My most depressing station is ...

[Quarryscapes]

I nominate Wrexham Central...

http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/44/04/3440427_30d27786.jpg

[tamperman36]

I'll go for Ravensthorpe on the transpenine route, many years ago it had a wooden building, which was burnt out and torn down. It now has the usual bus shelters and reduced length platforms with the original length platforms overgrown and decaying. The station itself is a little away from any housing and is surrounded by industrial areas. Its a cold desolate place on a cold wet winters night ( I know, I used to use it )

[wombatofludham]

I only went to Folkestone Harbour station once, on board (I think) the second to last train to go there. The station was derelict and very depressing indeed.

 

I arrived at Folkestone Central last November around mid-day and it wasn't much better.  Quite apart from the rationalised track layout which means only the island platform was in use, the subway down to street level contained the most bewildering amount of crowd control railings arranged in a strange way, and when I got to the booking hall the ticket windows were all shut and there seemed a fair few people loitering round seemingly in a daze.  Plus it's not really Central to Folkestone.  In fact I did wonder if it was even in the same county.

 

Call me old fashioned but having decanted from a 140mph commuter train, all high tech and gee-whiz, at a fairly large town on the south coast, I would have expected a staffed ticket office and less of the Prisoner Cell Block H ironwork to navigate.

[MarkC]

Liverpool Central in the last few weeks before its final closure was pretty grim

[jjb1970]

Hellifield.

[runs as required]

Liverpool Central in the last few weeks before its final closure was pretty grim

Yes indeed, stations in their death throws are like withered old incontinent men.

Both Holborn Viaduct and Broad Street seemed to get dismantled around the last remaining two carriage slam door EMUs still running out of them. Yet my child hood memory of Broad Street is of Crimson lake Oerlikon units gliding in and out in a sunlit Heaven way above our steamy panting dark L'pool St Hell .

dh

 

Ed

Here on Tyneside the once famous Blyth and Tyne terminal station Manors suffered similar lingering Death throws as the Metro arrived

Edited July 29, 2017 by runs as required

[Fat Controller]

I arrived at Folkestone Central last November around mid-day and it wasn't much better.  Quite apart from the rationalised track layout which means only the island platform was in use, the subway down to street level contained the most bewildering amount of crowd control railings arranged in a strange way, and when I got to the booking hall the ticket windows were all shut and there seemed a fair few people loitering round seemingly in a daze.  Plus it's not really Central to Folkestone.  In fact I did wonder if it was even in the same county.

 

Call me old fashioned but having decanted from a 140mph commuter train, all high tech and gee-whiz, at a fairly large town on the south coast, I would have expected a staffed ticket office and less of the Prisoner Cell Block H ironwork to navigate.

I'd agree with you about FKC being depressing. The original layout was of two island platforms, with the Fast lines between the two, and the Slows on the outer faces: this allowed Boat Trains from either Dover Western Docks or Folkestone Harbour to pass stopping trains. The slalom is intended to stop local skateboarders using the ramp down from the platforms; however, they tend to treat it as a challenge.

FKW has a much larger car park, along with a booking office and coffee shop that are open until lunch-time, and has level access to both platforms (Hence the reason for the VSOE using it). If I'm taking Lynne to the station in the morning, I drop her off at FKC in the morning (more chance of a seat), and pick her up from FKW in the evening (easier access for the car.)

[eddo63]

I nominate Irvine station. Especially on a wet winter Wednesday night.Many years ago I once stood in the soulless plastic shelter for almost an hour, watching a couple of junkies on the opposite platform having an increasingly violent fight that ended up with one of them chasing the other onto the tracks whilst weilding a rather large carving knife!  Luckily, they were more interested in harming eachother than me!  I have never been so happy to see the train arrive, I can tell you!

[gismorail]

I nominate Wrexham Central...

http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/03/44/04/3440427_30d27786.jpg

Agree with you on this one I call it 'Chav Central' .... 

[luckymucklebackit]

I nominate Irvine station. Especially on a wet winter Wednesday night.Many years ago I once stood in the soulless plastic shelter for almost an hour, watching a couple of junkies on the opposite platform having an increasingly violent fight that ended up with one of them chasing the other onto the tracks whilst weilding a rather large carving knife!  Luckily, they were more interested in harming eachother than me!  I have never been so happy to see the train arrive, I can tell you!

 

Yet from street level it looks a nice building, perhaps if the inhabitants of Irvine behaved more like human beings then it wouldn't seem as bad.

 

Jim

[Poggy1165]

Being the age I am I find most stations depressing, as they are nearly all a shadow of their former selves, and many are turned into glorified bus stops with windswept platforms and nothing offering even a hint of comfort.

 

Maybe if you're being whisked from one major city to another it's not too bad, but local stations are dire. The Manchester-Hadfield route makes me want to cry. Fairfield - once a six platformed station with buildings on every one and a signal box is perhaps the worst of all, though it has serious competition. What a ghastly dump. Used to have a decent train services, but now about hourly each way.

[Pacific231G]

Being the age I am I find most stations depressing, as they are nearly all a shadow of their former selves, and many are turned into glorified bus stops with windswept platforms and nothing offering even a hint of comfort.

 

Maybe if you're being whisked from one major city to another it's not too bad, but local stations are dire. The Manchester-Hadfield route makes me want to cry. Fairfield - once a six platformed station with buildings on every one and a signal box is perhaps the worst of all, though it has serious competition. What a ghastly dump. Used to have a decent train services, but now about hourly each way.

