Reading Bengali is quite easy, you just look at whatever is written in English above it and that should give you a pretty good idea of what the Bengali writing says. Hope this helps.
As we know most of our rail infrastructure was built at a loss. But at least it was built. Still upset about today's cancellation news. Total lack of vision. 😢
Aside from the heritage railway, who are always on the earhole, we have no railway service or stations at all in West Somerset. This basic infrastructure is sorely needed here.
For those interested, the poster in Yiddish translates to: East London Railway Cheap Prices Crystal Palace Excursions Third class train return fare Including entrance fee to the Palace. In a day when you pay 1 shilling transport, the ticket will cost just 1 shilling and 6 pence. Shoreditch Brick Lane, Whitechapel E.L. and Shadwell Watney Street. Kids under 12 are ½ price.
Love these ELL ones. I was for a period the Permanent Way Manager on there. The most amazing thing that only track people would know is when you are in the Brunel Tunnel at night when it is really quiet (lines under Engineering possession of course), you can hear the props of boats on the Thames as they pass above you.
Apparently in the most distant galleries of old coastal coal and tin mines you could hear the tide moving rocks around above you. I bet that sounded weird. A lot of those old galleries are probably still there too, if flooded and maybe partly collapsed.
I wonder if say Blackwall or Rotherhive experience that? It would be interesting to find out about the Penn rail tunnel or Holland tunnel etc under the Hudson in NYC. Thank you for this bit of info, I am fascinated by the idea of that. 11:47
@@johnmurray8428 The bores themselves are 93ft below "Mean high water level". the Amtrak tunnels are 100ft and Wikipedia has the depth of the shipping channel as 52ft so 48ft of mud above the tunnel and in some places the solid granite bedrock of Manhattan. I suspect the Hudson tunnels are all pretty deep because the river there is part of NY Harbor so much bigger ships than the Thames in London. challenge of course in the Holland Tunnel as well is even if you could hear a propeller that far under, you would never hear it over the ventilation. if Gateway ever gets built we may yet get to find out about the Amtrak tunnels because Gateway would allow the old Penn tunnels to finally be shut down for either retirement or renovation due to being in constant service for over 100 years. they run 24 trains an hour under the river. There is also two PATH tunnels and the Lincoln Tunnel. NYC has done a lot of digging in its past. Perhaps the most interesting thing then is that the city has more tunnels than bridges to cross that river. PATH is a commuter line "Port Authority Trans-Hudson". The Penn tunnels carry Amtrak and NJ Transit.
St Mary's curve used to run between Shadwell on the East London Railway and Aldgate East on the District and then Metropolitan (now Hammersmith & City) lines, it once had a regular through service, but latterly was used for empty stock movements. A railtour, using the Cravens 1960 Stock train, was run over the curve before it was decommissioned as part of the Overground conversion.
The curve was problematic, as an incident revealed that in certain circumstances there wasn't actually room to have two trains passing one another. From that point onwards only one train was allowed in the curve at a time.
Fun Fact: Joseph Merrick the 'Elephant Man' was exhibited for public viewing in a 'freak Shop' more or less directly opposite Whitechapel Station, by a showman, one Tom Norman. It was in this 'Freak Shop' - yes, that's what these establishments were called - that Dr. Frederick Treves ''discovered' Merrick. The rest is, as they say, history. The actual Freak Shop building still survives to this day, in case you are interested. Today it sells sarees rather than exhibiting freaks.
The bell foundry no longer exists, it shut a few years ago. Also (and this is pedantic, I do acknowledge that) bells are made from an alloy of copper and tin, i.e. bronze, not brass which is copper and zinc. But it's cool that they acknowledged it in the station design all the same.
Before the recent rebuild was finished and the Elizabeth line opened, the old metal poles holding up the shelter above the platforms would ring like bells when you hit them. Each one produced a slightly different tone as I walked by striking them with my plastic key fob. I often wondered if this was intended to be an allusion to the bell foundry but never found anything to that effect (though in my opinion, it would have been a far better tribute than what we see in 9:19). Alas, I can’t find them anymore so I think they’ve been removed…
Probably just naturally occurred that way. The tone it would make would depend on the exact length of the pole, the thickness of the metal, probably how well it's anchored, etc. I doubt the quality control was such that they were all exactly identical.
For what it's worth, the ring tone (resonant frequency) of a long pole like that is extremely low, so what you heard was probably the strike tone, which is due to the percussive effect of one hard object against another.
Very interesting piece of film. Worked at Whitechapel from 74-83 and loved the history around it. Saw Brady St Bldgs knocked down. How I wished I'd had my camera then.
Great video Jago. Whitechapel is one of my favourite underground (and overground) stations, such a rich offering of historic and contemporary railway architecture. Also; the best place to begin a Jack the Ripper walk and explore the culture, history and pubs in the local area.
