Essex Road was even creepier a few years ago... The trains were the battered 313s with half the vinyl coming off (assuming from the graffiti), even the station name banners were still NSE branded, and there wasn't even any tactile platform edge either. It was an absolute timewarp.
I do get the impression that this is the least cared about station in London. It's also the only "tube" station (in the strictest sense that it serves cylindrical tunnel trains) that doesn't have any LU or LO service whatsoever (but as pointed out in the video, it WAS technically part...first of the Metropolitan, and then the Northern, lines until 1975. Also, it was the first station closed when the Underground withdrew, because it was closed on weekends by the time The Tube withdrew. Another hangover from the tube days, besides the 4th rail? This line still has Tunnel Telephone wires, which were recently withdrawn from the Tube proper.
Wow!! That Essex Road station reminds me a bit of Museum station in Sydney Australia. At museum, they have many corridors and it is like a maze finding he way out after leaving the platforms. Love the spiral stairway there.
OMG.... that station is bonkers, its tiny corridors, its like a maze. imagine being there on a winters evening. i need to have a look, only a stone throw from St Pan
That station literally is a bomb shelter, that reinforced metal tube the stairs go down was to ensure that you could get back out of the station after an air raid. It almost certainly was used as a bomb shelter during the London Blitz in WW2
Old Street with its repairs is up there in terms of creepy. The constant open wiring above your head feels like one of those dodgy NYC subway stations.
I visited Essex Road a couple of years ago out of curiosity. Like you I found it to be rather ghostly as if the station was a forgotten relic from the past that only certain people with magical powers can see and explore. Think My Secret Station instead of My Secret Garden. After emerging from the darkened gloom that Summer Saturday afternoon I was startled by the bright sunlight that had been missing since I had started my journey. Probably at Old Street. I thought what a pleasant area and wandered down the road. That was until a pigeon on the pavement in front of me decided to take flight and after a short lift off flew directly into my face!
Only subterranean london station with no tube (since mid-70s whence Northern line exited...not long after Moorgate crash (google if you've not heard of)🎩
I have heard people say similar things about the Merseyrail stations on the Wirral Loop, but it looks like no human has ventured onto parts of this station for years. I'm sure it would be quicker to walk to Highbury & Islington than to get down that spiral staircase Some of the class 465 Networkers still have remnants of NSE branding on the cab fromts
Closed on Sundays in the last days of the Northern Line being here. So one theory why the 1975 Moorgate crash train failed to stop at Moorgate is that the driver was absent-mindedly in Sunday mode and thought that Moorgate was Essex Road. Both Moorgate and Essex Road are one stop after Old Street, in the opposite directions.
Curiously, it’s not on the tube map. So unwitting passengers from Moorgate to Highbury and Islington are directed via Kings Cross. Essex Road oozes nostalgic charm. Making a journey from Essex Road to, for example, Hadley Wood, is a study in extreme contrasts.
Well it's not on the tube because it's not a TfL service nor is it Thameslink, tbh the tube and rail map is more useful, though some may want to avoid non TfL services as they're often more expensive. Besides, it's not necessarily going to be quicker, because best case scenario, it will be a few minutes faster, but the northern city line is a fairly low frequency service, at only every 15 minutes, so it's definitely not quicker if you have to wait
@@villageorganisti think it's a good journey for a race. My prediction is: If you have to wait wait less than 5 minutes, the northern city line will win, wait 5-10 minutes, it's close, wait 10 minutes or more, the northern city line will lose. I think it would also be interesting to see whether it's faster to change at Euston or at King's Cross St Pancras. On one hand the actual interchange at Euston is quicker but on the other it's adding extra distance to your journey
I can only ever remember using that station once, and it didn't look like that outside at all - so maybe there's a phantom entrance in a rather drab, dirty-looking yellow brick building somewhere - near a staggered road junction with lots of trees in a road island outside; or could that have been the phantom entrance I used? It was about 40 years ago... I think the fact it is a long way from any other tube line, in one of those parts of London nobody ever goes to, and despite looking vaguely like the tube at platform level it isn't anyway... It's like a forgotten backwater - an afterthought, built on the cheap with such narrow platforms and corridors that next to nobody ever uses... The only other stations that used to be like it were on the East London Line back in Metropolitan days, with their wee short platforms - Surrey Docks, springs to mind...!! And no adverts on the dingy walls....
I do like the white tiles/walls against black floors and the various other colours like red and blue lines. It definitely needs a power wash, what with sot being all over the shop.
