This post is a tiny bit geekie, but there was something rather wonderful about being able to walk through the main entrance of Whitechapel Station after about five years into a broad expanse of new station in preparation for the opening of Crossrail, which will tie three bits of line together – or four if you distinguish the District line from the Hammersmith and City. You can see what they have done from above, throwing a big expanse of new station across all three lines, behind the old Victorian shop fronts and the local dry cleaner:-
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
Quite a relief reading this. On High Street 2012 we were doing our bit to the frontages, and to the roads (back in 2012(!)) in order to get out of the way for the games and leave Crossrail with the time they needed such that the main bits behind would be operational by December 2017……..! I remain very pleased the street front is intact and hasn’t gone the way of Paddington as the developers wanted it to
Ben
Dear Ben, It’s really good – worth the wait – and I think of you when I look at that well-preserved line of historical facades. Charles
Thanks for posting this lovely image. In mid-2018 I went on the Behind the hoardings at Whitechapel Elizabeth line station tour, which was wonderful. The same year I took my youngest and a friend on one of the first Crossrail trains, running out of Liverpool Street, to Brentwood. And the following summer my eldest did work experience at Whitechapel, shadowing the work of technical staff on the BBMV joint venture.
So, I can’t wait to have our new, wildly enhanced station back. If it sees greater than expected use – less likely post-Pandemic – they will convert the access and emergency egress shaft at the bottom of Cambridge Heath Road to an entrance, which will make it even more accessible.
Next step, the renovation of the old London Hospital, which hopefully won’t become a victim of ‘façadism’.
Dear Nico, Yes, I had gathered that they had axed the entrance on to Cambridge Heath Road as a result of cost-cutting. It’ll be great if they can reinstate it. Charles
Dear Charles: I was lead to believe the Cambridge Heath Road entrance wasn’t intended as an entrance initially, though who knows how often the plans will have changed over 20+ years. Let’s hope, not just for convenience but to enliven that major junction!
It was part of the plans about ten years ago, then disappeared. I raised whether it could be reinstated, but never got a reply. Charles