I occasionally used the East London line in 'Metropolitan' days, when you could get to travel on some antique items of rolling stock, such as the clerestory roofed G-Stock. Trains were only every minutes which was an irritation. Better than trains in much of south London, though, which - as today - mostly ran half-hourly.
Thanks for the earworm Jago....I'm now... Underground overground, Wombling free....🎶😆 There is a modern option, take the Metropolitan to Barbican and then get a Thameslink ticket to Brighton.
I love that you used the verb "smushed". To any US viewers, in the UK this does not mean to have sex, as it does in your country. The two stations may be interconnected, but they don't have intercourse. 😂
If the sex definition is used in the US, it must be a regional thing in some region I've never lived in, because I've only ever heard it in the same sense you claim for the UK. Although we usually spell it "smooshed" to reflect the slightly different vowel pronunciation.
@@ZGryphonYeah, I've never heard it defined that way, either, and spelling doesn't seem to change the meaning on the left side of the Atlantic ... But it's clear that the two stations _were_ smushed together.
I made a real fast trip to London last week and had a walk from Whitechapel to Shoreditch. Visited the old Shoreditch station, as I always do when nearby. Such a pity that this is not used for anything...😢
8:42 Jago, that's a brilliant photo of the Underground going over the Overground, but it still has the construction site on it. If you could see your way clear to capturing this scene as it now is at some point, that would be a superb photo!
The Hammersmith & City Line used to turn around at Whitechapel on what looked like the East-Bound platform. The number of times I sent people to Aldgate East by accident was too bloomin' high. Also, at the London Transport Museum, they had a replica A Stock cab with a drivers-eye video of the St Mary's curve from Shadwell to Aldgate East. Which was pretty neat.
The ending of this fascinating piece of history, paired with the silent departure of an S-stock while hoping for a less cheesy ending, got a chuckle out of me running on a 1996 T1 in rush hour in Toronto. Made me think of the history of my own system, where our first trains were British built, so had cabs on the wrong side, amd were supposedly based on the R-Stock sub surface trains. It is but a small world...
During the 1970s, when I made my first visit to London, the ELL to the south of Whitechapel wasn't shown on tube maps in exactly the same way as the rest of the Metropolitan Line, Jago - not least because the short section between Whitechapel and Shoreditch only ran at peak times and on Sunday mornings. Known as the East London Section, the rest of the line to the south of Whitechapel was shown in the same purple colour as the Metropolitan Line, but as an open line that was sometimes shown with a white central stripe, rather than the solid Metropolitan purple line. It was however obvious to anyone that used it that it was operationally part of the Metropolitan, as the trains were four-car A60/62 stock with driving cars at each end; and while a small depot existed at New Cross, the St Mary's Curve remained open for empty stock movements... Off-peak, it ran at an interval of no more than ten minutes, which was achieved using six half-sets, with a seventh that usually sat at Whitechapel as a spare, that was also used when the service to Shoreditch was running. It was as you say largely a forgotten backwater - until Fleet Street started to relocate to Wapping during the 1980s, where the extremely narrow platforms became an immediate issue at peak times.
As the proud owner of a model railway in the 60's and 70's it always appeared to me that New Cross and New Cross Gate was where the transformer was connected.
I'm coming to London in late February, and I am going to visit Whitechapel famous sites. You video gave me some excellent talking points in the pubs in the evening 😊
It was my home station for a year and I loved it. So many connections and the recent renovations really make it an enjoyable place to travel to and from. :)
10:01 Yep! As a Bengali even without reading the signage I can tell just from how it's written, it is definitely styled after the typeface. Honestly, a very nice touch for the station given that said wider region of the city really is the home of the British Bangladeshi in London. I often call those parts of east London my 'spiritual home' even if I live south of the river in Lewisham. :) Great video!
As you travel west just after you leave Whitechapel on the District/Hammersmith & City line looking left you can see the entrance to St Mary’s curve and then the boarded up platforms of St. Mary’s station
Just north of Farringdon Station, the tracks serving the Metropolitan, Hammersmith & City and Circle Lines, pass over the Thameslink tracks. The Hammersmith & City Line crosses (most of) the main line out of Paddington on a high viaduct before dropping down to join it at Royal Oak.
My friend who lives in England is closer to the DLR than Whitechapel, but I find Bank tedious, so Whitechapel has become sort of a home station for me in London. So I was excited to see a video about it, and even more excited when it turned out to be one of the most interesting Jago's done. I actually thought the ending was beautiful.
Shortly before it reopened as part of the Overground pedestrians were allowed back into the tunnel to walk it one last time before trains were reintroduced. It was fantastic to walk through and see the details of the building.
