Bleakest UK Station (Trivia)

[sad1e]

Edgware is horrific now. It’s quite incredible how the area has declined so much in a very short time. On the subject of bleakness, Edgware platform 1 on a winter evening is a very bleak place. It’s the local location of choice for anything dodgy, which doesn’t help the atmosphere.

Living in North London for the majority of my life in haven't personally noticed a decline in Edgware station, but I must say the bus station outside is rather grim.

 

[Wtloild]

Hall 'i 'th Wood on the Bolton-Blackburn line - two wooden platforms perched high on an embankment, one either side of a bridge is very exposed on a wet & windy day.

 

[SomeTrainboy]

Barrow Haven

 

[Recessio]

Living in North London for the majority of my life in haven't personally noticed a decline in Edgware station, but I must say the bus station outside is rather grim.

Personally I wouldn't even say Edgware was the bleakest station on that branch, let alone the Northern line or the country as a whole!

 

[Dave W]

Personally I wouldn't even say Edgware was the bleakest station on that branch, let alone the Northern line or the country as a whole!

Burnt Oak must be what you mean! Colindale looks like a city centre plaza now with the new station and all the high rises around.

 

[JordR]

I commuted to Leeds from Crossflatts for three years, which I think is in that category of 1980s standardised wooden West Yorkshire stations characterised by vertical diagonal planks along the platform length (like seen in my profile picture at my current local station).

Perhaps not the worst, but reasonably bleak and basic. Which I actually think is okay if it's cost effective and the service at the station is so frequent you're unlikely to be there for longer than half an hour.

 

[321362]

Highams Park, it might have more facilities than other stations on the list but it's always freezing there

 

[Sealink]

I propose Longton station on the Crewe-Derby line as a strong contender for Bleakest station. The station itself is quite bleak, and the surroundings are also very miserable.

It sits on a viaduct above the remains of the ailing town centre. The platform-level station buildings have been demolished, and the platforms blocked off part way along, making them too short for the occasional 4-car 158 or 170 services along the line (these only ever appear on quiet services, for reasons best known to EMR). Beyond the fences, the platforms are covered in brambles and litter. The station's elevated position means it is usually very windy, with just a small bus shelter on each platform for protection. At night, the lighting is quite ineffective. On the platforms, you feel simultaneously very exposed, yet also trapped. Platforms are accessed via dingy staircases, which loop back in on themselves, so you can't see the bottom of the staircase from the street, or from the platform, making them feel quite secluded and threatening. There are no lifts to platform level. Services are hourly, making it quite useless for local travel.

From the platforms, the view is spectacular. On one side, the decaying remains of the phoenix pottery works, a small patch of wasteland serving as a car park, a closed-down adult entertainment shop (good for catching things other than trains), a fire-gutted house, one of the worst-rated hotels in the country, and an empty churchyard (church long since demolished). On the other, the back of a Tesco Extra, an overgrown part-demolished bus station, a car wash run from a shipping container, a collapsing row of empty shops, the faded grandeur of the old town hall, and a very busy road junction. You will often find a group of addicts lurking under the bridge, or occasionally sleeping under the stairs to the platforms.

Positives: volunteers clean the station and tend to some flower boxes (many thanks for your efforts). These don't do much for the overall ambiance, especially at this time of year when everything is dead. There's some fading artwork on the viaduct walls. The in-use parts of the platforms are usually kept free of litter. Heading east from the station, the line crosses a fairly interesting old bridge.

I had to go on Google Streetview and it's just as magical as you described!

 

[Purple Train]

I had to go on Google Streetview and it's just as magical as you described!

My Stoke correspondent insists that Longton is "not bad". But then he's six feet tall and quite scary.

Not National Rail, but Poplar (DLR) is quite bleak. A windswept, narrow platform perched disconsolately above a dual carriageway and still overshadowed by the DLR flyover at the platform end. A fair few DLR stations are on the bleak side, but I've never had to get out at any of the rest!

 

[Recessio]

My Stoke correspondent insists that Longton is "not bad". But then he's six feet tall and quite scary.

Not National Rail, but Poplar (DLR) is quite bleak. A windswept, narrow platform perched disconsolately above a dual carriageway and still overshadowed by the DLR flyover at the platform end. A fair few DLR stations are on the bleak side, but I've never had to get out at any of the rest!

Poplar is a good shout. I imagine a lot of the eastern stretches of the DLR (Beckton and City Airport branches in particular) were even bleaker when they first opened in brownfield/scrubland sites, before the housing sprung up in the 80s/90s.

 

[cjw714]

Poplar is a good shout. I imagine a lot of the eastern stretches of the DLR (Beckton and City Airport branches in particular) were even bleaker when they first opened in brownfield/scrubland sites, before the housing sprung up in the 80s/90s.

Not just the eastern stretches but the Isle of Dogs was also pretty bleak before the arrival of Canary Wharf.

 

[19Gnasher69]

Colne in east Lancashire is pretty awful. So is its railway station.

