It Must Have Been Here - Somewhere!
Above is Borough Market from the air, but before the extra viaduct was built as part of the capacity improvement at London Bridge station. Contrast and compare with a more recent aerial view ...
... with the new viaduct in place but lacking track. A little further to the east is where Borough Market signal box must have been ...
... nestling between the cathedral and the original viaduct.
In passing, fbb notes that Southwark Cathedral has a relatively new history as a cathedral.
This upstart whipper snapper has only been the home of the Bishop's chair (the "cathedra") since the beginning of the 20th century.
Southwark Cathedral or The Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie, Southwark, London, lies on the south bank of the River Thames close to London Bridge. It is the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Southwark. It has been a place of Christian worship for more than 1,000 years, but a cathedral only since the creation of the diocese of Southwark in 1905.
So can we amble along the side of the Cathedral virtually and find where the signal box was? The on-line street map is not detailed enough to show pathways but, maybe, an approach from that main road seems a good idea.
There is a thoroughfare in the right place that leads off Borough High Street a southbound continuation of London Bridge and part of the A3.
But this route seems to fizzle out under the viaduct. It is called Green Dragon Court.
On the A3 (PINK road) ...
... two sets of steps are on offer, one lading to the Cathedral "garden" (there must be better ecclesiastical name for it; "precinct" doesn't seem quite right for a modest patch of grass!) and one to the base of the viaduct. Although not clear from Streetview and not marked on Street Map ...
We take the left hand steps, pass the old street name board where we meet a cluster of stalls, mainly eateries ...
... (note viaduct above) and we continue along a footpath with the cathedral fence on the right ...
... and on to an exit on to Cathedral Street.
Then fbb remembered!
His investigation began after picking up a twitter from a former student at a London College of Design. Said ex-student reported that his "class" had been taken out to sketch Southwark Cathedral - nice - but he "had turned through 180 degrees" and sketched Borough Market signal box instead.
Good man!!
The sketch was sketched in 1973, so there would have been many changes since; but look far left. Might that be the Cathedral's "garden" steps down from the A3? And that gate is distinctively cathedral like, as are the gates on Cathedral Street.
And bingo!
There is the twitterer's sketch replicated on today's Streetview but with more trees and no signal cabin on its former plinth. We can step a little sideways and see the shaped brickwork that is part of the sketch,.
But we still cannot see the box's remains!
But now we know where it was we can see clearly where it was!
And there, between the two gantries, are the remains.
... and there they are, missed earlier, up above the Brood Food store.
Operation find a signal box location is finally accomplished! See:-
15 Minutes Of Nostalgia
This YouTube video is entitled "Operation London Bridge" and is about major improvements to the station area, but in 1975! In the early few minutes there are some great shots showing Borough Market Junction.
In about 40 years they were doing it all again!
If 15 minutes is too long for a transient blog, here is the interior of the signal box ...
... as equiped for four aspect colour light signalling in 1926! There were traditional vertical clusters and innovative circular blocks of four.
A couple of the vertical sets is shown with the deplaced semaphores behind.
It all happened in 1926.
Herewith a plan of tje Junction showing the location of the different "shapes" of four aspect signal in 1926.
To the east of Borough Market was the London Bridge signal box; much bigger to control more tracks and all the platforms.
Next Variety blog : Saturday 5th November
Thank you fbb, very very interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe basic reason for the line being - rather bizarrely to our eyes - four-tracked to Cannon Street but only double-tracked to Charing Cross (which carries far more traffic) is that the South Eastern Railway intended to run all its trains via Cannon Street, thus serving both City and "West End". How long they did this for I don't know - and I think that the Cannon Street/Charing Cross side of the triange is only single-track today - but it created an enduring bottle-neck for trains, quite possibly exacerbated by the small number of through platforms (4 I think) at London Bridge until the recent upgrade. Interestingly, further up the line, is Waterloo East the only station to have lettered rather than numbered platforms (to avoid confusion with the "main" station)?
ReplyDeleteNew Cross has lettered platforms as does St Pancras thameslink.
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