'Underground, Overground...' but without the Wombles, as we're at the east end of the District Line, and to my favourite London Underground quiz question, which you mention is pretty well-known (thanks Jago). You have packed so much info into this video. Maybe some travellers have spotted that if you're on a westbound District or Hammersmith and City train leaving Whitechapel, you can see a tunnel opening as the train you're on travels towards Aldgate East. I guess that's the St. Mary's tunnel curving towards what is now the Overground track. I'm not sure if you can see this tunnel opening oa eastbound train going from Aldgate East to Whitechapel. Interesting to mention the District Railway's connection to the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway, given the disused platforms on the current C2C line, which you can see at Bromley-by-Bow, Plaistow, Upton Park, East Ham, Becontree, and one of the Dagenham stations, if I'm correct. Just coincidentally, at which stations does the Overground go over the Overground? I think you can answer, at the Hackney Central / Hackney Downs interchange, and at Willesden Junction. Any other locations?
The station has improved out of sight from my memory of the Tube back in the eighties. On either Metropolitan/District lines, nobody got on or off, there was an audible drip of water, and the place was literally illuminated by a single, bare pendant light bulb.
I was at the Overground platforms at Whitechapel the other day and I noticed that on top of the name Whitechapel high on the wall they still got some of the original orange stripes from the east london underground line
Some of my ancestors on my fathers side were from the Whitechapel area, and some on my mother's side were from nearby Rotherhithe. I have no known relatives in the area now. Another thing I remember about Whitechapel is that is [when travelling towards Central London on the District] the last open air station before it goes completely underground, or of course the first open air station when travelling from Central London to the suburbs..
If I understand this correctly, the Overground actually still uses the original Brunel (senior) tunnel that was the very first tunnel under the Thames?
@@geirmyrvagnes8718 Yes it does-it was part of the Metropolitan's East London Line as stated in the video. The station at Wapping has, *perhaps*, the narrowest platforms on the Overground (and possibly the Underground)
@@hoosiersands I think the comma spoilt your bold text! The first asterisk has to follow a space and the second has to be followed by a space for the code to work. _This will be in italic._ _This won't_. *This will be bold.* *This won't*. -This will be crossed out.- -This won't-.
@@hoosiersands Clapham Common and Clapham North also have dangerously narrow platforms. Whether they're narrower than Wapping's platforms, I'm not sure.
Your list of railway companies (1:52 - 2:04) puts me in mind of the spoken introduction to Louis Jordan's wonderful 'Texas and Pacific': "I know you heard of the Chattanooga Choo Choo The Rock Island, the New York Central, the New Haven and Hartford, The Pennsylvania, the Missouri Pacific, the Southern Pacific, The Northern Pacific is terrific - Oh, but Jack, you heard of the IC and the Santa Fe, But you gotta take a ride on the TP!"
Whitechapel station has changed a lot since the Elizabeth Line (previously Crossrail) was built and the station was redeveloped. With the London Overground East London Line and London Underground Hammersmith & City and District Lines both serving Whitechapel station. And the East London Line is below the District and H&C Lines.
I remember Whitechapel metropolitan east london line with district line Q stock, and Whitechapel district line above with metropolitan co cp stock on Hammersmith and city service. And i did see a passenger excursion going through whitechapel east london line pulled by a diesel loco, about 1965! And at wapping, the wooden stair treads up to the booking hall were the original stairs used by those Victorians when it was a foot tunnel. There was also a lift, going up, which was manually operated by a lift operator
Millwall football trains used to run on the District line to and from Surrey Quays, presumably if Fulham or Chelsea were playing there. I was lucky to ride one from Surrey Quays that was not busy, as the game had gone into extra time, but no one had delayed the specials.
Great video, I used to go through Whitechapel daily on the District, occasionally changing trains for the East London there. In those days the latter was a gloomy prospect though it was still using the glorious 1938 stock. When alighting at Wapping I always wondered why there was a continual sound of running water on the platform . . .
in the 80s and early 90s you could see the old Shoreditch station ( and the old link to Liverpool street - then an empty track bed ) ijust as you were arriving into Liverpool street on the east side and were sat with your back to the engine ! Blink and you would miss it !
Most of the trains from Hammersmith via Shepherds Bush which reversed at Whitechapel were extended to Barking. When the Metropolitan Railway electrified the East London Line it ran many through trains between Hammersmith and New Cross The Southend Corridor Express through trains were withdrawn in 1939, as a direct consequence of the start of WW2
It's fun to walk the Greenwich Foot Tunnel under The Thames. Mudshute DLR station near one end, and Geenwich DLR not too far from the other end (with the Old Royal Naval College as a bonus). I think that there's quite a few people who don't realise you can walk under The Thames. It's not a Brunel build though, it was opened in 1902.
I think it's the only one where it happens at a station, so you get signs telling pedestrians to go _up_ to the underground and _down_ to the overground. If I'm wrong, I'd love to know. (West Hampstead is a near miss because the stations are separate and not at all "smushed". You have to go out and along the road to get from one to the other.)
I'm dismayed to discover that Mr. Hazard is a "rugged outlaw" type. A respectable citizen like myself can't be associated with such a ruffian I'm afraid.
