London's Worst Station

[Magdalia]

Out of interest, what’s wrong with East Croydon? Apart from that changing platforms can be a pain due to the long ramps, I’ve never found the place too bad to use

East Croydon has been improved significantly by the footbridge with lifts. It is no longer necessary to use the ramps to change platforms.

I dislike Liverpool Street far more, the layout is just kludgy and some of the platforms are no more "out in the open" than Euston, and the fancy architecture is mostly fake.

At Liverpool Street, the west side has always been far superior to the east side. At least, since the 1980s redevelopment, it is much easier to get from one side of the station to the other.

 

[43066]

Out of interest, what’s wrong with East Croydon? Apart from that changing platforms can be a pain due to the long ramps, I’ve never found the place too bad to use, and the clientele isn’t as bad as some of the other places on your list!

Unpleasant clientele, sadly reflecting Croydon’s rapid decline over the last few years (it doesn’t help that I tend to be there late evening), drafty and cold in the winter months, disgusting toilet facilities.

It’s in dire need of a rebuild!

 

[ajb690]

Going back to the late 90s (god, how have the years flown by?) I used to live near Brixton. Interesting place at the time (so many stories that sound insane - drug dealers flashing their wares in Electric Avenue, the man walking down the street with an axe and bleeding heavily from a head wound, followed by two police cars). Anyway, Brixton station - used it a lot, and there was a homeless guy - lovely person, claimed he was ex special forces - who'd ask for a quid to escort me up the stairs. I generally paid because a) I'm not an arsehole and b) those stairs were scary. Not just the usual stench of urine, but people sitting on each corner literally shooting up (needles in arms, or elsewhere), and screaming abuse occasionally.

Sure it's better now - hope it is, both for rail users and the poor sods on the stairs - but deeply scary at the time and, looking back, now.

 

[bramling]

Unpleasant clientele, sadly reflecting Croydon’s rapid decline over the last few years (it doesn’t help that I tend to be there late evening), drafty and cold in the winter months, disgusting toilet facilities.

It’s in dire need of a rebuild!

Sounds like it’s got a lot worse in terms of clientele, I used to use it semi-regularly in the 90s / early 00s and it wasn’t too bad then. In those days most of the station had just been rebuilt, and felt shiny and new, almost futuristic.

One station which I don’t think has been mentioned yet is Finsbury Park. Another place which has become almost horrific to use over the last couple of decades. Awful place, both NR and LU.

Gunnersbury at 1700 on a rainy winter evening is another depressing experience. Though not dangerous, just depressing.

 

[AlterEgo]

Drayton Park is still weird and miserable.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Going back to the late 90s (god, how have the years flown by?) I used to live near Brixton. Interesting place at the time (so many stories that sound insane - drug dealers flashing their wares in Electric Avenue, the man walking down the street with an axe and bleeding heavily from a head wound, followed by two police cars). Anyway, Brixton station - used it a lot, and there was a homeless guy - lovely person, claimed he was ex special forces - who'd ask for a quid to escort me up the stairs. I generally paid because a) I'm not an arsehole and b) those stairs were scary. Not just the usual stench of urine, but people sitting on each corner literally shooting up (needles in arms, or elsewhere), and screaming abuse occasionally.

Sure it's better now - hope it is, both for rail users and the poor sods on the stairs - but deeply scary at the time and, looking back, now.

Typical London gentrification of rough areas has improved it a bit, but I did once walk from the climbing wall in an industrial area nearby to Brixton station around 9pm and it felt like you REALLY needed to watch your back. Not a safe feeling place at all.

 

[43066]

Sounds like it’s got a lot worse in terms of clientele, I used to use it semi-regularly in the 90s / early 00s and it wasn’t too bad then. In those days most of the station had just been rebuilt, and felt shiny and new, almost futuristic.

You’d notice a difference now. Sadly central Croydon, which wasn’t great to begin with, has been hollowed out and is now something of a ghost town. The shoppers of yesteryear are absent, there are lots of boarded up shops, and a very obvious homelessness problem.

The area immediately outside the station can be pretty intimidating, with more than its fair share of aggressive beggars. The tram also sucks in a lot of ne’er do wells, which isn’t surprising given its catchment area.

I’ve been going there for years as a good mate lives there, but increasingly we are meeting in central London.

One station which I don’t think has been mentioned yet is Finsbury Park. Another place which has become almost horrific to use over the last couple of decades. Awful place, both NR and LU.

Agreed. The area around the Picturehouse cinema is okay, but the other side is pretty sketchy.

