What’s Wrong With Covent Garden?

The little station with big problems (and a ghost).
ko-fi.com/jagohazzard
/ jagohazzard

[@discogareth]

I once made the rookie mistake of not wanting to wait for the huge crowd to use the lift and took the stairs with a suitcase. I nearly died that day.

[@Mustafiz1972]

Fortunately, the occasion on which i made the mistake, I took the stairs down...

[@msamour]

Just exactly how many stairs are there? Making some of us that don't have access to Londom wonder. You guys make it seem like it's hell's basement.

[@Mustafiz1972]

@@msamour A narrow, tight, continuous spiral staircase having about 200 steps.

[@discogareth]

@@msamour I think the sign says 193. But I think they lie! It’s narrow, it’s spiral, it is hells basement!

[@Mustafiz1972]

@@discogareth I noticed the sign the next time I used the station...

[@garygoldsmith3887]

As a young Commis Chef at Savoy in the 70's-80's, living in Finsbury park we used to be able to get onto the tube for nothing, jumping as it was known. getting off at Covent Garden and running up the stairs to beat the lift. Also when we finished late getting on the last tube there were never any staff around so running down the stairs and having no one at the barrier at Finsbury Park, again jumping. yes i know it wasnt right, sometimes the staff would know us as working at Savoy and our low wage, so good old fashione allowances were made for us young Commis Chefs. Weekly take home £18,75 per week, rent 13, so it was tight to say the least. we lived for our job, experience and knowledge and keeping fit. which has satyed with me always. When i go to London, always try and use Covent Garden as brings back happy memories, with a paid ticket of course. Also remember the transition from the old market which as Commis Chefs we loved....

[@darylcheshire1618]

I recall a Desmond Bagley adventure novel where the protagonist was in pursuit of a bad guy who gave him the slip in an unidentified (ficticious) Tube station and his obstacle was a very large matronly station official who demanded to see his ticket. I forget what he did but I think he assulted her in spme way enough to get away. It was a work of fiction.

[@frglee]

In the 1970s 'redevelopment' often meant developers smashing down historic buildings and replacing them with faceless, but highly profitable, towers of glass and steel. I'm glad Covent Garden was spared this fate. It's now a very nice place to visit.

[@ce1834]

the things architects did in the 60s and 70s would be absolutely criminal now lol

[@darylcheshire1618]

yes the ‘50s and ‘60s was a time of architectural vandalism. Old Victorian buildings were run down and unattractive and considered “old fashioned”

[@Krzyszczynski]

@@darylcheshire1618 Even St Pancras Station was in peril at one time, I believe. (And yes, it was very shabby and half-disused back then.)

[@darylcheshire1618]

@@Krzyszczynski If the local council objectec, the developers just went to VCAT who just roll over.

[@luxford60]

The stairs, as any fule kno, are equivalent to a 15 story building.

[@annother3350]

Are you telling stories again?!

[@graemep804]

Watch some clips by Geoff Marshall

[@JagoHazzard]

Hearted for referencing both Geoff Marshall and Molesworth.

[@Dinyo55]

@@annother3350 He isn't lying. Those stairs are torture. If there is a station I would avoid if I can, Covent Garden is it

[@nicpic1985]

Dinyo it is on my short list of "what do I want to be able to do in middle and old age," walk those stairs without feeling like needing an ambulance at the end. 😀

[@blackbee3085]

As an archivist, I’m pleased to see you credit your images. So many people don’t and it’s incredibly frustrating. Great video as always.

[@JagoHazzard]

I do sometimes forget, but I often get people asking about my sources and often, several months later, I can’t remember. So crediting them suits everyone in the long run.

[@JagoHazzard]

I do sometimes forget, but I often get people asking about my sources and often, several months later, I can’t remember. So crediting them suits everyone in the long run.

[@KatTheScribe]

Me too!

[@MrJimtimslim]

Its not frustrating

[@blackbee3085]

@@MrJimtimslim it is when there are numerous cuts to archives and you are constantly asking for funding. Crediting the sources used from archives promotes the collections and increases the use of a service that an archivist have to constantly justify to their parent body.

[@hyperdistortion2]

Other problems with the lifts at Covent Garden: violently ill children. A few years ago I was in one of the lifts when a small girl threw up absolutely everywhere. Fortunately I was stood behind her, out of the ‘splash zone’; the people in front weren’t so lucky. Longest lift ride ever, let me tell you.

[@chrisstephens6673]

Still better than climbing those damn stairs, they're a killer, almost, to an unfit pensioner.

[@bigblue6917]

Two people have down voted this video. Maybe they were the one stood in front of the poor girl

[@davidjames579]

@@bigblue6917 It's down to One now. That's progess!

[@VictorVonDoom.]

Unfortunately you have nothing factual to prove what you wrote

[@iankemp1131]

@@VictorVonDoom. Well, thank goodness for that! I don't want to see (or smell) any evidence ...

[@theblubbered]

It's definitely not the only underground station that TFL doesn't want you to use, because Kensington Olympia exists.

