ANDYS
Member
Just back from an excellent day in London only spoilt by one incident at the very end of the day. Having been to Heathrow, various Underground, train and bus locations throughout the day myself and my 12 year old son returned to St Pancras for our train home. At no location had we had any issue with taking photos/videos. We keep out of the way of the travelling public and are rarely in one spot for very long.
However, with twenty minutes to go before our train departed from the EMT platforms my son wanted to go down onto the 'Thameslink' platforms to see if we could see the new 387's. It was 19:30, the platforms down there are huge and we plonked ourselves right at the north end of the very empty platform. He got on taking photos of the passing units and I sat down for a bit of peace and quiet for the few minutes we were going to be there. Within 5 minutes a 'security officer' came up and told my son that he was not allowed to take photos there. He then came over and repeated the same warning to me. Now to the crux of the matter.
I have no complaint about how he spoke to me or my son. He was very polite but what he said did set me thinking. As we were literally minutes away from catching our train I did not want to stand my ground too much. I told him that we had not had any trouble anywhere in London, there were no signs and as far as I knew taking photos was perfectly legal and above board. We were not taking photos of anything sensitive and were very much minding our own business. He then said ' This station is owned by HS1 and therefore a private site. Therefore no photos ' If I had had a few more minutes I would have got the latest train magazine out with photos of the 387's from exactly where we were standing but, as I said, we did not have time.
So to my question. Was he right, was I right or somewhere in the middle?
Any comments, Andy S
However, with twenty minutes to go before our train departed from the EMT platforms my son wanted to go down onto the 'Thameslink' platforms to see if we could see the new 387's. It was 19:30, the platforms down there are huge and we plonked ourselves right at the north end of the very empty platform. He got on taking photos of the passing units and I sat down for a bit of peace and quiet for the few minutes we were going to be there. Within 5 minutes a 'security officer' came up and told my son that he was not allowed to take photos there. He then came over and repeated the same warning to me. Now to the crux of the matter.
I have no complaint about how he spoke to me or my son. He was very polite but what he said did set me thinking. As we were literally minutes away from catching our train I did not want to stand my ground too much. I told him that we had not had any trouble anywhere in London, there were no signs and as far as I knew taking photos was perfectly legal and above board. We were not taking photos of anything sensitive and were very much minding our own business. He then said ' This station is owned by HS1 and therefore a private site. Therefore no photos ' If I had had a few more minutes I would have got the latest train magazine out with photos of the 387's from exactly where we were standing but, as I said, we did not have time.
So to my question. Was he right, was I right or somewhere in the middle?
Any comments, Andy S