 

[LLivery]

I absolutely hate Finsbury Park. Bad interchange, lack of concourse, weird location of ticket barriers and the immediate frontage is a dump.

You’d notice a difference now. Sadly central Croydon, which wasn’t great to begin with, has been hollowed out and is now something of a ghost town. The shoppers of yesteryear are absent, there are lots of boarded up shops, and a very obvious homelessness problem.

The shops are emptying because they still do plan to rebuild the Whitgift. It's not going to be as big as first planned for shops, instead with more homes.

 

[birchesgreen]

Worst i've been to is Cambridge Heath, i've passed through worse though.

 

[Deepgreen]

For me it's the Brixton southeastern station.

Aside from the fact that it's old, dirty, depressing, poorly located, not step-free and has no direct tube access, I have literally never seen a single staff member or BTP officer present there apart from the 1 person in the ticket office (which is closed most of the time).

It's especially bad at night when you have lots of homeless people hanging around the stairs (which feel like the setting for a horror movie). Brixton gets really busy on saturday and friday nights so there is really no excuse for no one to be patrolling it.

Indeed, and the service must be terrible because there are some passengers on the London end of the platforms who seem to have been there for absolutely ages...

 

[DustyBin]

There's a lot of miserable, uninspiring stations on Thameslink. Elephant and Castle definitely springs to mind, but a whole host of them are just plain and boring places to wait with empty platforms and maybe a tin roof (e.g. most of the Sutton Loop, Mill Hill Broadway) , but that doesn't necessarily make them the worst.

My vote would be Essex Road. Has elevators which means you have to wait for them, but the station still isn't step free. It's dark and dingy, located in a somewhat crap area, and reminds me of the decrepit look that LU had in the 80s and 90s, having not received the decorations and upgrades most LU stations have since then. (You really notice this difference if you walk over to the GN platforms at an LU station such as Moorgate or Highbury and Islington), and being National Rail means the service interval on GN is massive compared to LU.

I actually like Essex Road for (some of) the reasons above!

I think it’s fair to say Euston is the worst terminal/main line station in London. It has been for a long time, even before the latest “improvements”.

Worst overall station in London though? Nah.

I think that's a fair assessment. Mrs DB once referred to it as the Luton Airport of railway stations!

I agree that Elephant & Castle and Loughborough Junction are strong contenders. I don't mind South Bermondsey, but I understand why some people may think differently!

Catford is a completely nondescript station, and not in the best of areas. I'm not sure it's objectively the worst, but it's certainly one of my least favourites.

 

[Tetchytyke]

I dislike Liverpool Street far more, the layout is just kludgy and some of the platforms are no more "out in the open" than Euston, and the fancy architecture is mostly fake.

I used Euston every day and familiarity always breeds contempt, but I don’t see how Liverpool Street is worse. The main concourse is bright and airy, even if half the platforms are hidden beneath an office block these days.

 

[Samzino]

The tube and thameslink stations are almost side by side yet after all these years you still have to walk all the way around New Kent Road and the very busy roundabout

Haha state of that least the horrid slab of pavement that killed off the roundabout. Least the fireball that happened not long ago showing a real risk of fire hazard aswell as the station immediately filled up with toxic smoke that covered the only escape routes.


Images above from the fireball caused by a vehicle fire under the arches, mechanic store related.

An image below from Wikipedia that still reminds me of my journeys thru and to the elephant pre 2013 days.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I used Euston every day and familiarity always breeds contempt, but I don’t see how Liverpool Street is worse. The main concourse is bright and airy, even if half the platforms are hidden beneath an office block these days.

The downstairs concourse at Liverpool St is much smaller and has far more clutter than Euston. And the units on the mezzanine look really 1990s-dated now.

But maybe it's just that in its purest sense I really quite like Euston and its airy Great Hall. It is just operated badly.

 

[tyburn]

The stations in-between Wimbledon and Sutton on the Sutton Loop. Step free access seems to be non existent here, and they are unstaffed all the time, as well as having no barriers so anyone can pretty much get on a train without paying. Also Southern and SE metro stations can be...questionable. Hopefully they will invest in making the stations better, and also adding ticket barriers.

 

[Farigiraf]

My picks:
Worst Ever: Angel Road, but it's closed now (Meridian Water is a huge improvement)

Rail: South Greenford. Feels abandoned until you notice the motorway.