[@dambrooks7578]

A station I possibly only used twice, although both times was on the same day as I was going to see Metallica at there; oh to be so young, idiotic and certain once again... although, possibly with a better taste in music wouldn't go amiss.

[@hyperdistortion2]

Back when I worked in Hammersmith, years ago, I’d use Olympia to get to/from Clapham Junction for my journey home. Overground was pretty good, can’t speak for the District Line - which is the point, I assume.

[@theblubbered]

@@hyperdistortion2 District Line services to Kensington Olympia aren't very good. There's actually several trains a day, but TfL don't publish the times, as Kensington Olympia is mostly used to reverse trains into and make the rest of the timetable work, so services are irregular and often change unexpectedly.

[@dambrooks7578]

@@hyperdistortion2 I used to live in Dagenham when I used it, it was a long journey home again after the show...

[@hyperdistortion2]

@@theblubbered That’s a shame, although given the range of other ways to reach Hammersmith not entirely surprising. And for the District Line, there’s always the Overground to West Brompton and change option, I suppose.

[@Tedinoz]

First trip to London, first day in London, a young(ish) Australian couple. We get out at Covent Garden and, lo, lifts. We look at each other and say, “bugger this”, so we head for the stairs. OMG.... Though, 30 years later, it was an unforgettable moment in our trip, and sparks pleasant memories

[@iankr]

"A working class residential district." My, how times have changed. Great video. Thanks 😊

[@eattherich9215]

Soho too was once working class. Now the big brands, hotels and chi chi residential developments have moved in pricing out what was left of the little shops down sinister looking side streets.

[@pmberry]

They very nearly cleared the whole district in the 70s which doesn't bear thinking about: flashbak.com/how-they-nearly-destroyed-covent-garden-20304/

[@Berry-fr5wj]

@@pmberry Developers know the cost of everything but the value of nothing

[@jamesmarney5373]

The bars stayed open late, until Covid. Years ago, the pubs opened very early. www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/jun/21/pints-dawn-last-call-london-market-pubs

[@rivergladesgardenrailroad8834]

My grandfather bought 1Russell Street in 1908 as a fruit & vegetable wholesaler. The traffic congestion!!!! Its was previously a house of ill reputation. Opposite Dury Lane theatre did a roaring trade according to my Grandmother...

[@cstini]

"... he booked his ticket in advance." LOL

[@ThanksChris]

Just laughed out loud!!!!

[@Checobeep]

My late father claimed to have seen Terriss' ghost at Covent Garden in the early '80s, very late at night coming back from work. He said he thought this tall bloke in what appeared to be Victorian era costume looked completely normal and just like a regular person, albeit in beautiful and authentic period costume. He initially assumed the fellow was in fancy dress. That is, until the figure simply disappeared. He said he did not fade out or become translucent, he simply "winked out" like a sudden edit in a movie. In astonishment he told the underground staff member what he had seen, and instead of being laughed at, was informed about the ghost. Slightly odd, since the underground was built after Terriss' death, but the very idea of ghosts is inherently illogical (why does gravity affect ghosts? Wouldn't they be stretched out in space behind the Earth as it hurtles through space?) It should be noted that my dear old dad was an atheist and a pretty cynical skeptic, so his claim seems completely out of character if a tall story. He said "there must be some explanation, perhaps it was a recording of some kind, like on magnetic tape only on elements in the local area." He never changed his story. I saw the documentary mentioning it a few years back and was rather shocked at how many people apparently saw this phenomenon. Not sure if I believe it, but I am certain my dad did.

[@musicgarryj]

Sounds like your dad probably watched the excellent 1972 TV ghost drama "The Stone Tape": kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKXZe4qBlql8b9U

[@Checobeep]

@@musicgarryj possible. However, subsequent to all this, I read about the environmental recording theory in a book by Colin Wilson, which dad certainly never read, so it may be that he just came up with the idea independently - he absolutely refused to consider any notion of the supernatural so he needed some way to explain what had happened to him that did not touch on the paranormal, this would be a way to do that. It seems a bit unlikely to me he watched this show as he thought anything supernatural was "a load of old bollocks" and would storm out if people started talking about UFOs or if we watched Doctor Who etc, but he became a little bit more reticent after his experience, which was IIRC 1981. Maybe someone told him about the show. He was a smart man, and understood audio technology, so perhaps it is a case of minds thinking alike etc. Thanks for the link!

[@barrydysert2974]

@@Checobeep Thank you for sharing your father's fascinating experience. 🖖

[@heresjohnny602]

Always in victorian dress. Never see a ghost in assless chaps or a hoody though do ya.

[@spacedmonkey1375]

One of my teaching assistants used to hate this station because, she said, whenever she had to go there there was always the same guy in a grey hat, whistling by the lift. She hadn’t heard of William Terriss.

[@1minigrem]

The London Transport Museum, my sons spiritual home. He loves it and has taken his own sons there. He watches this too, it’s a real refuge from the COVID misery right now.

[@AtheistOrphan]

I thought it was closed at the moment?

[@johnm2012]

@@AtheistOrphan I understood "this" as referring to this channel and therefore "it's a real refuge" as meaning "this channel is a real refuge", with which I agree.

