back to Wood Green if that was any good. Since that was where I was planning to get off anyway, I gladly accepted his offer.
It's well known that the Great Eastern wanted to get into the act of passenger services and so a line was extended from Seven sisters to Palace Gates in 1878. Funny thing is that Palace Gates was further than the GNR station on the east coast mainliner. The Palace Gates branch did however have a flourishing service that started dieing once the Piccadilly line extension was completed. Old course the closest station on the ex Great Eastern line was Noel Park where it crossed Wood Greenn high road roughly 200 metres south of the Wood Green tube station. The bridge would be roughly where Woodgreen shopping centre is where it crosses the high road. The Palace Gates closed to passengers on 7th January 1963,a very good and snowy day of the big freeze of 62/63.
I spent alot of time eating in the canteen and having a pint in the club there. The club had a bar, a large seating area, a pool table, fruit machines and two full size snooker tables. I must say the food in the canteen was always amazing and cheap. Needless to say Wood Green is a very memorable and loved station. I really can't wait for the Turnpike Lane video. I'm curious to know how it it got its name. Thank you again Jago.
I was the carpenter that did the refit for that room in the 70s, I worked for the Works & Building section based at Junction Road. After completing that I had a job at the bus garage across the road, the main outside supporting wall had slipped on the damp course, a lot of under pinning was involved and pushing the wall back. John.
Another superb episode, I rather like Wood Green Station as well, it has something about it... My favourite station is still Stamford Brook as it was my home station where I grew up.... 🙂 As I am now back home in Austria under quarantine due to covid 19 (which I got last week back home in the UK after not being back there for 2 and a half years due to covid restrictions) I look forward even more to your episodes of London and London Transport history... Thank you Sir 😊
The was my neck of the woods for a while. I loved for two years in the area, usually used Ally Pally station as it was in walking distance, and rode National Rail then the Victoria line to get to Euston and UCL. The pub opposite the station was a regular haunt on the way home
During my teenage years Wood Green station was my gateway to central London. I wonder whether the staff in Foyles had a sweepstake on which Saturday I would actually buy a book instead of just reading them in the shop.
As I was born (1938) and brought in Wood Green, this was very interesting. My friend and as children, would buy a half ticket from Wood Green to Turnpike Lane and see how far around the Underground system we could reach! Great fun. That was in the late 1940s - early fifties. That station was our starting point. Later I used it to go to work at Arnos Grove. I left Wood Green in 1961.
Another enthralling video for someone who lives nowhere remotely close to London. What puzzles me is how in the world do you remember everything in your previous videos? I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast yesterday!
Wood Green tube station is one of a select group of stations that I have got on or off a train at precisely once. A few years ago I helped on the finish of the London Marathon in The Mall a few times. One year, I became aware a few days before that there were going to be engineering works and trains heading for King's Cross that Sunday morning were going to terminate at Alexandra Palace and a replacement bus service would then take passengers the rest of the journey. It occurred to me that Wood Green had a tube station and that it might be within walking distance of Ally Pally station. Furthermore, it was on the Piccadilly Line which meant I could go straight through to Green Park. Having checked the route on an A-Z (yes it was that long ago), when the train terminated at Ally Pally I remember walking to Wood Green while a queue of those running in the marathon waited for the replacement bus to turn up.
So what are you gonna do about the congestion? LNER board (Whispers to colleage) What do we say again when we intend to do nothing but want to sound like we will do something? Colleage: We'll look into it. LNER board: We'll look into it and let you know
I remember living near Bounds Green, but when I wanted tickets at the National Theatre and had to wait for on the day tickets, I'd walk the mile to Wood Green to catch the bus that left 30 minutes before the tube opened. Seeing the sunrise from the upper deck was a treat, even if you're doing usually hate mornings.
Thank you for these videos in all my years of traveling on The Underground I never took the time to notice the decor, now I seek out the differences at every opportunity.
Fascinating, as usual. And not being a Londoner, whenever I watch one of the route-based videos I open the CartoMetro map to see where the stations -really- are.
For several months in 1971 I lived in Palmers Green, which was nearer to Bounds Green station. But I always walked downhill to Wood Green because in those happy days it only cost 10p to get from there to Holborn in central London - one of the best bargains on the whole network, I thought.
From LeviNZ.....Mr Yerkes is Back :-))...just in time for Anzac Day. I'd love to get back to London one day/year....if only to do a station crawl focussed on the architecture and tiling schemes.
Wasn't 'The Wood Green Reversal' a classic Mornington Crescent stratagem? Have you done Mornington Crescent? Street named after the Earl of Mornington and built in 1821. Tube station opened 1907 but shut from 92 to 98 (I can't remember why). It even features in 'The Night I Appeared As Macbeth'. I acted so tragic the house rose like magic, The audience yelled 'You're sublime!' The made me a present of Mornington Crescent, The threw it a brick at a time.
