Would Blackwall have been demolished in 1946 if it hadn’t been closed?

[Class15]

Dear all,

Blackwall station was closed in 1926 but bizarrely seemed to survive until 1946 when it was demolished to make way for a power station.
Would it have been demolished if the station was still open? Would they have decided to close the station AND demolish it?

Best wishes,

Class15

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Blackwall station was closed in 1926 but bizarrely seemed to survive until 1946 when it was demolished to make way for a power station.

Would it have been demolished if the station was still open? Would they have decided to close the station AND demolish it?

Would I be right in saying that the station building at Blackwall (essentially a terminus station for local services from Fenchurch Street, and located in the Docklands area of East London) was retained for some time after closure to passengers in 1926 for use as housing for railway families?

P.S. Anyone know if Blackwall station was ever used for freight purposes after 1926 (as was often the case at many other stations that closed to passengers)?

 

[John Webb]

Have a look at http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/b/blackwall/index.shtml for further information. This confirms Mcr Warrior's statement about the station building being used to house two railway families. It seems it was not used for freight after 1926, and possibly not before then either?

 

[Big Jumby 74]

It seems it was not used for freight after 1926, and possibly not before then either?

Struck me as a very quirky station, ideal for a micro style model railway. But back to goods, I have seen a photo (somewhere) of an odd van in the station, very ancient style 12T type I think, but couldn't comment on a date at the moment. Most of the goods traffic in that area would have turned left at Brunswick Jn between Poplar and Blackwall in to the goods depots around East India Dock. According to the Middleton Press book by J.E.Conner, 'Branch lines of East London' the goods depots here closed 1961. It's possible they may have tripped the odd van of supplies, coal etc, from the yards down to the closed station post 1926 for the benefit of the families residing there perhaps?

 

[Gloster]

I would doubt that they would bring in supplies to the houses. However, the station is only a short distance from Poplar Dock and East India Docks Goods stations, so perhaps it was just used as an extra siding, possibly one used for cripples or other wagons that might be there for a while.

 

[Big Jumby 74]

so perhaps it was just used as an extra siding

Quite possibly. The photo I mentioned including the van, a 12T LMS ventilated job, was taken in 1936 for an article in Railway Mag. The van seems to have been screwed down on the North side road leading to the longer platform, but astride the points just off the platform end. Possibly acting as a sort of temporary buffer to prevent anything heading down in to the station (building) vicinity accidentally - who knows? Given the station had been closed for ten years it looked remarkably weed and rubbish free, only the tops of the gas lamps missing. Would never last like that these days, be completely trashed within ten days of closure!

PS; Looking more closely it's actually two vans....

 

[Taunton]

Very local to us.

East India DLR is adjacent to the site, which is housing now the power station itself has been demolished. In fact the DLR from Tower Gateway to there is almost wholly on the alignment of the London & Blackwall Railway, mostly run by the Great Eastern, but actually an independent company to 1923. The lease terms were particularly favourable to the original company, which is why it lasted so long. Closed 3 years after the Grouping. The GE wanted it of course for freight from the London docks - the passenger service was incidental. It did used to have a lot of dock worker traffic, and an oddball daytime demand was docks messengers, which traffic was lost after 1900 by the development of the telephone.

Blackwall station was always in the middle of nowhere, between the back of a less-used dock and the river, and its principal purpose as a very early railway had been transfer to river steamers to avoid the initial slow and roundabout river route from the City of London. Within a few years this was rendered redundant by building railways out from London on both sides of the Thames. Apparently for another 75 years the frequent trains ran from Fenchurch Street, often empty. John Betjeman wrote an account of it, in his usual fascinating style.

 

[Big Jumby 74]

From images I have, thanks largely to J.Conner esq., of the areas railways, the station building at Blackwall was very ornate (and large) for the size of station, but as you say, fronting the river as it did I suspect the idea was to create an 'impression' for people arriving by boat. It's a sad irony, that given the appearance of the immediate station area today (via Googly - I don't have personal knowledge - hav'nt been over that way since the 1980's when things were slightly different!), the old building (in restored mode) may have made a very 'in keeping', alfresco coffee house cum eatery!
Apart from the quirky-off the beaten track nature, and variety of traffic that once made up the East End & the Docks, my interests stem from a direct ancestor who arrived upon these shores about 1880 ish and I suspect would have seen said Blackwall station from the river, his early days here spent a stones throw from the original Limehouse station, before ascending to the dizzy heights of luxury (not) in Lefevre Terrace, where if you climbed up on the wall at the end of this short cul-de-sac, you could watch the goings-on at Old Ford station.

 

[Class15]

From images I have, thanks largely to J.Conner esq., of the areas railways, the station building at Blackwall was very ornate (and large) for the size of station, but as you say, fronting the river as it did I suspect the idea was to create an 'impression' for people arriving by boat. It's a sad irony, that given the appearance of the immediate station area today (via Googly - I don't have personal knowledge - hav'nt been over that way since the 1980's when things were slightly different!), the old building (in restored mode) may have made a very 'in keeping', alfresco coffee house cum eatery!
Apart from the quirky-off the beaten track nature, and variety of traffic that once made up the East End & the Docks, my interests stem from a direct ancestor who arrived upon these shores about 1880 ish and I suspect would have seen said Blackwall station from the river, his early days here spent a stones throw from the original Limehouse station, before ascending to the dizzy heights of luxury (not) in Lefevre Terrace, where if you climbed up on the wall at the end of this short cul-de-sac, you could watch the goings-on at Old Ford station.

Big pity the building got demolished. Would be a great LBR monument now