The LNER Encyclopedia

This is a great website, I especially love the "Kings Cross" thread.
I'm looing for photos of the fronts of the buildings at Kings Cross Suburban station, platforms 13,14,15 and the yard platforms 16-19.
Can anyone help?
Thanks,
Mick Berg.

Mick Berg wrote:I'm looing for photos of the fronts of the buildings at Kings Cross Suburban station, platforms 13,14,15 and the yard platforms 16-19.

These might start you on your quest. If you have specific views in mind I can arrange to take them for you one lunch hour.

One more:

.... bearing in mind that that the great majority of what features in these excellent photos, is almost completely obscured, and much of it probably now gone anyway, thanks to the major part here of the big construction works of the King's Cross rebuilding project, located on the west side of the main station's West Side offices, leading up to and including the suburban entrance, and now at an advanced stage, in forming the huge new semi-circular 2-level concourse, travel centre, shops etc. building.
The new building now butts up to a long section of these offices (which contained at its centre the long-closed main line booking office), is roughly centred on the site of the former port cochere and adjoining building to its west (the Red Star parcels office in latter years), and whose west-south/westerly edge will virtually stretch to the retained GN Hotel building.

There are also currently some significant scaffolding structures along the suburban trainshed east wall (Platform 9) & immediately below the roof, and the ticket-gated circulating ( ) area across the bottom of the platforms is a semi-maze of scaffolding columns supporting construction work above.

The new complex will connect with platforms 0-7 by a 1st-floor level passageway through the West offices leading onto a new, mostly glazing-sided, footbridge a little north of the old one and including links to the platforms by escalator and lift.
The new building and facilities will allow closure and demolition of the 1970s Euston Road-facing single-storey travel centre, concourse and shops building, so long a part of the scene now, and the area thus freed-up is to be made an open piazza, revealing the original trainshed frontage in full.

And here are some from 1974

Andy

Some really good 'uns there Andy.
Thanks very much.

Mick Berg wrote:This is a great website, I especially love the "Kings Cross" thread.
I'm looing for photos of the fronts of the buildings at Kings Cross Suburban station, platforms 13,14,15 and the yard platforms 16-19.
Can anyone help?
Thanks,
Mick Berg.

I can't clearly now remember what the street access to the 'Milk Yard' looked like (if you watch/pause the 1950s 'Ealing comedy' film "The Ladykillers", some early shots featuring the ambush and robbery of a large van were filmed in and around Cheney Street there). If pushed I would say it was mostly or merely high-ish brick walls with gates [by the late '60s, anyway. : Never heard those loading docks given numbers before (18 & 19) ] ; interesting. : They were only served by sidings as far as the signalling system and official line-names were concerned).

Platform 16 was the Down Moorgate line platform, only accessed AFAICR, in the '60s, via a dark-ish passageway extending west-ish from the platforms 14/15 'concourse' across the top of the Hotel Curve Tunnel's north portal area, then turning right at about 75-degrees and sloping down to the platform [see the east wall of this 'ramp' on the left side of Andy Rush's third B&W photo].
Platform 17 was a level-ish, also canopied, wooden platform, through the wall behind the buildings along 16 (I think there were a few between-buildings steps up to it from somewhere along the southern part of 16, but at the north end, with the Down Moorgate line having continuously risen steeply along the plaform, 16 & 17 were at the same level).

Conceivably, the same access from street for the 'milk yard' loading docks also gave access to 17, though I suspect not as a passenger entrance.

The 1932 re-signalling catered for passenger train arrivals and departures in 17, but by the late '60s, proper signalling for passenger arrivals no longer existed, and my impression was that that had been the case for some time.
What actual passenger use 17 ever had, I'm sorry but I've no idea.

The Irwell Press book on Kings Cross might help.

Kudu

Great photos, gents! I wonder if there's a 'live cam' of the current construction goings-on at the Cross. It's hard to keep tabs from this distance.

Try this :-

http://www.constructionatkingscross.com/progress.html


closest one I can find.

...And try this, which may also be of interest (fingers crossed that the link will work for you : 60-second time-lapse sequence of the new concourse etc. building's construction: viewed from high on the SW corner of the main station's West Side offices, looking slightly west of north; GN Hotel on the left, 'German Gym' in left-centre background, listed old gasholder frame in far centre background; the suburban station entrance is theoretically in-shot to the right but seems continuously obscured : I think the link was posted about two months ago. ) :

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/6288.aspx

Edited: To correct compass points error : "SE" should have been 'SW'

G'Day Gents

Nice to see some pics of the 'poor' side of the station! I noticed that the stairs to the uniform stores are still there, but are now outside the building! (where platform 14 used to be)

And a few very good black and white pics, Ahh, the milk dock where I spend so many hours, reading a newspaper or dozing on Number 1 shunt, and where drivers of light engines would 'bump!' into your engine at 2am and wake you up!!

manna

Some nice black and white photos of the milk yard. Like Manna, I spent hours, nay days there on the shunt engines, L1s, N2s then D5300s. No blowing of at night if you could help it, no black smoke drifting into the windows in the summer when the people had the windows open. They have certainly fetched back some memories.

JB

I apologise for the lateness in replying. Thank you all for your replies. And especially the photos of Platfrom 14, my favourite spot in all of the Cross.

Indeed I'm sure that almost all of what I'm looking for is long gone, what I wanted to see was the passenger access to platforms 12,13,14,15, and then the road access (Cheney St?) to the other platforms 16-19, which were more like a yard. I believe there was a milk yard, and also the car trains loaded up there (check out Mr LesBaileys wonderful movies on YouTube for this)

Now I must find out how to set up email notification for this forum!

Mick Berg.

MikeTrice wrote:One more:

100_4388.JPG

Thanks for the offer, Mike. Is your time travel machine in good shape?
What I'm looking for was demolished many years ago unfortunately, so I was looking for old photos.
Cheers,
Mick Berg.