Speaking of phone booths, I live near the area and the payphones at both Oakwood and Cockfosters were only removed about 5/6 years ago. You could have documented them if you'd been a little quicker. Oh well. Edit: I have just checked and both stations are listed as having payphones in their list of facilities on the TFL website. Someone ought to tell them
This is my local station, I live on the road next to it and it'sa great one to be near. It always feels so spacious inside even when it's (slightly) busier! I can tell you that the suburb thoroughly arrived in the years since - my house one of the earliest dating from the 1930s. Also, as an interesting comment on the "refugee destination", it is worth mentioning that there are 3 or 4 less than 100 metres away that don't fit in, the original ones having been destroyed by a bomb during the war. Thank you for doing the video, always good to see your perspective on these places!
There are a couple of possibilities there. It might have been mistaken for an RAF installation (or actually being used as an ARP spotting post), having been built on the high ground between Barnet and Enfield and having similar architecture to RAF buildings, or it could have been a handy dumping ground while the Luftwaffe was forbidden to bomb London itself, pre Blitz.
Ah memories. I used this station a lot in my youth. I was born in Enfield and lived there until I was about 18. I used to get the 127 (I think) bus back to Enfield Town. I always loved the art deco feel of the place.
I was thinking the same thing. My grandad's house had the most amazing _curved_ windows on the front, and when I remarked on it as a small child, they said, you see that one house that's different, across the street? But that was a couple of miles away, by Hilly Fields.
@@stevenfarrall3942 When I was living in Enfield in the sixties, the 127 bus (formerly the 627 trolleybus) ran down Hertford Road, over in the east of the borough, and never passed any tube stations until it reached Manor House. Maybe you're thinking of the 107 or 107A?
I used to live in the road that ran parallel to the line between Oakwood and Cockfosters. Opposite me and backing onto the depot lived a railway enthusiast with old train numberplates fixed to his back garden wall and a model railway in his loft. Thanks to him I became a lifelong enthusiast myself, now with model trains a-plenty and the real thing near Reading visible from my bedroom window. How life repeats itself!
My local station as well, with just a 307 or 121 bus back to where I live. At night time, especially when it's late and there aren't a lot of people around, the inside of the station looks lovely when it's all lit up. Oh, and also, a big 'thank you' to the station staff who keep the toilets open, (which are generally very clean)... massively appreciated when getting the last Tube back after a night out 😊
I remember Oakwood Station being quite busy in the 1990's. I attended Middlesex University that used to have a campus (sadly closed and demolished) near buy. I can remember using Oakwood at that time with lots of fellow students.
The Underground needs to keep these "heritage" stations. With "heritage" railways it always gets me a bit nostalgic for past glories but here we have a working station still doing the job it was intended to do but having all the quirky out-of-date features that evokes times past. Do you think they should put dummy phones in to complete the look?
Why do I have this vision of a red and a white payphone, and when you pick up the red phone a voice says "No, the white phone". Wrong genre, wrong continent...
@@kaitlyn__L This is how a lot of old phone boxes are retrofitted, only not 5G, the towers for those are pretty massive so wouldn't fit inside such things lol. They're usually WiFI hotspots. I mean, it's all wired in already, just need a router hooking up!
Jago referencing an almost obscure rap artist from the 90s with a penchant for the odd pseudonym or two is the highlight of my week. Well played Jago, well played.
Not being into the 90s music scene I was wondering if it was yet another of Grant Shapps' sock-puppets, the 'honourable gentleman' being known to have used at least three other identities online supporting his, ah, initiatives.
"I may make a video about that (opening times sign)"... Yes, please! Thank you for a thoroughly pleasant video. Some 25 years ago I lived in Bounds Green, just down the Piccadilly line, so any videos on the Cockfosters extension are always of interest to me. 😊
Not sure if you can see it from the road, but at the Oakwood end of Cockfosters Depot there is a WW2 anti aircraft battery (on the right hand side of the depot).
On the next to last day of my last London trip I took the ride all the way out to Cockfosters "just because", and that turned into a very pleasant excursion. Met some very nice folks in a cafe there who pointed out some of the various sights in the area, the best of which was Trent Park, which is just a lovely area. Don't know if you have done a video of that station already, but Im assuming it's also a Holden design. Next time I guess I'll have to get off the Piccadilly a stop earlier and explore Oakwood. Great stuff...LIKED 👍 as always!
Compared to Holden , There is a small difference in brickwork and use of curved/arched critall type windows to make GPO telephone exchanges and some post offices and local authority cemetry and similar buildings in the 1930s / 1950s that one of my dads friends called "Lavatory Gothic".
Lavatory Gothic seems kind of apt. Or at least Lavatory *something*. I'm not a fan of all that exposed concrete. For me it's almost impossible to make concrete look pretty. It's a wonderful building material, just ugly as hell.
@@comicus01 The concrete arch of Newbury Park "Bus Station" has an elgance, as does Stockwell Bus Garage. I rather liked the Crystal Palace sports centre buildings. Maybe it is the colour features and signage that can make concrete work (Croydon Fairfield Halls )
@@highpath4776 I don't live in the UK. Just in general, especially if it's basically a box, concrete = ugly, for me. There are a few examples of it done well. And road bridges often look acceptable to my eye, but for the most part it just comes across as ugly to me. Taste is taste.
