Stratford station has a new entrance.
It's the Gibbins Road entrance and for most passengers it's of no use whatsoever.
Stratford station has a new entrance.
It opened late. It was meant to open by the end of March but it didn't. It was due to open in May but it didn't. It's looked finished for ages but it clearly wasn't otherwise they'd have opened it earlier. It finally opened yesterday. [8 photos]
Stratford station has a new entrance.
Originally you could only exit to the east - that's to the bus station and town centre. In 2011 they added an exit to the northwest - that's to Westfield and the Olympic Park. Now they've added an exit to the south - that's to the Carpenters Estate. Given that the Carpenters Estate opened in 1967, you could argue this entrance is over 50 years late.
Stratford station has a new entrance.
They opened it quietly at noon - no fanfare. A few senior staff were hovering to check everything went smoothly, one even grinned out loud at being the first person through, but it was a very soft launch. Maybe the Mayors of Newham and/or London will turn up later and applaud properly.
Stratford station has a new entrance.
In an act of seeming generosity, the new entrance benefits several hundred residents in most-low-rise mostly low-quality council housing on the Carpenters Estate. They live in a wedge between the mainline railway and the Jubilee line so previously the most direct route to the station has been via a skanky footbridge at the end of Jupp Road. Now they can walk straight in via a new entrance at the tip of Gibbins Road, and if they want the Jubilee line it's right there, no steps, no escalators, dead easy.
Stratford station has a new entrance.
It used to be a staff entrance leading to a small car park and a rubbish collection point. Now it's a proper exit with ticket gates and ticket machines accessed from a small piazza with cycle parking and benches. They're very nice benches, proper wooden beauties, but seemingly far too many of them for the dribble of footfall this entrance is going to get.
Stratford station has a new entrance.
It's really really convenient for the Jubilee line. You walk off the trains and there it is, just before Pret. If you arrive on the elevated DLR platforms via Pudding Mill Lane you can see the new entrance down below on your right.
Stratford station has a new entrance.
It's labelled 'Way Out Gibbins Road' above the gateline. If you're not sure where Gibbins Road is, there's no map to help you. If you simply fixate on the words 'Way out' you may be tempted to leave the station in a highly suboptimal location.
Stratford station has a new entrance.
I worry that a lot of people exiting the station will use it by mistake and find themselves the wrong side of a barrier a long way from where they want to be. The new exit ejects you abruptly into a semi-industrial backwater at the tip of a maze-like housing estate with minimal facilities. As yet there are no signs or maps to suggest where to go next which seems a serious lack of forethought. To reach the front of the station is a walk of 500m via the aforementioned skanky footbridge, and that's assuming you know it exists and can work out which way to go. To reach Westfield without retapping at the barriers is a full half mile, that's how out of the way this exit is.
Stratford station has a new exit.
I'm not sure I'd want to use it after dark. Indeed I was considering using it at 10pm last night but I thought "this goes nowhere terribly populated and it's a long way to Stratford High Street where I'd feel safe, I don't think I'll risk it", so I didn't.
Stratford station has a new entrance.
Revenue-wise it's a real weakspot in the station's perimeter because it'll require full-time staffing to ensure nobody sneaks in and out without paying. I was particularly surprised yesterday afternoon to see they'd already left the gates open, although four revenue protection officers were hovering out front just in case. It didn't make for great Day One vibes.
Stratford station has a new entrance.
It cost a few million pounds, but because it's part of a wider package including the installation of new lifts and the extension of a disused subway it's not possible to say precisely how many millions it cost. Peanuts in the grand scheme of things, I'd have thought, given it's level access throughout.
Stratford station has a new entrance.
It's been put forward as a new way to reach the Olympic Park, but it's not really much quicker than the existing route via Westfield. On the plus side you don't need to exit via Westfield. One thing I reckon it'll be extremely useful for is crowds heading to and from the Olympic Stadium. The wooden fencing feels very much like it was deliberately designed to funnel rowdy West Ham supporters into a side-entrance.
Stratford station has a new entrance.
It's so unusual to gift fresh infrastructure to a 50 year-old council estate that there must be a catch, and indeed there is. It's because the Carpenters Estate is due to undergo almost-total regeneration upping the number of homes from 700 to over 2000, as befits a prime slice of land adjacent to Britain's 6th busiest station. It's been a very long time coming - Newham council were intent on decanting everyone long before the Olympics - but a ten year masterplan was finally agreed earlier this year with the tower blocks getting their spruce-up first. The station improvements aren't for the long-suffering residents of the existing Carpenters community, they're for the incomers who'll pay to live in shiny boxes to the south of Stratford station over the next decade.
Stratford station has a new entrance.
It may look like a few ticket barriers but in reality it's the starting gun for an explosion of highrise gentrification. One day there'll be a coffee stall outside, however unlikely that looks on opening day.
Stratford station has a new exit.
It's the Gibbins Road exit and if you use it by mistake you will kick yourself.