Great video Mr Hazzard, please keep up the good work. Have you ever done a video on the underground’s traction power supply? As you can tell from my name I have an interest in the subject. I remember when in, I think, 2004 a large part of the underground and South West London was blacked out due to the loss of a National Grid 275kV circuit. Ironically, it had only been a few years since LU had switched from their own independent power station to the National Grid system. Just a thought for a potential future video.🙂
@@highpath4776 The “Four Rails” video is a good watch, thanks High Path. It talked about LU using the Lots Road power station for its traction supplies, I had forgotten it’s name when typing my original post to Jago. I was working at a power engineering consultancy firm in 1999 when one of my colleagues was writing a report on the proposal to move the LU traction supplies to a National Grid connection as Lots Rd was going to be decommissioned. I asked him if LU realised that even National Grid GSP connection is not a guaranteed supply (nothing is but a GSP connection has some vulnerabilities compared to a power station). My colleague chuckled and said they new it was theoretically possible but would be extremely unlikely. I gave him my best Mr Spock raised eyebrow look and he chuckled again and nodded but clearly did not want to talk further about it. Then one early evening in 2004 I was watching Channel 4 news and all the tungsten filament lamps that were on went very bright for a couple of seconds. I new that the GB National grid had just had a large load disconnection, at the very least a GSP. Local tap changers at the sub transmission and distribution level cannot make the voltage rise that much that quickly (an LV neutral fault can but tends to stay on for much longer). Then Jon Snow on C4 news says they have just lost mains power in their West London studios and we’re on backup generators. Then later, pictures of people streaming out of underground stations and reports of large parts of the LU network being without power. National Grid eventually told the media that the loss of supply was caused by the wrong size of fuse, which was not really true. However it was a simple way of saying the wrong primary current setting on a protection relay had been applied. NationalGrid completely changed their whole commissioning process after that. 🔌👍🙏💡
@@highvoltageswitcher6256 Even simply the locations of the traction power stations/rectifiers/etc can be difficult to find although details creep out every so often. It would be interesting to see a video or two about both the existing stations and historical ones (All Hail the Rotary Converter!!).
I want there to be a video about a station on the Ankh-Morpork and Sto Plains Hygienic Railway in the tone of a typical Jago video, with Harry King being talked about like Charles Tyson Yerkes
@@dcallan812 When working in the Area I tended to Arrive at Wood Green, then walk after work down the high road for shopping / McD's and returrn from Turnpike Lane
@@highpath4776 I workde a few street back from the station so did more or less the same walk you do. That was 30 years ago but it looks more or less the same Just diffrent shop names.
It's interesting to see this. The station looks like an exhibition hall. This is only insofar as it reminds me of a contemporary hall in Edinburgh which is a bus depot. It started life as an exhibition hall, became a tram depot (I think) and is now a bus depot. They both are curved- the Edinburgh one is completely round with a domed roof I think. It's just off Leith Walk but it is not the one on Leith Walk which I know is called Shrubhill.
@@JagoHazzard I like this little nod to the area's rural past. I try to do my bit by only referrring to the area as Middlesex, and refusing to recognise the 1965 act which incorporated the area into London! Even though I've only lived down here for six months....
My lifelong friend was motorman on the train bombed by the IRA. Wood green was the destination and his guard had just given the starting signal having detrained passengers. The train was heading for Wood Green siding. Had the bomb exploded moments later the m/m and guard would have been changing ends which involved passing through the cars. The bomb exploded in a middle driving motor car, writing it off. My friend, who passed away last week, said he remembered little about the explosion but never forgot the taxi journey back to Northfields Depot. "The taxi driver was a lunatic and I feared for my life" he said. But the bomb.... Nah!
Excellent stuff. The station really does grab your attention as you approach it as it lovingly wraps itself around the corner. I always thought it very smart, as are pretty much all the stations on this part of the line (albeit Turnpike Lane has lost a bit of its charm now for me, sadly). I haven’t used it since I was about 8 (so over 40 years ago) but it is good to know the modernisation managed to maintain the charm, albeit I agree the loss of the up-lighters is a shame, albeit no doubt down to modern concerns like maintenance and cost cutting 🤷🏻♂️ Excellent stuff as ever, cheers! 👍🍀🍻
Another station I have known since childhood. Regarding the GNR station, may I point out that this was not renamed from Wood Green to Alexandra Palace in 1984 but actually on 17th May 1982, the renaming ceremony being performed by the film star and t.v. personality Diana Dors who sadly passed away just two years later, aged only 52. Previous to the 1982 renaming, the station did indeed start life in 1859 as Wood Green and was renamed Wood Green (Alexandra Park) in 1864 and in 1871 it became the junction for the Enfield branch which in the second decade of the 20th Century was extended back to the GNR main line at Stevenage to become the Hertford North Loop. In 1971, the GNR station was renamed back from Wood Green (Alexandra Park) to simply Wood Green again before finally becoming, as I said, Alexandra Palace in 1982 although a lot less convenient for the palace than the original 1873 terminus of the Northern Heights line which was right up against the palace walls and almost became part of the LU Northern Line but sadly closed in 1954. KInd regards, David, Crouch End, N8
Mr. Hazzard must be one if the hardest working yt-creators. Another interesting video, though as a foreigner I do get lost a bit in the abundant detail.
