Trivia: stations facing the wrong way for the town they serve

[zwk500]

Apart from this stupidity, upper level shopping etc just doesn't work. You only have to look at the lightly used units (and those that go out of business up there after a short time) on the new upper level at Waterloo station concourse, which look down on all the bustle below.

The King's Cross and Euston Mezzanine shops always seem busy enough, although it's interesting to contrast those examples with St Pancras, where the shopping is on the main floor and trains above so passengers naturally spend time in front of the shops instead of waiting by the departure boards.

 

[geoffk]

And almost every time I've used Apperley Bridge I've exited by jumping over the fence at the north side. Was the preexisting bridge not a hint that people might want to be at the North side of the tracks.

If I keep thinking about this I'll get angry about how car centric some stations are.

I used Apperley Bridge once or twice soon after it opened and couldn't work out how a local resident could easily walk to it. Isn't The Avenue a private road serving the Esholt Water Treatment Works?

 

[Magdalia]

Apart from this stupidity, upper level shopping etc just doesn't work. You only have to look at the lightly used units (and those that go out of business up there after a short time) on the new upper level at Waterloo station concourse, which look down on all the bustle below.

This is digressing a bit, but upper level shopping has more success at Liverpool Street, Kings Cross and St Pancras.

At Liverpool Street the upper level is the street level, with the platforms down below.
At Kings Cross the mezzanine level has direct access onto the footbridge leading to platforms 1-8, and has by far the best view of the departure boards.
At St Pancras the upper level is the same level as the platforms, but only the EMR platforms are actually accessible from the upper level shopping. Access to the other platforms is from the level below, which is street level.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Prompted by seeing a pic of the new platforms at Bletchley with no exit to the town centre across the road. The time wasted would need many miles of high speed train running to compensate.

Bletchley is an origin, not a destination, having a very small town centre that is only of interest to locals (and not even all of those). That the station faces the vast majority of the housing makes a lot more sense than it facing the town centre. Having only one entrance on the other side would inconvenience most users.

There is one good reason to have an exit on the other side as a secondary one - quality interchange with the bus station. However there is a potential plan to move that. If the one involving moving it to the roundabout is chosen, there's little point in the town side entrance. There's also a much smaller amount of mostly social and lower-cost housing on that side (=less likely to be using rail often). And, further away, Fenny Stratford, most of whose residents will reach it by car or bicycle (or train of course!).

I'd build one, but as a secondary one - a large gate each way and one TVM - and keep the main one where it is.

 

[Taunton]

This is digressing a bit, but upper level shopping has more success at Liverpool Street, Kings Cross and St Pancras.

At Liverpool Street the upper level is the street level, with the platforms down below.
At Kings Cross the mezzanine level has direct access onto the footbridge leading to platforms 1-8, and has by far the best view of the departure boards.
At St Pancras the upper level is the same level as the platforms, but only the EMR platforms are actually accessible from the upper level shopping. Access to the other platforms is from the level below, which is street level.

Yes, when it is part of a through route, it works. If not, it's a dead end, and doesn't.

 

[Tracked]

Leamington Spa - Exit on the opposite side of the station to the centre?

 

[JRT]

Shipley is a bit unlucky in this regard being a triangle and the old platforms centred around the ticket office/car park.

Platform 5 could be great for getting into town, but when singled it was put on the wrong side and even causes a delay opening the doors.

The tunnel could easily have an exit to the west, but doesn't.

And almost every time I've used Apperly Bridge I've exited by jumping over the fence at the north side. Was the preexisting bridge not a hint that people might want to be at the North side of the tracks.

If I keep thinking about this I'll get angry about how car centric some stations are.

New Pudsey has the ticket office next to the car park as the station was designed as a parkway station before the term was used as such (1967). A minor inconvenience, but the old main road is on the opposite side, but really the station should be slightly nearer Leeds for a shorter walk to Farsley.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 23 Aug 2022 ==

North Road (Darlington) — the museum is basically the old station, but visitors arriving by rail have to walk round, whereas lazy car drivers have a car park next to the main door.

 

[OVS Flatbottom]

This was an extraordinary planning fad of the era. In Edinburgh at the same time it was determined that there would be an upper level walkway along Princes Street shops side, and new buildings (there were a few) had to incorporate this in their design. These are of course now just isolated buildings with unused outer areas, they were never joined up, plus it's in opposition to the Listed Buildings there (many) which cannot have their appearance altered.