From his name, I'd always assumed he was a highwayman: the son of a senior East India Company officer, forced into a life of crime after being expelled from school for smuggling women of negotiable affection into the dorm.
Over the East London line. Over the DLR and Jubilee line. Level with the Central line that climbs and falls to meet it. That District line sure likes to forge a path. Isn’t it twice it crosses the DLR?
One of my nightmares would be having to fault-find on those cables which run alongside the lines (0:10 and at the end)... I can imagine they all have different purposes and carry way too many volts to even think about but I find the way they snake along, disappear for a while, reappear, cross to the other side, go round obstacles etc. fascinating!!
In a number of shots like 0:13 ther's a lot of cables on the wall opposite the platforms. I can't imagine TFL needs that many all parallel in one place, so I'm guessing they're leasing space to commercial customers? I don't recall seeing walls of cable like this in your other TFL-operated-station videos so I'm wondering if there's some unique story about this one?
at 9:27..I notice they don't have a characterture of Whitechapel's most (in)famous resident...It's good to see Whitechapel looking smartened up--the last time I was in London in 2014 it was dead grotty.
The overground goes under the underground 4 times I think. Whitechapel is the only station but it also passes under the district and Piccadilly lines just west of Chiswick Park and two branches pass under the metropolitan line at Northwick Park and west hampstead
We do now have urban beaches in the summer, at various locations as well as travelling fairs, that have been around for years. The nearest seaside resorts to London, are in Essex, Sussex and Kent. As a Londoner, may I recommend Southend and Brighton, both easy and cheap to get to, if you ever decide to come to England.
@@julianaylor4351: until 1971, you could go to the beach below Tower Bridge. It was finally closed on health grounds because of the state of the Thames.
Reading Bengali is quite easy, you just look at whatever is written in English above it and that should give you a pretty good idea of what the Bengali writing says. Hope this helps.
LINGUISTS HATE THIS ONE WEIRD TIP!
@@JagoHazzard (But they can't stop you from using it)!
As we know most of our rail infrastructure was built at a loss. But at least it was built. Still upset about today's cancellation news. Total lack of vision. 😢
Wait, what was cancelled?
@@mysterium368 The HS2 link between Manchester and Birmingham.
@@mysterium368 HS2.
@@mysterium368 HS2 to Manchester.
Aside from the heritage railway, who are always on the earhole, we have no railway service or stations at all in West Somerset. This basic infrastructure is sorely needed here.
For those interested, the poster in Yiddish translates to:
East London Railway
Cheap Prices
Crystal Palace Excursions
Third class train return fare Including entrance fee to the Palace.
In a day when you pay 1 shilling transport, the ticket will cost just 1 shilling and 6 pence.
Shoreditch Brick Lane, Whitechapel E.L. and Shadwell Watney Street.
Kids under 12 are ½ price.
Love these ELL ones. I was for a period the Permanent Way Manager on there.
The most amazing thing that only track people would know is when you are in the Brunel Tunnel at night when it is really quiet (lines under Engineering possession of course), you can hear the props of boats on the Thames as they pass above you.
That would freak me out I think!
Apparently in the most distant galleries of old coastal coal and tin mines you could hear the tide moving rocks around above you. I bet that sounded weird. A lot of those old galleries are probably still there too, if flooded and maybe partly collapsed.
I wonder if say Blackwall or Rotherhive experience that?
It would be interesting to find out about the Penn rail tunnel or Holland tunnel etc under the Hudson in NYC.
Thank you for this bit of info, I am fascinated by the idea of that. 11:47
@@johnmurray8428 The bores themselves are 93ft below "Mean high water level". the Amtrak tunnels are 100ft and Wikipedia has the depth of the shipping channel as 52ft so 48ft of mud above the tunnel and in some places the solid granite bedrock of Manhattan. I suspect the Hudson tunnels are all pretty deep because the river there is part of NY Harbor so much bigger ships than the Thames in London.
challenge of course in the Holland Tunnel as well is even if you could hear a propeller that far under, you would never hear it over the ventilation.
if Gateway ever gets built we may yet get to find out about the Amtrak tunnels because Gateway would allow the old Penn tunnels to finally be shut down for either retirement or renovation due to being in constant service for over 100 years. they run 24 trains an hour under the river.
There is also two PATH tunnels and the Lincoln Tunnel. NYC has done a lot of digging in its past. Perhaps the most interesting thing then is that the city has more tunnels than bridges to cross that river. PATH is a commuter line "Port Authority Trans-Hudson". The Penn tunnels carry Amtrak and NJ Transit.
St Mary's curve used to run between Shadwell on the East London Railway and Aldgate East on the District and then Metropolitan (now Hammersmith & City) lines, it once had a regular through service, but latterly was used for empty stock movements. A railtour, using the Cravens 1960 Stock train, was run over the curve before it was decommissioned as part of the Overground conversion.