The Rebuilt Wood Green Trolleybus depot ( now Bus Garage. formerly Tram Depot) looks to have used the same brick size and colour as the tube station. Wood Green is also interesting as being in Zone 3, it feels a place that should be in Zone 4, being more like Ilford than Stratford for example
You mention about the IRA. They targeted Sloane Square station one Christmas, in those days the Works & building team would search the station, my best friend was not so lucky he lost half his arm when the bomb went off . I was lucky to receive no injuries. Camden Town, Tufnell Park and the Archway were all sand bagged up just like in WW2, I never want to see another sandbag. John.
Do they still play classical music in the ticket hall? A surprisingly effective way at keeping the undesirable element away. _"Nah man, I can't deal with this bruv, ya git me!"_
An exhibition hall converted to a staff room must be one of the more extravagant repurposing suggestions I've heard of. The union convener must have been a very persuasive chap indeed.
Wood Green also, of course, of note for the Eastern National bus company having a garage here, a rare example of a non-LT company having a garage in LT territory, and most famous for being used as the location for the seminal sitcom On the Buses 👨✈️
Any chance you could do a video on the Wood Green shopping centre? I feel like it’s such an enigmatic, foreboding building that completely envelops an entire area. Why is it designed like that? Why is it so big? What did it used to be? Etc etc
It was built as a North east London rival to Brent Cross centre in the North West. According to my Dad (who worked on the building in the early 80s) it was basically a continuous parade of shops before the shopping "city" was built. According to him there was still a bit of a village feel about the place in the late 70s. Part of the shopping mall is on the site of Noel Park station on the Palace Gates Line. The bridge feature of the mall, where the two sides of the centre are linked over the High Road is (I guess) an homage to the Palace Gates line, as there was a bridge a little further north to carry the railway over the High road.
Thanks Jago - this is another really interesting video on the history of the Tube. I'll always have a soft spot for Wood Green as my late dad used to work at Alexandra Palace. Living in East London (i.e. East London, north of the River Thames), it is relatively flat, so it was always a novelty observing not just the hill that Alexandra Palace is built on, but also the hill that Wood Green station opens to, especially if you are driving to Bounds Green station. 👏🏾👏🏾❤❤🚇🚇
@@dukenukem5768 Reverse sidings on the Picc and part of the Met that we use: Uxbridge, Ruislip, Rayners Lane, Soon to be South Harrow again, T5, Northfields, Acton Town, Hammersmith/ Barons Court, Down St, Wood Green, Arnos Grove. Also T123, Hatton X, Hounslow Cent, Boston Manor, Hyde Park, Kings Cross, (Finsbury Pk to get to the Vic), Oakwood and Cockfosters.
@@piccadillyline9765 Yeah, but I thought the OP was interested in centre turn-back sidings like Wood Green's. Of course you can also reverse anywhere else that has a crossover. I did miss Rayners Lane though.
Excellent, as usual Jago. How about a few thoughts on South Ealing - a station incompletely modified by WW2? Could do a comparison with others on the Hounslow line, like Northfields and the absolutely classic Osterley.
When I worked as a Guard on the Piccadilly Line in the late 1960,s there was a staff canteen behind the curved windows that you can see above the station entrance. I lived at Finsbury Park but was based at Northfields Depot, this meant that I had to catch a staff bus to work at about 2am when I was on early shifts and I would then get a "driving trip" on the way home by popping into the front cab and asking the driver (or should I say Motorman). The following week I would be on a late shift so it was reversed, driving trip to work and then staff bus home arriving at about 1am. I enjoyed my time on the Underground but this continual changing of shifts ruined my social life (I was only 18/19 tears old) and left me exhausted. I eventually left to pursue a career with more regular hours. There were still quite a few of the now iconic 1938 stock in use and I actually preferred them. I think they must have been heavier that the later stock and gave smoother ride in my opinion.
So there was an Underground canteen just across the road from the canteen in Wood Green bus garage! I imagine if they had tried to combine them into one the two sets of staff would have objected!
@@davidflett2723 Hmm, this has great potential as a 70's sitcom... now where did I park my TARDIS?
That was fascinating to hear thanks I actually remember these type of rolling stock and also remember the lovely wooden escalators with the lovey sound they made too!
@@nigeldewallens1115 Check Macy's in Manhattan for your wood escalator needs. The last one was removed from a Tube station a few years back.
@@emjayay thank you kindly! for now I don't move due to me not taking the vaccine ok! Perhaps one day I might as for the last 22 years I have lived in France and with my mum after my dad died and now mum has passed on aged 95! So I am getting over that too you see! Sorry for all that info!!
Yerkes needs some short villainous intro music each time he appears!
We've all said it! Someone needs to actually compose said music (I don't get the impression that Jago is a muso...)
And yet .. without this "anti-hero" we might not have some or all of three highly useful tube lines (Bakerloo, Northern, Piccadilly). Yerkes got them opened over a 3 year period (1905-7). London Transport didn't manage another completely new tube line until 1967 (Victoria).
@@iankemp1131 Exactly - Yerkes is the complex, nuanced villain that the modern age needs! Sort of like Boris... well, er.. you know?
Perhaps a video about CT Yerkes at some point - particularly his history prior to his involvement in London’s underground - his involvement with trams in Chicago - and the reasons why he had to leave the Windy City?
Perhaps Jago should get the Tim Traveller (sorry, I forget his real name), who is a muso, to compose something in the syle of piano accompaniments to Victorian melodrama.