Indeed. It's in complete contrast to a memory I have from the winter of 1967-8 when I'd visited Tavistock by bus from Plymouth only for unexpected snow to start and the buses to be cancelled. Tavistock North station was a haven of warmth  with a friendly station master, nice cosy waiting room (I remember a roaring fire but it was probably only gas as I think were the station platform lamps) until the two car DMU from Exeter and Oakhampton emerged from the driving snow and took me back to the city. Needless to say the staton closed a few months later.

[Oldddudders]

ISTR passing a Manchester station called Bellevue, in the late '60s. Utterly dejecting.

[runs as required]

ISTR passing a Manchester station called Bellevue, in the late '60s. Utterly dejecting.

How sad - though always rather dark and autumnal, it used to be Manchester's most exciting back in the 1940s-50s

my son has Grandad Tommy Litchfield's Belle Vue speedway supporters' badge still. A signalman at Peak Forest Tom had every year bar on his badge from the 1940s and requested "Blaze Away" to be played at his funeral.

It was also the big circus at Christmas - and the circus hall was the home of Barbirolli's Halle 'band' for it's Sunday night concerts until the Free Trade Hall was rebuilt in the mid 1950s.

 

dh

[Oldddudders]

the circus hall was the home of Barbirolli's Halle 'band' for it's Sunday night concerts until the Free Trade Hall was rebuilt in the mid 1950s.

 

dh

My mother's teacher was married to a man who managed the Hallé in those days. Then he was recruited to be the first general manager of the new Royal Festival Hall. Ernest Bean CBE.

[MinZaPint]

Pokesdown - say no more!!

I agreed with this post and to back up the OP, I attach a pic taken from the train yesterday!

 

 

I have had the misfortune to use this station!

Edited August 4, 2017 by MinZaPint

[Bert Cheese]

I agreed with this post and to back up the OP, I attach a pic taken from the train yesterday!

 

IMGP3453.JPG

 

I have had this misfortune to use this station!

It is properly grotty, last time I went through a few months ago it really struck me what a hole it is as I idly gazed out of the window...in total contrast to some other stations nearby.

[RJennings]

I would like to volunteer Duddeston in the West Midlands . . . Frankly depressing on so many levels and not exactly a place one wants to spend any time when the sun goes down.

[SHMD]

Filey Holiday Camp 

Rotherham Masborough

Denton

Loughborough Junction

Mill Hill Broadway

Aldrington

Darnall

 

All are good contenders.  All score highly on the scale of depression.  There was a wry joke made by students when I lived near the area that of stations to be mugged at Stepney Green ranked top of the list; despite it's subsequent makeover it's still quite high.

 

 

 

I'll see your Denton and raise it, (or should that be lower it), with "Park".

 

 

"Park" opposite Mather and Platts, just east of Miles Platting Manchester, had solidly built platforms. That's it.

Nowt else to say except that I only ever saw 1 passenger ever alight there. I bet they regretted that!

 

 

Kev.

[SouthernBlue80s]

Dumpton Park used to be pretty grim. Not sure what it is like these days.

[toffee]

I haven't had the nerve to look at all the nominations so have I missed the obvious Oscar winner ? I refer of course to that dark, noisy, smelly, stink hole that is the gateway to the second city......Birmingham New Street. Recently 'rebuilt'......hahahahahaha, a joke. Still the same as it's been from the 60s now with the added sadistic refinement of Voyagers. What can one say about it ? For the sheer volume of trains without a shred of personality and passengers without a glimpse of daylight then the place takes the crown. Oh, and still the escalators don't work half the time. Simply revolting place.

[Southernman46]

Derby - that Hornby style concrete - just energy sapping

 

Dumpton Park - it's a hole in the chalk between Margate & Ramsgate - it has every right to be depressed ...........

[Southernman46]

I arrived at Folkestone Central last November around mid-day and it wasn't much better.  Quite apart from the rationalised track layout which means only the island platform was in use, the subway down to street level contained the most bewildering amount of crowd control railings arranged in a strange way, and when I got to the booking hall the ticket windows were all shut and there seemed a fair few people loitering round seemingly in a daze.  Plus it's not really Central to Folkestone.  In fact I did wonder if it was even in the same county.

 

Call me old fashioned but having decanted from a 140mph commuter train, all high tech and gee-whiz, at a fairly large town on the south coast, I would have expected a staffed ticket office and less of the Prisoner Cell Block H ironwork to navigate.

Welcome to ungovernable Kent ........................ it's East of Ashford - nobody cares

[nick_bastable]

Welcome to ungovernable Kent ........................ it's East of Ashford - nobody cares

parts south have resisted the barbarians 

 

Nick

 

Just  of the Goodwin Sands

[EddieB]

How sad - though always rather dark and autumnal, it used to be Manchester's most exciting back in the 1940s-50s

Belle Vue.jpg

my son has Grandad Tommy Litchfield's Belle Vue speedway supporters' badge still. A signalman at Peak Forest Tom had every year bar on his badge from the 1940s and requested "Blaze Away" to be played at his funeral.

It was also the big circus at Christmas - and the circus hall was the home of Barbirolli's Halle 'band' for it's Sunday night concerts until the Free Trade Hall was rebuilt in the mid 1950s.

 

dh

That brings back some memories!  I used to/still have my Hackney Speedway enamelled badge, to which those bars were appended every year.  Thankfully (for me) a little more recent that your grandfather's.