You beat me too it, they couldn't do major repairs at New Cross so used to take the A stock up to Neasden
The curve was problematic, as an incident revealed that in certain circumstances there wasn't actually room to have two trains passing one another. From that point onwards only one train was allowed in the curve at a time.
Now I know not only the little bit of pub trivia, but also the long history of its occurrence!
Fun Fact:
Joseph Merrick the 'Elephant Man' was exhibited for public viewing in a 'freak Shop' more or less directly opposite Whitechapel Station, by a showman, one Tom Norman. It was in this 'Freak Shop' - yes, that's what these establishments were called - that Dr. Frederick Treves ''discovered' Merrick. The rest is, as they say, history.
The actual Freak Shop building still survives to this day, in case you are interested. Today it sells sarees rather than exhibiting freaks.
The John Hurt black and white film, The Elephant Man used the tangle of platform footbridges that used to exist inside Liverpool Street Station.
UK Saree Centre, not opposite the station, it's on the same side of the road a couple of doors down.
@@luxford60indeed. Opposite would be the hospital but i'd imagine the elephant man would have had to visit the hospital a few times in his life.
The bigger question here is who was jack the ripper
@@MarkyFormula1merrick actually lived in an apartment built for him inside the hospital.
The bell foundry no longer exists, it shut a few years ago. Also (and this is pedantic, I do acknowledge that) bells are made from an alloy of copper and tin, i.e. bronze, not brass which is copper and zinc. But it's cool that they acknowledged it in the station design all the same.
Before the recent rebuild was finished and the Elizabeth line opened, the old metal poles holding up the shelter above the platforms would ring like bells when you hit them. Each one produced a slightly different tone as I walked by striking them with my plastic key fob. I often wondered if this was intended to be an allusion to the bell foundry but never found anything to that effect (though in my opinion, it would have been a far better tribute than what we see in 9:19). Alas, I can’t find them anymore so I think they’ve been removed…
Probably just naturally occurred that way. The tone it would make would depend on the exact length of the pole, the thickness of the metal, probably how well it's anchored, etc. I doubt the quality control was such that they were all exactly identical.
For what it's worth, the ring tone (resonant frequency) of a long pole like that is extremely low, so what you heard was probably the strike tone, which is due to the percussive effect of one hard object against another.
Very interesting piece of film. Worked at Whitechapel from 74-83 and loved the history around it. Saw Brady St Bldgs knocked down. How I wished I'd had my camera then.
11min about Whitechapel and Jack has not been mentioned once, congratz.
Nor the 'Twins'.
It was a ripping tale!
Great video Jago. Whitechapel is one of my favourite underground (and overground) stations, such a rich offering of historic and contemporary railway architecture. Also; the best place to begin a Jack the Ripper walk and explore the culture, history and pubs in the local area.
I occasionally used the East London line in 'Metropolitan' days, when you could get to travel on some antique items of rolling stock, such as the clerestory roofed G-Stock. Trains were only every minutes which was an irritation. Better than trains in much of south London, though, which - as today - mostly ran half-hourly.
Thanks for the earworm Jago....I'm now... Underground overground, Wombling free....🎶😆
There is a modern option, take the Metropolitan to Barbican and then get a Thameslink ticket to Brighton.
I thought you'd actually broken into the theme tune of "The Wombles" at the start of this video! "Underground, Overground, Wombling free... "
Another fine production, Mr H. Thank you!
I love that you used the verb "smushed". To any US viewers, in the UK this does not mean to have sex, as it does in your country. The two stations may be interconnected, but they don't have intercourse. 😂
It means sex in America? I love that word!
@@TheBadLieutenantyup and I’ve stayed near there.
If you build a concourse between two stations is it an intercourse?
If the sex definition is used in the US, it must be a regional thing in some region I've never lived in, because I've only ever heard it in the same sense you claim for the UK. Although we usually spell it "smooshed" to reflect the slightly different vowel pronunciation.
@@ZGryphonYeah, I've never heard it defined that way, either, and spelling doesn't seem to change the meaning on the left side of the Atlantic ...
But it's clear that the two stations _were_ smushed together.
I made a real fast trip to London last week and had a walk from Whitechapel to Shoreditch. Visited the old Shoreditch station, as I always do when nearby. Such a pity that this is not used for anything...😢
8:42 Jago, that's a brilliant photo of the Underground going over the Overground, but it still has the construction site on it. If you could see your way clear to capturing this scene as it now is at some point, that would be a superb photo!
Where 55% of London Underground stations are actually OVER ground
The Hammersmith & City Line used to turn around at Whitechapel on what looked like the East-Bound platform. The number of times I sent people to Aldgate East by accident was too bloomin' high.
Also, at the London Transport Museum, they had a replica A Stock cab with a drivers-eye video of the St Mary's curve from Shadwell to Aldgate East. Which was pretty neat.
In the days when H&C services only went to Barking in the peaks.