"I don't think anybody is planning to do anything nasty .... " Apart from that duct @7:15 ... it hurts my eyes.
I too looked worriedly to see if any of the original glazed tiles had been chiselled, plus it hurt my eyes!
My usage of Wood Green was when visiting the London Model Railway show. I never used Alexandra Palace. I’d get the W3 Bus to the show from over the road , but on the way often enjoyed walking back to Wood Green through the park. Happy days.
Seeing the trains reminds me of when I was a teenage Tube fan discovering the few 1928 Standard Stock cars which could be found on the Hainault loop even in the 1980s. These 1973 trains have been the same stock on the Piccadilly Line for literally as long as I can remember.
1973 stock was introduced towards the end of 1975 gradually replacing the 1956 stock which was moved to the Northern Line.
So many of the Piccadilly Line's stations from this era and section of the line look fantastic; and this one is no exception. How marvellous, how pretty. And how wonderful that the station finally got built!
Great video!
Fascinating, thank you for this! While I lived in London from 2006 to 2015, I worked for a home accountant in Wood Green and am ridiculously familiar with that station. This really makes me miss those days...
Always great to get the historical perspective on the UA-cam it’s always informative and more interesting than the titles actually suggest .
I thought the title was the best thing of this video
@@ugiswrong Your comment is one stop from East Ham !
Just what I needed after a rough morning. Thank you!
Wood Green was my Home station. I lived about a 5-minute walk from it. I was using this with my parents from 1954. In the sixties, a mate of mine and I used to take it in turns to race the tube to Turnpike Lane ( about 1 mile away ) one would get the tube and the other run to Turnpike lane. Despite the tubes being very frequent the one running usually won. Don't think I could beat it these days. There was one day in the late 50's when my Mother and Grandmother took me shopping at Derry & Toms in Kensington. We were inside all day. when we arrived back at wood Green there was a Pea Souper ( very heavy Fog ) Outside the station there were Fires lit in oil barrels to provide enough light for the road junction, most of the Trolly Buses had men walking in front with Red flags. You could literally not see more than about 10 feet.
Used Wood Green tube station twice every weekend when I was at the Met Office training school in Stanmore. I would take the tube from Stanmore to Wembley Park, the the Met to Baker street, Circle to Kings Cross, then Piccadilly to Wood Green where I caught the City Coach Company's bus to Southend. The reverse journey was made on Sunday except that I went to Preston Road where my digs were, instead of Stanmore. I don't remember the tube fare but the bus fare was five shillings return.
That metalwork is lovely!
Worth pointing out to non-North Londoners that Wood Green tube station is a whole half mile from Ally Pally overground station. Just as well they have different names
Just to add some trivia around the reversing - when the Aldwych shuttle was still alive, for reasons beyond me, the train wasn’t kept at Aldwych or Holborn overnight, but went to Northfields depot, reversing at Wood Green. So a three car (I think) train ran out of Wood Green about 20:30 each night to Northfields. I’m guessing a similar thing happened early in the morning as well.
No wonder I never knew where half a train had gone on a late evening sojourn on the Piccadilly Line. I suspect it was not a stabling move - a train probably was at Aldwych for the morning, but a servicing one to rotate stock about ?
What a palaver! You'd think that keeping it overnight at Arnos Grove would make more sense.
There is also a shunt repeater signal in PG sidings so that when the Aldwych shuttle was reversing you knew that the shunt signal was off and left the siding.
The reason I call Wood Green PG thats its cabin code.
It's been sometime since the old boy has crowbarred in Charlie Yerkes. One day, I can see C. T. Yerkes possibly having his own fan club on this channel.
He already does!
I suggested a Yerkes drinking game... Take a shot every time he gets mentioned
I'm a fan of Yerkes. He stopped the crooked JP Morgan from setting up their rival mess and took over the United Tramways under the nose JP Morgan. Yerkes was a visionary loveable rogue and we have him to thank for the backbone of one of the best deep Metros in the world . Come now Jago,, you must be a south Londoner 😜
@@willhovell9019 "get over it..." must be the most over-worked cliche now on the internet. It's used by people who think they have made the definitive pronouncement, and are therefore terminating the debate.
Well, you haven't.
Jago is not that down on CTY, actually, and he lives in west London. (You'd know both of those facts if you actually watched many of these videos).
The "Yerkes transport super-villain" stuff is 90% light audience banter - yes, a bit of fun. Get over it.
@@rodjones117 you're right , have ammended , Jago a very interesting UA-camr
6.38 Cast iron decorations. I think those are brass. I remember Southgate as a kid they still had someone to polish them The station was beautiful.
A treat for me as a train-obsessed toddler in the 1970s: go to see Nan in Wood Green, have a ride on the tube. Just a single station and return for the sake of it. Some great (but rather hazy) memories here.
As a resident of the other Lordship Lane in Dulwich, I am very glad they didn't call the station Lordship Lane
Or even if one was resident the other end of Lordship Lane, its quite a long road getting towards the Tottenham Area.
Secrets of Wood Green Piccadilly Line station.
