Finsbury Park Station Upgrade

kkqd1209

<font size="2" style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; ">I just noticed this document:</font><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; "><br></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; ">http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/corporate/Item05-Project-Monitoring-Project-Approvals.pdf</div><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; "><br></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; ">It looks like TfL have approved the upgrade (and funding!) of the Finsbury Park Station upgrade with a new Western Ticket Hall (in collaboration with the City North Development). Step-free access is also promised- and about time! Does anyone know when the City North redevelopment work is actually going to start? There's no obvious sign of change from outside...</div><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; "><br></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; ">I couldn't find the previous conversation on this point- so my apologies to the moderators in advance if a new thread is poor etiquette!</div><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; "><br></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; ">-------------------------</div><div> <div class="page" title="Page 9"> <div class="section"> <div class="layoutArea"> <div class="column"> <h6><font face="Courier New">Finsbury Park station is one of the key interchanges on the London Underground network, serving approximately 41m entry/exit and interchange passenger movements per annum.<br> </font><font face="Courier New">Since full project authority was approved in July 2012, the scope of the project has been reviewed and outstanding design issues dealt with.<br> </font><font face="Courier New">The project now proposes to install ticket gates to the station entrances and to take the opportunity to work with the Developer City North to build a new fit for purpose Western Ticket Hall and to provide step-free access in the form of lifts at the station. <br></font><font face="Courier New">The project is due to complete by December 2014. </font></h6> </div> </div> </div> </div></div>

Four Eyes

I used to work in City North. The company I worked for have now moved out but I think we were told the whole building was due for demolition in April.

graeme

About time, that Western Entrance is an abomination - one Oyster scanner (or two if you can avoid abuse from dolts wanting to reach across the scanner behind the door to get a copy of the Metro) for all the tube users entering off Wells Terrace.  Woe betide if a couple of buses have just disembarked - you get swept away on a commuter tsunami.<br><br>

miss annie

Perhaps they'll finally put ticket barriers in - although I'm sure they must rake in a fortune from people who forget to swipe in/out and end up being charged maximum fare. @graeme There are three there actually, but it's still a nightmare.

graeme

Where's the third one miss annie? Is it nearer the ticket window? ta

Arkady

Splendid find!  I've not seen this on any of the usual transport geek-havens.<br><br><a href="http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/benson-and-forsyth-wins-go-ahead-for-finsbury-park-twin-towers/5205872.article">When the contractor was appointed </a>for City North they were due to start in 'Spring 2013', which matches FourEyes' info.<br><br>As a reminder, the Finsbury Park step-free & gate plans (as last published) can be found <a href="http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/corporate/finsbury-park-brochure.pdf">here</a>.<br><br>The new Western Ticket Hall is not shown on that plan.  It will link to the existing station near the new gateline shown in the bottom-left of the diagram, on the Seven Sisters Road side of the tunnel.<br><br>It remains a pity that the redevelopment isn't more holistic.  The National Rail platforms will still feel disconnected, and the new platform extensions look shit and cobbled-together.<br>

Arkady

@Graeme - the third one is on the inside of the exterior wall, just to the right of the exit. (And it's technically the northern exit - the western exit hasn't been built yet).<br>

Arkady

I'll add that with this, City North, and John Jones, Finsbury Park is going to be one big building site for the next few years.<br>

gardener-joe

...

Arkady

North west. And the road runs north west to south east. you may be forgetting to factor in that we live in the northern hemisphere!

kreuzkav

I'd say North by North West.  Perhaps someone with a compass can check this out?

yagamuffin

<font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">With a couple of kinks along the way, SGR run almost exactly NW/SE</font><div style="font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><br></div><div><font face="Arial, Verdana" size="2">http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=531319&y=186921&z=110&sv=stroud+green+road&st=6&tl=Map+of+Stroud+Green+Road,+N_4&searchp=ids.srf&mapp=map.srf</font></div>;

Arkady

Thank you Yagamuffin - all one needs to do is glance at a map.<br>

kreuzkav

But is the tunnel aligned with the road?  SGR is NW/SE but I'm not sure about the tunnel. Perhaps a bit more northwards. Well, I guess northwest entrance will do.

