Replacing The Angel (1)

You Have to be Impressed!

So where are we?

Long ago, we were out in the bucolic country north of London town with the growing suburbs of Tottenham poking in on the above map, bottom left. Note Angel Road station near the top.

Today's aerial view shows where we are now.

There is a line of reservoirs plus industry stretching along the valley of the river Lea. 

Here is the same area on a map.

We can zoom in to the near circular reservoir north of the label "Walthamstow" on the map above. That is Banbury Reservoir ...

... which might form the seaside of Meridian Water. Or maybe it won't as it is surrounded by an embankment.

The reservoir was completed by and for the East London Waterworks Company in 1903, and was subsequently taken over by the newly formed Metropolitan Water Board in 1904. The reservoir is now owned by Thames Water.

The "coastline" appears on this aerial view.

The North Circular (Angel Road) snakes across the top of the picture with the flyover and stations upper left. To the east (right) of the railway we see the roofs of two huge warehouses. The one  closest to the North Circular is ...

... Tesco Extra; the other, even bigger slab is coloured blue ...

... and labelled "Drumsheds" by Google Maps.

Drumsheds is a large-scale nightclub and events venue located in Edmonton in the London Borough of Enfield in the United Kingdom. It is housed in a former IKEA flagship store and has a capacity of 15,000 people.

IKEA operated their Tottenham store at the location from 2005 until August 2022, leaving behind 608,000 sq ft warehouse space. 

So that's why it is blue!

It is the area to the right (east) of ex-Ikea that is where the wodge of Meridian Water housing is being developed.

The two warehouses are in Zone 3.

A structure plan for Meridian Water was published 13 years ago ...

... which included all the usual optimistic pictures of joyous modern living.

Buses trundle happily along the "High Street" ...

... and all is lovely on the banks of the Lea River Navigation canal.

The pictures have been extracted from that 2013 report and are not of the highest quality, but our loyal reader can get an impression of the richness of life that will be delivered by Enfield Council and the developers of Meridian Water.

Currently that triangle of land that will become "The Community" has been totally industrial ...

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.. and not at all an attractive site for modern living.

It even includes an Arriva London bus depot!

Mostly, it is all about aspirations!

But, at least, it already has its very own railway station ...

... of which more in tomorrow's blog.

Castles In The Air On The Baseboard

Yesterday, we left the retaining wall; with photocopied patches BUT in a slightly different and noticeable colour.

fbb was not too concerned because, after all, it is only a hobby and the old man will soon be 81 years old.

But here is how the setting will look. The "white" castle forms an outer "bailey" with the original "black" castle ruins as an inner "bailey".

It has potential as a scenic corner filler, albeit too crammed and too small to be very realistic. Castles are usually BIG! 

But fbb had to do something about those pale bits. But what?

Then he remembered TV's 'The Repair Shop'. When replacing missing colours on a piece of pottery, the very clever restorer, Kristen Ramsay, used a very very fine brush and added tiny dots which then merged visually into their surroundings.

fbb didn't do that - impossible with an elderly wobbly hand.

But he did scribbled gently over the offending patches with a good old fashioned 'lead' (i.e. graphite) pencil. 

And, Tada ...

... the offending light stone work become invisible against the rest.

A good bodge!

 Next Meridian Water blog : Thurs 15 Jan 

Angel Road : A P.S.

But First, A Disaster!

It seemed a good idea at the time. You use the "wing" walls of the castle gateway to create a retaining wall for the original castle. But the manufacturers of the kit do not tell you that the thick base card (lurking behind a beautifully printed front layer) is very porous; it soaks up glue like blotch**.

So, says a particularly stupid fbb, use thinner glue and lots of it!

But it gets the thick card wet, which then sags sadly and soggily. Below is part of the additional battlements walkway!

That was disaster enough, but the glue dribbled and leaked and stuck the retaining wall to the tablecloth's protective paper. And when lifted off, gingerly, it remained stuck and pulled of bits off that lovely printing.

Emergency repairs needed! Photocopied stonework covers the white bits. The colours don't quite match but a bit of greenery will eventually disguise the bodge!

Phew! But you can actually see the paler patches of stonework where the colours of the photocopy and the original printing don't quite match. Is there yet another fbb bodge?

But is it necessary? No one will notice from the normal viewing distance! (A celebrated fbb mantra.)

Back To The Angel

This station got a mention when fbb was light-heartedly looking at UK stations with seasonal Biblical names.

Wot, no wings?

Angel Road was a station on the line from Liverpool Street to Hertford East.

There it is, on the dotted grey line between Ponders End and Nothumberland Park.

It used to be a fairly normal station with buildings on both platforms ...

... accessed from an entrance off Angel Road (so a clever station name, eh?).

Angel Road itself is part of the North Circular and there has been a long string of widening, rebuilds and junctions. At one stage the station had an entrance building on that over bridge.

But that luxury soon went at another widening. Go to the over bridge today and you would hardly know that there was a railway.

The North Circular is on a flyover ...

... but you might glimpse something of the railway infrastructure at the bridge under the high level road.

Here is the view from the "off ramp" on the north side.

... and from the "on ramp" on the south side.

There is a railway there, honest; in fact you can see a station - of which more in tomorrow's blog.

So you cannot access Angel Road station from Angel Road. The burning question is, "where is the entrance now?" Here is an aerial view.

The North Circular snakes past at the bottom of the picture with the station nestling partly under the complexities of Angel Road. But the entrance is from the "D" shaped access road, at the top of  of the picture and north of the former entrance.

And what ferroequinological magnificence greets us there?

Yep! That is the entrance. There is a footpath beside the track which leads to the platforms.

fbb thinks the red box is a "permit to travel" machine, so no tickets available. There are Oyster tap terminals.

Angel Road must be one of the most depressing stations on the National Rail network!

Fortunately it closed in 2019 to be replaced by something a little better. But, fbb suspects, it always was a "workers halt", as seen below, back in diesel days ...

... although that particular edifice is now replaced by warehouse businesses. And, amazingly, there is a Premier Inn.

The view from the bedrooms must be gorgeous.

The station was replaced by Meridian Water (the subject of tomorrow's blog). 

Here are station departure lists for services in it latter days. Trains called on Monday to Friday only.

And in the other direction.

Should you wish to investigate the remains of the station today, the entrance is severely blocked ...

... but the Google satellite still shows platforms complete with cross hatched edges to warn any foolhardy train attendees that not much would stop there with most sets whizzing past at speed. 

Before we move south to Meridian Water, just a chunk of nostalgia with a selection of trains that once served Angel Road.

fbb has been through Angel Road on several occasions but never noticed it!!

** blotch : old-style schoolboy patois for 'blotting paper', pellets of which, soaked in ink from an ink well, were a useful weapon in engineering classroom disruption.

 Next Meridian Water  blog : Weds 14 Jan