For many years Wood Green was a reversing point for eastbound trains with a siding in between the running tunnels. There was no airflow between the inner end of the siding and the running tunnels and so the air was somewhat stale. There was a signal box originally, later moved to Arnos Grove, and a traincrew booking on point the entrance to which was at the front end of the eastbound platform. The small mess room was not a pleasant place to spend an eight hour shift if one was rostered as a spare. Above the shops on the High Street was a staff canteen where the products of London Transport's catering department could be enjoyed. Anything from a full breakfast or dinner to a toasted teacake were on offer at reasonable prices. Traincrew customarily made their own tea, in a tea can, which was shared with one's "mate". When returning to Northfields depot the Aldwych shuttle unit reversed here, the Northfields crew which had worked the service being relieved by (I think) an Oakwood crew.
You always knew when your train had come from that siding. None of the customary muffled roar followed by the rush of displaced air - just a sort of ker-THUNK sound, and there it was, drawing up to the platform.
My uncle used to drive the tube on Piccadilly line.
I used to get in the front with him and drive it as a 13yr old.
That was the days with a conductor.
@@Mr-ue2ul “The tube” is what the train travels through. American railways/roads have conductors.The London underground had guards.
Passed through WG about 6 times over the Easter weekend. Loved the Tiny Parks.
Interestingly if it wasn't for the Depression my late father's parents would never have met. His father left Yorkshire for London to get work and met his London Irish mother, got his job, married and lived in South London.
I used to go to Wood Green to go to a training course in the late eighties and I miss the shops that used to be there, like an independent department store, an indoor market and bakers whose sausages rolls were better than any I've had since. The area was declining, since then it's changed a lot, not what it was. But that happens everywhere. Even in my local area an independent department store vanished along with another bakers whose bread my late mother brought until they shut, in the eighties. Recent demolition in my local High Road, revealed their basement oven area, before flats were built in that location.
Most of the buses in the area of Wood Green, serve North East London, only a few go to the west, so the rail links to the area are essential to get there from elsewhere in London, if you don't have a car, etc.
8.00..... Nooooo, when you were coming up the escalator, you stopped filming too soon and missed one of Wood Green Stations nicest features.
As you reach the top of the escalator, the inwardly curved wall of the ticket office meets the outwardly curving wall of the stations exterior wall in a nice symmetrical point.
It's only really appriciated from the angle of the upward escalator and no doubt this is a deliberate feature Holden put into his design. There isn't anything else quite like it on the underground - look up next time you exit the station and you'll see what I mean
Wow...the research you put into the historical facts in the video was absolutely amazing. I guess that's why I keep tuning in
to your channel Jago. You hold my interest in railways, an London's railways in perticular. It's in the commentary mate. Well done!
Was my local stop from 97-00 when I was a student at Middlesex Uni and lived in the Halls there. I also worked in the Wetherspoons at the cinema complex where Jago shoots the exterior from. A good experience was one of my regulars at the Wetherspoons was a Tube driver [Lowenbrau Steve in case he's reading] and he'd come in for a pint when he'd finished his shift and I'd have a bit chat with him... One morning when I was at Arnos Grove waiting for Tube to Oakwood... he pulled in to change drivers, noticed me on the platform and waved me into the cab. I went two stops at the front with the cab view. Dunno how many average Tube travelers can say they've been in the front.... can't imagine it's many.
I'm one of them. I fell asleep on the tube on the way home and ended up at Cockfosters. I was standing forlornly on the platform at silly am, when a very kind driver said he could give me a ride back to Wood Green if that was any good. Since that was where I was planning to get off anyway, I gladly accepted his offer.
It's well known that the Great Eastern wanted to get into the act of passenger services and so a line was extended from Seven sisters to Palace Gates in 1878.
Funny thing is that Palace Gates was further than the GNR station on the east coast mainliner.
The Palace Gates branch did however have a flourishing service that started dieing once the Piccadilly line extension was completed.
Old course the closest station on the ex Great Eastern line was Noel Park where it crossed Wood Greenn high road roughly 200 metres south of the Wood Green tube station.
The bridge would be roughly where Woodgreen shopping centre is where it crosses the high road.
The Palace Gates closed to passengers on 7th January 1963,a very good and snowy day of the big freeze of 62/63.
I spent alot of time eating in the canteen and having a pint in the club there. The club had a bar, a large seating area, a pool table, fruit machines and two full size snooker tables.
I must say the food in the canteen was always amazing and cheap. Needless to say Wood Green is a very memorable and loved station.
I really can't wait for the Turnpike Lane video. I'm curious to know how it it got its name.
Thank you again Jago.
I was the carpenter that did the refit for that room in the 70s, I worked for the Works & Building section based at Junction Road. After completing that I had a job at the bus garage across the road, the main outside supporting wall had slipped on the damp course, a lot of under pinning was involved and pushing the wall back. John.
Another superb episode, I rather like Wood Green Station as well, it has something about it... My favourite station is still Stamford Brook as it was my home station where I grew up.... 🙂 As I am now back home in Austria under quarantine due to covid 19 (which I got last week back home in the UK after not being back there for 2 and a half years due to covid restrictions) I look forward even more to your episodes of London and London Transport history... Thank you Sir 😊
I too grew up near Ravenscourt Park. I was at Brackenbury school in the late 60s. There was a boy with your surname in my class.
