Trivia: Stations that sound nice but really aren't

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I always think Mount Florida sounds like a sunny, cheerful place with palm trees and beaches - not unlike it’s namesake USA state! Sadly, the reality appears quite different.

 

[paul1609]

I always thought Fenny Stratford was some idyllic country village until I accidentally found the station while lost wandering around the hell hole that is Milton Keynes trying to find the football club fka Wimbledon.

 

[SeanG]

Gare Du Nord in Paris sounds grand enough in French but its just dreadful, Andy Street had it right when he described it as the Squalor pit of Europe, and I live near Euston and Kings Cross.

It was my one and only time in Paris. Just a dump, why it has a 'romantic' tag is beyond me.

Yes we got engaged in Paris but then the next day were set upon by hawkers at the Sacre Coeur trying to extort money out off us. Plus the Metro / RER is somewhat horrid

 

[175001]

Hall i'th Wood on the Clitheroe line... Not the prettiest suburb of Bolton..

 

[Bletchleyite]

I always thought Fenny Stratford was some idyllic country village until I accidentally found the station while lost wandering around the hell hole that is Milton Keynes trying to find the football club fka Wimbledon.

Fenny is fairly OK. @DarloRich will kill you for that!

 

[seagull]

Swiss Cottage
Gospel Oak
Rose Hill

 

[DarloRich]

I always thought Fenny Stratford was some idyllic country village until I accidentally found the station while lost wandering around the hell hole that is Milton Keynes trying to find the football club fka Wimbledon.

Season of good will. Season of goodwill. Seaso......... I cant do it.

What on earth are you on about? this is a preposterous post. If you think Milton Keynes is a "hell hole" then you have lived a very sheltered life. Furthermore, while Fenny isn't some leafy Buckinghamshire village it is a perfectly decent area of what must have historically been working class/terraced homes now with more modern flats added. It is an historic little coaching town on Watling Street, the Grand Union Canal and a town that predates MK and I suspect Bletchley (at least as it looks today) and is lucky to have it's own little station.

The station itself is simple, clean, well looked after by volunteers (apart from the station house - don't get me started) and has all the facilities you need for a village station on a rural branch line. When the trains actually run it has a good service and you can be in London in less than an hour.

Also you should have just got the train to Fenny which is the closest station to the ground and walked the 10-15 minutes to the Estadio Della Dongs. You could even have had pint in one of our pleasant pubs but you missed out. Unlucky.

It is SUCH an awful station:

Fenny Stratford by DarloRich2009, on Flickr

Fenny Stratford by DarloRich2009, on Flickr

Mark 4:12: "they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand" .

Fenny is fairly OK. @DarloRich will kill you for that!

FAIRLY ok? How dare you. It has changed in the 10 years I have lived here and has become more transient and less owner occupied.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I always thought Fenny Stratford was some idyllic country village until I accidentally found the station while lost wandering around the hell hole that is Milton Keynes trying to find the football club fka Wimbledon.

By contrast, while I agree on Milton Keynes, Woburn Sands on the same branch line is quite pleasant, with a nice little Costa on the platform. I think that’s rather amusing considering the station is so remote

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

As for Sugar Loaf it sounds like a lovely place, it looks fairly nice as well, but then you look at the PIS and realise it’s really not a nice place after all. Cue four hours of waiting staring at trees.

 

[AlastairFraser]

Hall i'th Wood on the Clitheroe line... Not the prettiest suburb of Bolton..

Already taken - Moses Gate is another good option in the area.

 

[paul1609]

Season of good will. Season of goodwill. Seaso......... I cant do it.

What on earth are you on about? this is a preposterous post. If you think Milton Keynes is a "hell hole" then you have lived a very sheltered life. Furthermore, while Fenny isn't some leafy Buckinghamshire village it is a perfectly decent area of what must have historically been working class/terraced homes now with more modern flats added. It is an historic little coaching town on Watling Street, the Grand Union Canal and a town that predates MK and I suspect Bletchley (at least as it looks today) and is lucky to have it's own little station.

