• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

London Waterloo retail - what's going on?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Goldfish62

Established Member
Joined
14 Feb 2010
Messages
9,931
The new retail area has a website at https://thesidingswaterloo.co.uk/ which doesn't contain much useful information (apart from promising there will be a BrewDog), and nothing about any overall grand plan.

Some (less annoyingly presented) CGI pictures are available at https://lcrproperty.co.uk/portfolio/waterloo-london/, and some recent pictures at
https://www.mylondon.news/news/gallery/exclusive-photos-inside-waterloo-station-24114464
Typical of MyLondon claiming exclusive photos. You can walk through what is to become "The Sidings" during every morning and evening peak, accessed via escalators along P20-24.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

yorksrob

Veteran Member
Joined
6 Aug 2009
Messages
38,818
Location
Yorks
With regard to the walkways, sounds like a typical case of "making things better" by making them worse.

Will they be bringing back Burger King, or will it be a case of too much yuppiefication.
 

Jimini

Established Member
Joined
8 Oct 2006
Messages
1,387
Location
London
They'd better. Waterloo BK has often restored my lard levels after heading home from a night on the sauce and long may that continue.

Amen to that -- it's an institution of sorts in SE1! Dread to think how much I've spent in there over the years after a cheeky couple of scoops after work :smile:
 

yorksrob

Veteran Member
Joined
6 Aug 2009
Messages
38,818
Location
Yorks
They'd better. Waterloo BK has often restored my lard levels after heading home from a night on the sauce and long may that continue.

Indeed. There needs to be a greasy burger nearby !

Waterloo has the upper mezzanine for all the la-di-da stuff anyway.
 

Leisurefirst

Member
Joined
23 Apr 2013
Messages
397
Is Our Price Records still there?????

Yes, it's next to Casey Jones.
I worked in the original one until it made way for the Jubilee Line escalators and Casey Jones was a lunch option.
We had no toilet or even running water, just a bucket to chuck tea or coffee slops in and the euphemism for going to the loo was "going to Paperchase" as WH Smith (who owned us both at the time) had their toilet and staff facilities above it.
The carpet was riddled with some kind of mould spores which made some of us come out in lumps as it got flooded with heavy rain and they wouldn't replace it (because we were going to close eventually?)
Joy.
 

TEW

Established Member
Joined
16 May 2008
Messages
5,841
From what I’ve heard, they’re all being refurbed due to the fire standards not being up to scratch. Apparently a fire could easily spread across each unit and network rail took the decision to close them earlier and get them gutted and re built with fire proof walls etc.
This is my understanding too. The closure of many of them seemed quite sudden without notice which would add up.
 

MotCO

Established Member
Joined
25 Aug 2014
Messages
4,085
I have also found access from the Bus Station in Tennison Way (close to the IMAX) to Waterloo to be less than saisfactory. Surely this can be improved quite easily.
 

Goldfish62

Established Member
Joined
14 Feb 2010
Messages
9,931
I have also found access from the Bus Station in Tennison Way (close to the IMAX) to Waterloo to be less than saisfactory. Surely this can be improved quite easily.
Surely it's very convenient? Through the short subway from Tennison Way, up the escalator and you're straight on the concourse. Two minutes max.
 

James H

Member
Joined
25 Jun 2014
Messages
1,083
Burger King is coming back - an application for their new signage was recently submitted to the council
 

Kite159

Veteran Member
Joined
27 Jan 2014
Messages
19,155
Location
West of Andover
Indeed. There needs to be a greasy burger nearby !

Waterloo has the upper mezzanine for all the la-di-da stuff anyway.
It had an advantage at Waterloo because McDonalds is located by the jubilee ticket hall so passengers coming from the Northern/Bakerloo lines might not know McDonalds exists to get their feel of mass produced burgers
 

nlogax

Established Member
Joined
29 May 2011
Messages
5,352
Location
Mostly Glasgow-ish. Mostly.
It had an advantage at Waterloo because McDonalds is located by the jubilee ticket hall so passengers coming from the Northern/Bakerloo lines might not know McDonalds exists to get their feel of mass produced burgers
Indeed it does, although the general smell of burgers and old cooking oil (also from the Old Fire Station next door) has been known to creep up the escalators and remind people on the main concourse there are other options.
 

yorksrob

Veteran Member
Joined
6 Aug 2009
Messages
38,818
Location
Yorks
It had an advantage at Waterloo because McDonalds is located by the jubilee ticket hall so passengers coming from the Northern/Bakerloo lines might not know McDonalds exists to get their feel of mass produced burgers

Yes, I'd forgotten about Maccy's until you mentioned it !
 

norbitonflyer

Established Member
Joined
24 Mar 2020
Messages
2,274
Location
SW London
The official step free route to the South Bank is now via the Station Approach exit (the one between WH Smith and Burger King). There is a diagram on the National Rail website that I think is very confusing if you don't know the station and also shows exit 6 to the South Bank as open, when the accompaning text says:


Network Rail station plan of Waterloo
Exit 1 is also step free.