@@colinbaker3916 I was at Wendell Park Primary in the 70s and Christopher Wren in the late 70s early 80s 🙂
@@SimonRML2456 The boy in my class was Joseph Persaud
The was my neck of the woods for a while. I loved for two years in the area, usually used Ally Pally station as it was in walking distance, and rode National Rail then the Victoria line to get to Euston and UCL. The pub opposite the station was a regular haunt on the way home
During my teenage years Wood Green station was my gateway to central London. I wonder whether the staff in Foyles had a sweepstake on which Saturday I would actually buy a book instead of just reading them in the shop.
This was lovely, thank you!
Enthralling as ever, Jago !
As I was born (1938) and brought in Wood Green, this was very interesting. My friend and as children, would buy a half ticket from Wood Green to Turnpike Lane and see how far around the Underground system we could reach! Great fun. That was in the late 1940s - early fifties. That station was our starting point. Later I used it to go to work at Arnos Grove. I left Wood Green in 1961.
Another enthralling video for someone who lives nowhere remotely close to London. What puzzles me is how in the world do you remember everything in your previous videos? I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast yesterday!
Wood Green tube station is one of a select group of stations that I have got on or off a train at precisely once. A few years ago I helped on the finish of the London Marathon in The Mall a few times. One year, I became aware a few days before that there were going to be engineering works and trains heading for King's Cross that Sunday morning were going to terminate at Alexandra Palace and a replacement bus service would then take passengers the rest of the journey. It occurred to me that Wood Green had a tube station and that it might be within walking distance of Ally Pally station. Furthermore, it was on the Piccadilly Line which meant I could go straight through to Green Park. Having checked the route on an A-Z (yes it was that long ago), when the train terminated at Ally Pally I remember walking to Wood Green while a queue of those running in the marathon waited for the replacement bus to turn up.
So what are you gonna do about the congestion?
LNER board (Whispers to colleage) What do we say again when we intend to do nothing but want to sound like we will do something?
Colleage: We'll look into it.
LNER board: We'll look into it and let you know
Alexandra Palace station brings back many memories, its just down the road from the Naked Hands spa
Oh my!
I remember living near Bounds Green, but when I wanted tickets at the National Theatre and had to wait for on the day tickets, I'd walk the mile to Wood Green to catch the bus that left 30 minutes before the tube opened. Seeing the sunrise from the upper deck was a treat, even if you're doing usually hate mornings.
Simply great, Mr H, and entirely up to your excellent standards. Thank you. Simon T
Thank you for these videos in all my years of traveling on The Underground I never took the time to notice the decor, now I seek out the differences at every opportunity.
Fascinating, as usual. And not being a Londoner, whenever I watch one of the route-based videos I open the CartoMetro map to see where the stations -really- are.
I need a Charles Yerkes anti hero shirt 😂
We all do! Charles Tyson Yerkes - transport super-villain!
@@rodjones117 😄
@@rodjones117 Is he the inspiration for the Monopoly man ?
I need one, and so does my wife...
@@highpath4776 Well he looks just like him - maybe Jago knows?
That darn Yerkes strikes again!
My old home town. I used to love the old style escalators with their beautiful uplighters.
This was my local station when I lived in London. Nice to hear some of its history.
For several months in 1971 I lived in Palmers Green, which was nearer to Bounds Green station. But I always walked downhill to Wood Green because in those happy days it only cost 10p to get from there to Holborn in central London - one of the best bargains on the whole network, I thought.
This was excellent,, and yet another great finishing frays.
Used to get out there to get the bus up to Ally Pally for the Model Engineer Exhibition.
From LeviNZ.....Mr Yerkes is Back :-))...just in time for Anzac Day. I'd love to get back to London one day/year....if only to do a station crawl focussed on the architecture and tiling schemes.
Now I want to go to all these stations thanks to your videos!
Just a point about the decorative vent covers at platform level. I believe them to be bronze rather than iron. Just very heavily oxidised.
Excellent video 📹
My area: Wood Green; TPL and Alexandra Palace.
Never knew it had so much history.
Wasn't 'The Wood Green Reversal' a classic Mornington Crescent stratagem? Have you done Mornington Crescent? Street named after the Earl of Mornington and built in 1821. Tube station opened 1907 but shut from 92 to 98 (I can't remember why). It even features in 'The Night I Appeared As Macbeth'.
I acted so tragic the house rose like magic,
The audience yelled 'You're sublime!'
The made me a present of Mornington Crescent,
The threw it a brick at a time.