@@highpath4776 In my opinion concrete looks better in curved features such as arches. When it's flat - especially as roofing - it becomes heavy and almost looming. And it doesn't wear that well, easily becoming a dingy grey over time.
Maybe if you do not have enough content for a whole video on the sign you could combine it with other out-of-date signs on the network? I would like to see a video on that as it is always fun to see that sort of stuff on the network as it is a reminder of things past and makes me wonder why it has not been removed
thank you for doing such an interesting video on my local station! i love Oakwood, its barely ever crowded, and it was interesting finding out about the evacuees brought into the station!
@@caw25sha this made me look it up, and I both recognised the texture but was also surprised to learn it had no aggregate? Just the cement dust? Very strange. I'm glad we have ultra-lightweight aggregate now instead of having to deliberately aerate and weaken the concrete to meet weight requirements...
I lived in Enfield for most of my years and still pass through this station when going back to visit. Lots of interesting info here, thanks for this video
A video on the old quirks of limited service stations would be very interesting. Things like the stars next to Temple and Chancery Lane on the tube map is something I remember well
@@sianwarwick633 London Transport used stars (well, asterisks, I suppose) and daggers ('swords') next to station names on the tube map as indicators of something non-standard about those stations which would be described in the notes; it was usually something vaguely esoteric like "Station closed Sunday mornings before 7.30 a.m. and on Good Friday".
"...opened in March 1933..." I: "That's pretty recent." Yeah, 90 years ago. But by Underground standards, that's pretty recent. What I like about this style of station is that it has nice little elements such as the mentioned round bus shelters, but it's not as much "in your face" as modern developments tend to be. Maybe they were in the 1930s, who knows. But there wasn't a lot of money to spend, so everything is a bit more subdued. The wood in the vintage train is gorgeous. It reminds me of two teak carriages that you find in the national railway museum in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
I love purpose built architecture that appears plain at first glance but rewards closer inspection - such as when one is waiting for a train. Maybe I've been reading too much Bachelard but the details like the patina-like verdigris color of the accent tiles and the glazed brick are small delights that convey a sense of permanence, as though the building was saying "I am here to stay. Come back in 20 years and I will look much the same."
You might need to be an American to appreciate how special this. Here, especially on the west coast, a building still standing after 30 years is considered a historic artifact! We had a charming mock Bavarian village attraction in a suburb of LA called Alpine Village. It was built in the late 1960s and knocked down a few years ago to make way for storage space. The little Alpine-style buildings, put in the place by honest-to-Ludwig German business folk, were "preserved" by State decree for historical preservation... but the property itself wasn't. So...smash away.
@@ddewittfulton wait, the state tried to list them as historical artefacts but there was a loophole which allowed demolishment to proceed anyway? Jeez.
I used this station frequently as a child and I now realise that it was a significant influence on my architectural taste over seventy years ago. I loved it then and still do. Fascinated to learn that it finally became Oakwood a few months after I was born.
Those Art Deco lampshades have inspired me to fit similar to my Bachmann Art Deco model railway platform shelter. Mine will work too (ie: working lights)!
At last - someone has a sensible explanation as to why the line was extended to Cockfosters! I had seen one suggestion that the depot was originally planned to be south of Oakwood,' i've also never heard about a proposal to have another entrance - and more buildings (a cinema!) - on the north side, which would have made it more of a destination, but with Cockfosters station built low and the line screens from Trent Park by a bund, it seems unlikely that the Sassoons who owned Trent Park would have allowed that. What might have been...Many thanks.
Sadly, I only got as far as Southgate on the only time I travelled “up north” on Piccadilly line for work purposes back in early 1970s but work is work, even then. Thanks Jago for your fascinating “Tales fro the Tube” so long ago for me.
The Metropolitan Railway had a similar station on their Stanmore Extension.... Between Kingsbury and Canons Park they built a station which served only fields! With no real name for the area it was decided to call it Queensbury seeing how Kingsbury was the stop before!.....
Glad to hear the nearby terminus station is not offering problems with monetisation any more. Although, admittedly, the start of that specific video is still one of my favourite Jago Hazzard funnies.
'Junction of chase Rd & east barnet rd'? Don't know about that time, but east barnet Rd is about 1.5 miles away! It's bramley Rd in front of the station now!
" You are the Coat of Arms to my concrete wall " another great video Jago. I will definitely pay this station a visit when I am in London in two weeks. Keep up the great work. It is appreciated 😊
I was thinking I remembered passimeters at Barons Court but I think they were just staffed booths, there was no turnstile. You could get in and out without going through a barrier at times though. (I moved away in 2005, the setup had probably already changed by then).
This was my local station as I was born and bred in Oakwood. Some of the photos of the station in the London Transport/TFL Archive show just how rural the area was before the war. I believe it is in one of Christian Wolmar's books that he says that the station was so little used at first that they installed a cafe to increase footfall. It has always intrigued me where this was situated - in my childhood the right hand shop was occupied by the Victoria Wine Co and the left hand (inevitably) by a T.Walton & Co greengrocers. Perhaps one of these was originally the cafe - certainly what was the Victoria Wine is now a cafe again. From 1935 onwards housing development happened apace and the passenger catchment area increased tremendously. It was a great place to live - rural, Trent Park and the Green Belt started just over the road, yet you could get to Piccadilly Circus in about 30 minutes. Happy days.