The Victory Steps are both listed and a war memorial, so unlikely to be changed especially as alternatives are available.
 

swt_passenger

Veteran Member
Joined
7 Apr 2010
Messages
31,263
Exit 1 is also step free.

The Victory Steps are both listed and a war memorial, so unlikely to be changed especially as alternatives are available.
I think it would possibly be fairly easy to include a lift into the western face of the building, (ie the hidden brick built face I mentioned in post #22). That would be just around the corner and near enough to the main steps to avoid the idea that the lift users were being “hidden round the back”. Users would be using a similar approach direction to and from the station as users of the steps. They’d also need a passageway partitioned off through to interior concourse level.
 

TommyJ

Member
Joined
23 Sep 2014
Messages
49
I was just about to say, the reason Burger King may be getting such a big refurb is because it still looks basically identical to how it did when it was a Casey Jones!
I used to love a Big Casey in the 80s. Sometimes the highlight of a trip up to London.
 

route101

Established Member
Joined
16 May 2010
Messages
10,594
The McDonalds at Waterloo must be one of he few that still don't have self order kiosks. The bigger M&S is the shop I use the most at Waterloo.
 

Kite159

Veteran Member
Joined
27 Jan 2014
Messages
19,155
Location
West of Andover
The McDonalds at Waterloo must be one of he few that still don't have self order kiosks. The bigger M&S is the shop I use the most at Waterloo.
Agreed, self service kiosks would make it less chaotic.

Waterloo has an advantage of having both a Sainsbury's Local & Tesco Express located close by to allow passengers to stock up on snacks etc
 

dorsetdesiro

Member
Joined
30 Oct 2017
Messages
581
Perhaps not enough space for electronic kiosks as that McDs branch at Waterloo is more like a "food court counter" than an actual restaurant?

Back in March I walked to Waterloo from Kings Cross with the tube closed due to strike action - I had about 20 mins to spare at W'loo before the Weymouth train departed, I saw the massive queues at that McDs then I went to the KFC outside which also has those kiosks and it wasn't as busy at the time.

Maybe the McDs will soon move to proper premises closer to the new shopping arcade or on the mezzanie level when some shops relocate down to the arcade?
 
Last edited:

swt_passenger

Veteran Member
Joined
7 Apr 2010
Messages
31,263
Perhaps not enough space for electronic kiosks as that McDs branch at Waterloo is more like a "food court counter" than an actual restaurant?

Back in March I walked to Waterloo from Kings Cross with the tube closed due to strike action - I had about 20 mins to spare at W'loo before the Weymouth train departed, I saw the massive queues at that McDs then I went to the KFC outside which also has those kiosks and it wasn't as busy at the time.

Maybe the McDs will soon move to proper premises closer to the new shopping arcade or on the mezzanie level when some shops relocate down to the arcade?
Their current location might be advantageous though, in terms of easy access from Waterloo Rd by people not using the station?
 

modernrail

Member
Joined
26 Jul 2015
Messages
1,018
I have always thought the exits around Waterloo are a mess. Very difficult to navigate.

I don’t know why they don’t make more of encouraging passengers from the more southerly platforms heading towards South Bank out under the clock and onto Cab Road well in advance of the Victory Steps.

The Victory Steps feel like the de facto main entrance but they are not good for the purpose, too steep for many.

I would personally reconfigure the Cab Road area where all the bike racks are, make it the de facto main exit, the main entrance for step free and then sort out properly the absolute mess of obstructions on the approach in general. There seems to be a lot of wasted potentially valuable circulation space on Cab Road in general.

As for the walkway in the sky, most of these experiments didn’t work. This one might have been better because the station is elevated, as is the Hungerford Bridge so you were linking 2 elevated things together.
 

Fiyero

Member
Joined
29 Aug 2010
Messages
277
Location
Eastleigh, Hampshire
From what I’ve heard, they’re all being refurbed due to the fire standards not being up to scratch. Apparently a fire could easily spread across each unit and network rail took the decision to close them earlier and get them gutted and re built with fire proof walls etc.
This was the kind of answer I was looking for. I guess they don't want to put that on the hoardings but makes sense why they are all happening at the same time!

I love how this thread has developed though! I remember getting the walkway all the way to South Bank, I never knew it went further. It is a shame that we are now confronted with the road to cross. It is so odd that the subway isn't there either now!

I don't remember it but want a Casey Jones now!
 

dorsetdesiro

Member
Joined
30 Oct 2017
Messages
581
Was Casey Jones something like a British Wendys? I can only remember Wimpys before these were converted to Burger King in the late 80s & early 90s
 

Sultan

Member
Joined
6 Mar 2019
Messages
232

Although little did they know both Casey and Jones would be used in Alien films. Casey being the headless doll in Alien 2 that Newt carried, and Jones the cat from the original film
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top