The Princes Street Panel - discussed in this article: https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/brutal-surgery-how-crackpot-plan-16198428

Elsewhere, I believe the flat roof of the original Haymarket station building on the Tyne & Wear Metro was designed to function as part of a never-realised elevated walkway scheme (fortunately, the designers didn't bring the escalators up to that level, unlike the near-contemporary Moorfields).

 

[30907]

Shipley is a bit unlucky in this regard being a triangle and the old platforms centred around the ticket office/car park.

Platform 5 could be great for getting into town, but when singled it was put on the wrong side

The right side for changing trains or for buying tickets, though.

(I did at one time hope for a footbridge direct from Otley Rd towards 2 and 5, roughly where Bingley Jn box used to be.)

The tunnel could easily have an exit to the west, but doesn't.

Do you mean east? It looks almost as though the subway once continued under the goods lines.

 

[FOH]

Penge West. Arrive from the North and you have to cross over a footbridge to exit into a quiet residential street opposite Crystal Palace park. To get to Penge (and to Penge East station) you have to walk down and back across the railway, this time under it (past the Connex SouthCentral adverts!), to get to where you are going

 

[61653 HTAFC]

West Byfleet. Ticket office on the up platform, the town centre is on the down side of the formation.

 

[Train Maniac]

Strood

Ticket office faces out on to a derelict industrial wasteland, town centre is on the opposite side of the station. Very unpleasant walk at night

 

[30907]

I used Apperley Bridge once or twice soon after it opened and couldn't work out how a local resident could easily walk to it.

The bulk of the housing - including loads of new build - is a fair way south of the station, or in Rawdon up a long hill the other way.
There's relatively little close to the railway, though yes it is on the north side.

Isn't The Avenue a private road serving the Esholt Water Treatment Works?

It is. Even further back, it was the private drive of Esholt Hall, and I suspect the now-pedestrianised bridge mentioned was built for their benefit in 1845!

 

[Thebaz]

Until fairly recently (I think it was to do with the introduction of the Overground services) platform 4 at West Croydon was a bit of a hike from the booking office. If you were in the booking hall when your train pulled in the chances of making it were pretty slim. At least there is now a useful entrance opposite the bus station. TBH the whole station could do with remodelling but I doubt there'll ever be cash available for that.

 

[starlightEXPRESS]

I think we have had a thread on this topic very recently. Woking is a prime example that comes to mind.

Woking has an entrance on both sides, it also has a foot subway beneath the station immediately next to the entrances.

When Woking station was opened (originally called Woking Common), the nearest large town was Guildford (around 6 miles to the south). The main entrance was positioned on the south side of the station, as this was most convenient for those arriving by stagecoach from the main towns in west Surrey.

Construction of the modern town of Woking (the centre is north of the railway line), did not begin until the 1860s, about 25 years after the station first opened!

 

[act94]

I'd argue Southampton Central - the station is located at the bottom of a hill, up which you have to walk to reach the town centre. Both entrances are either North or South, the city centre is located directly East.

 

[Tetchytyke]

However, it was all about cost saving when the former Exchange was closed. a grand old Victorian terminus with ten platforms replaced by a very functional, wipe clean, minimalist four platform affair, but facing the wrong way!

Bradford Interchange faces exactly the same way Exchange did- all they did was move the station 200 yards up the line.

There was perhaps an opportunity in the 60s to merge the two stations when the whole of the lower city centre was redeveloped, when the concrete tower blocks of Hall Ings and Forster Square were built. But that coincided with railways shutting left, right and centre. By the time the concrete tower blocks were bulldozed the opportunity was gone.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Aug 2022 ==

The tunnel could easily have an exit to the west, but doesn't.

The tunnel goes under the old goods lines and exits out on to the grassland to the south/east. This used to be an open exit, complete with signage. The subway tunnel is still there but was fenced up due to anti-social behaviour. From memory this was around the same time as electrification, as I used to use the exit during the day to head towards Owlet Road and Carr Lane.

The tunnel goes to the north/west and out on to Station Road.