Nice station. An alternative way to reach Trent Country Park too, the presence of which meaning that there's open land on one side of the Piccadilly Line here.
There was a major armaments factory at Enfield so the general area couldn't have been considered safe during the Blitz, especially considering the highly inaccurate bombing of the time.
The armament factories were way out on the eastern edge of Enfield, miles from Oakwood. It's a very large borough, although calling Oakwood station "Enfield West" was always a bit strange as I'm sure it's closer to Southgate.
The armaments factory (Royal Small Arms, I think) was at Enfield Lock, way over the other side of Enfield. Trent Park housed German prisoners of war. I particularly remember a TV programme in the 1970s that explained how the rooms were bugged and we found out about 'knikkerbeins' (apologies for the spelling) that the Luftwaffe used to identify targets in their bombing raids. In the early 1960s I went past Oakwood every day on way to school riding my ULEZ compliant push bike 🚲
@@AndreiTupolev the rifles were built in several factories, RSAF at Enfield, BSA at Shirley and sparkbrook west midlands and at ROF Fazakerley BSA produced the majority of Rifles for WWII as RSAF Enfield didn't start production until 1941
If you are going to do that station sign use one of the older tube maps full of typesetters daggers, stars and double SS's among other things. A visit to each of the stations would be a bit like a Geoff Marshall every request stop vid (did Underground Group ever have request stops - maybe the last Acton shuttle was a by request only.
I seem to remember that the Passemeter was where one bought tickets (if you didn't have change for the ticket machines or for season tickets and travelcards) , not have them checked. There were separate manned ticket inspection/collection booths at what would now be called a gate line. Got to love those Holden stations.
The focus on the details of the Oakwood station architecture is charming without being maudlin (Is Maudlin a station on the line?) I honestly now want to visit just to appreciate the subtle details. (And to think we yanks on a semester abroad would goof on "Cockfosters" as a name... what were we thinking?)
Your description of Oakwood being a station created in anticipation of development, reminds me of Singapore MRT, where stations are created years before anything is developed (LRT loops come to mind)
@@hairyairey they are ever expanding their train lines and building new high rise accomodation. When i was there last maybe 2011, there was a light rail loop line full of stations, but trains did not use it as there was nothing built at the destinations. I think wiki will help describe more about the MRT and LRT networks or you question, better than i can
Used to live on Cat Hill growing up and this and Cockfosters were my local stations. There was a pub nearby called the Merryhills, now predictably developed into flats.
I was "barred" from the Merryhills pub after being worked over by some no-goodniks in the car park. That rather lowered the tone of the establishment for me! This despite my pals and I being "regulars" as well!!!
It was in 1968 that I was duffed up at the Merryhills. I was eventually allowed back but only rarely went thereafter. I left Oakwood in 1984 so perhaps I am too old for our paths to have crossed. I lived in Lonsdale Drive and didn't really know anyone who lived in the Cat's Hill or East Barnet area as it was a bit outside our stomping ground unless we went to the pictures at the cinema at New Barnet or the real ale bar that used to be in East Barnet village at one time. P.S. Was there also a cinema in East Barnet or am I dreaming that? - it was a long time ago.
I really hope that Oakwood keeps most of its historic features, and doesn't get any serious make over like some of stations. It's always fascinating to see old rail signs.
Oakwood tube station on the Piccadilly Line has always referred to as Enfield West or West Enfield. As Enfield has 2 stations in the town centre-Enfield Chase and Enfield Town. Plus you got Enfield Lock on the West Anglia Main Line. And Enfield at one point was in Middlesex and Hertfordshire before it’s now part of Greater London.
My dear old Dad was evacuated 4 miles from Finchley to Oakwood in the war; he stayed with his Aunt Lily and Uncle Herbert in Trent Park and remembered high ranking German prisoners of war wandering about the park. The school behind his childhood home was hit by bombs so maybe such a short evacuation was a good idea after all.
I spent most of the sixties, getting off at Oakwood for school. Left out of the station, across the road, about a hundred-odd yards, was the Merryhills hotel (pub), which we used occasionally, a year or two before we left. Right out of the station and immediately right again was the car park, where we'd stop off after school for a ciggie. Incidentally, back in those days, the tube signs on the platforms featured a motto in Latin below the logo: 'Ex Glande(out of a seed)Quercus(an oak) - although it seems there was a little mistake in the Latin where the 'Ex' would more correctly have been 'E', as it was followed by a word beginning with a consonant, the 'Ex' being correct, followed by a word beginning with a vowel. (I did a couple of years of Latin - it was a grammar school back then). So ends my two cents worth.
Oakwood is a station I would definitely rank as A-tier cause I’m a huge fan of Charles Holden’s brilliant design work and this station is no exception with the large mushroom shelter outside 👍 Also I’m glad that this station was never opened as East Barnet because this area is in the borough of Enfield, not Barnet
Now that would have been something Charles Holden designed towers and cinema - one can only imagine the magnificence of this both externally and especially internally.