[@nathanw9770]

"Covent Garden might be the only station tfl doesn't want you to use" Emerson Park: First time?

[@ChakatSandwalker]

Strangely, I think the most fascinating bit was the mention of the typeface used in the station name. It may seem relatively inconsequential at first glance, but I think a typeface can tell a lot, such as dating a building (or some other artifact) to a particular year or time period, or subtlely influence people into reading or buying something.

[@martinross5521]

That 1908 lettering looks like an Art Deco style, similar to the Paris Metro. As a former letterpress printer, my favourite was Baskerville. Glad you like the one here

[@cargy930]

...And none of your Comic Sans nonsense!

[@martinross5521]

@@cargy930 too right - better to scratch in the mud that use Chronic Sans. Object of derision!

[@WillKemp]

@@cargy930 I like Comic Sans. I wouldn't use it, but it's quite a pleasant looking font

[@cargy930]

@@WillKemp It looks great... ...in a comic! :D

[@bugsby4663]

I was rostered at Covent Garden as a Station Assistant at the end of the last century (that feels weird to say) and for most of the time it was brilliant because most of the punters were tourists or the gay crowd from Soho, so you got very little trouble. Later, the west end bar types moved up from Leicester Square (at which I also worked) and it became rougher. Indeed, I even got punched in the face by a druggie who was peeing on exiting customers. Covent is so close to LSQ that if you stand at the platform end, you can pick up radio messages from the other station. They were actually going to pull down the Indigo Jones marketplace but locals protested and when it became lucrative again, they priced the locals out.

[@msamour]

There is a Metro station in Montreal that is like that downtown. The stations are so close to each other, you can make out the people from one station to another.

[@silviasanchez648]

The druggie was peeing on passing people? Or did I misunderstand something?

[@msamour]

I think I understood the same thing too. That is prerty getho.

[@adscri]

@@msamour Given Montreal winters, the closer the better.

[@adscri]

‘Inigo’ Jones was only responsible for the plan of the market and St. Paul’s Church. The main market building was the work of architect Charles Fowler, opened in 1833.

[@panzertorte]

I braved the stairs once - never again! Was not surprised to find a woman receiving medical attention at the top...

[@jimtaylor294]

Aye. A good Fitness Test though... just a bit too mandatory.

[@LianneMurphy]

Yeah I also did the same , the queue to get into the lift was ridiculous. I had to have a break half way lol

[@Larry]

Aah, what are the two stations where they purposely made the tunnels longer than necessary so there wouldn't be a blockage of walking passengers? I thought it was this one.

[@izzieb]

Not quite the same thing, but the signage at Kings Cross St Pancras sends people on far longer routes via the northern ticket hall to reduce congestion.

[@kurosakiyoko]

Hello you!

[@colourandsound]

Green Park must be one. It's far easier to head up to the ticket hall and then back down the escalator if changing between the Piccadilly and Victoria lines.

[@johnnyboy3949]

@@izzieb yep, but when you know that you can ignore the signage. Sending you in a goose chase at 9pm at night is not what anyone needs. Really hate the kings cross st Pancras signage. I get it for busy times to stop it being too busy but at quite times it is stupid.

[@RogersRamblings]

Covent Garden has quite short tunnels between the platforms and the lifts with separate access for arrivals and departures. A number of stations do have longer tunnels for people going to the trains to spread the load somewhat.

[@dylanb.117]

Also the staircase is the equivalent of a 15 storey building. All tube stations have 15 storeys

[@SK_3PT1]

i can agree with this statement

[@archstanton6102]

Does that include DLR?

[@tinabolesful5184]

When you just said " changing at Bank" my heart started racing, in a bad way

[@JagoHazzard]

It is a fearsome prospect.

[@RosmertaOfficial]

I just had flashbacks about that place. It looks as dystopian as it feels... 🙃

[@andybassbrass]

One of my favourite and most frequently used stations - well, until last March, anyway! The staircase does indeed have 193 steps - I have counted them several times, just to be certain...

[@BangkokPat]

As kids we had no worries running up all those steps ''for a laugh''

[@eattherich9215]

Children can do things like that. This 62 year-old's knees and hip joints would probably kill me if I even indicated that I might attempt that climb.

[@cijmo]

I love looking back at things like that. I was watching some kids on my old toboggan hill (I'm in Canada), watching them run back after they reached the bottom and said "If I'm climbing that hill, there better be something at the top because I'm not climbing it just to slide back down again!"

[@pixoontube2912]

Okay, I will probably outcast myself for saying this, but Covent Garden actually is my favourite Tube station on the network. Mostly because it kept its old nostalgic layout and because the London Transport museum is nearby.

[@maryapatterson]

Yes get your coat!

[@2H80vids]

It does seem quite "unspoilt". A lot of the Tube still has an olde-worlde appearance but it keeps getting whittled away. I suppose the lifts did have to get updated but the rest of the place has an original vibe to it.😁 I'm assuming there isn't an old-style lift left working now anywhere on the system?

[@worldcomicsreview354]

Banzai!