POV:When the underground is the overground
I believe more of the Overground runs underground than the Underground lol.
And the overground is underground.
Jago. You are prolific! Despite that the video content (research) and quality continues to be top notch! Great work as always!
Hi Jago from Spain. Yet another interesting wander around some of the less well known parts of London's transport infrastructure. Thank you.
The ending of this fascinating piece of history, paired with the silent departure of an S-stock while hoping for a less cheesy ending, got a chuckle out of me running on a 1996 T1 in rush hour in Toronto. Made me think of the history of my own system, where our first trains were British built, so had cabs on the wrong side, amd were supposedly based on the R-Stock sub surface trains. It is but a small world...
During the 1970s, when I made my first visit to London, the ELL to the south of Whitechapel wasn't shown on tube maps in exactly the same way as the rest of the Metropolitan Line, Jago - not least because the short section between Whitechapel and Shoreditch only ran at peak times and on Sunday mornings. Known as the East London Section, the rest of the line to the south of Whitechapel was shown in the same purple colour as the Metropolitan Line, but as an open line that was sometimes shown with a white central stripe, rather than the solid Metropolitan purple line. It was however obvious to anyone that used it that it was operationally part of the Metropolitan, as the trains were four-car A60/62 stock with driving cars at each end; and while a small depot existed at New Cross, the St Mary's Curve remained open for empty stock movements... Off-peak, it ran at an interval of no more than ten minutes, which was achieved using six half-sets, with a seventh that usually sat at Whitechapel as a spare, that was also used when the service to Shoreditch was running. It was as you say largely a forgotten backwater - until Fleet Street started to relocate to Wapping during the 1980s, where the extremely narrow platforms became an immediate issue at peak times.
The Underground is over the overground. The overground is under the underground. I bet they are still wombling free.
As the proud owner of a model railway in the 60's and 70's it always appeared to me that New Cross and New Cross Gate was where the transformer was connected.
I was there 2 weeks ago...a nice reminder of my day on the railways...thanks Jago!
Simply brilliant, thank you!
I think there should be a separate video about construction of the tunnel. There is a great story behind.
Search for 'The Thames Tunnel: Can You Dig It?' - Jago already has a video about it
I'm coming to London in late February, and I am going to visit Whitechapel famous sites. You video gave me some excellent talking points in the pubs in the evening 😊
It was my home station for a year and I loved it. So many connections and the recent renovations really make it an enjoyable place to travel to and from. :)
People... people who need people... connect at Whitechapel, the luckiest people connector in the world. Nah. :) Wonderful vid as always, Jago!
Yes, the Metropolitan Line in east London - I was always confused / wondering about that.
Another educational gem Jago, ending & all! Cheers!
10:01 Yep! As a Bengali even without reading the signage I can tell just from how it's written, it is definitely styled after the typeface.
Honestly, a very nice touch for the station given that said wider region of the city really is the home of the British Bangladeshi in London. I often call those parts of east London my 'spiritual home' even if I live south of the river in Lewisham. :)
Great video!
As you travel west just after you leave Whitechapel on the District/Hammersmith & City line looking left you can see the entrance to St Mary’s curve and then the boarded up platforms of St. Mary’s station
Strange to think that the stations were in use at the time of Jack the Ripper.
Just north of Farringdon Station, the tracks serving the Metropolitan, Hammersmith & City and Circle Lines, pass over the Thameslink tracks. The Hammersmith & City Line crosses (most of) the main line out of Paddington on a high viaduct before dropping down to join it at Royal Oak.
Always brilliant Jago. You should do another bus vid soon
My friend who lives in England is closer to the DLR than Whitechapel, but I find Bank tedious, so Whitechapel has become sort of a home station for me in London. So I was excited to see a video about it, and even more excited when it turned out to be one of the most interesting Jago's done. I actually thought the ending was beautiful.
The Brunel Museum is worth a visit for anyone who wants to know more about the tunnel under The Thames.
Shortly before it reopened as part of the Overground pedestrians were allowed back into the tunnel to walk it one last time before trains were reintroduced. It was fantastic to walk through and see the details of the building.
Incidentally, I work here and, after dark, the outside of this station is one of the most unpleasant places in London.
Unfortunately, plenty of places in London aren't even pleasant even during daylight.
Thanks for another cracking vlog very interesting and informative 😊
Always wondered about the Underground/Overground irony at Whitechapel. Learnt something new about it today.
'Underground, Overground...' but without the Wombles, as we're at the east end of the District Line, and to my favourite London Underground quiz question, which you mention is pretty well-known (thanks Jago).
You have packed so much info into this video. Maybe some travellers have spotted that if you're on a westbound District or Hammersmith and City train leaving Whitechapel, you can see a tunnel opening as the train you're on travels towards Aldgate East. I guess that's the St. Mary's tunnel curving towards what is now the Overground track. I'm not sure if you can see this tunnel opening oa eastbound train going from Aldgate East to Whitechapel.