Great video Mr Hazzard, please keep up the good work. Have you ever done a video on the underground’s traction power supply? As you can tell from my name I have an interest in the subject. I remember when in, I think, 2004 a large part of the underground and South West London was blacked out due to the loss of a National Grid 275kV circuit. Ironically, it had only been a few years since LU had switched from their own independent power station to the National Grid system. Just a thought for a potential future video.🙂
See why the underground has 4 rails vid Jago has done
@@highpath4776 thanks, I will. 🙂
@@highpath4776 The “Four Rails” video is a good watch, thanks High Path. It talked about LU using the Lots Road power station for its traction supplies, I had forgotten it’s name when typing my original post to Jago. I was working at a power engineering consultancy firm in 1999 when one of my colleagues was writing a report on the proposal to move the LU traction supplies to a National Grid connection as Lots Rd was going to be decommissioned. I asked him if LU realised that even National Grid GSP connection is not a guaranteed supply (nothing is but a GSP connection has some vulnerabilities compared to a power station). My colleague chuckled and said they new it was theoretically possible but would be extremely unlikely. I gave him my best Mr Spock raised eyebrow look and he chuckled again and nodded but clearly did not want to talk further about it. Then one early evening in 2004 I was watching Channel 4 news and all the tungsten filament lamps that were on went very bright for a couple of seconds. I new that the GB National grid had just had a large load disconnection, at the very least a GSP. Local tap changers at the sub transmission and distribution level cannot make the voltage rise that much that quickly (an LV neutral fault can but tends to stay on for much longer). Then Jon Snow on C4 news says they have just lost mains power in their West London studios and we’re on backup generators. Then later, pictures of people streaming out of underground stations and reports of large parts of the LU network being without power. National Grid eventually told the media that the loss of supply was caused by the wrong size of fuse, which was not really true. However it was a simple way of saying the wrong primary current setting on a protection relay had been applied. NationalGrid completely changed their whole commissioning process after that. 🔌👍🙏💡
@@highvoltageswitcher6256 Even simply the locations of the traction power stations/rectifiers/etc can be difficult to find although details creep out every so often. It would be interesting to see a video or two about both the existing stations and historical ones (All Hail the Rotary Converter!!).
@@carlzwanzig5372 yes. Did LU have rotary converters?
I want there to be a video about a station on the Ankh-Morpork and Sto Plains Hygienic Railway in the tone of a typical Jago video, with Harry King being talked about like Charles Tyson Yerkes
I did enjoy Wood Green station, very spacious 🤩
I love Wood Green station, as it’s the fastest way to escape Wood Green.
very true lol. 👍
@@dcallan812 When working in the Area I tended to Arrive at Wood Green, then walk after work down the high road for shopping / McD's and returrn from Turnpike Lane
@@highpath4776 I workde a few street back from the station so did more or less the same walk you do. That was 30 years ago but it looks more or less the same Just diffrent shop names.
"Except when I dont...." only you Jago
Classic!
Another great film with lots of history on the station. Can you please, please do one on Tufnell Park Station
I grew up here and lived between Wood Green and Turnpike Lane. To be precise, Harringey😊
It's interesting to see this. The station looks like an exhibition hall. This is only insofar as it reminds me of a contemporary hall in Edinburgh which is a bus depot.
It started life as an exhibition hall, became a tram depot (I think) and is now a bus depot. They both are curved- the Edinburgh one is completely round with a domed roof I think. It's just off Leith Walk but it is not the one on Leith Walk which I know is called Shrubhill.
When Yerkes appeared I took a slurp of my drink. Admittedly it was my morning brew, but it's the kneejerk reaction that counts.
Excellent 😊
I trust that TfL will get round to replacing the current temporary lighting with the original uplighters in due course.
Another gem! 5:58 the exhibitionists must have bee pleased...
Turnpike Lane also has the rustic-themed grills over the vents.
I should check that out.
@@JagoHazzard
I like this little nod to the area's rural past. I try to do my bit by only referrring to the area as Middlesex, and refusing to recognise the 1965 act which incorporated the area into London!
Even though I've only lived down here for six months....
My lifelong friend was motorman on the train bombed by the IRA. Wood green was the destination and his guard had just given the starting signal having detrained passengers. The train was heading for Wood Green siding. Had the bomb exploded moments later the m/m and guard would have been changing ends which involved passing through the cars. The bomb exploded in a middle driving motor car, writing it off. My friend, who passed away last week, said he remembered little about the explosion but never forgot the taxi journey back to Northfields Depot. "The taxi driver was a lunatic and I feared for my life" he said. But the bomb.... Nah!
I could never see myself going to Wood Green but you must work for the Wood Green tourist board and I am encouraged to visit!
A lovely and entertaining video as always!
Excellent stuff. The station really does grab your attention as you approach it as it lovingly wraps itself around the corner. I always thought it very smart, as are pretty much all the stations on this part of the line (albeit Turnpike Lane has lost a bit of its charm now for me, sadly). I haven’t used it since I was about 8 (so over 40 years ago) but it is good to know the modernisation managed to maintain the charm, albeit I agree the loss of the up-lighters is a shame, albeit no doubt down to modern concerns like maintenance and cost cutting 🤷🏻♂️
Excellent stuff as ever, cheers! 👍🍀🍻
Another station I have known since childhood. Regarding the GNR station, may I point out that this was not renamed from Wood Green to Alexandra Palace in 1984 but actually on 17th May 1982, the renaming ceremony being performed by the film star and t.v. personality Diana Dors who sadly passed away just two years later, aged only 52. Previous to the 1982 renaming, the station did indeed start life in 1859 as Wood Green and was renamed Wood Green (Alexandra Park) in 1864 and in 1871 it became the junction for the Enfield branch which in the second decade of the 20th Century was extended back to the GNR main line at Stevenage to become the Hertford North Loop. In 1971, the GNR station was renamed back from Wood Green (Alexandra Park) to simply Wood Green again before finally becoming, as I said, Alexandra Palace in 1982 although a lot less convenient for the palace than the original 1873 terminus of the Northern Heights line which was right up against the palace walls and almost became part of the LU Northern Line but sadly closed in 1954. KInd regards, David, Crouch End, N8
Indeed a nice looking station!