[@DwellerUK]

I can remember this one time where I went to Covent Garden as a young child, and the trains were only running in a single direction. From then on I thought it was a cursed station or something! Great video as always, Jago :)

[@edwardoleyba3075]

I can relate to that. Think I used Covent Garden station four times. Twice when the lifts were still manually operated with sliding grilled doors. Both times I ended up walking up the stairs because one, or the other lifts weren’t working, and there were queues of people. The other two times no lifts were working!

[@johnm2012]

Not cursed, just haunted.

[@sem49]

woah you're here?

[@Stepford_Empire]

Oh hi Dweller

[@OnboardG1]

My Mum used to live in Covent Garden in the 70s. She said if you went for a walk to get your newspaper on a Sunday morning you were lucky to have seen anyone else. It was very much working class right up until the 90s when it began to get more expensive. I don't think I've ever used it because we always go to Holborn when we visit a friend who still lives in the area.

[@davidsummer8631]

1972s Frenzy is one of Hitchcock's later films which is mainly set in Covent Garden when it was still a working market

[@AtheistOrphan]

You beat me to it! I watched the film recently and recognised the locations.

[@voivod6871]

Didn't the killer who framed his friend work on the market?

[@davidsummer8631]

@Ed It gets forgotten because its part of Hitchcocks last batch of films and apart from Frenzy they where not the best films he directed

[@WilliamPhillippe]

An underground walkway from LSQ to COV was also in the plans in the 1980s. Covent Garden station is (pre-pandemic) one of the 5 busiest night stations, closing it would adversely impact Leicester Square and Holborn as those two stations have no capacity in the busy peaks. Also, during 2011, Covent Garden was pivotal to the track refurbishment as the lifts were the only way to bring in heavy materials to the central London area. Covent Garden was once the centre of carriage/ coach making in Europe. Long Acre had several automobile sales shops in the early part of the 20th Century. In fact, Times Square in New York was named Long Acre Square in homage to Covent Garden. In the 1980s Covent Garden was the epicentre of the burgeoning British Hip-Hop scene with many breakers and graffiti artists plying their trade there.

[@wceyuki]

when i need british railway history, i come here! this teaches better than any canadian school.

[@CrowArchLane]

Canadian schools teach british railway history??

[@buckodonnghaile4309]

@@CrowArchLane Canadian schools can barely teach math let alone British railway history.

[@msamour]

Hey! Greetings from another Canadian who is also a British rail enthusiast. There is a lack of railway history in Canada.

[@JagoHazzard]

Thanks!

[@stuartwatson2732]

so many beautiful original features ... to pass thru simply as you’re travelling is to miss so much - another great short Jago 👏🏻

[@bjoernaltmann]

The red roundel that is now located in a weird spot below the tiled lettering (also quite bent) used to be a bit further down, on a straight wall. You can still see the outlines. Admittedly it was not as noticeable there, but I think it was rather idiotic to cram it below the lettering. Firstly it’s not original this way, secondly neither appearance has improved this way and thirdly they damaged the red roundel by bending it. Well done. I’m usually surprised how little London Underground cares for their heritage. Clapham North is quite a nice station, it has a chandelier in the entrance hall. But it’s been made to look horrible by the 30 odd ancient energy saver bulbs.

[@Urlocallordandsavior]

By 'neither', do you mean where it's placed now and where it was placed before, that there was no improvement in its appearance? Or was that just a grammatical error?

[@lwilton]

@@Urlocallordandsavior I believe he meant that the appearance of neither place was improved. Or perhaps that both places were deproved. :-)

[@ianmcclavin]

The only other places I know of on the system now where the solid red-disc signs still exist (not counting those on Museum premises) are one or two in similar positions at Caledonian Road, and a handful at the end of the District Line platforms at Ealing Broadway. Prior to refurbishment in the 80's, substantially more Piccadilly Line stations still had them, including some at Arsenal with the "Highbury Hill" suffix on them, and the ENTIRE northbound platform at Finsbury Park!!

[@JagoHazzard]

The ones at Ealing Broadway are replicas, but so well done that it’s hard to tell if you don’t know (I had to be told). Caledonian Road is original though.

[@simonwinter8839]

When I was very young (it was 1960) my Father took my to his workplace which was Odhams press which was located on Long Acre.My Father was a journalist and had to take some copy in on a Saturday so as Saturday was not a school day,or in my case a nursery day,he took me along for the ride.The nearest station to Long Acre is Covent Garden and I remember the old lifts with their concertina gates.They were operated by a member of staff from within the lift. The other thing I remember is that the ticket office was closed and a member of staff was issuing tickets from a "Gibson " ticket machine. A Gibson ticket machine was the type used by bus conductors from the fifties until early nineties.They were completely mechanical with no source of power. If you have an Underground ticket issued fron one of these machines they are incredibly rare but I have seen the odd example for sale at Transport flea markets at bus rallies etc. Does anybody else remember these predominantly bus ticket machines being used on the underground?

[@highpath4776]

dont remember them, now you mention it i recall reading about it, but do remember lift operators checking tickets.

