Canonbury
378 149, with a London Overground service to Highbury & Islington, arriving at its penultimate stop at Canonbury on 23rd August 2012. These former through platforms are now served by trains between Highbury & Islington and Crystal Palace or West Croydon or Clapham Junction via Peckham Rye (trains to New Cross start from Dalston Junction) via a reopened section of the former North London Railway's Broad Street viaduct. Trains between Stratford and Richmond or Clapham Junction via Kensington (Olympia) now serve two reinstated platforms on the north side. This station was opened in 1870, replacing an earlier one called Newington Road & Balls Pond a short distance east that had opened in 1858, 8 years after the line. It was badly damaged during the London 'Blitz' and, though still in use, the ruins survived for many years and I remember them well. The roof of the passageway leading to the ticket office had completely disintegrated and on wet days the rain poured in and there were also holes in the roof of the ticket office. Many times I espied the ticket clerk sitting under an umbrella in a desperate attempt to stay dry. These ruins were swept away in the 1970s when the once grand NLR station entrance was demolished and replaced by an ugly concrete block that resembles more a public convenience than a railway station. All the war-ravaged platform buildings were demolished at the same time and replaced, inevitably, by bus stop style waiting shelters which were also replaced in the 1990s with, that's right, more bus shelters! Personally, I preferred its moribund condition though I suspect I was in the minority and, of course, I didn't have to work there.
Location: Canonbury
Original line: East and West India Docks and Birmingham Junction Railway
Photographer: David Bosher
Contact photographer: David Bosher
Photosets: London Overground Class 378 units 2010-2023
Date: 23/08/2012
Image number: 73005
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