Ah that'll be Watling Street the famous historic Roman Road with the boarded up and barred derelict MFI just opposite the station?
In my defence plan alpha was to return south via Bedford (still need the line) but this was scuppered by Rail Replacement Buses.

 

[DarloRich]

By contrast, while I agree on Milton Keynes, Woburn Sands on the same branch line is quite pleasant, with a nice little Costa on the platform. I think that’s rather amusing considering the station is so remote

Shall we be sensible here? Woburn Sands is not remote! It is a part of Milton Keynes for goodness sake! it is a fairly affluent and aspirational little town. The unit at the station is more there for the passing trade than the railway trade. It was the most suitable/available/attractive finically location for the franchisee to get into the town as the retail space is very expensive to rent or freehold.

Also, you are wrong about Milton Keynes.

EDIT: This is Woburn Sands and it's Costa:

Woburn Sands by DarloRich2009, on Flickr

Woburn Sands by DarloRich2009, on Flickr

Woburn Sands by DarloRich2009, on Flickr


== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Dec 2020 ==

Ah that'll be Watling Street the famous historic Roman Road with the boarded up and barred derelict MFI just opposite the station?
In my defence plan alpha was to return south via Bedford (still need the line) but this was scuppered by Rail Replacement Buses.

How dare you. That was a B&M! It has moved to a bigger unit. That site wants clearing for flats ( as does the Buildbase/ Travis Perkins sites on the other side of the station) as it is too small for a retail unit these days. That entrance to Fenny doesn't give the best view in fairness.

 

[Bletchleyite]

FAIRLY ok? How dare you. It has changed in the 10 years I have lived here and has become more transient and less owner occupied.

MK has always been pretty transient, to be honest. People come here for work, and tend to return back from whence they came when the work situation allows them to, to be replaced by more of the same. That isn't because MK is a bad place (it's really not; anyone who thinks it is has typically just been to the centre which is a bit boring, to be honest) but rather because it's not been here long enough for families to establish to the same extent as older towns. Though you'd think that'd have happened more in Fenny - maybe the flats contribute to that?

The station house I don't understand - house prices in MK are rocketing (mine has very close to doubled in the 10 years I've owned it) so I'm sure it could be easily sold to someone to turn it into a small residence. I was similarly astonished that Bletchley station house got knocked down to replace it with, er, nothing. Same with the Railway social club, which became a Network Rail car park in a station that already has plenty of parking.

 

[satisnek]

I can say in all honesty that Rowley Regis is nothing like Bognor Regis.

 

[Western Sunset]

Are you sure?

 

[Ashley Hill]

Swan Village on GWRs closed Birmingham-Wolverhampton line always sounded an idyllic setting with swans swimming on the village pond etc....

Not my photo.

 

[Djgr]

Chichester Metro Station is not in an affluent, historic, Sussex cathedral city, nor is it pronounced the same.

 

[HowardGWR]

Selly Oak. Looking to the future, Old Oak Common.

 

[richard1976]

Northwood Hills

 

[StewLane]

Peartree is on a ring road and unmanned. Press a button to have the gates unlocked by East Midland staff

 

[DarloRich]

MK has always been pretty transient, to be honest. People come here for work, and tend to return back from whence they came when the work situation allows them to, to be replaced by more of the same. That isn't because MK is a bad place (it's really not; anyone who thinks it is has typically just been to the centre which is a bit boring, to be honest) but rather because it's not been here long enough for families to establish to the same extent as older towns. Though you'd think that'd have happened more in Fenny - maybe the flats contribute to that?

The station house I don't understand - house prices in MK are rocketing (mine has very close to doubled in the 10 years I've owned it) so I'm sure it could be easily sold to someone to turn it into a small residence. I was similarly astonished that Bletchley station house got knocked down to replace it with, er, nothing. Same with the Railway social club, which became a Network Rail car park in a station that already has plenty of parking.

Fenny Station house is occupied (!) and owned by a property company. The state of the property is poor and I know the local council have been trying to get it improved. It has declined a great deal over the last few years. It is, frankly, a disgrace for any prpoerty but certinaly when compared with similar houses at other stations along the vale.