 

[Lucan]

When Woking station was opened ... the nearest large town was Guildford (around 6 miles to the south). The main entrance was positioned on the south side of the station, as this was most convenient for those arriving by stagecoach from the main towns in west Surrey.

I don't think it would have made much difference to stage coaches which side of the line the main entrance was (presumably they could cross the line somehow), and Guildford soon got its own station, which must have been anticipated when Woking Station was first built.

Woking station was sited in the middle of no-where at the time (I gather from Wikipedia it was the country end terminus of the London & Southampton Rly for a short while) and the small Woking village (now "Old Woking") a mile to the south was irrelevant to the railway's plans. But my understanding is that a new town of Woking was planned adjacent to the south side of the line, which was the reason the main entrance is that side. However, while the planners were arguing about what form the new town should take, unplanned development of a town took off on the north side, along the lines of the "cow paths". The south side was not really developed, and then mainly residentially, until the early 20th century.

 

[xotGD]

The entrance to Manchester Oxford Road is at the wrong end of the station for my needs.

A second entrance at the Deansgate end would be very welcome, and give me an extra 5 minutes in the pub.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There has of course been a serious proposal to do exactly that so Deansgate itself can be closed.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

The entrance to Manchester Oxford Road is at the wrong end of the station for my needs.

That's as may be, but it nevertheless does effectively face Manchester City Centre.

 

[leytongabriel]

There was a bit of a switch over when the Victoria line opened in London. At Seven Sisters, the station used to open out to the shops on West Green Rd, the 'new' post 60's entrance is to the south on Seven Sisters Road, away from anything much. The other way round at Walthamstow where the former Great Eastern Hoe St station entrance was supplemented by an entrance on the north side of the tracks, much better for the High St and market.

 

[urpert]

Shortlands (though there is a long bricked-up exit from the subway on the correct side of the railway bridge - presumably it originally functioned like the near-identical Kent House and Herne Hill).

 

[SquireBev]

On a recent trip to Leamington Spa it struck me as very strange how the station faces away from the town. The forecourt and main building are on the "wrong" side of the line, which you have to pass under to get to the town centre.

Having looked into it, it's because there used to be another station immediately behind the current one, which did indeed face the town.

Does anyone have any other examples?

Obviously city-centre stations with entrances on multiple sides complicate the issue a bit...

 

[King Lazy]

Lancaster would meet this criteria though in the present day it’s not that obvious.

The downside entrance was originally designed as the main entrance and the largest station building is on that side.

The up side, closer to the town is a cul-de-sac with a small drop off and turning circle at the end for smaller vehicles.

However facilities wise the booking office is inside the smaller up side building while the bus stops and taxi ranks are on the down side. And the double arrow sign is at the top of the cul-de-sac as you approach from the city centre.

In practice both entrances probably get similar use. From anecdotal observations a lot of people arrive in the morning via the booking office side (as the most popular destinations, Manchester/London etc are to the south) but in an evening when downside trains arrive the majority of passengers seem to go straight out of the down side exit possibly to avoid the overbridge.

Edit: While writing this it has been pointed out this has been done before. But as my example doesn’t seem to be in the other thread I’ll leave it here.

 

[scrapy]

Presumably in the case of Leamington, High Street which runs east from the station entrance was the original town centre and The Parade which I would now consider the town centre was added later.

I'd add Morpeth (due to gradient), Warrington Central and Ormskirk to the list.

 

[Mat17]

I'd argue Barnsley.

Before the 2006-7 reconfiguration, the main entrance and booking office was on the same side as the old bus station and town side. When the bus station was redeveloped the booking office was moved to the other platform and so was the main entrance, opposite to the bus station and the town!

 

[Taunton]

We can add the wonderful, expensive rebuilding of Paddington, where the taxi rank has been progressively moved over time from the arrivals platforms, out to a still convenient rank just outside the west side, and now to an obscure and location far removed, at a different level which people struggle to even find, and which adds more than £5 onto every taxi fare in and out, as the taxi exit now faces the opposite way to which most want to go.

 

[DarloRich]

Bletchley. Faced the town in 1925. Doesn't in 2025 because of the 1960's changes to the town layout.

 

[4COR]

Off the beaten track, Whyteleafe (which also has a level crossing to get over to get from the "village" side to the booking office - though there is a footbridge on the platforms which are accessible either side).