Overground: Clapton. Small, dirty and loud mainline trains going through

Elizabeth line: Farringdon. Takes ages to actually get down to the platforms, smells bad

Tube:
Embankment. The whole station is a maze. Terrible smell
Bank: Same as above but in the summer extremely hot

Tram: Reeves Corner. Changing there is a car accident waiting to happen.

DLR: Cutty Sark. Basically a tube station but even more cramped and hot (and the lift hasn't worked for ages)

 

[sh24]

South Bermondsey is my pick. I live pretty close to Elephant & Castle and while it's not exactly pretty it is defo improving. Loughborough Junction is bleak but the neighbourhood isn't that bad...there are worse places in London and most certainly up North. Brixton can feel sketchy at times but far less so than it did.

Drayton Park is pretty fun IME. Countryside station vibes but with a whacking great stadium and the distant rumble of the tube underneath. It's also very peaceful to use.

 

[Magdalia]

Overground: Clapton. Small, dirty and loud mainline trains going through

Clapton is very unpleasant. In a deep cutting with long staircases to get out and no lifts.

Gunnersbury at 1700 on a rainy winter evening is another depressing experience. Though not dangerous, just depressing.

Another one with no lifts, and very constricted access.

But I'm never depressed at Gunnersbury: I just remember that an anagram of Gunnersbury is Sunny Burger and I'm cheered up!

 

[Kiryu]

Take your pick from any suburban London station tbh. I’d say South Bermondsey is the worst.

(Well, the worst now that Angel Road has shut, anyway).

I am local to South Bermondsey at my london home, and I definitely can agree on this!

It’s very bleak and run-down, particularly the surroundings.

Lack of step-free access and sometimes its felt like the stairs when coming down from the platform wants to fall apart

Walking up that hill towards the station can feel like the biggest sucker punch, especially when you see your train stopping and you still haven’t made it halfway up the hill

The path towards the station used to be worse, it was much more narrow and lacked the cycleway that’s present today. Felt like going through somewhere from a horror movie haha. When you factor in matchdays at Millwall’s ground, it can be torture, even today.

There are actually a few things I like although:

1. Despite its location, the views are actually really nice in some spots (especially at nights!), and you can see trains passing by opposite around the Bermondsey dive-under.

2. I have multiple ways to get to London Bridge from my local area, but I find going to South Bermondsey to be the most straightforward! Literally 5 minutes on the train and I’m there, it’s a pretty useful connection and the frequency isn’t that bad for what its worth.

3. It’s so bad yet so good at the same time, because where it has many issues, it’s good enough for me to be useful. It definitely does need much more improvements, regardless!

Sorry for going on a bit, figured I’d share my thoughts, and I’m not surprised this station’s been mentioned here!

Kiryu

 

[prod_pep]

There are any number of grim intermediate stations in the London area, but Euston takes the biscuit. The worst major terminus in the capital by far.

 

[bramling]

Clapton is very unpleasant. In a deep cutting with long staircases to get out and no lifts.


Another one with no lifts, and very constricted access.

But I'm never depressed at Gunnersbury: I just remember that an anagram of Gunnersbury is Sunny Burger and I'm cheered up!

I have a thing about Gunnersbury. It comes from emerging from the PRO at around closing time, getting soaked walking from there to Kew Gardens, waiting ages for a District Line train as usual, and then the train filling up with morose faces of office workers at Gunnersbury. The setting of the station is depressing being surrounded by car parks, and whilst the station is functional it has absolutely nothing to commend it aesthetically or in terms of facilities. Not the worst in London by a long way, but a miserable experience.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There are any number of grim intermediate stations in the London area, but Euston takes the biscuit. The worst major terminus in the capital by far.

I really don't agree. It's badly run, but it's bright, big, airy and a great example of Brutalist era architecture. Yes, the platforms are a bit grim, but like New St, bar 8-11, you aren't intended to hang around there.

If we fixed some minor things and changed how it is operated (remembering that we often talk of "the Euston scrum" but the same idiotic thing exists at every London terminal, even genteel little Marylebone), then it'd be great.

 

[Elecman]

* I don't think I've ever seen Avanti check arrivals, so even if they did do PFs there's no scope for the Euston staff to actually issue them.

They certainly do I was ticket checked off a plat 3 arrival last Wednesday

 

[450.emu]

Unpleasant clientele, sadly reflecting Croydon’s rapid decline over the last few years (it doesn’t help that I tend to be there late evening), drafty and cold in the winter months, disgusting toilet facilities.

It’s in dire need of a rebuild!