Interesting to mention the District Railway's connection to the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway, given the disused platforms on the current C2C line, which you can see at Bromley-by-Bow, Plaistow, Upton Park, East Ham, Becontree, and one of the Dagenham stations, if I'm correct.
Just coincidentally, at which stations does the Overground go over the Overground? I think you can answer, at the Hackney Central / Hackney Downs interchange, and at Willesden Junction. Any other locations?
Overground, underground, wombling free…
I did enjoy this topsy-turvy tale from the tube! 😀
The station has improved out of sight from my memory of the Tube back in the eighties. On either Metropolitan/District lines, nobody got on or off, there was an audible drip of water, and the place was literally illuminated by a single, bare pendant light bulb.
I was at the Overground platforms at Whitechapel the other day and I noticed that on top of the name Whitechapel high on the wall they still got some of the original orange stripes from the east london underground line
Some of my ancestors on my fathers side were from the Whitechapel area, and some on my mother's side were from nearby Rotherhithe.
I have no known relatives in the area now.
Another thing I remember about Whitechapel is that is [when travelling towards Central London on the District] the last open air station before it goes completely underground, or of course the first open air station when travelling from Central London to the suburbs..
The brunel museum is worth a visit if you're near wapping or Rotherhithe
If I understand this correctly, the Overground actually still uses the original Brunel (senior) tunnel that was the very first tunnel under the Thames?
@@geirmyrvagnes8718 Yes it does-it was part of the Metropolitan's East London Line as stated in the video. The station at Wapping has, *perhaps*, the narrowest platforms on the Overground (and possibly the Underground)
@@hoosiersands Sounds like a few hours of quite interesting stuff in the general area next time I am in London. 😄
@@hoosiersands I think the comma spoilt your bold text! The first asterisk has to follow a space and the second has to be followed by a space for the code to work.
_This will be in italic._ _This won't_.
*This will be bold.* *This won't*.
-This will be crossed out.- -This won't-.
@@hoosiersands Clapham Common and Clapham North also have dangerously narrow platforms. Whether they're narrower than Wapping's platforms, I'm not sure.
Your list of railway companies (1:52 - 2:04) puts me in mind of the spoken introduction to Louis Jordan's wonderful 'Texas and Pacific':
"I know you heard of the Chattanooga Choo Choo
The Rock Island, the New York Central, the New Haven and Hartford,
The Pennsylvania, the Missouri Pacific, the Southern Pacific,
The Northern Pacific is terrific -
Oh, but Jack, you heard of the IC and the Santa Fe,
But you gotta take a ride on the TP!"
Whitechapel station has changed a lot since the Elizabeth Line (previously Crossrail) was built and the station was redeveloped. With the London Overground East London Line and London Underground Hammersmith & City and District Lines both serving Whitechapel station. And the East London Line is below the District and H&C Lines.
I remember Whitechapel metropolitan east london line with district line Q stock, and Whitechapel district line above with metropolitan co cp stock on Hammersmith and city service. And i did see a passenger excursion going through whitechapel east london line pulled by a diesel loco, about 1965! And at wapping, the wooden stair treads up to the booking hall were the original stairs used by those Victorians when it was a foot tunnel. There was also a lift, going up, which was manually operated by a lift operator
Millwall football trains used to run on the District line to and from Surrey Quays, presumably if Fulham or Chelsea were playing there. I was lucky to ride one from Surrey Quays that was not busy, as the game had gone into extra time, but no one had delayed the specials.
Another lovely piece. Thanks Jago, I must visit it to see the “Johnston-ish” typeface. Moray
Great video, I used to go through Whitechapel daily on the District, occasionally changing trains for the East London there. In those days the latter was a gloomy prospect though it was still using the glorious 1938 stock. When alighting at Wapping I always wondered why there was a continual sound of running water on the platform . . .
Wonderfully erudite and interesting as usual, Jago. Thank you!
It was a great ending Jago.
Such as small line, with such an intense amount of history.
Great stuff! 👍
You used to be able to film a underground train over a overground train, if you were patient enough, before the did the station upgrades
9:53 "Large immigrant community" says he as person with matching kilt, socks and garters strides past. I love the timing!
I love your videos, so informative and, you make me giggle. ❤
The Overground goes under the Underground - oh ok!!! 🤔🚂🚂🚂
That was a very intense video. Mouthfuls of information to digest. I found it very interesting.
I'm in the underground,
I'm in the overground,
I'm in the underground overground.
My local station!! Love it
The cable racks on the side of ( some of ) the stations ( in your video ) are AWESUMM ( ? ) ..... DAVE™🛑
West Hampstead! Just west of West Hampstead station the Overground crosses Under the Underground
And you can get a good view, if you go to Iverson Road park during the winter
Another good slice of interesting cake. Well done Jago.
Hello, took my time to watch as I was in mainland China, but well worth the wait.