Arkady

This getting anal, but in for a penny... the tunnel with the steps down to the platforms is almost exactly west-east.  The Seven Sisters-Wells Terrace tunnel starts on a north-south axis and then curves north-west, mirroring SGR.  <br><br>The Wells Terrace exit is both north and west of the Station Place exit.  Station staff, when not referring to the road names, use 'east' and 'north' to describe the current exits (or used to anyway).  Calling the Wells Terrace exit 'western' invites confusion with the forthcoming western exit.  Shoot me now.<br>

Mirandola

'getting'?

checkski

Speaking as an incorrigible analist (no, Spellchecker,back off), I loved all that. I consider myself to have an inbuilt compass, and am slightly irritated when giving directions including NSWE, but the person I am speaking to turns out not have clue as to which way they are facing. Slightly more irritated when these same people give directions to me which are so utterly solipsistic that they fail completely to establish initial bearings, eg, 'Well, you go up the road from Tesco's..', or similar, if they are, say, directing me to FP station. I need to see a good analyst, don't I, Spellchecker?

checkski

..Whereas in reality I am no better than anyone else. I know CE is not due north, but that's the way I imagine it, because it seems to make simpler.

checkski

..seems to make LIFE simpler.

Arkady

My ex and I were polar opposites on this issue.  I like to know exactly where I am and which direction I'm facing.  It helps me comprehend a space, and how it relates to surrounding spaces.  Add in an understanding of the layer upon layer of history of where you are standing, and it all adds to the rich tapestry of nerdity.<br><br>My ex, on the other hand, did not know whether Ruislip was in West or East London.  She lived in Ruislip for 28 years.  This, I now realise, is far from uncommon.  Indeed, while I hesitate to say it, there seems to be some gender disparity here.<br>

Mirandola

Possibly. I'm useless at it (hence my mean-spirited post above) but my dad's worse. It's heavily cultural too - anyone brought up in Beijing (Northern Capital) will know where NEWS are because it's standard to give directions as 'third east, second west, first south'.

Detritus

How much disturbance will it cause? Also will they shut the station down whilst the improvements are ongoing?

Arkady

No way they will shut down the busiest station outside of Zone 1, but individual entrances will presumably have to closed from time to time.  Perhaps they will wait for the new Western entrance to open before overhauling the existing ones.<br>

dorothy

@Arkady apparently there are some proven gender differences around this, but it's not clear cut.    Simon Baron Cohen (uncle of Sasha) has a theory about the sytematising brain and the empathising brain.  I think he's also developed the idea of the extreme male brain (autistic).  <div><div> </div><div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathizing-systemizing_theory">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathizing–systemizing_theory</a>.   You can do a quiz on it somewhere.</div></div>

Arkady

I have yet to read the article, but I'm pretty sure I have an extreme male brain.

Donna

So just to be clear, there will be step free access to the tube platforms but you will have to go in a new entrance? Will that new entrance connect to wells terrace?

Mirandola

Yeah. Simon B-C's work isn't all that convincing though.

conformable_kate

A belated disputation of gender disparity here! I agree about compass points being underpinned by a sense of self in space and in the city. I am a bit unreliable on left/ right, but I do give directions in NSEW, because it bypasses all the 'if you have the railway bridge on your left and the parkland walk behind you' stuff. However people of all sexes tend to look at me in alarm and ask for left/right directions instead. Possible that I'm a heavily disguised male, but on the whole seems to me unlikely.<div><br></div><div>Meanwhile has anyone checked out the leylines?</div>

krappyrubsnif

It's all to do with hunting. In the stone age, blokes threw the spears, hence good at darts/maps. Women did the cooking. It's in your genes....

Mirandola

I do find it a pain when I'm on the way back from gathering berries and can't find the cave though.

checkski

Ha ha - nice one, Mirandola!