I don't think there's enough money in the world to rebuild Croydon

Maryland is a pretty depressing station, Bruce Grove has improved but there is no shelter apart from the original wooden canopy, so you are subject to the elements like the rusting 1959 catenery masts if you want to get on at the front of the train if heading to Liverpool Street.

Liverpool Street must have the most branches of Costa Coffee and Greggs that I've ever seen! Must add to people's confusion (if not staring upwards at departure boards after stopping dead in front of you). Hordes of plain clothed Revenue staff at the gateline sometimes make things a little unwelcoming and some of the ticket gates are slower to open than Tower Bridge Saving grace is the McDonalds, though it as just as chaotic as the station at lunch time when multiple staff on the tills yell out order numbers like a car auction...

 

[Deepgreen]

East Croydon has been improved significantly by the footbridge with lifts. It is no longer necessary to use the ramps to change platforms.


At Liverpool Street, the west side has always been far superior to the east side. At least, since the 1980s redevelopment, it is much easier to get from one side of the station to the other.

However, the footbridge is a ludicrous design that allows copious rain onto what must be one of the busiest railway walkways in the country! How its design ever got approval is a mystery to me.

 

[Magdalia]

It comes from emerging from the PRO at around closing time, getting soaked walking from there to Kew Gardens, waiting ages for a District Line train as usual, and then the train filling up with morose faces of office workers at Gunnersbury.

I have done that journey many times too. I'm often leaving the National Archives with a spring in my step, after a fruitful afternoon of research. The walk back to Kew Gardens station is mostly a pleasant one, even if it is raining, (I concede that crossing the South Circular can sometimes be grim) and there are many worse places to wait than Kew Gardens. I'm usually aiming for an Overground train: if it is cancelled then there places to wait with tea and cake. And although Overground trains do fill up at Sunny Burger, they usually empty out a bit at Willesden Junction and I only have to endure it to West Hampstead, before dropping down to St Pancras on the Thameslink. It is a much less unpleasant way of getting from Kew Gardens to Kings Cross than the District Line all the way into Central London.

 

[prod_pep]

I really don't agree. It's badly run, but it's bright, big, airy and a great example of Brutalist era architecture. Yes, the platforms are a bit grim, but like New St, bar 8-11, you aren't intended to hang around there.

If we fixed some minor things and changed how it is operated (remembering that we often talk of "the Euston scrum" but the same idiotic thing exists at every London terminal, even genteel little Marylebone), then it'd be great.

I see no architectural merit for Euston at all. It is a profoundly ugly station.

Is the concourse really bright and airy? I don't think it is. I've spent significantly more time at Liverpool Street over the years and it is a clearly superior station as far as I'm concerned; one of the better London terminals in fact. A genuinely bright and pleasant concourse and so much less stampeding for trains as it's more sensibly run station.

 

[James H]

E&C is horrible, and very surprising they haven't got any money out of the developers to improve it

All the developers' money has been funnelled in to the Northern line ticket hall and escalators project (and even that isn't fully funded yet).

NR has belatedly woken up to the fact that E&C needs attention and has drawn up a few options but there's no funding yet.

At platform level E&C really isn't that bad - it's really the poor entrances, poor interchange with other modes and lack of step-free access that let it down.

 

[Adrian1980uk]

I see no architectural merit for Euston at all. It is a profoundly ugly station.

Is the concourse really bright and airy? I don't think it is. I've spent significantly more time at Liverpool Street over the years and it is a clearly superior station as far as I'm concerned; one of the better London terminals in fact. A genuinely bright and pleasant concourse and so much less stampeding for trains as it's more sensibly run station.

Liverpool Street is far better run station but it's quite uninspiring when compared with kings Cross etc., it's just hidden inbetween the towers of the city but it's an efficient station when you consider its size vs number of passengers.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Liverpool Street is far better run station but it's quite uninspiring when compared with kings Cross etc., it's just hidden inbetween the towers of the city but it's an efficient station when you consider its size vs number of passengers.

I find it cluttered and very dated-looking, very 1990s. Yes, I know Euston is 1960s Brutalist, but that kind of look has now become historic rather than just dated.

They may operate it more sensibly (i.e. not suppress platforms) but that could easily be fixed at Euston. Having said that, having watched (and shouted at) some baying football drunks yesterday at Manchester Piccadilly who almost knocked an alighting old guy with a walking stick over to fight over an entire empty coach of seats there wasn't any need to fight over (it only got full and standing about 10 minutes later) I do wonder if you could get rid of the suppression of InterCity platform numbers entirely or it'd have to be "unload, lock doors, call platform" or queueing on the ramp.