Mr. Hazzard must be one if the hardest working yt-creators. Another interesting video, though as a foreigner I do get lost a bit in the abundant detail.
I'm a member of the station staff at WG and that little shop at the entrance will soon be a Costa Coffee (just what we need) NOT !!
Yikes, it's Yerkes. (Sorry, I couldn't think of a sensible comment.)
All the better. There's far too many sensible comments on Jago's comments page in my view...
Thank you.
This is my local station.
Will there be any Charles Yerkes merch?
We need, need, need it!
@@rodjones117 I'll take pre-paid orders and send you a nice reciept if it helps
Thanks again. Good things come in small packages.
Yerkes! Weekend complete
cast iron vent covers were rather nice, I wish more places took such care.
Would Green Central - or wouldn't it? Nicely explained, Jago.
When are you going to start selling merch with Charles Yerkes as a villain?
Yes! When?
The Rebuilt Wood Green Trolleybus depot ( now Bus Garage. formerly Tram Depot) looks to have used the same brick size and colour as the tube station. Wood Green is also interesting as being in Zone 3, it feels a place that should be in Zone 4, being more like Ilford than Stratford for example
You mention about the IRA. They targeted Sloane Square station one Christmas, in those days the Works & building team would search the station, my best friend was not so lucky he lost half his arm when the bomb went off . I was lucky to receive no injuries. Camden Town, Tufnell Park and the Archway were all sand bagged up just like in WW2, I never want to see another sandbag. John.
Thanks for another interesting video Mr Hazzard.
Especially, Charlie The Anti-Hero!
I SO want to post a letter in that ‘Staff Letters’ post box, just to see what happens.
Great video as always. Ealing Broadway (being a Central Line terminus) or Greenford would be a nice video as well.
Do they still play classical music in the ticket hall? A surprisingly effective way at keeping the undesirable element away. _"Nah man, I can't deal with this bruv, ya git me!"_
haha, yes it comes on every morning at 7am ( I'm Station staff at WG)
So much research 👏
An exhibition hall converted to a staff room must be one of the more extravagant repurposing suggestions I've heard of. The union convener must have been a very persuasive chap indeed.
Nice video, excellent commentary as always.
Good one Jago 👍
Congratulations sir.
Wood Green also, of course, of note for the Eastern National bus company having a garage here, a rare example of a non-LT company having a garage in LT territory, and most famous for being used as the location for the seminal sitcom On the Buses 👨✈️
Any chance you could do a video on the Wood Green shopping centre? I feel like it’s such an enigmatic, foreboding building that completely envelops an entire area. Why is it designed like that? Why is it so big? What did it used to be? Etc etc
It was built as a North east London rival to Brent Cross centre in the North West. According to my Dad (who worked on the building in the early 80s) it was basically a continuous parade of shops before the shopping "city" was built. According to him there was still a bit of a village feel about the place in the late 70s. Part of the shopping mall is on the site of Noel Park station on the Palace Gates Line. The bridge feature of the mall, where the two sides of the centre are linked over the High Road is (I guess) an homage to the Palace Gates line, as there was a bridge a little further north to carry the railway over the High road.
Thanks Jago - this is another really interesting video on the history of the Tube. I'll always have a soft spot for Wood Green as my late dad used to work at Alexandra Palace. Living in East London (i.e. East London, north of the River Thames), it is relatively flat, so it was always a novelty observing not just the hill that Alexandra Palace is built on, but also the hill that Wood Green station opens to, especially if you are driving to Bounds Green station. 👏🏾👏🏾❤❤🚇🚇
Yay! Charlie-boy is BACK BAABY!
The cast-iron decoration for my necessary ventilation is a pair of metal pants.
Very interesting I wonder how many other stations have those reverse sidings
A lot do. On the Piccadilly there are Acton Town, Northfields and Down Street (latter a closed station but it still has a reversing siding).
@@dukenukem5768 Reverse sidings on the Picc and part of the Met that we use: Uxbridge, Ruislip, Rayners Lane, Soon to be South Harrow again, T5, Northfields, Acton Town, Hammersmith/ Barons Court, Down St, Wood Green, Arnos Grove. Also T123, Hatton X, Hounslow Cent, Boston Manor, Hyde Park, Kings Cross, (Finsbury Pk to get to the Vic), Oakwood and Cockfosters.
@@piccadillyline9765 Yeah, but I thought the OP was interested in centre turn-back sidings like Wood Green's. Of course you can also reverse anywhere else that has a crossover. I did miss Rayners Lane though.
Thank you
Thanks Jago.
Used that station daily from 2004 to 2013 whilst living in London. Hasn't changed one bit.
Excellent, as usual Jago. How about a few thoughts on South Ealing - a station incompletely modified by WW2? Could do a comparison with others on the Hounslow line, like Northfields and the absolutely classic Osterley.