Good afternoon, it is a hot sunny summers afternoon
and i'm excited to be back out on the Tube
on the Metropolitan line, top left hand corner
of the tube map
out in the extremity, that is Zone 7
as we do End of the line ...
... at Watford
*PA* The next station is Watford *PA*
*PA* Where this train terminates *PA*
Please Take Your Belongings With You When You Leave The Train
All Change
Goodness ... it's a ...
it's a really warm, it's a really sunny
June summers day, it's so hot
and Watford, looks splendid
Watford station IS splendid
built in 1925, it's a Grade II listed building
with gorgeous brickwork, fabulous old tiles
this magnificent roof and looks great from the outside too
with its Doric columns and chimneys as well
Located in Zone 7, outside of London
in Hertfordshire, it might have gone further
there were plans for Watford to be extended but
no, this became the terminus
and there a couple of instant things, that I can surprise you with
that i absolutley bet that you didn't know, about Watford tube station
the first amazing fact is this blue door here
that you can see from the platforms
now there's also one through the closed gates at the top of the stairs
that you can peek through
and that is where Watford, wait for it ...
... used to have a lift, yes it really did!
it was once a step-free station
in fact, here's an old photo that i found showing the lift control buttons that are still in place
but very much not operational
and here's the second brilliant fact you didn't know about Watford
come down the side path here
where the A1 Cars cab firm is and you've got
this double blue door here
now this double blue door is actually a side entrance, that they use
very occasionally ... so occassionally
i think it's just now once a year, and that's when they have
fireworks, over in Cassiobury park just over there
first week of November
this is actually opened up because they have a lot more people coming through
as a side entrance, and if you poke your camera
through the shutter gate, you can still see there's an oyster
pad activated down there, so a side entrance
at Watford, that gets used ... once a year
after Stanmore
a bit of me was like ... should i count all the bin bags?
at Watford, i can see one at the moment, if there's any more than one
then we'll one with one instead, i'll go for an original
'Secrets of the Underground' moment and say look
purple colured, Met line coloured poles
here at Watford
what i like, is that there's a big, wide
open platform though, and during Steam on the Met days
this space is used comprehensively
to like set out tables where they serve
tea, in little china cups
and cake and stuff with doilies
yeah, Watford is splendid!
do you want an ooutragouesly nerdy train fact?
over course you do! Over here ...
it's an island platform, there's platform one there
platform two there, but on either side
there's an additional siding, or 'road' as they call it
it tube terms here, and over here
adjacent to platform one, you have Road 21
where they sometimes park up trains, but!
this is such a nerdy fact, i love it
you can't get to that
road, if you've come in from
Croxley, you have to come into Watford first, and then sort of
shunt back, and then shunt into that road
i'm splashing up a diagram on screen, right now
to show why that is the case, that is that is
an uber-nerdy fact
and i think it's the kind of thing that you've come to expect from me
and i thing that i'm expecting from you in this series
is to be playing along with the End of the Line bingo game
you can download the sheet below
in the description at anytime
if you want to play along, and tick off the words
and if you're a long-time player then you will be thrilled to know
does indeed, have a ...
... car park! yaaaay
so whilst i go and count the number of car park spaces just because that's the sort of thing i do
we also need to hear from today's sponsor
i genuinely can't remember if
'bike rack' is on the Bingo sheet or not
if you are playing along with the bingo game
download link, in the description
i have a funny feeling that the last End of the Line video
will feature, all of the words
on the bingo sheet, ok we've done the car park
which is down there
but the thing is, i'll give you a top tip here
if you want to not stand out as being not-local
don't call it Watford station, or Watford underground station
or Watford tube station
'cause the locals round here, they just call it "Watford Met"
but, the thing about Watford Met
is that it's a good mile away it's like a fifteen twenty minute walk into Watford town centre
for which you'd use Watford High Street, or Watford Junction, so
you wouldn't really use Watford Met, the tube station
if you were going to the sort of
'downtown' !? that's American
shopping centre ... of Watford
what this IS good for though, is going to the park
Cassiobury park is a delightful and historic
190 acre piece of parkland
named after the Watford suburb of Cassiobury
if the Metropolitan Line hadn't of terminated here
it's likely that Watford station
would have been called Cassiobury station instead
so do make sure when on your own End of the Line adventure at Watford
you do make time, to come and explore this lovely park as well
also don't forget that Watford
is one of the places on the Metropolitan line is one of those places where they have
timetables, such a rare thing to see
you do actually get, minutes past the hour and accurate times
of when trains, are due to leave Watford
i think they do it beween here and Amersham Chesham and down to Moor Park
a timetable!
just time to poke my head into the waiting room
and spare a though that had the Croxley extension gone ahead
Watford station would have closed, and the labyrinth here
would have been the first to be numbered after a closed station
and if you want to know about where the now cancelled Croxley rail link would have run
then watch my lost railways of London video that's on screen now
that goes into more detail
oh, and the Labyrinths? yeah
we'll talk about those in the next episode
of End of the Line when we go to a station which doesn't have one
and that is the end of the line at Watford, out here
outside of London, out in Zone 7
my thanks to Surfshark for being today's sponsors
for today's video, coming up in the title card
in a minute there is a playlist to all the other episodes
in End of the Line, there are still two, three, four
maybe more to come
trains moving, press subscribe. bye!