Haha the ending was perfect! 🔥
My understanding is that the St Mary's Curve is still there albeit single-track (it was always tight) unelecrified and locked out of use.
I like how they've managed to get nearly an entire wall filled with horizontal cabling and pipework.
Goodness JH, the history of Whtechapel station has as many twists and turns as an Agatha Christie novel.
More underground is overground
in the 80s and early 90s you could see the old Shoreditch station ( and the old link to Liverpool street - then an empty track bed ) ijust as you were arriving into Liverpool street on the east side and were sat with your back to the engine ! Blink and you would miss it !
You still can
@@norbitonflyer5625 Yes but then the station was still open and being used by underground trains
And don't miss the splendid Wall art at Whitechapel liz Station
Most of the trains from Hammersmith via Shepherds Bush which reversed at Whitechapel were extended to Barking.
When the Metropolitan Railway electrified the East London Line it ran many through trains between Hammersmith and New Cross
The Southend Corridor Express through trains were withdrawn in 1939, as a direct consequence of the start of WW2
It's fun to walk the Greenwich Foot Tunnel under The Thames. Mudshute DLR station near one end, and Geenwich DLR not too far from the other end (with the Old Royal Naval College as a bonus). I think that there's quite a few people who don't realise you can walk under The Thames. It's not a Brunel build though, it was opened in 1902.
Alternatively video title: How to confuse a Womble...
Careful pub quizzers - this is not the only place where the over goes under the under.
Apparently also Bollo Lane near South Acton Overground (which even goes under a Deep Tube line).
I think it's the only one where it happens at a station, so you get signs telling pedestrians to go _up_ to the underground and _down_ to the overground. If I'm wrong, I'd love to know. (West Hampstead is a near miss because the stations are separate and not at all "smushed". You have to go out and along the road to get from one to the other.)
9:40 Amazing how welcoming England is towards Bengalis. Namaste!
I'm dismayed to discover that Mr. Hazard is a "rugged outlaw" type. A respectable citizen like myself can't be associated with such a ruffian I'm afraid.
From his name, I'd always assumed he was a highwayman: the son of a senior East India Company officer, forced into a life of crime after being expelled from school for smuggling women of negotiable affection into the dorm.
"Connections" is good. Suits your style and ethos. I should go with it.
Over the East London line. Over the DLR and Jubilee line. Level with the Central line that climbs and falls to meet it. That District line sure likes to forge a path. Isn’t it twice it crosses the DLR?
Coincidentally Whitechapel is also where the Underground is over the Overground
I'm not sure that that's a coincidence🤔
One of my nightmares would be having to fault-find on those cables which run alongside the lines (0:10 and at the end)... I can imagine they all have different purposes and carry way too many volts to even think about but I find the way they snake along, disappear for a while, reappear, cross to the other side, go round obstacles etc. fascinating!!
Jago Hazzard, joining people to the underground.
I suppose you expect me to say " my tunnel has been extended at each end over the year ", so I will
In a number of shots like 0:13 ther's a lot of cables on the wall opposite the platforms. I can't imagine TFL needs that many all parallel in one place, so I'm guessing they're leasing space to commercial customers? I don't recall seeing walls of cable like this in your other TFL-operated-station videos so I'm wondering if there's some unique story about this one?
at 9:27..I notice they don't have a characterture of Whitechapel's most (in)famous resident...It's good to see Whitechapel looking smartened up--the last time I was in London in 2014 it was dead grotty.
Stepney Green, ...niiiiice
9:47 My favourite part about the Whitechapel Station. I was so happy when I saw this.
P.S. I prefer Bengali typefaces with more serif.
Don't we all
Same here mate.
It's a shame the rooftop garden isn't accessible
The overground goes under the underground 4 times I think. Whitechapel is the only station but it also passes under the district and Piccadilly lines just west of Chiswick Park and two branches pass under the metropolitan line at Northwick Park and west hampstead
I thought I understood the history of Whitechapel station. You've enlightened me. Its still pretty baffling though.
As a Canadian who has never been to London, I have no idea where anything is, so did need to be told such and such place isn’t a seaside resort. 😅
We do now have urban beaches in the summer, at various locations as well as travelling fairs, that have been around for years. The nearest seaside resorts to London, are in Essex, Sussex and Kent. As a Londoner, may I recommend Southend and Brighton, both easy and cheap to get to, if you ever decide to come to England.
@@julianaylor4351: until 1971, you could go to the beach below Tower Bridge. It was finally closed on health grounds because of the state of the Thames.
@@eattherich9215 My late father was born in Brixton in 1931 and would go there as a child.
@@eattherich9215 you can still go to the beach near the Tate Modern I believe.
@@chrisamies2141 There is one at Brent Cross Shopping Centre with a funfair.
And now my head hurts....
It was H&C trains that used to terminate at Whitechapel, not District. H&C mostly only went beyond in the peaks.