Interestingly, but slightly off topic, I was passing through Denmark Hill yesterday , the Northernmost platform, at the western end has under the first running in board "For Camberwell" in the same present Southern green with white lettering . didnt notice any others but I wasnt looking
One of my so-called "local" tube stations when I lived in Enfield (East). Take your pick of: (a) Oakwood (a long ride on the 107A bus) (b) Manor House (ditto, on whichever route went down Hertford Road, then Seven Sisters Road - 127? 279?) (c) Turnpike Lane (either 107A to the Great Cambridge Road, & change to a 217 or 231; or footslog it to further up the Cambridge Road and get the 217 direct) At one time, while the Northern, Piccadilly and Bakerloo routes were not yet finalised, there were some possibilities of a tube line which might have passed considerably closer to the area. They were killed off by financial and political machinations, some of them involving You Know Who.
Ah, the 107 bus to Oakwood and then the train in to the delights of London. Or an hour all the way through to Heathrow. Regular user back in the 80s. I remember kissing a girlfriend goodbye in the empty ticket hall and it did rather echo...
You couldn't do that anymore!! The 107 got 'split' a few years ago and now terminates at New Barney. Its substitute is the 307 which was seen stopping at Oakwood in this charming video
I passed😮through😢this station for 2 years whilst attending my secondary school at the bottom of the hill. My over riding memory is not of the station but of a member of staffs motorcycle😮 a Norton Commando with black livery and gold pin striping.. sadly the land at Arnos Grove and Cockfosters nearby formerly the car parks is being sold off for housing developments
You traveled by vintage tube train, so why no shots of it, apart from a tantalising glimpse of a wooden window frame? Saving it for another video perhaps?
@@JagoHazzard Isnt Vintage anything pre 1912, Veteran pre 1904 and Classic pre 1940 , Wartime /Utility is up to about 1945. Maybe 1930s should be Art Deco , but what do we call the 1950s ?
@@highpath4776 Those are the definitions for motor cars (vintage is actually inter war, classic is early post WW2) , but the words have different meanings in other contexts - vintage wine, veteran soldiers etc
May you never go the way of the payphone, Jago...
Arriving at Oakwood on a vintage tube train..The gentleman has style
Speaking of phone booths, I live near the area and the payphones at both Oakwood and Cockfosters were only removed about 5/6 years ago. You could have documented them if you'd been a little quicker. Oh well.
Edit: I have just checked and both stations are listed as having payphones in their list of facilities on the TFL website. Someone ought to tell them
This is my local station, I live on the road next to it and it'sa great one to be near. It always feels so spacious inside even when it's (slightly) busier! I can tell you that the suburb thoroughly arrived in the years since - my house one of the earliest dating from the 1930s. Also, as an interesting comment on the "refugee destination", it is worth mentioning that there are 3 or 4 less than 100 metres away that don't fit in, the original ones having been destroyed by a bomb during the war. Thank you for doing the video, always good to see your perspective on these places!
There are a couple of possibilities there. It might have been mistaken for an RAF installation (or actually being used as an ARP spotting post), having been built on the high ground between Barnet and Enfield and having similar architecture to RAF buildings, or it could have been a handy dumping ground while the Luftwaffe was forbidden to bomb London itself, pre Blitz.
Ah memories. I used this station a lot in my youth. I was born in Enfield and lived there until I was about 18. I used to get the 127 (I think) bus back to Enfield Town. I always loved the art deco feel of the place.
I was thinking the same thing. My grandad's house had the most amazing _curved_ windows on the front, and when I remarked on it as a small child, they said, you see that one house that's different, across the street? But that was a couple of miles away, by Hilly Fields.
@@stevenfarrall3942 I know that bus as the 121 or 307 (both go that way), but it may have changed since then of course. I agree, it is lovely
@@stevenfarrall3942 When I was living in Enfield in the sixties, the 127 bus (formerly the 627 trolleybus) ran down Hertford Road, over in the east of the borough, and never passed any tube stations until it reached Manor House. Maybe you're thinking of the 107 or 107A?
Love this station, Trent park footie every Tuesday with the lads
That sign with Blake Hall on it is great!
I used to live in the road that ran parallel to the line between Oakwood and Cockfosters. Opposite me and backing onto the depot lived a railway enthusiast with old train numberplates fixed to his back garden wall and a model railway in his loft. Thanks to him I became a lifelong enthusiast myself, now with model trains a-plenty and the real thing near Reading visible from my bedroom window. How life repeats itself!
Another excellent video from Jago "Puff Daddy" Hazzard!
Is Jago the “puff” to one’s “daddy”; or the “daddy” to one’s “puff”?? 🤔
My local station as well, with just a 307 or 121 bus back to where I live. At night time, especially when it's late and there aren't a lot of people around, the inside of the station looks lovely when it's all lit up.
Oh, and also, a big 'thank you' to the station staff who keep the toilets open, (which are generally very clean)... massively appreciated when getting the last Tube back after a night out 😊
I remember Oakwood Station being quite busy in the 1990's. I attended Middlesex University that used to have a campus (sadly closed and demolished) near buy. I can remember using Oakwood at that time with lots of fellow students.
TfL should give Jago a retainer for highlighting all the eccentric features of even their smallest stations.
The Underground needs to keep these "heritage" stations. With "heritage" railways it always gets me a bit nostalgic for past glories but here we have a working station still doing the job it was intended to do but having all the quirky out-of-date features that evokes times past. Do you think they should put dummy phones in to complete the look?
