Tonight, just after eleven o'clock, a purple and yellow train will set off from Stratford on the last ever return journey to North Woolwich station. No doubt it'll be packed full of gentleman who like riding on 'last ever' trains, adjusting their after-dark camera settings to grab a final historic photograph. For once in its life, during the minutes leading up to its demise, this runty end of the North London Line will actually be busy. But to experience the true nature of this forgotten railway you really had to be here before today, back when this line was nothing special going nowhere much. On with the journey...
the Connaught Tunnel: A short narrow canal is all that links the Royal Victoria Dock to the Royal Albert Dock, so it's here between the two that the North London line dips underground to cross beneath the water. From here down to North Woolwich this becomes a single track railway, with the old second line through the tunnel now overgrown and impassable. The train passes beneath a series of low stone arches before plunging into damp brick blackness for just over a minute, emerging eventually into a different world. Welcome to...
Silvertown: The name suggests some shiny futuristic utopia, but that's a long way from the truth. The deserted station is a dead giveaway [photos]. A single platformed halt beside a barely-open ticket hall, built optimistically in 1963 for a workforce who've long since faded away. One industrial behemoth remains by the riverside - the giant Tate and Lyle refinery [photo]. Once the largest cane sugar refinery in the world, now the home of (and I quote) "a world leader in renewable ingredients". The company remains at the heart of the local community, although there's not much local community left. A few short leftover terraces stack up side by side across the footbridge on the opposite side of the railway. You might (or more probably might not) want to pop into Cundy's Tavern for an ale, or nip into Terry's Cafe (still adorned with 071 telephone number) for a cuppa. Or just stay on the train. Nearly there now. • Silvertown station - a history with photos • Silvertown life - some great old postwar photos, plus Stan's 69 page autobiography • Silvertown - site of London's biggest ever explosion
The last mile down to North Woolwich makes for a strange finale. The railway line runs sandwiched between two parallel roads, neither connected to the other, just a thin strip of green dividing industrial estate from housing estate [photo]. Several new businesses have moved in beside the river, from the Loon Fung wholesale warehouse (complete with ornate Oriental gateway) to a concrete field of big white satellite dishes. A single frail footbridge connects river-side to dock-side (expect it to be chock-a-block with zoom-lensed photographers today). Inland are highly typical East End houses, some modern and council-built, some high-rise and low rent, others handed down from dock worker to unemployed son. England flags flutter from these windows even when no World Cup is on the horizon. But the streets have almost no depth, stretching back only a few hundred yards before the Royal Albert Dock cuts them short. The area is both remote and isolated, and this old railway was once its lifeline. [photos]
North Woolwich: And finally, the single track curves slightly towards the Thames to end at buffers beside a lamplit platform [photo]. Expect a handful of hardy souls to exit the train [photo] and wander dolefully towards the ticket hall [photo]. This is rarely open, so everyone passes instead through an undignified side gate out into the street. To the left is the original terminus building opened in the 1840s, now home to the North Woolwich Old Station Museum [photo]. Admission to this compact collection of railway memorabilia is free, but time your visit carefully because the museum's rarely open either. Most passengers exiting the station aren't locals. They're walking the short distance to the Woolwich ferry, or perhaps the Foot Tunnel, for onward connections to southeast London [photos]. Even the questionable delights of Woolwich are more attractive than the mean streets of North Woolwich, so it seems. There's not much more to investigate on this side of the river than a parade of shops and a waterside park, and a few leftover dock buildings, and (if the tide's right) some steps down onto the 'beach'. It's probably a good idea to head straight back to the deserted station before the train driver swaps ends and pulls off back towards Stratford [photo]. Atmospheric though the platform may be, you don't want to have to wait half an hour for the next service. Or maybe forever. • North Woolwich station - a history with photos • Rail shots fromNorth Woolwich and Silvertown • Last train to North Woolwich - flickr group
Tonight, just after eleven o'clock, a purple and yellow train will set off from Stratford on the last ever return journey to North Woolwich station. No doubt it'll be packed full of gentleman who like riding on 'last ever' trains, adjusting their after-dark camera settings to grab a final historic photograph. For once in its life, during the minutes leading up to its demise, this runty end of the North London Line will actually be busy. But to experience the true nature of this forgotten railway you really had to be here before today, back when this line was nothing special going nowhere much. On with the journey...
Silvertown: The name suggests some shiny futuristic utopia, but that's a long way from the truth. The deserted station is a dead giveaway [photos]. A single platformed halt beside a barely-open ticket hall, built optimistically in 1963 for a workforce who've long since faded away. One industrial behemoth remains by the riverside - the giant Tate and Lyle refinery [photo]. Once the largest cane sugar refinery in the world, now the home of (and I quote) "a world leader in renewable ingredients". The company remains at the heart of the local community, although there's not much local community left. A few short leftover terraces stack up side by side across the footbridge on the opposite side of the railway. You might (or more probably might not) want to pop into Cundy's Tavern for an ale, or nip into Terry's Cafe (still adorned with 071 telephone number) for a cuppa. Or just stay on the train. Nearly there now.
North Woolwich: And finally, the single track curves slightly towards the Thames to end at buffers beside a lamplit platform [photo]. Expect a handful of hardy souls to exit the train [photo] and wander dolefully towards the ticket hall [photo]. This is rarely open, so everyone passes instead through an undignified side gate out into the street. To the left is the original terminus building opened in the 1840s, now home to the North Woolwich Old Station Museum [photo]. Admission to this compact collection of railway memorabilia is free, but time your visit carefully because the museum's rarely open either. Most passengers exiting the station aren't locals. They're walking the short distance to the Woolwich ferry, or perhaps the Foot Tunnel, for onward connections to southeast London [photos]. Even the questionable delights of Woolwich are more attractive than the mean streets of North Woolwich, so it seems. There's not much more to investigate on this side of the river than a parade of shops and a waterside park, and a few leftover dock buildings, and (if the tide's right) some steps down onto the 'beach'. It's probably a good idea to head straight back to the deserted station before the train driver swaps ends and pulls off back towards Stratford [photo]. Atmospheric though the platform may be, you don't want to have to wait half an hour for the next service. Or maybe forever.