For a while I've honestly been wondering if the Northern City line should just be added to the Tube - or Overground - network; it just feels really random at this Network Rail off shoot.
Nowhere near as creepy as the platform vaults of Lambeth North station, they have a eerie atmosphere to them. As does Morgate station where a fatal accident happened when a Tube train crashed.
WOW, Talk about Creepy with the endless staircase to "Hell" . The only thing missing from your video was a man in a Black hat and Black cape wearing a "V" for Vengeance mask. 🤔🤣.
The eastern end of the westbound platform at Lancaster Gate was in particularly poor condition back in the 70's, the dingy lighting not helping. Since then, the lighting has improved with the fluorescent tubes, the affected section of walls given a coat of paint, and more recently both platforms have been completely retiled. It looks a lot better now!
"Creepy" is pure American English. I don't know what the UK English equivalent is. Perhaps you use "creepy" because there isn't a UK English word with the same meaning.
The adjective "creepy", referring to a feeling of creeping in the flesh, was first used in 1831, but it was Charles Dickens who coined and popularized the term "the creeps" in his 1849 novel David Copperfield. During the 20th century, association was made between involuntary celibacy and creepiness.
Essex Road was even creepier a few years ago... The trains were the battered 313s with half the vinyl coming off (assuming from the graffiti), even the station name banners were still NSE branded, and there wasn't even any tactile platform edge either. It was an absolute timewarp.
On the far walls, the NSE signage is still in place today!! (see at 1:35 !) The platform walls were retiled in 2020 though!!
I do get the impression that this is the least cared about station in London. It's also the only "tube" station (in the strictest sense that it serves cylindrical tunnel trains) that doesn't have any LU or LO service whatsoever (but as pointed out in the video, it WAS technically part...first of the Metropolitan, and then the Northern, lines until 1975. Also, it was the first station closed when the Underground withdrew, because it was closed on weekends by the time The Tube withdrew.
Another hangover from the tube days, besides the 4th rail? This line still has Tunnel Telephone wires, which were recently withdrawn from the Tube proper.
Creepy but was also entertaining 😂 great video
Wow!! That Essex Road station reminds me a bit of Museum station in Sydney Australia. At museum, they have many corridors and it is like a maze finding he way out after leaving the platforms. Love the spiral stairway there.
OMG.... that station is bonkers, its tiny corridors, its like a maze. imagine being there on a winters evening. i need to have a look, only a stone throw from St Pan
That station literally is a bomb shelter, that reinforced metal tube the stairs go down was to ensure that you could get back out of the station after an air raid. It almost certainly was used as a bomb shelter during the London Blitz in WW2
Yes, Old Street Northern City Line platforms also has the steps UP to them!
Old Street with its repairs is up there in terms of creepy. The constant open wiring above your head feels like one of those dodgy NYC subway stations.
I adore this place, It's honestly a really funny station to be at. I really hope they don't change it.
I visited Essex Road a couple of years ago out of curiosity.
Like you I found it to be rather ghostly as if the station was a forgotten relic from the past that only certain people with magical powers can see and explore.
Think My Secret Station instead of My Secret Garden.
After emerging from the darkened gloom that Summer Saturday afternoon I was startled by the bright sunlight that had been missing since I had started my journey. Probably at Old Street.
I thought what a pleasant area and wandered down the road. That was until a pigeon on the pavement in front of me decided to take flight and after a short lift off flew directly into my face!
Only subterranean london station with no tube (since mid-70s whence Northern line exited...not long after Moorgate crash (google if you've not heard of)🎩
I have heard people say similar things about the Merseyrail stations on the Wirral Loop, but it looks like no human has ventured onto parts of this station for years. I'm sure it would be quicker to walk to Highbury & Islington than to get down that spiral staircase
Some of the class 465 Networkers still have remnants of NSE branding on the cab fromts
Closed on Sundays in the last days of the Northern Line being here. So one theory why the 1975 Moorgate crash train failed to stop at Moorgate is that the driver was absent-mindedly in Sunday mode and thought that Moorgate was Essex Road. Both Moorgate and Essex Road are one stop after Old Street, in the opposite directions.
Curiously, it’s not on the tube map. So unwitting passengers from Moorgate to Highbury and Islington are directed via Kings Cross. Essex Road oozes nostalgic charm. Making a journey from Essex Road to, for example, Hadley Wood, is a study in extreme contrasts.
