40 years ago today, on 10th June 1986, Network SouthEast was launched.
This was a bold attempt to rebrand the British Rail network around London, a vast area stretching from Exeter to King's Lynn and covering over 900 stations. Its logo was three chevrons in red, blue and grey and they cropped up everywhere from station signs to trains and timetables, also the maps designed to tempt passengers out onto the railways.
The brand remains much loved despite lasting only eight years, ending prematurely in 1994 when the Conservative government privatised the railways and split NSE into eleven franchises. But a few fragments survive if you know where to look, so I've been out across London to see how many different types of remnant I could find.
These are the platforms at Barking.
Several of the signs are still NSE originals in white and blue, especially the numbers denoting platforms 1 to 8. The logos underneath are generally faded and/or scraped off, but some like platform 6 remain mostly intact.
Why's it still here? Barking is one of the few tube stations not run by TfL. A lot of the station signs have been upgraded in c2c purple, but platform 2 is only served by the Underground so there was no imperative to update it.
This is the platform edge on the Waterloo & City line at Bank.
There are approximately ten of these along the edge of each platform, and there used to be more before part of each platform was raised to provide level access. It's a bit annoying that the yellow safety line goes over the top of the logo, indeed you'd think they'd have stuck it further back for safety reasons, but trains are never going very fast here.
Why's it still here? Modernisation of the Waterloo & City line began in 1989 with trains and the two stations refurbished in NSE style. The rolling stock remained red, blue and white until 2006.
It's a very prominent central spot and still with perfect Network SouthEast branding around the upper edge. If you look to the right of the photo you'll see another NSE logo by the tube gateline, indeed there are two.
Why's it still here? Marylebone got £85m for modernisation after being reprieved from closure in 1986, right at the start of NSE's tenure. Chiltern Railways chose to keep the colour scheme when they took over, indeed embraced it. You sense today's station bosses would rather replace this former tube ticket office with a food outlet but while it still has two ticket machines they can't.
And have you ever looked up outside the station and seen the brown Network SouthEast logo attached to the wall above the main arch? It really ought to have been removed by now, it's 32 years out of date, but it would leave an asymmetric mess so they've left it in situ.
This is one of the classic Network SouthEast digital clocks.
Everyone loves these red boxes with their chunky yellow digits, arguably one of the great British railway clocks. The NSE branding is only subtle, three stripes bottom left, but maybe that's why it works. I first went to Charing Cross hoping to find one of these but they've all been replaced by modern electronic displays, I think relatively recently. So it was a joy to find this one still ticking over beneath the canopy in front of Victoria station, almost hiding in plain sight. Next time you're walking in from the tube station or the bus station do look up and smile.
Why's it still here? Good question. I guess it just works, also it is very high up, but it wouldn't surprise me if someone replaces it with that new digital Rail Clock one day.
This is the southern entrance to City Thameslink station.
Big blue letters on a white background was always the NSE way, here alongside a proper red British Rail double arrow. It's a shame they've had to slap two step-free notices on either side but I checked Streetview and these didn't cover over anything. You get a lot more blue lettering as you move through the station, from platform signs to help points, this because the station opened in 1990 in the middle of Network SouthEast's existence and they threw everything at making it on brand.
Even the decoration on the uplighters has red and blue colouring. These hoops are all along the platforms, and those platforms are very long. You get the sense somebody was really trying to make a point to City passengers.
Why's it still here? When City Thameslink was upgraded in 2010 to cope with more through services, the original contractors retrofitted the station interior with enamel wall panels that fitted the original design specification.
We have to end up at Essex Road. It's where the magic lingers.
Even outside, look, the Network SouthEast logo remains underneath the double arrow. It wouldn't originally have had pigeon spikes but otherwise it's like the 1990s again.
We then head down into the depths via the clunking lift, the grubby passageway and the grim grim stairs. The platforms are almost more oppressive but wow, there are still NSE signs all the way down the outer walls. They used to be all the way down the innerwalls too but in 2020 this was all replaced with modern branding and pure white tiles. They did the same at Moorgate, Old Street and Highbury & Islington too, wiping away all that heritage in an attempt to make the stations feel nicer, indeed a lot of people were quite upset about it. The replacement tiling isn't even very good, they couldn't get the blue lines straight.
But at Essex Road they did at least leave the far walls alone, including two absolutely fabulous line diagrams. This is the small one showing two stops to Moorgate complete with pitch perfect Network SouthEast branding up top. The northbound sign is hugely larger and hugely more complicated, basically the shrine you need to kneel in front of if NSE is your creed.
Why's it still here? I don't know why they left Essex Road's outer walls alone, perhaps it was just cheaper than replacing the signs with modern line diagrams, but thank goodness they did.
It's not original, it's a Networker specially vinyl-ed to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the railways last year and named after Chris Green, the BR executive who brought NSE to life. It operates on Southeastern so you might see it out and about anywhere, because Network SouthEast is the brand that refuses to die.