 

[Scotrail344Lad]

The old bathgate station before the bathgate - airdrie rail link. Bleak

 

[0161]

Barrow Haven

All the Barton line stations have that bleak look. Would have been amazing to have seen them in the pre-Bridge era.

For bleak and scary, Grimsby Docks on a cold dark night takes some beating!

 

[Ian Hardy]

Not just the eastern stretches but the Isle of Dogs was also pretty bleak before the arrival of Canary Wharf.

On a day like today any DLR station on a viaduct will be bleak and rather cold.

 

[KevL]

What about Rannoch at the mo?!

 

[duesselmartin]

personally I find Hanborough rather sad. Is that booking office (and therefore warm shelter) closed indefinitly?

 

[mm333]

I should make some notes from this thread. I'm trying to visit every station in the country and I've heard more than one person say that you shouldn't hang around in South Bank (Middlesbrough).

 

[Kite159]

Anybody mention Millbrook in Southampton yet?

 

[bramling]

I should make some notes from this thread. I'm trying to visit every station in the country and I've heard more than one person say that you shouldn't hang around in South Bank (Middlesbrough).

I don’t remember the station being particularly bad, though since then there’s been the issues with the footbridge. Middlesbrough as a whole is somewhere to be a bit careful though.

 

[===gricer===]

Meldon

 

[Gathursty]

I should make some notes from this thread. I'm trying to visit every station in the country and I've heard more than one person say that you shouldn't hang around in South Bank (Middlesbrough).

I was driving upto Teesside to walk upto Roseberry Topping last year and had another look at South Bank in the daytime. I was surprised to see two people waiting for a train, one using a nearby footpath and a youth on a bike lurking around in an otherwise quiet part of an industrial estate (although not too far from a supermarket IIRC)

I would class it a bit like Ardwick. Worth a mooch but not somewhere to hang about.

 

[mm333]

I would class it a bit like Ardwick. Worth a mooch but not somewhere to hang about.

I'll do what I did with Ardwick and go at 7am. No one was around then so I just walked to the local McDonalds.

 

[yorksrob]

I'll do what I did with Ardwick and go at 7am. No one was around then so I just walked to the local McDonalds.

There's a McDonalds at Ardwick ?

 

[mm333]

There's a McDonalds at Ardwick ?

Yes, well, about 10 minutes walk away: https://maps.app.goo.gl/tRv4dtVZvF2bYYvg6

Which was handy as it was a Saturday morning and so I just needed one bus from round the corner from McDonalds to get to Denton station to then travel to Reddish South

 

[yorksrob]

Yes, well, about 10 minutes walk away: https://maps.app.goo.gl/tRv4dtVZvF2bYYvg6

Which was handy as it was a Saturday morning and so I just needed one bus from round the corner from McDonalds to get to Denton station to then travel to Reddish South

About the only thing its got going for it then !

 

[YorkRailFan]

One of the usual suspects for least used station, Elton & Orston in Nottinghamshire on the Nottingham-Grantham line is very, very bleak.

Stanlow & Thornton in Cheshire comes to mind, surrounded by the Stanlow oil refinery, is very dismal, seems a bit reminiscent of British Steel Redcar with it being surrounded by industrialised factories.

 

[Howardh]

If Newhaven Marine was bleak when "closed but open" then Newhaven Harbour must be up there. I was going to ask if anyone ever used it, but last week was gobsmacked when someone did! Is it easier for a foot passenger to get to the ferry from there or Newhaven Town? Anyhow, It's not a station I would like to be stranded at for any time but looking at a map it's an easy walk to sone shops...which are nearer Town than Harbour so might as well use that! Note; there's a pub nearby "The Engineers" according to a map. Is that open?

 

[D6130]

If Newhaven Marine was bleak when "closed but open" then Newhaven Harbour must be up there. I was going to ask if anyone ever used it, but last week was gobsmacked when someone did! Is it easier for a foot passenger to get to the ferry from there or Newhaven Town? Anyhow, It's not a station I would like to be stranded at for any time but looking at a map it's an easy walk to sone shops...which are nearer Town than Harbour so might as well use that! Note; there's a pub nearby "The Engineers" according to a map. Is that open?

According to CAMRA and Google, the Engineer is still open and has recently undergone a major refurbishment. Real ales - including the wonderful Harveys' Sussex Best - are sold and it's allegedly the cheapest pub in Newhaven. It's nearly forty years since I was last in there when I lived in Lewes.

 

[Jan Mayen]

If Newhaven Marine was bleak when "closed but open" then Newhaven Harbour must be up there. I was going to ask if anyone ever used it, but last week was gobsmacked when someone did! Is it easier for a foot passenger to get to the ferry from there or Newhaven Town? Anyhow, It's not a station I would like to be stranded at for any time but looking at a map it's an easy walk to sone shops...which are nearer Town than Harbour so might as well use that! Note; there's a pub nearby "The Engineers" according to a map. Is that open?

Newhaven Town is closer to the ferry terminal. The terminal was moved some years ago.