[@eattherich9215]

When I worked in Holborn, it was just about possible to go to Covent Garden and back again in my [extended] lunch hour, although waiting for the lift certainly added minutes.

[@ianmcclavin]

Amazingly, until 1983, Covent Garden Station was closed on Sundays, along with Chancery Lane and Temple. The other two remained closed Sundays until more recent years. I alighted at Covent Garden on one of the first Sundays it was open, and the number of passengers doing the same was massive, as was the amount of bustling activity outside...I gather it hadn't always been like that before the regeneration of the area though.

[@TheOneAndOnly_skiF]

NYC here no idea why I even watch these videos but I find them enjoyable and interesting about the history of these places

[@honestguy7764]

Thanks Jago. Your short videos are like a medicine during the pandemic. Thanks for uploading so many videos. Dont be afraid to make longer ones!

[@2H80vids]

Yep. I like the short videos 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 he doesn't do longer ones.

[@JANGLEPOP1]

Visiting London in the 80's and early 90's a visit to Covent Garden tube was always a must. Evocative and beautiful.

[@gregkiteos1936]

I always thought that the shortest distance was between Charing Cross and Embankment stations. You learn something every day!

[@markbanash1720]

Although we're both American, my wife did her Master's at the LSE (I stayed in the States and earned the money for her to do so). When I visited her once, she wanted to stop at the Boots in Covent Garden on our way to Holborn on the Piccadilly Line. Now I had travelled the Tube before, and had seen everything from the tunnels at South Kensington to the elegant simplicity of Chiswick Park. so I was a bit amazed at (how should I say) the unique ingress/egress conveyances of Covent Garden station. She graduated in 1994 so I am grateful to relive the experience through your fine video, and not in the flesh.

[@henrygingercat]

Another problem is when you decide to use its spiral staircase to descend and someone at the top decides to have a pee down it. I speak from personal experience.

[@samuelfellows6923]

😯😠

[@JagoHazzard]

Eww, nasty.

[@ArunSagar]

The high voltage control room for most of the LU (managed by UKPN/Powerlink) was on Long Acre around the corner - until Powerlink went back under LU governance. I always thought that the offices were meant to be a a "secret" location. You can still see the office building opposite to the Five Guys - the building has no windows on a few floors.

[@RoyCousins]

I often used to walk through Covent Garden just after the market had shut in the morning, so my strongest memory is the smell, especially of the rotting fruit and veg being collected for disposal. I also remember that the pubs were just shutting too. I believe the local magistrates gave them special permission to open during the market's opening hours.

[@martinsawyer109]

I remember the old lifts at Covent Garden. Wooden panelling, and seemed to be a non square, irregular shape. Love to see them again! They were automatic, but must have been manual operated at some time? Yes, William Terris, a popular actor & manager many years ago is supposed to haunt the station. Apparently, he was a frequent visitor to a baker shop which used to be on the station site. As usual, great video Jago! 👍

[@Gazellekaz]

Aldwych station has/had the same irregular shaped lift - like something from the Rocky Horror Picture Show

[@johnd6487]

I think my first visit must have been pretty much when the market had been redeveloped, (I was maybe 7 or 8, and a bit obsessed with toy theatres, following some children’s Victorian set period drama that had been on TV and was taken to the tiny but rather gorgeous Pollocks toy theatre shop) I was still quite nervous of the tube in general, getting over being petrified of the escalators, but those rickety old lifts set me back! I’m sure at the time they did indeed have an operator - to be fair, in my early childhood (70’s) lift operators were a dying breed but still around in places - I also have a vague memory of open grill gates you could watch the walls go by. They moved rather slowly as well, it felt like it took longer than than the train had to get there.

[@disphoto]

I used the Covent Garden station a lot in the 1980s and found the old elevators quaint. I used to go to Covent Garden to look around, shop, and eat dinner before an evening show. I remember the Cabaret Mechanic Theater on the lower floor of Covent Garden and the crepe shop on the upper level on the south end facing St. Pauls Church. Everything has gone a bit more up-market since then.

[@phaasch]

Before escalators, all the old deep-level tube stations had these sort of lifts. The shafts were circular, about 30ft diameter, and a pair of lifts would work side by side in each, which gave them that odd trapezoid shape. I remember the old ones at Covent garden in the 1980s with their wood panelled outer doors and big concertina gates. You could fit a lot of people into them. Hampstead also had an original pair which worked only very occasionally. They seemed to take forever to get to the top, rocking and creaking and just a little bit scary.

[@mikusguitarius]

Your beautifully shot & edited videos - together with your comedically dry commentary - are an absolute treat. Thanks and keep up the good work!!

[@JagoHazzard]

Many thanks!

[@rgmusicom]

Another belter, Jago. Fun fact: I injured my knee running to the steps at Covent Garden on my way to record Ian McDiarmid’s voiceover in a nearby architect’s office in 2009.

[@JagoHazzard]

So you weren’t able to kneel in front of him and say, “WHAT IS THY BIDDING, MY MASTER?”