Dummy phones with 5G aerials inside! So they're both historic and functional 😊
Why do I have this vision of a red and a white payphone, and when you pick up the red phone a voice says "No, the white phone". Wrong genre, wrong continent...
I would note that outside St Pancras is a red telephone box restored to original condition with buttons A and B
@@kaitlyn__L This is how a lot of old phone boxes are retrofitted, only not 5G, the towers for those are pretty massive so wouldn't fit inside such things lol. They're usually WiFI hotspots. I mean, it's all wired in already, just need a router hooking up!
@@jaakkomantyjarvi7515 like, Get Smart ?
Another interesting video from Jago
Jago referencing an almost obscure rap artist from the 90s with a penchant for the odd pseudonym or two is the highlight of my week.
Well played Jago, well played.
Fun fact: P. Diddy is not obscure in the U.S.. Also, Rage Against the Machine were way more than a one-hit wonder in the U.S..
It's not Combs like Tombs, is it ? It's Combs like Homes
Not being into the 90s music scene I was wondering if it was yet another of Grant Shapps' sock-puppets, the 'honourable gentleman' being known to have used at least three other identities online supporting his, ah, initiatives.
Jago's commentary is the best in the business.
"I may make a video about that (opening times sign)"... Yes, please!
Thank you for a thoroughly pleasant video. Some 25 years ago I lived in Bounds Green, just down the Piccadilly line, so any videos on the Cockfosters extension are always of interest to me. 😊
Not sure if you can see it from the road, but at the Oakwood end of Cockfosters Depot there is a WW2 anti aircraft battery (on the right hand side of the depot).
Presumably just the concrete bases, and possibly a concrete hut or two?
You can see it on Google Earth; an octagonal structure with a hole in the middle.
On the next to last day of my last London trip I took the ride all the way out to Cockfosters "just because", and that turned into a very pleasant excursion. Met some very nice folks in a cafe there who pointed out some of the various sights in the area, the best of which was Trent Park, which is just a lovely area. Don't know if you have done a video of that station already, but Im assuming it's also a Holden design.
Next time I guess I'll have to get off the Piccadilly a stop earlier and explore Oakwood.
Great stuff...LIKED 👍 as always!
Straight out of the station and across the road is an entrance to the Oakwood end of Trent Park.
Compared to Holden , There is a small difference in brickwork and use of curved/arched critall type windows to make GPO telephone exchanges and some post offices and local authority cemetry and similar buildings in the 1930s / 1950s that one of my dads friends called "Lavatory Gothic".
Is Lavatory Gothic where your ass goes Medieval on you instead of someone going Medieval on your ass?
Lavatory Gothic seems kind of apt. Or at least Lavatory *something*. I'm not a fan of all that exposed concrete. For me it's almost impossible to make concrete look pretty. It's a wonderful building material, just ugly as hell.
@@comicus01 The concrete arch of Newbury Park "Bus Station" has an elgance, as does Stockwell Bus Garage. I rather liked the Crystal Palace sports centre buildings. Maybe it is the colour features and signage that can make concrete work (Croydon Fairfield Halls )
@@highpath4776 I don't live in the UK. Just in general, especially if it's basically a box, concrete = ugly, for me.
There are a few examples of it done well. And road bridges often look acceptable to my eye, but for the most part it just comes across as ugly to me. Taste is taste.
@@highpath4776 In my opinion concrete looks better in curved features such as arches. When it's flat - especially as roofing - it becomes heavy and almost looming. And it doesn't wear that well, easily becoming a dingy grey over time.
Maybe if you do not have enough content for a whole video on the sign you could combine it with other out-of-date signs on the network? I would like to see a video on that as it is always fun to see that sort of stuff on the network as it is a reminder of things past and makes me wonder why it has not been removed
He's getting so close to doing the Enfield Lock retrospective. Come to _Enfield East_ already! I can't wait any more!
thank you for doing such an interesting video on my local station! i love Oakwood, its barely ever crowded, and it was interesting finding out about the evacuees brought into the station!
There's HEAPS of space under those concrete canopies at platform level! 3:48
Now just 'Holden a moment' LOL
I hope it's not that Aero concrete.
@@caw25sha fortunately this long since predates that (built in the '30s), this concrete is doing just fine!
@@caw25sha this made me look it up, and I both recognised the texture but was also surprised to learn it had no aggregate? Just the cement dust? Very strange. I'm glad we have ultra-lightweight aggregate now instead of having to deliberately aerate and weaken the concrete to meet weight requirements...
Old childhood stomping ground together with Trent Park - early to mid 70s, simpler times.
That hanging foliage is lovely. I winder if it eats lost passengers at night.
If the locals don't get 'em first
This made me nostalgic. I used to travel to school from Bounds Green to Oakwood in the 1960s
Moley, ya bugger!
I did the same trip you did!
How ya holding up, man?
I lived in Enfield for most of my years and still pass through this station when going back to visit. Lots of interesting info here, thanks for this video
And thank you!
Great video. My nearest tube station on my favourite tube line...it doesn’t get much better than that!
A video on the old quirks of limited service stations would be very interesting. Things like the stars next to Temple and Chancery Lane on the tube map is something I remember well
why stars ?
