Embankment station (Northern/Bakerloo platforms)

[Kite159]

Embankment reopened yesterday for Northern/Bakerloo line trains, and the new platform tiling looks quite smart.

I will miss the various announcements made by the drivers though to say to change at Charing Cross if passengers wanted the Circle or District lines

 

[Busaholic]

Embankment was originally known as Charing Cross, being only on the District Railway, in 1974 was renamed Charing Cross Embankment and in 1976 plain Embankment to distinguish itself from the Northern Line's Strand station and the Bakerloo Line's Trafalgar Square station which were combined to form the new Charing Cross underground station in preparation for the arrival of the new Jubilee Line. Confused? Not half as confusing as it used to be I can assure you. It took years to get past the hidebound Underground management but I think the GLC managed to exert a little influence, not before time.

 

[AM9]

Embankment was originally known as Charing Cross, being only on the District Railway, in 1974 was renamed Charing Cross Embankment and in 1976 plain Embankment to distinguish itself from the Northern Line's Strand station and the Bakerloo Line's Trafalgar Square station which were combined to form the new Charing Cross underground station in preparation for the arrival of the new Jubilee Line. Confused? Not half as confusing as it used to be I can assure you. It took years to get past the hidebound Underground management but I think the GLC managed to exert a little influence, not before time.

The old Charing Cross Underground station was District/Circle, Northern and Bakerloo well before 1974. I remember as a child (that puts it into the '50s) that the tube maps had Charing Cros there with both Strand and Trafalgar Square marked as seperate. Some very early maps of 1908 and 1921 show it that way and the first LPTB map of 1933 does also.

 

[Busaholic]

The old Charing Cross Underground station was District/Circle, Northern and Bakerloo well before 1974. I remember as a child (that puts it into the '50s) that the tube maps had Charing Cros there with both Strand and Trafalgar Square marked as seperate. Some very early maps of 1908 and 1921 show it that way and the first LPTB map of 1933 does also.

Sorry, rather than go into all its history I compressed the story somewhat so may have left a misleading impression. Yes, of course all those lines used the station from the early years of the last century when it was, indeed, Charing Cross. I was just trying to point out why the District, being the first to use the station by some decades, used that name i.e. to indicate you could connect with 'main line' railway if you alighted there. I am sure that if the Bakerloo, say, had been first to use the station it would never have been called Charing Cross. Incidentally, there was at least one person in the L.T. Underground hierarchy who wanted to call it Victoria Embankment!

 

[Kite159]

Is Embankment the easiest station to transfer between Northern & Bakerloo line trains?

Didn't the refurb workers find an old TFL map behind one of the old coverings?

 

[AM9]

Is Embankment the easiest station to transfer between Northern & Bakerloo line trains?

Didn't the refurb workers find an old TFL map behind one of the old coverings?

It's easier there than Charing Cross which was really two separate stations. Waterloo is even better as both lines are fed by the same escalator shafts. I remember as a teenager travelling across London late on Saturdays hovering near the foot of the escalators listening to hear which train came first, then dashing down the passage for Bakerloo or steps for Northern. That gave me the chance to get to the Central Line via Oxford Circus or TCR respectively.

 

[bluegoblin7]

Didn't the refurb workers find an old TFL map behind one of the old coverings?

The map was found on the District platforms rather than the Bakerloo/Northern ones, although was uncovered as part of the larger station upgrade works.

More information can be found in a blog post I put together soon after the uncovering - http://moretojack.com/2014/09/mapping-the-tube-1-embankment/.

 

[Kite159]

Very good read that blog post, amazing how much parts have (and haven't) changed in the 30 years since that map was put up

 

[bluegoblin7]

Very good read that blog post, amazing how much parts have (and haven't) changed in the 30 years since that map was put up

Thanks - it was particularly interesting to write and research as everything that was used to reference the map took place before I was born!

I believe the map is still there (Hoping to verify tomorrow), whilst the re-opening has also thrown up a few other mapping curiosities...

 

[Busaholic]

Thanks - it was particularly interesting to write and research as everything that was used to reference the map took place before I was born!

I believe the map is still there (Hoping to verify tomorrow), whilst the re-opening has also thrown up a few other mapping curiosities...

Excellent research job. I think some of those London Connections maps had a date in small print at the bottom, can't remember whether on left or right,so might be worth a squint? I definitely have a copy of the first one ever produced somewhere in my attic and,boy, was it a useful tool even to someone like myself who'd spent numerous years by then going all over the system.

 

[Dstock7080]

I believe the map is still there (Hoping to verify tomorrow), whilst the re-opening has also thrown up a few other mapping curiosities...

The map disappeared back behind the panels during the recent weekend engineering works.
No doubt to reappear at a later date!

 

[gottago]

Oh dear. According to the Station Master App blog the new signage at the station says Willesden Green rather than Willesden Junction on the Bakerloo line and they've had to put big ugly stickers on top of them.

 

[bluegoblin7]

Oh dear. According to the Station Master App blog the new signage at the station says Willesden Green rather than Willesden Junction on the Bakerloo line and they've had to put big ugly stickers on top of them.

Correct; Geoff pipped me to a blog post about Willesden Junct/Green, although there's a few other mapping curiosities remaining at Embankment that I'm hoping to cover over the weekend.

And, yes - as Dstock7080 has confirmed, the Connections map has gone. Apologies for the dud gen; I'm not in London as regularly as I used to be anymore and my information was unreliable.

 

[simple simon]

I still mourn the loss of:

1) Trafalgar Square, as it was much better for the tourists.

2) the Jubilee Line platforms, as they offered a much better interchange between the Northern and Bakerloo than exists today (one could ride much of the way on the escalators; now there is a long walk along pokey and often crowded passageways)

Simon