[@rgmusicom]

@@JagoHazzard If only. But to his eternal credit, apropos of nothing he did step into Emperor voice briefly for my benefit. I still have that recording. 🥰

[@4KExplorer]

Ah, I miss the days of walking down the stairs to the track level at Covent Garden and seeing all the tourists huffing and puffing on the way up, regretting their decision not to take the lift.

[@XalphYT]

I probably met you on my way up.

[@stevecollier4741]

I was stupid enough to walk up the stairs because there were queues for the lift and I thought I was going to die it was never ending I contemplated going back down but kept thinking it must be the last bend, it was eventually I even ran a little bit of the way (57at the time) I never saw one single person on the stairs now I know why quite an eerie experience never again!!!

[@mrsevelync6900]

@@stevecollier4741 loooool what an experience 🤣

[@bananaskin7962]

I love your uploads. Not just they are informative and educational, I like the way and the pace you talk. It's very soothing and almost therapeutic.

[@RogersRamblings]

In the late 1970s/early 80s I was Piccadilly Line train crew. For many years the station was closed on Sundays and trains were none stop although the signalling required them to slow to 5mph at the platform starting signal. The standing instruction was that Guards were not to open their own door while passing through. One of my colleagues asked another if he knew the reason for keeping the door closed. Upon replying "No" he was told that it was in case the ghost dragged one out. Passing through on a Sunday train the destination board (still an original) lit up with the destination, Arnos Grove, and "For non-stop stations change at Holborn". IIRC non-stopping of stations had ended at the outbreak of WW2.

[@Bluehoke98]

This channel is completely outside of any of my interests yet it's oddly captivating! Love it

[@JagoHazzard]

Thanks!

[@ninacurran7322]

I've always found station that use lifts to be archaic and unsafe. I used to live around Russell Square (also on the Piccadilly line) and that station was such a pain to use; you only have two losing options: disgustingly crowded lifts or 175 spiral steps.

[@jamesgilbart148]

The spiral stairs at Covent Garden station in the up direction are a good (free) workout and less cramped than the lifts.

[@robertweissman4850]

Most informative + containing the required wit. This is a station I always liked, with several unusual features that you mentioned. Very good views combined with the commentary.

[@151mattwilson]

I'm here! I'm here. I'm up

[@cargy930]

Just give me 5 more minutes, Mum.

[@chrislascelles1]

I used to work in the Strand in the 70's and 80's and commuted via Covent Garden. By then it was always very crowded during the rush hours. Trying to get into a crowded lift to descend to the platform one evening I was jammed on the outside of the doors as they shut - trapping a large section of the 'mac' I was wearing in the doors . The Lift set off and I was stuck there for about 5 minutes before the lift - eventually - returned and the doors opened to release me. The press of people waiting was such that I'm not sure anyone else even noticed!! Happy days. Great video yet again Jago - thank you,

[@bryanmower2703]

Down Street was converted into wartime barracks including living quarters for Winston Churchill. I was lucky enough to inspect it some years ago. You should contact LUL and ask to make a video.

[@BlaiddLlwyd]

I've always liked Covent Garden station. Probably because it does have that old fashioned feel to it, like a living museum almost. I have used the stairs more than once, I was younger then though. Nice to see it again.

[@lmrandlette]

In 1976-1977 a local nonprofit community housing association and Covent Garden Community Association proposed a housing refurbishment / redevelopment effort for the Seven Dials area around the recently-vacated Covent Garden market. As a visiting college student at the time, I assisted in conducting a detailed survey of housing conditions and report preparation. We advocated for existing housing stock to be maintained and vacant buildings and sites redeveloped as additional affordable housing for local Camden Borough residents. In late summer 1976 I travelled the subway to Covent Garden station on one of the last operating days before it was shut down for an extended time. I still recall how eerie the area felt as absentee landowners neglected their holdings. Now, year’s later the area is so gentrified it’s hard to believe the transformation!

[@martindeane9631]

Whenever I see the tiles on the platform at Covent Garden, I remember visiting the Jackfield Tile Museum near Ironbridge in Shropshire where the tiles were manufactured and where there is still a display of the platform design.

[@Hochmann2]

I’m feeling sick today (to my stomach). This video and a cup of camomile have helped me. Thank you ☺️

[@isashax]

I love the Covent Garden area and I have used the station very often as a tourist. I am glad that it still exists!

[@hirundine44]

Was thinking about the times I visited with my Mother. My Mom was a party girl at heart and took little encouragement to come out for a play or opera, when she was alive. Visited CG last in 2015?? after her death; about then and was not particularly impressed with what was on offer, there.... sigh! All those people dressed like the tin man on a plinth... good lord? One time, when I visited there with my ex. in 1980... theatres in full swing and great street preforming magician!! Never once took the elevator except when we took in "Lady in Black"... I think? Maybe not? Maybe Leister Square? since on Northern line? Memory is a beast... hehe

[@ambrsanford3703]

On my first trip to London the very first thing I did after taking the Tube from Heathrow was get off at Covent Garden and take the stairs carrying my very heavy, rather large backpack. I was aware of which staircase it was, but thought, "Ah, how hard could it be?" I actually made it pretty well with only one brief pause, but I felt every bit of the weight of that pack. I have zero regrets.

