Gritty Underground Stations

[W-on-Sea]

Elm Park will serve for "desolate suburban hell" purposes, but all in all almost all of the tube is way better maintained than it was, say 30 years ago. But that and most other relatively grottier/neglected places that come to my mind are well beyond Zone 3...

(even further back, Stepney Green was exceedingly dark at platform level - painting the walls a bright colour made an immense difference: it was real "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight" material before).

Mile End's a weird one - it's been through several cycles of being grotty, then smart, then becoming grotty again, then smart again.

Essex Road wins for creepiness, in large part because hardly anyone uses it.

I'm hard pressed to think of anywhere underground on the tube itself that comes close to that sort of atmosphere nowadays- the stations in the past that might have warranted consideration, like Edgware Road (Bakerloo), Kilburn Park, Borough, maybe Tufnell Park , or Mornington Crescent, have been elegantly refurbished and/or kept clean, and in the latter case become much busier.

 

[rebmcr]

Essex Road, admittedly not an Underground station but a National Rail station that is underground!

It was refurbished a couple of years ago but still has a decrepit feel. Make sure you take the spiral staircase rather than the lifts for the full experience!

As mentioned upthread there’s even some Network South East signage trackside.

One of my favourite stations!

And of course it actually was a station served by London Underground during the time OP was asking about.

 

[southern442]

Holland Park still seemed to evoke pre-upgrade Central Line vibes last time I was there.

 

[TXMISTA]

When I was at Camden Town a couple of weeks ago it felt pretty rundown.

Hounslow West doesn’t feel too loved these days either. The grey tiles along the walls definitely don’t help it’s case.

 

[Bald Rick]

Last time I went it was very glum, not just the station.
When leaving the police where there with a couple of dogs, pulling back on their chains so they couldn't get at me!

Is that the station or the clientele?

 

[pitdiver]

Goodge Street doesn't look great inside or out.

It wasn't much good back when I worked there. Left in 1999. Would have thought the place should have improved by now

 

[ScottGallagher]

It wasn't much good back when I worked there. Left in 1999. Would have thought the place should have improved by now

Some of it might be the whole Piccadilly Circus type tiling makeover it received with it clearly being a Leslie Green Station that doesn't sit quite right.
When you compare it to Russell Square which is a lovely station (though the ticket hall did get that treatment in the 70 or 80s thankfully now corrected to be more sympathetic with emergency staircase and platform level)

 

[BJames]

Essex Road... in fact most of the stations on the Northern City line (unless they have been done up and I missed it)

They actually have been done up to an extent (e.g. you can see a picture of Moorgate's platform here: https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/article...e-northern-city-line-tunnels-completed-36778/) but as others have mentioned this hasn't exactly taken away the old feel of Essex Road.

The work programme completed last weekend had started a year ago when Moorgate station itself was spruced up with new tiling and better lighting. From last December the programme swept on through the tunnels and the three other stations on their route – Old Street, Essex Road and Highbury & Islington.

Essex Road’s platform walls have been treated to the same comprehensive retiling as Moorgate. GTR’s contractors stripped away about 40 tonnes of old tiles – over 4,000 sacks of rubble with the new white and blue ceramics. At Old Street and Highbury & Islington, damaged tiling has been removed or repaired, with walls resurfaced in readiness for future decoration.

 

[Vespa]

I concur with Bakerloo line especially with the 70s tube stock adding to the atmosphere, if you put on your flares and polyester flower shirt you will fit in just fine

 

[Recessio]

Highbury and Islington Victoria/GN platforms and tunnels feels pretty grotty in places, but I'm too young to know how it compared to 70s/80s stations.

 

[Mikey C]

No far too clean - for the real NY ambience go to NY (Hoyt-Schemerhorn and Broad St on the "J")

London is immeasurably better than it was in the decline years of the late 1970's , when mould , running water down walls , flaking point etc etc was very common. The south end of the Northern line Northern line used to be the worst I recall.

What still has a veneer of dirt and really needs a good scrub is the somewhat iconic Baker St on the Circle - well restored maybe 30 years ago , but in need of a refresh.

The old Angel station was a hovel!

 

[STINT47]

If your intrested in how the Underground used to be in the 80s can I recomend watching the 40 minute Heart of the Angel documentary. It's on the BBC I player.

It was filmed in 1989 at the old Angel tube station and shows the state sone parts of the underground were in back then. Highly recommended.

 

[southern442]

Highbury and Islington Victoria/GN platforms and tunnels feels pretty grotty in places, but I'm too young to know how it compared to 70s/80s stations.

If you had visited this time a couple of years ago you'd know!