@@sianwarwick633 London Transport used stars (well, asterisks, I suppose) and daggers ('swords') next to station names on the tube map as indicators of something non-standard about those stations which would be described in the notes; it was usually something vaguely esoteric like "Station closed Sunday mornings before 7.30 a.m. and on Good Friday".
@@sianwarwick633 Back then stations with stars were closed Sundays. There were even a couple of double stars that were closed on Sunday AND Saturday
"...opened in March 1933..."
I: "That's pretty recent."
Yeah, 90 years ago. But by Underground standards, that's pretty recent.
What I like about this style of station is that it has nice little elements such as the mentioned round bus shelters, but it's not as much "in your face" as modern developments tend to be. Maybe they were in the 1930s, who knows. But there wasn't a lot of money to spend, so everything is a bit more subdued.
The wood in the vintage train is gorgeous. It reminds me of two teak carriages that you find in the national railway museum in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Many thanks!
Aldwych, Blake Hall... yes, we need a video about that sign! This is a great one, Jago! Thanks!
Call me a cynical pessimist, but what's the betting now some bugger comes and nicks that sign?
@@Krzyszczynski nooo! Hope not!
The Dylan Thomas of London's Hertfordshire. Under Oak Wood
And no milk train.
I love purpose built architecture that appears plain at first glance but rewards closer inspection - such as when one is waiting for a train. Maybe I've been reading too much Bachelard but the details like the patina-like verdigris color of the accent tiles and the glazed brick are small delights that convey a sense of permanence, as though the building was saying "I am here to stay. Come back in 20 years and I will look much the same."
You might need to be an American to appreciate how special this. Here, especially on the west coast, a building still standing after 30 years is considered a historic artifact! We had a charming mock Bavarian village attraction in a suburb of LA called Alpine Village. It was built in the late 1960s and knocked down a few years ago to make way for storage space. The little Alpine-style buildings, put in the place by honest-to-Ludwig German business folk, were "preserved" by State decree for historical preservation... but the property itself wasn't. So...smash away.
@@ddewittfultonAmericans like that flag you have there
@@ddewittfulton wait, the state tried to list them as historical artefacts but there was a loophole which allowed demolishment to proceed anyway? Jeez.
Lovely profile of an attractive station. Thank you, Jago!
Nice station and nice tube train.
I look forward to visiting Oakwood as part of. My soon to be commenced tour of every Zone 1-6 TfL journey planner stations, in alphabetical order .😊
That's ambitious. I don't think even Geoff Marshall has done that.
Including National Rail, DLR and Overground?
That's ambitious. Good luck with that expedition !
Very nice thank you
I used this station frequently as a child and I now realise that it was a significant influence on my architectural taste over seventy years ago. I loved it then and still do. Fascinated to learn that it finally became Oakwood a few months after I was born.
Those Art Deco lampshades have inspired me to fit similar to my Bachmann Art Deco model railway platform shelter. Mine will work too (ie: working lights)!
Living as we do in Chipping Barnet, we do occasionally use Oakwood station as we can get a direct bus over there from the top of our road.
Jago talking about stations with complicated histories of nomenclature >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
At last - someone has a sensible explanation as to why the line was extended to Cockfosters! I had seen one suggestion that the depot was originally planned to be south of Oakwood,' i've also never heard about a proposal to have another entrance - and more buildings (a cinema!) - on the north side, which would have made it more of a destination, but with Cockfosters station built low and the line screens from Trent Park by a bund, it seems unlikely that the Sassoons who owned Trent Park would have allowed that. What might have been...Many thanks.
Sadly, I only got as far as Southgate on the only time I travelled “up north” on Piccadilly line for work purposes back in early 1970s but work is work, even then.
Thanks Jago for your fascinating “Tales fro the Tube” so long ago for me.
The Metropolitan Railway had a similar station on their Stanmore Extension.... Between Kingsbury and Canons Park they built a station which served only fields! With no real name for the area it was decided to call it Queensbury seeing how Kingsbury was the stop before!.....
The animated map at the London Transport Museum doesn't even admit that Queensbury exists: th-cam.com/video/e5aMcCl4Wc0/w-d-xo.html
Glad to hear the nearby terminus station is not offering problems with monetisation any more. Although, admittedly, the start of that specific video is still one of my favourite Jago Hazzard funnies.
Grew up in Enfield; when it's too late for the last train to Brimsdown, Piccadilly line to Oakwood and the last bus (135) from W to East.
'Junction of chase Rd & east barnet rd'?
Don't know about that time, but east barnet Rd is about 1.5 miles away! It's bramley Rd in front of the station now!
" You are the Coat of Arms to my concrete wall " another great video Jago. I will definitely pay this station a visit when I am in London in two weeks. Keep up the great work. It is appreciated 😊
I was thinking I remembered passimeters at Barons Court but I think they were just staffed booths, there was no turnstile. You could get in and out without going through a barrier at times though. (I moved away in 2005, the setup had probably already changed by then).
Good evening all.
This was my local station as I was born and bred in Oakwood. Some of the photos of the station in the London Transport/TFL Archive show just how rural the area was before the war. I believe it is in
one of Christian Wolmar's books that he says that the station was so little used at first that they installed a cafe to increase footfall. It has always intrigued me where this was situated - in my childhood the right hand shop was occupied by the Victoria Wine Co and the left hand (inevitably) by a T.Walton & Co greengrocers. Perhaps one of these was originally the cafe - certainly what was the Victoria Wine is now a cafe again.
