Scanned print taken sometime in the 1980s. Crystal Place (Low Level) opened in 1854, although the exterior was rebuilt in 1875. This view shows the glazed booking hall added in the 1980s and built broadly in the style, if not the scale, of the centre section of the Crystal Palace. At one time the main building included a Roman Catholic Chapel.
Tags: Crystal Palce (Low Level) Station
Taken 05/04/16; some notes from wikipedia:
"Greenwich's handsome station building was designed by George Smith in 1840, making it one of the oldest station buildings in the world."
Taken 21/03/14: Gipsy Hill Station opened in 1856 on the Wandsworth Common to Crystal Palace line. Of course, I cannot find my copy of The Phoenix Suburb when I need it, but the station is named after the road that runs outside the station, which in turn takes its name from the Gipsy encampment that was once situated nearby. It is often assumed that the reference in Samuel Pepys' diary to visiting "gypsies at Lambeth" refers to this area of south London. Be that as it may, my mum used to recount seeing cows herded at the bottom of Gipsy Hill before the Second World War. Not the only family tale linked to Gipsy Hill. as my mum had a story about my Aunt Doris (who coincidentally worshipped at Christ Church in Highland Drive, just off of Gipsy Hill) being chased up Gipsy Hill by a doodlebug. Oh, and my dad insisted that the fenced off grassed area at the bottom of Gipsy Hill was a plague pit ... and he wasn't alone, as no jumped that fence back in the day!
Tags: Gipsy Hill Station
Taken 03/02/15; Formerly on the South London Line between Victoria and London Bridge, the lines through Denmark Hill were electrified in 1909. This was the pioneer electrification on what was to become the Southern Railway's (SR) network and was an overhead ac system until conversion in 1928 to the third rail dc system that was to become the SR's standard.
The station is currently served by London Overground, South Eastern and Thameslink services and also sees some freight traffic passing through.
The Italianate style station building was built in 1865 but sadly damaged by fire in 1980. A new ticket office opened around the corner, opposite the Salvation Army building in Champion Hill. The station reopened as one David Bruce's then small chain of 'home brew' Firkin pubs, appropriately named 'The Phoenix and Firkin'. At that time cask conditioned beer was rarer than is the case nowadays and the pub would be crowded most nights with real ale connoisseurs sampling the Dogbolter brewed on the premises. All things move on, but it seems the building still houses a pub, oh and the obligatory coffee shop.
Tags: Denmark Hill Station
Taken 21/03/14: Colour schemes come and go. This is the building Geoffrey Body refers to in The Railways of the Southern Region (1989) as a "... bilious green wooden building". I'd say it currently looks quite neat.
Tags: Gipsy Hill Station