[@OneBentMonkey]

So many stairs!! If I remember correctly, there’s 196 (or 192?) nearly all of which is a death spiral. My aching glutes-never again. Definitely needs more lifts!!

[@grassytramtracks]

Really could do with escalators, but that would ruin the feel of the station, mind building more lift shafts could well too, no clear easy solution

[@Simon-1965]

I remember going in the lorry with my dad to Covent Garden, we carried vegetables and potatoes to the market. I really thought that the market was Covent Garden!

[@jacquelinewesson1202]

I use Charing Cross to get to Covent Garden as it’s quicker than waiting for the lifts or dealing with the crowds at CG

[@adrianherbert5384]

Impossible not to like. You purvey great rhetoric of our history that we all just take for granted. Well Played.

[@JagoHazzard]

Thanks!

[@rickc5303]

We used the stairs once,..after it started to rain we and every Londoner bolted from the German Christmas Festival in Hyde Park, leaving the train at Covent Garden and recognizing the lifts would take some time we tackled the stairs. One of our group was a very fit young man and the climb was a lark for him but for the girls (and others near us) it was considered a mistake that I have been reminded of on occasion, for some time, decades in fact!! LOL! There are allot of stairs, there is a sign at the half way point that can only be consider mocking since there is no option to avoid the the second half of the climb!! A pint at Punch and Judys was well enjoyed after though!

[@Ribeirasacra]

4:32. Old signage "No exit" newer and smaller signage "Way Out". The frontage is protected. So I hope the platform and the associated tiling and signage is too.

[@Tinderchaff]

You have this weird situation in a couple of places in London where the front has been protected, so they pull down the rest of the building and put up a new one behind. In one place I have seen, in the East End, the old wall is propped up with metal beams. It's really ugly, making the new building look like it is wearing a bad mask. Just imagine if they did that with some tube stations.

[@PerCPH2200]

Almost all platform tiling was renewed some 10 years ago (give or take a few years) but as a close replica of the original. Parts of the old were indeed very worn already by the early 1990s.

[@worldcomicsreview354]

@@Tinderchaff John Lewis in Cambridge was spread out over loads of small shops, with all sorts of weird floor level changes. They ended up building a new building, but keeping most of the old frontages, and even turning many of them back into small shops again.

[@handsome_jay_]

The old covent garden, I remember it only too well.

[@TEBEnthusiast]

The ghost was not harmed in the making of this video

[@18robsmith]

I was wondering what you were going to dig up about covent GARDEN station.... I've used the stairs on a few occasions, there is a technique that can be applied on the way down to reduce the number of steps required and still arrive at the bottom in one piece, but it doesn't work on the way up

[@2H80vids]

I'm sure it would "work" on the way up, just take a lot more effort.😁

[@18robsmith]

@@2H80vids One would have to reverse the sign for gravity, and last time I looked that proved to be both fairly near impossible and painful :-(

[@highpath4776]

@@18robsmith I find it changes the pull on the leg muscles to take two at a time - also vary the wide step part and the narrow ones

[@18robsmith]

@@highpath4776 Two steps at a time on the way down is for wimps - the optimum is to make it from one landing to the next in a single step, but two is a little "safer"... (and just hope nobody is either coming up, or going down too close in front)

[@highpath4776]

@@18robsmith I hope I said two going up, as two going down can ruin the ligaments on your heels due to angles of landing, the five or to the landing jumps are the best if you are young,

[@greatportlandstreetmodelra6513]

Once again a great video! Its that type of videos you can watch for hours on end without getting bored.

[@JagoHazzard]

Thank you!

[@tacosmodernrice]

I worked at the Transport Museum for a time. Lovely place. Living on the central line I would just get out at Holborn anyway. I would occasionally use Covent Garden to go elsewhere after work and there was an odd sort of nostalgia about it, probably primed by working with all that history.

[@23Daves]

I used to work close to Covent Garden tube station and decided to use the stairs every morning as part of a general drive to get myself fitter. After about three months I gave up on the daft idea. I probably breathed in so much dust and grime that the benefits were negligible! Somebody told me that the ghost had been spotted on the stairs a lot. I never did see him, obviously (or indeed notice anything else strange or eerie).

[@stevesalvage1089]

Yes the underground museum is reached via covent garden , it also is a deep station I think one of the deepest below sea level , was hamstead the deepest but only because it's under a hill ? There you go more material for Mr jago ! Thanks for the film !

[@highpath4776]

hampstead is deepest below ground level - cos there is a hill above it !, I think the jubilee went deeper generally

[@AcornElectron]

Always interesting and informative! Keep up the good work fella and stay safe.

[@spiccybaby]

New Covent Garden market is, of course, built on the site of Nine Elms shed (railway steam engine depot) aka 9E.

[@evilcraftknife5705]

There's nothing wrong with Covent Garden. Their Tomato and Basil soup is delicious.

