OUTDOOR

Don Kennedy organised another of his Lost Railways of London guided walks for Central London branch on 24/9. Once more, it was blessed with perfect weather. One of the largest number of participants for a CLB guided walk met by the John Betjeman statue at St Pancras International to begin their urban peregrinations.

The walk was in three main parts. The first part was to trace the locations of scenes from the 1955 Ealing Studios comedy The Ladykillers. For those of you who have not seen this wonderful period piece, put this Bulletin down now and find a DVD or Video, watch it, come back and then read this report, otherwise the references here will make very little sense!

The second part involved visiting the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden, very close to the new Dalston Junction station.

The final part was more akin to Found Railways of London, exploring the new links currently being reinstated to form the southern extension, ultimately as far as Clapham Junction, to the East London system

The Ladykillers film stars Alec Guinness, Danny Green, Herbert Lom, Cecil Parker and Peter Sellers as the anti-hero robbers, with the incomparable Katie Johnson as the delightfully dippy landlady Mrs Wilberforce, heroine of the story. Jack Warner also makes an appearance as a policeman, arguably reprising his Blue Lamp and predating his Dixon of Dock Green roles.

The robbery scenes were filmed very close to and actually at King’s Cross station but, as we were to find, very little of the original locations remains. So the intrepid urban adventurers broke camp and marched across the Euston Road to see the view from Mrs Wilberforce's house which looks up Argyle Street to London St Pancras. Of course this was a pure cinematic effect, as the aforesaid house was actually constructed, at a surprisingly high cost for 1955 of £2500, above the southern entrance to Copenhagen Tunnel, some distance away.

The line to the former Caledonian Road goods depot passed just in front of this house. The lynx-eyed and lovers of minutiae have spotted that the address given on the post card in the shop window scene is 57 Frederica Street. The actual Frederica Street, also known previously as Frederick Street, was next to this film location but only numbered up to 56, so someone had a very good sense of attention to detail.

The views of the steam activity that set the scene and mood in the film were recorded from the tunnel mouth parapet looking down on the line between Gasworks and Copenhagen tunnels, where the North London line and now HS1 pass over the exit from King's Cross. The outtakes are available on DVD via the Huntley film archive, amongst other sources, and are now pure and utterly superb steam age nostalgia though of course they were routine, mundane and, dare the writer say it, rather boring scenes at the time. Next we braved the native hordes who migrate along the shores of the Euston Road to see the locations where the quintet of rogues tried to retrieve the trunk containing their loot by taxi. One view, at the south-eastern end of King's Cross station looking up the Pentonville Road and the Grays Inn Road, is hardly changed from 56 years ago.

It will be easily recognised by visitors approaching Keen House. However, turning around by 180 degrees, another scene involving a taxi on the 1955 station rank has been completely obliterated by the 1971 redevelopment of the concourse. That area too will soon be changed again. Other parts of King's Cross seen in the film have likewise been fundamentally changed by the current construction work.

One exception is the scene of a Thompson L1 2-6-4T No. 67800, very clean for the time, which made an appearance as the 1.05 pm from Cambridge in a recognisable Platform 1, filmed from the now removed footbridge. Of the remaining locations in what were Cheney Road and Battle Bridge Road, where the robbery itself took place and Frankie Howard had his contretemps with Mrs Wilberforce, the horse and the fruit barrow, nothing remains. It has all been demolished and all those locations are now in an inaccessible construction site for the new and exciting King's Cross station and associated much-needed local redevelopment. It is all taking shape as this is written.

The group moved on to St Pancras Road and past The Gymnasium dating from 1861. At the junction with Goods Way a solitary brick wall on the north side of the road was all that remained of a 1955 scene with one of the landmark gas holders prominent. Behind this is the present Camley Street Natural Park built on the site of former coal drops. All the property in this vicinity is now either being redeveloped or has been demolished and like Stratford station area further east it all looks very different from only a few years ago.

The group then proceeded along Goods Way, noting the new King's Cross Boulevard (opened only the day before) on the southern side, and then found themselves looking down on the throat of King's Cross station. This location yielded a moderately good photographic opportunity but alas the scheduled A4 departure that day had been cancelled. It was another salutary experience to note the site of the long-gone York Road platform at King's Cross as well as the former diesel locomotive servicing area.

The group observed the adjacent canal, a Gasworks Tunnel ventilator and the partly derelict Kings Cross goods sheds and associated buildings (in the process of restoration for Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design / University of the Arts London) before going left and further north along York Way. The old York Road underground station façade was observed, still in its terracotta livery. However, once more the changes resulting from the redevelopment around this place are astounding. A former 34A fireman in our midst did not recognise where he was! The old York Way bridge spanning the approach to Top Shed has, in company with Top Shed itself, totally disappeared and the road dips down past new tower blocks under construction. There is a reasonably good view from here of the Javelins and Eurostars as they approach and leave the HS1 tunnel. The sight of the 19th -century GN London Cemetery Company station at Belle Isle (closed 1863) was observed from Randells Way.

The group continued further along York Way, under HS1 and under the North London line, where the last remains of Maiden Lane station could be seen immediately on the left. The group then made their way steadily along Vale Way past new offices and round the final corner to the nearest accessible point to the location of Mrs Wilberforce's house. Alas, the actual site is now a business premises with high security fencing and locked gates. Of the reversing headshunt sidings and cutting that led to Caledonian Road depot not a trace now exists. On some of Don's earlier visits to this location it was possible to actually visit the site of the film-set house and the goods sidings visible in the film - but no longer. The group were, however, just able to see where the dastardly deeds of the disposing of the robbers one by one took place. In common with the entire suburban lineside out of Kings Cross excessive buddleia growth here completely obscured any view of the main line over the retaining wall.