Well it's not on the tube because it's not a TfL service nor is it Thameslink, tbh the tube and rail map is more useful, though some may want to avoid non TfL services as they're often more expensive. Besides, it's not necessarily going to be quicker, because best case scenario, it will be a few minutes faster, but the northern city line is a fairly low frequency service, at only every 15 minutes, so it's definitely not quicker if you have to wait
Interchanging at Kings Cross usually involves a long walk. So Moorgate to H &I by Northern City is a seriously viable option IMO.
@@villageorganisti think it's a good journey for a race. My prediction is: If you have to wait wait less than 5 minutes, the northern city line will win, wait 5-10 minutes, it's close, wait 10 minutes or more, the northern city line will lose. I think it would also be interesting to see whether it's faster to change at Euston or at King's Cross St Pancras. On one hand the actual interchange at Euston is quicker but on the other it's adding extra distance to your journey
I can only ever remember using that station once, and it didn't look like that outside at all - so maybe there's a phantom entrance in a rather drab, dirty-looking yellow brick building somewhere - near a staggered road junction with lots of trees in a road island outside; or could that have been the phantom entrance I used? It was about 40 years ago... I think the fact it is a long way from any other tube line, in one of those parts of London nobody ever goes to, and despite looking vaguely like the tube at platform level it isn't anyway... It's like a forgotten backwater - an afterthought, built on the cheap with such narrow platforms and corridors that next to nobody ever uses... The only other stations that used to be like it were on the East London Line back in Metropolitan days, with their wee short platforms - Surrey Docks, springs to mind...!! And no adverts on the dingy walls....
I do like the white tiles/walls against black floors and the various other colours like red and blue lines.
It definitely needs a power wash, what with sot being all over the shop.
Very bland entrance to Essex road, although very interesting South East signage.
Decided to make a trip there a few weeks back as never been there, definitely agree
It doesn't have ticket barriers 💀
Nice 👍
Great video.
Have used this line from Highbury and Islington northwards
The Northern City line in my opinion is just one big Liminal Space
What's the logic behind having to go DOWN from the platforms to reach the lifts ? - any historians know ?
I'd say Redbridge station is creepier.
Er,why?🤔🎩
Redbridge is a little bit bad but it's not creepy
For a while I've honestly been wondering if the Northern City line should just be added to the Tube - or Overground - network; it just feels really random at this Network Rail off shoot.
Essex road is bit creepy
Stepney Green is another creepy station in London
Nowhere near as creepy as the platform vaults of Lambeth North station, they have a eerie atmosphere to them. As does Morgate station where a fatal accident happened when a Tube train crashed.
I`ve been to Stepney Green oddly enough , there`s a Wetherspoons near it I seem to remember
WOW, Talk about Creepy with the endless staircase to "Hell" . The only thing missing from your video was a man in a Black hat and Black cape wearing a "V" for Vengeance mask. 🤔🤣.
Great vid i just subscribed
Essex Road isn't creepy. I've been there and it's nowhere near as bad as people describe it. I just find the Network SouthEast maps cool.
NOT part of the Northern Heights project that would have seen the Mill Hill East spur line extended across to Edgware and on to Bushey🎩
I thought you have an Elizabeth Line back pack, but it isn't 😭
I have an Elizabeth Line scarf! And a tote bag, and a toiletries bag... ~Dylan
Not so much scary,as unloved oddity...it was for many years closed at weekends 🎩
When I lived in London in the 70s, I used to think Lancaster Gate was the creepiest station.
The eastern end of the westbound platform at Lancaster Gate was in particularly poor condition back in the 70's, the dingy lighting not helping. Since then, the lighting has improved with the fluorescent tubes, the affected section of walls given a coat of paint, and more recently both platforms have been completely retiled. It looks a lot better now!
You really do need to hire/bribe/co-opt s soundman!
This is the real "Shot on iPhone"! ~Dylan
Essex Road designed by the makers of Silent Hill😊
Nah Bethnal green is more creepy
I use live not far from Essex road
Creepiest station in the UK😅
"Creepy" is pure American English. I don't know what the UK English equivalent is. Perhaps you use "creepy" because there isn't a UK English word with the same meaning.
No?
The adjective "creepy", referring to a feeling of creeping in the flesh, was first used in 1831, but it was Charles Dickens who coined and popularized the term "the creeps" in his 1849 novel David Copperfield. During the 20th century, association was made between involuntary celibacy and creepiness.
say happy birthday 👍👍👍👍
Is it your birthday? Happy birthday! 😂🍰 ~Dylan
@@thetflthree no, it was sarcasm for 5:23 😂