From 1935 onwards housing development happened apace and the passenger catchment area increased tremendously. It was a great place to live - rural, Trent Park and the Green Belt started just over the road, yet you could get to Piccadilly Circus in about 30 minutes.
Happy days.
Educational as ever Jago
That Oakwood car services building , come on Jago do some airfix/dapol station kiosk kit bashing with a dremel and make a model of it
Nice station. An alternative way to reach Trent Country Park too, the presence of which meaning that there's open land on one side of the Piccadilly Line here.
Hi Jago from Spain and thanks for that. I had to look it up but I got a little confused initially with the station in the Railway Children.
Oakworth, I think. A real stationnon the Worth Valley line
There was a major armaments factory at Enfield so the general area couldn't have been considered safe during the Blitz, especially considering the highly inaccurate bombing of the time.
The home of the Lee-Enfield rifle, the Royal Enfield motorcycle, and the Harry Enfield?
The armament factories were way out on the eastern edge of Enfield, miles from Oakwood. It's a very large borough, although calling Oakwood station "Enfield West" was always a bit strange as I'm sure it's closer to Southgate.
The armaments factory (Royal Small Arms, I think) was at Enfield Lock, way over the other side of Enfield. Trent Park housed German prisoners of war. I particularly remember a TV programme in the 1970s that explained how the rooms were bugged and we found out about 'knikkerbeins' (apologies for the spelling) that the Luftwaffe used to identify targets in their bombing raids. In the early 1960s I went past Oakwood every day on way to school riding my ULEZ compliant push bike 🚲
yes the school opposite the munitions factory got bombed.
@@AndreiTupolev the rifles were built in several factories, RSAF at Enfield, BSA at Shirley and sparkbrook west midlands and at ROF Fazakerley
BSA produced the majority of Rifles for WWII as RSAF Enfield didn't start production until 1941
Used the station for three years whilst studying at the satellite campus of Middlesex university.( now gone), glad to see it is still around.
If you are going to do that station sign use one of the older tube maps full of typesetters daggers, stars and double SS's among other things. A visit to each of the stations would be a bit like a Geoff Marshall every request stop vid (did Underground Group ever have request stops - maybe the last Acton shuttle was a by request only.
Top video as usual - last time I was at Oakwood was for my brother’s stag do earlier this year!
I seem to remember that the Passemeter was where one bought tickets (if you didn't have change for the ticket machines or for season tickets and travelcards) , not have them checked. There were separate manned ticket inspection/collection booths at what would now be called a gate line. Got to love those Holden stations.
To check a Travelcard eh?
Facinating, amazing features.
I love Oakwood, gorgeous station hall
The focus on the details of the Oakwood station architecture is charming without being maudlin (Is Maudlin a station on the line?) I honestly now want to visit just to appreciate the subtle details. (And to think we yanks on a semester abroad would goof on "Cockfosters" as a name... what were we thinking?)
Thank you!
Maudlin is on the southern part of the Northern Line near Tooting Broadway 😂
Awesome video sir.
1:06 Train driver waves at Jago taking pictures :)
Your description of Oakwood being a station created in anticipation of development, reminds me of Singapore MRT, where stations are created years before anything is developed (LRT loops come to mind)
How urbanised is Singapore (as a percentage)? We only ever see the Urban areas, and generally just one specific view.
@@hairyairey they are ever expanding their train lines and building new high rise accomodation. When i was there last maybe 2011, there was a light rail loop line full of stations, but trains did not use it as there was nothing built at the destinations. I think wiki will help describe more about the MRT and LRT networks or you question, better than i can
Used to live on Cat Hill growing up and this and Cockfosters were my local stations. There was a pub nearby called the Merryhills, now predictably developed into flats.
I was "barred" from the Merryhills pub after being worked over by some no-goodniks in the car park. That rather lowered the tone of the establishment for me! This despite my pals and I being "regulars" as well!!!
If that was around 91/92 I might know you!
It was in 1968 that I was duffed up at the Merryhills. I was eventually allowed back but only rarely went thereafter. I left Oakwood in 1984 so perhaps I am too old for our paths to have crossed.
I lived in Lonsdale Drive and didn't really know anyone who lived in the Cat's Hill or East Barnet area as it was a bit outside our stomping ground unless we went to the pictures at the cinema at New Barnet or the real ale bar that used to be in East Barnet village at one time.
P.S. Was there also a cinema in East Barnet or am I dreaming that?
- it was a long time ago.
Being from Enfield originally, Oakwood was my nearest tube station.
You are the Sean Combs to my Michael Green.
I really hope that Oakwood keeps most of its historic features, and doesn't get any serious make over like some of stations. It's always fascinating to see old rail signs.
Oakwood tube station on the Piccadilly Line has always referred to as Enfield West or West Enfield. As Enfield has 2 stations in the town centre-Enfield Chase and Enfield Town.
Plus you got Enfield Lock on the West Anglia Main Line. And Enfield at one point was in Middlesex and Hertfordshire before it’s now part of Greater London.
Meanwhile, in Canada, we still install pay phones in brand new stations. 😆
Whaaaat?
That's good tbh, providing a backup option for people who've run out of battery.
And you still respect the Monarchy.
@@kaitlyn__Land backup if there's a major cellular outage.