The group, still not wilting under the pressure of all this information intake, then retraced its steps to York Way and right into Brandon Road and past The Albion pub. Your scribe would like to think that all good and proper pubs (it was not clear to this writer if the pub was actually open as a business) should have a strong railway connection, beginning with the sign.

This one was obviously drawn by someone who had not the first idea of what a real steam locomotive looks like. Worse, it was actually in a crude form of 3D! Hastily moving on and passing the Robert Blair primary school in Blundell Street, the walkers found a builders merchants premises on the site of the reversing headshunt of the goods depot sidings north-west of Mrs Wilberforce's house.

The walkers continued a short distance further along Blundell Street and turned right into Sutterton Street to find themselves in a new housing estate, built mostly on the site of the former goods depot. The group went to the end of Bunning Way which is closest to the eastern side of the film location. Alas, this area too was all gated, locked up and completely inaccessible. At this point the first part of the walk really came to its conclusion as all the former Ladykillers railway locations had then been visited.

However, the intrepid band of urban iron way explorers that support these walks are made of sterner stuff and they did not give up. Adjacent to the stub end of the original Frederick Street, it was possible to note an old brick wall and vehicle entrance to the old Caledonian Road goods depot. A white stone, with carved words clearly legible proclaiming the boundary of the Great Northern Railway, was in situ.

We crossed the Caledonian Road close to HM Prison Pentonville to reach Caledonian Road and Barnsbury station for the short hop in a very busy AC Cl 378 to Highbury and Islington. Here we transferred to a slightly less busy DC Cl 378 to the new Dalston Junction. The curve from the North London line to the old Broad Street route has only recently been reinstated to a brand new Dalston Junction station. We alighted here and made our way to the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden. Two sides of the old triangle of lines now exist but the eastern side alignment, which lost its passenger services in 1944, remains - though it is now buried under a very pleasant area of green space. The south end tunnel portal of this curve is blocked off at the new Junction station and a bench seat sits right on top of the filled-in north-eastern-end tunnel portal complete with visible coping stones. It appears to be relatively simple to reinstate this curve should there be justification. It was now time for the welcome lunch break before the third part of the proceedings began. This was much more a discovery of what is being reinstated or newly built on London's railway network, and not visiting the obscure remnants of the railway past.

The group boarded a service on the newly reinstated East London line which takes the old Broad Street route to just beyond Hoxton station, where the very neat and tidy new construction and the newly-placed memorial to North London Railway employees who fell in WW1 were observed. The station affords a spectacular view of the City skyline.

The frequent service meant we were soon on our way again, via the completely new spur to the equally new Shoreditch station, over that infamous bridge that crosses Bethnal Green bank on the main line from Liverpool Street then down a steep gradient to the 1865 route from the old Shoreditch station to Whitechapel, through the Brunels' tunnel under the Thames from Wapping to Rotherhithe followed by Canada Water to arrive at Surrey Quays station.

After the heartening experience of using a very new and well patronised London railway, old habits briefly reasserted themselves as the alignment of the short branch to the Docks Office was then investigated. Moving swiftly on, the group walked alongside the new ELL New Cross branch along Rotherhithe Old Road to Oldfield Grove. Here the joyous sight of a railway under construction was noted and the new footbridge afforded an excellent view of the flyover junction where northbound East London line services from West Croydon and Crystal Palace will cross over the new reinstated line towards the Old Kent Road junction.

On previous Don Kennedy walks to this location it was possible to walk under the viaduct carrying the many multiple tracks in to London Bridge. However, Phase 2 of the ELL project is now well under way and the route is now a major construction site and is thus inaccessible. It was necessary to divert right along Silwood Street and left under the main line along a very grubby and smelly Bolina Street to reach the outskirts of the Millwall football stadium.

A delivery van proclaiming “Kennedy's Pies” (or Kennedy Spies?!) caused some amusement here! The visiting supporters’ exit from this stadium is a footpath along a part of the former Bricklayers Arms branch. A right and left brought us into Canterbury Road, over the Surrey Canal route and eventually to the Old Kent Road itself. This part of the railway routemarch took us close to the Old Kent Road junction with the present day South London line of which more anon.

Where the South London line crosses the street and on the southern side of the Old Kent Road itself is the location of the Old Kent Road and Hatchem station, closed in 1917. More footslog brought the group to Queens Road Peckham (no sign of Rodney or Del Boy) station. At this stage several participants left the main group to go home having had a really good day out. A few hardy masochists, sorry, enthusiastic supporters, boarded a train to London Bridge via South Bermondsey, which from the right hand side afforded a good view of the current construction work on the Old Kent Road Junction.

This junction closed in 1911, when the service from Shoreditch to Peckham Rye was withdrawn and is due to reopen 101 years later, in December 2012. Returning on the 1741 departure from London Bridge and seeing the junction again, this time on the left, the remainder of the group went to Battersea Park to change for Clapham Junction. This will be the end of the newly reinstated East London line when services resume next year but will be routed by way of Factory Junction and Longhedge Junction. Modified platforms 2 & 3 here will serve the new route.

There was now no more to be done and the survivors gathered on the footbridge at Clapham Junction to say their farewells and to thank Don for leading yet another superb “Lost (and now Found!!) Railways of London” for Central London branch LCGB. Once more the weather was just right for the task and it was a rather tired but fulfilled and enlightened writer who went on to a birthday celebration with friends in South London.