Tubewhore (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} tubewhore) wrote,@ 2008-04-12 21:53:00 |
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DLR on my birthday...
Beginning with meeting G at Liverpool Street, took the Central Line to Stratford for the DLR down to Greenwich town centre in search of girlie shopping and museums dedicated to pretty things.
The DLR remains fairly uncollected, so we began, mostly at random with Langdon Park, a new station only opened in December 2007. Langdon Park doesn't really have anything about it that would indicate it's newness, it blends in seamlessly with the corporate European toy train blandness of much of the rest of the DLR. From Wikipedia: 'The station has 90m platforms connected by a lightweight transparent replacement bridge link from Carmen Street and Hay Currie Street which were all pre-fabricated off-site and lifted into position over two weekends to reduce service disruption.' ...and this is the problem with much modern building. Not to mention the fact that it seem to have a surfboard sticking out the roof.
We pass close to Billingsgate Fish market - course this isn't the real one, this is the new one built in the 80's ...but you can still go there and watch the action, if you are prepared to be up early as it's all over by half eight in the morning.
there's even a specially made little oval thingy to put your fag out on...neatly labelled in case you couldn't work out its purpose on your own.
The DLR from above, looking out across a rainy Docklands...
From this point we decide to skip on a few stops to our destination of the morning Cutty Sark for Greenwich town centre...
Beginning with meeting G at Liverpool Street, took the Central Line to Stratford for the DLR down to Greenwich town centre in search of girlie shopping and museums dedicated to pretty things.
The DLR remains fairly uncollected, so we began, mostly at random with Langdon Park, a new station only opened in December 2007. Langdon Park doesn't really have anything about it that would indicate it's newness, it blends in seamlessly with the corporate European toy train blandness of much of the rest of the DLR. From Wikipedia: 'The station has 90m platforms connected by a lightweight transparent replacement bridge link from Carmen Street and Hay Currie Street which were all pre-fabricated off-site and lifted into position over two weekends to reduce service disruption.' ...and this is the problem with much modern building. Not to mention the fact that it seem to have a surfboard sticking out the roof.
I fully appreciate the need to minimise disruption, but it might as well have been assembled during recess from mecchano. There's no soul to the place, just picked up flat-packed for self-assembly over the weekend from IKEA with the the minimum of design effort involved. And in this sense I mean 'minimal' as the least possible thought involved in slapping together a shelter for people to stand under, rather than the grace inherent in Minimalism/Modernist stripping things to their essentials to have a perfect coalescence of form and function that still manges to be pleasing.
One of the things I enjoy about wandering the system is seeing the evidence of time - the way the system has grown and evolved over a century and a half, utilising the best, often most radical, design standards of the time and how that is reflected in the fabric of the buildings themselves. And even with extensions that have been built at the same time, like the Morden extension from Clapham, or the Cockfosters extension on the top end of the Piccadilly, there is a specificity to each place, each place an expression of what can be done with that space that expresses a sense of pride, of meeting a challenge and an opportunity, in creating something that will last and be lovely to use. The variation-to-a-common-theme in the tiling between Manor House and Bounds Green done recently is a prime example; there is no reason I know of why while the tiles should be different colours, and possible more expense, but it gives each of the stations a character, a uniqueness.
Can we say the same about the DLR stations? All the snap together kit asethetic? In 20 years the Edwardian ox-blood and custard facience tiling will still be beautiful, and the Modernist 30s extensions will still have grace, and will still speak of their time ...and these stations? They'll still look cheap and bland and lacking in vision over making something exciting out of the built environment...and depressingly, perhaps that does speak of our time, and the time the DLR was conceived of in the 80s, and the prevailing political attitude towards public transport as something fit only for failures who can't afford cars.
One of the things I enjoy about wandering the system is seeing the evidence of time - the way the system has grown and evolved over a century and a half, utilising the best, often most radical, design standards of the time and how that is reflected in the fabric of the buildings themselves. And even with extensions that have been built at the same time, like the Morden extension from Clapham, or the Cockfosters extension on the top end of the Piccadilly, there is a specificity to each place, each place an expression of what can be done with that space that expresses a sense of pride, of meeting a challenge and an opportunity, in creating something that will last and be lovely to use. The variation-to-a-common-theme in the tiling between Manor House and Bounds Green done recently is a prime example; there is no reason I know of why while the tiles should be different colours, and possible more expense, but it gives each of the stations a character, a uniqueness.
Can we say the same about the DLR stations? All the snap together kit asethetic? In 20 years the Edwardian ox-blood and custard facience tiling will still be beautiful, and the Modernist 30s extensions will still have grace, and will still speak of their time ...and these stations? They'll still look cheap and bland and lacking in vision over making something exciting out of the built environment...and depressingly, perhaps that does speak of our time, and the time the DLR was conceived of in the 80s, and the prevailing political attitude towards public transport as something fit only for failures who can't afford cars.
The problem with having a birthday in March, is that the weather is always horrible. The rain a melancholic drizzle that beads on your clothes and permeates misery.
Behind us, building work continues - possibly more wasted money on the Olympics, the three cranes each in a primary colour, like children's toys.
We press on to All Saints. I feel we should be singing girl group harmonies and wearing baggy combats that show off a lot of midriff and a thong. There's no station signage outside that we can get a clear shot of without endangering life, limb and good shoes, so trust me that we did pass through the ticket barrier here. 'Ticket barriers' on the DLR being somewhat more of an abstract permeable membrane one wafts through rather than an actual obstacle to traverse.
We pass close to Billingsgate Fish market - course this isn't the real one, this is the new one built in the 80's ...but you can still go there and watch the action, if you are prepared to be up early as it's all over by half eight in the morning.
there's even a specially made little oval thingy to put your fag out on...neatly labelled in case you couldn't work out its purpose on your own.
We press on to Poplar, which again betrays no special distinction, despite being a nodal point on the DLR and the busiest station in terms of through services, and site of the tightest curves of the DLR trackline, and they aren't describing Gaby and mine's corsetry.
The DLR from above, looking out across a rainy Docklands...
From this point we decide to skip on a few stops to our destination of the morning Cutty Sark for Greenwich town centre...