My dear old Dad was evacuated 4 miles from Finchley to Oakwood in the war; he stayed with his Aunt Lily and Uncle Herbert in Trent Park and remembered high ranking German prisoners of war wandering about the park. The school behind his childhood home was hit by bombs so maybe such a short evacuation was a good idea after all.
I spent most of the sixties, getting off at Oakwood for school.
Left out of the station, across the road, about a hundred-odd yards, was the Merryhills hotel (pub), which we used occasionally, a year or two before we left.
Right out of the station and immediately right again was the car park, where we'd stop off after school for a ciggie.
Incidentally, back in those days, the tube signs on the platforms featured a motto in Latin below the logo:
'Ex Glande(out of a seed)Quercus(an oak) - although it seems there was a little mistake in the Latin where the 'Ex' would more correctly have been 'E', as it was followed by a word beginning with a consonant, the 'Ex' being correct, followed by a word beginning with a vowel.
(I did a couple of years of Latin - it was a grammar school back then).
So ends my two cents worth.
At 2:58, I see that the ladies walking past recognised Frank Pick 😜
A great video of another station that I’ve never been to!
Thanks Mr H.
Interesting, as ever.
yes, a video on that chart would be interesting
Oakwood is a station I would definitely rank as A-tier cause I’m a huge fan of Charles Holden’s brilliant design work and this station is no exception with the large mushroom shelter outside 👍
Also I’m glad that this station was never opened as East Barnet because this area is in the borough of Enfield, not Barnet
What always gets my attention there is the Oakwood university behind the bushes 😅
Thanks for that. Wonderful 30s architecture. All it needs now, is some pre-1938 stock running through it!
Isn't that how the video started?
@@paulsengupta971 no, that was 1938 stock, not pre 1938 stock
@@michaelmiller641Ah.
Very interested to see this video as Oakwood is one of my local tube stations.
Now that would have been something Charles Holden designed towers and cinema - one can only imagine the magnificence of this both externally and especially internally.
Nice puff daddy reference 😜 there are still some pay phones around Cambridge I believe and I’m almost sure there is still one on the station.
Interestingly, but slightly off topic, I was passing through Denmark Hill yesterday , the Northernmost platform, at the western end has under the first running in board "For Camberwell" in the same present Southern green with white lettering . didnt notice any others but I wasnt looking
Did you have a pint ?
My favourite underground station
One of my so-called "local" tube stations when I lived in Enfield (East). Take your pick of:
(a) Oakwood (a long ride on the 107A bus)
(b) Manor House (ditto, on whichever route went down Hertford Road, then Seven Sisters Road - 127? 279?)
(c) Turnpike Lane (either 107A to the Great Cambridge Road, & change to a 217 or 231; or footslog it to further up the Cambridge Road and get the 217 direct)
At one time, while the Northern, Piccadilly and Bakerloo routes were not yet finalised, there were some possibilities of a tube line which might have passed considerably closer to the area. They were killed off by financial and political machinations, some of them involving You Know Who.
Woo-hoo - Enfield!! No shots of the vintage train Jago?
Ah, the 107 bus to Oakwood and then the train in to the delights of London. Or an hour all the way through to Heathrow. Regular user back in the 80s. I remember kissing a girlfriend goodbye in the empty ticket hall and it did rather echo...
You couldn't do that anymore!! The 107 got 'split' a few years ago and now terminates at New Barney. Its substitute is the 307 which was seen stopping at Oakwood in this charming video
New Barnet of course. The joys of predictive text!!!!
That must have been one smacker !!
Had it not been for the tube lines, London would have been far smaller
Poss, but many outer extremities were "national" rail lines, and electric trams started the urban sprawl to some far out places
"More names than Sean Combs" - I cackled. Hahahaha !
I would love a video on the various limited opening hours certain stations had
1:30 a correction to the location, situated at the junction of Chase Road / Bramley Road / Enfield Road, rather than East Barnet Road
A tube station with a cinema! Maybe films were shorter & tube intervals longer then...
Ha! I should have realised you'd be on that 1938 stock Piccadilly Line outing ...
Interesting as usual Jago 🙂🚂🚂🚂
Jago really went to town on this video.... Well not to town but you know what I mean.... Another great video Jago
Yes, Jago is the sixpence to our rapid pips... 😄
As several other people have said this is my “local” underground station
3:40 Please, make a video about that sign :D
I passed😮through😢this station for 2 years whilst attending my secondary school at the bottom of the hill. My over riding memory is not of the station but of a member of staffs motorcycle😮 a Norton Commando with black livery and gold pin striping.. sadly the land at Arnos Grove and Cockfosters nearby formerly the car parks is being sold off for housing developments
You traveled by vintage tube train, so why no shots of it, apart from a tantalising glimpse of a wooden window frame? Saving it for another video perhaps?
Already published that one!
@@JagoHazzard Isnt Vintage anything pre 1912, Veteran pre 1904 and Classic pre 1940 , Wartime /Utility is up to about 1945. Maybe 1930s should be Art Deco , but what do we call the 1950s ?
@@highpath4776 Those are the definitions for motor cars (vintage is actually inter war, classic is early post WW2) , but the words have different meanings in other contexts - vintage wine, veteran soldiers etc
I missed one - aargh.@@JagoHazzard