 

[Mikey C]

If your intrested in how the Underground used to be in the 80s can I recomend watching the 40 minute Heart of the Angel documentary. It's on the BBC I player.

It was filmed in 1989 at the old Angel tube station and shows the state sone parts of the underground were in back then. Highly recommended.

There's a couple of interesting photos in this article about the programme. It brings back all sorts of bad memories

Tube staff who felt so dejected they asked passengers about Doomsday

A classic BBC film on iPlayer shows you just how grim it was working at The Angel station in the 1980s

www.mylondon.news

 

[XAM2175]

If your intrested in how the Underground used to be in the 80s can I recomend watching the 40 minute Heart of the Angel documentary. It's on the BBC I player.

It's truly one of the best examples of the documentary art, and one of the few times I will heartily agree with the argument that modern productions are vastly inferior.

 

[jfollows]

If your intrested in how the Underground used to be in the 80s can I recomend watching the 40 minute Heart of the Angel documentary. It's on the BBC I player.

It was filmed in 1989 at the old Angel tube station and shows the state sone parts of the underground were in back then. Highly recommended.

Thank you for that pointer, I'll get hold of it.

Back in the day, something like 1983 I hazard, I had a boozy day out when I was a student in London. Earlier in the day I had bought a bag of cherries from a market stall in Soho somewhere .... later in the day I remember sitting on the island platform at Angel and lobbing cherry stones into the doorway of a tube train going the opposite way to the one I wanted. Certainly anti-social behaviour! I think there might have been a Firkin pub nearby .......

 

[Mikey C]

Thank you for that pointer, I'll get hold of it.

Back in the day, something like 1983 I hazard, I had a boozy day out when I was a student in London. Earlier in the day I had bought a bag of cherries from a market stall in Soho somewhere .... later in the day I remember sitting on the island platform at Angel and lobbing cherry stones into the doorway of a tube train going the opposite way to the one I wanted. Certainly anti-social behaviour! I think there might have been a Firkin pub nearby .......

Disgraceful behaviour!

The Pheasant and Firkin in Goswell Road would I imagine have been the pub. Dogbolter...

 

[Trackman]

The old Angel station was a hovel!

'The entrance to Hades' as someone once put.

 

[Rogmi]

The introduction of the 95 stock made a big difference to the Northern line.
In the mid 70's, when around half the stock was 38 stock (the rest was 72 stock MKI and MKII), most of the dirt was brake dust from the 38 stock. Hampstead was one of the worse places, the SB approach usually being full speed from Golders Green, then full EP on the approach to the platform. When the Guard opened his door, the brake dust haze could be seen at the south end of the platform. The dust also filled the cars. The NB platform wasn't much better, because the brake dust used to come through the cross-passages and connections between the SB / NB tunnels.

An occasional lesser source of brake dust was when the guard forgot to remove the rear handbrake before the train left Morden depot. It was not unknown for a train to reach as far as Stockwell or Oval before the driver got a call to say "there's a smell of burning"!

72 stock were much cleaner, as the Rheo brake meant a lot less brake application and brake pad wear. If you were driving a 72 stock, you always knew when you were following a 38 (later 59/62) stock because of the amount of dust 'fog' ahead at main braking points, such as the approach to a fast station.

Things did improve over time, but it was only with the full introduction of the 95 stock that most of the brake dust was eliminated and everywhere became muck cleaner over time.

 

[Taunton]

I've always had a liking for somewhat-ghostly Highgate, I used it quite a bit back in the 1980s and happened to be back there recently, it hasn't moved on at all. In fact, the water penetration down at platform level is far worse than it used to be. It must be the draughtiest station underground from the trains, which are audible long before they appear. I wonder why the difference. There are also still a lot of fittings, inside and out, from its original 1939 construction, oddball escalators, and at midday not a lot of passengers around. As it was John Betjeman's local station for a long time, I'm surprised he didn't write about it.

 

[endicomark69@g]

Seven Sisters on a wet weekday will provide all the authentic grit anyone could want for that abandoned-ticket-hall experience.

 

[24Grange]

Baron Court is a bit "grimy" at platform level at least. the ticket hall is OK though 9 and miracle, it has toilets! - although run down.

 

[Mojo]

I used Hanger Lane station yesterday; that was pretty grotty with those ugly yellow tiles that were mentioned upthread, but in a lot worse state of repair. Being in the middle of a roundabout with traffic roaring past and the only access via subways doesn't help, and the station often seems to be left unstaffed.

 

[Cravens]

As a semi-regular user of the station, my vote goes to the neglected Hillingdon (Swakeleys)