[@pigknickers2975]

underrated

[@davida9359]

...not just residential, it is the station for the Royal Opera House...there was a notice telling you how to get there along Floral St.

[@wooble73]

Great story again! Love the tube stories series! 👍

[@destiny035]

Listening to you is like listening to the narrator of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (the series) :D Love it!

[@neilthehermit4655]

One of my favourite stations. - I spent a year working there running a Cafe on Neal Street,liked the mix of tourists and locals.(early 90's). Keep 'em comming fella ! OH nearly 85 K subs...brilliant.

[@5lowburner]

Bloody hell! A real proper documentary on KZbin, with facts, and research and everything. Good work, Sir!

[@5lowburner]

I shall have to restore normality by making a video of a teenager reacting to it. 😉

[@jajeronymo]

A great video for a charming little station -- which for some reason I've never been to. Cheers Jago.

[@valvlog4665]

It's a wonderful oddity and I am glad it survived. Hoorah for the Home Sec. who blocked re-development. BTW: There's another of those solid red roundels at Ealing Broadway on the District platform.

[@KatTheScribe]

I'll be visiting Covent Garden later this year. Can't wait!!

[@thegreenmanofnorwich]

The idea that Covent garden was once a working class area is just so peculiar to me. I worked in Covent garden in the mid 00s. It's just absurdly expensive.

[@dodgyvideo]

In the mid 19th Century it was a slum. Seven Dials was one of the worst rookeries of Victorian London.

[@dekjn]

Tiles by Craven Dunnill (Jackfield ) Ltd. They have a mock up of part of Covent Garden platform in their museum 🙂

[@marcocura295]

I didn't know Temple was that close to it. Thank you!

[@Ichioku]

It is quite close, but it is not so convenient because of the gradient and crossing the Aldwych.

[@michaeljames4904]

Were viewers of Mr Hazzard’s ever excellent KZbin channel inclined to enjoy the Powell & Pressburger masterpiece _The Red Shoes (1948)_ among its many delights is seeing the production’s ballet dancers weaving their way through the daily scrum of fruit porters and stallholders, of Covent Garden’s (now relocated) ancient market, in a rush to get to their rehearsals at the Royal Opera House, also sited there.

[@russellb1212]

Ive always used the stairs there, the foot tunnel is a good idea. I do enjoy these videos, always interesting

[@Exploited89]

No "cheerio" at the end?! 😢

[@SportyMabamba]

Budget cuts ✂️

[@annother3350]

Lock down has made him less cheeri

[@chrisparkes2179]

My best friend lithographed the "Covent Garden" tile panels shown.

[@cushmanproductions]

In downtown Chicago, 3 (formerly 4) of the stops on the CTA's Red Line are so close to each other that they share the same platform. At 3,501 ft long, it's the longest train platform in the western hemisphere. Currently, the two closest stations are about 300 yards apart (street to street); you could literally walk from station to station along a single platform.

[@shaunwest3612]

Great video jago, beautiful old station👌😃👍

[@nigelstringfellow5187]

Another excellent video Jago,and thank you mentioning Down Street.Cheers

[@wickiezulu]

Given its nature, it is funny how there were plans during the 1960s-1970s to make Covent Garden into a major underground railway hub for a pair of Crossrail type schemes linking Victoria to London Bridge and from Paddington to Liverpool Street.

[@bigaspidistra]

I think it was at Covent Garden that my young cousin asked me why as it has lifts that they don't go down to the platforms but there are then stairs to get to them instead. Hard to defeat the logic of a 7 year old.

[@grassytramtracks]

Well, they have a good point, if you can't climb stairs at all it's no good having a lift if it doesn't get you to the platform

[@ayindestevens6152]

I was studying abroad in the UK years ago and my classmates and I were to see a play near Convent Garden and upon getting off we saw the line for the lift and us young 20-somethings thought oh we can take the stairs......Big Mistake.

[@conorlane1]

I love Covent Garden aesthetically, but one of the greatest miseries London has to offer must be alighting at Covent Garden on a May/June morning, when the station is being used both by the summer tourists and everyone at King's College... queueing for the lifts will add another year or two to your commute time.

[@highpath4776]

The quickest route to covent garden is go to Charing cross, exit Strand North Side walk along strand then up Villiers Street

[@hectorthorverton4920]

You say 'mainly known as a fruit and vegetable market'. Don't you think that rather under-plays the place? 'The major wholesale produce market for the whole of London' might have been better. As for 'mainly known', I wouldn't say it was known for anything else. A scene of frenetic activity at 4.00 in the morning, with pubs open for the porters (and others), and pretty dead in the afternoon. The redeeming feature of the lorry traffic was that it happened when nobody else was about. The decision to move to Nine Elms seems to have been (a) expansion, (b) availability of LSWR site already in public ownership, (c) we don't want nasty dirty trades in lovely central London. Or am I biased?

[@highpath4776]

I think all the reasons you identified. The market (of course the city had spittlefields market) , really was less used with other wholesaling happening as supermarkets grew and hotels were served by the food service frozen companies

[@bganonimouse2754]

The slow people on the stairs mean its always a tricky business if you are in a hurry!