The station house at Bletchley went because of access issues. From what I understand there was no right of access to the property! There were also issues with the services and potentially structural issues. All third hand info of course. Something similar happened at Northallerton when I lived there.

 

[59CosG95]

Selly Oak. Looking to the future, Old Oak Common.

Amen to that!

 

[greyman42]

Swiss Cottage

I have always found Swiss Cottage to be nice and affluent but stand to be corrected.

 

[C J Snarzell]

Newton-Le-Willows has such a nice name - the town is okay, but the station can be a little bit bleak.

CJ

 

[Bletchleyite]

Swan Village on GWRs closed Birmingham-Wolverhampton line always sounded an idyllic setting with swans swimming on the village pond etc....
View attachment 87679
Not my photo.

I genuinely thought that was Warrington Bank Quay for a minute.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Dec 2020 ==

Newton-Le-Willows has such a nice name - the town is okay, but the station can be a little bit bleak.

To be fair Earlestown sounds like it should be posh and, er, isn't. (It's fairly generic Liverpool type territory - painted red-brick terraced streets etc).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Dec 2020 ==

Fenny Station house is occupied (!) and owned by a property company. The state of the property is poor and I know the local council have been trying to get it improved. It has declined a great deal over the last few years. It is, frankly, a disgrace for any prpoerty but certinaly when compared with similar houses at other stations along the vale.

As in someone lives in it? Crikey, it's a slum, near enough.

The station house at Bletchley went because of access issues. From what I understand there was no right of access to the property! There were also issues with the services and potentially structural issues. All third hand info of course. Something similar happened at Northallerton when I lived there.

Ah. I'm still surprised they built a car park on the land (at a station that has plenty of parking; it's never full) rather than flog it off for flats. Flats there would (at least pre COVID) sell like hot cakes to people who want to roll out of bed into the station for their commute.

 

[urbophile]

To be fair Earlestown sounds like it should be posh and, er, isn't. (It's fairly generic Liverpool type territory - painted red-brick terraced streets etc).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 26 Dec 2020 ==

Woollyback, not Liverpool! Though it is in the Liverpool City Region.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Woollyback, not Liverpool! Though it is in the Liverpool City Region.

I was going to say St Helens, but housing wise the style is the same as you get all over Merseyside - classic red-brick terraces. Having done a bit of a Street View, though, they look more like the ones you tend to get in Greater Manchester (without the bay front, but with double sash windows downstairs which have all been replaced with one single window, and mostly not painted) rather than the ones you get on Merseyside (pretty much all bay-fronted and painted).

 

[C J Snarzell]

I was going to say St Helens, but housing wise the style is the same as you get all over Merseyside - classic red-brick terraces. Having done a bit of a Street View, though, they look more like the ones you tend to get in Greater Manchester (without the bay front, but with double sash windows downstairs which have all been replaced with one single window, and mostly not painted) rather than the ones you get on Merseyside (pretty much all bay-fronted and painted).

St Helens, Wigan, Bolton, Preston to name but a few have very similar terraced streets that go back many years to when they were booming pit or mill towns of the industrial age. Their older respective identities are from the traditional Lancashire era well before the local authority changes of 1974 when Merseyside and Greater Manchester were both established and Lancashire was reduced to half of its original size.

CJ

 

[DarloRich]

Ah. I'm still surprised they built a car park on the land (at a station that has plenty of parking; it's never full) rather than flog it off for flats. Flats there would (at least pre COVID) sell like hot cakes to people who want to roll out of bed into the station for their commute.

The legal stuff is pretty complex and expensive to fix. The Northallerton example resulted in the NER station house being knocked down and rebuilt facing the other way onto the main road so access could be sorted out> this link shows a picture of the house:

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/385820

As in someone lives in it? Crikey, it's a slum, near enough.

Yes- lights on at night and steam coming out of the boiler vent! I do think it might be partitioned inside with the run down bits not occupied.

 

[Gathursty]

I have an opposite one now.
Moss Side station is not at the inner city suburb of Manchester but is actually near picturesque Lytham and Wrea Green on the Fylde.