Why Everyone Hates Bank Station

[@caw25sha]

4:31 "300,000 people use Bank every day". It's actually only 7 people walking round and round all day trying to find the way out.

[@henrybest4057]

And three of them are LUL employees. Well, only two, the other one retired several years ago and has still not managed to get out.

[@rjjcms1]

Perhaps Tom Hanks can make a film about being stranded in it.

[@maryapatterson]

😂😂🥲

[@rjjcms1]

There's a cupboard somewhere in there where they really do keep their skeletons.

[@mr.mentesh8130]

@@rjjcms1 Wilson is down there somewhere

[@Dave_Sisson]

I was always confused by the English idea of "Bank Holidays", I wondered why would anyone have a day off work to celebrate such universally disliked financial institutuions? But now I understand that people lost at Bank Station sometimes need a full day to extract themselves from the labyrinthyne Bank Station and can't actually make it into work, thus 'Bank Holiday".

[@hannahk1306]

If you're curious about the real reason for the name, it was because that's the day the banks would go on holiday. Then people in other industries thought it was a good idea too or they needed the banks open to do business, so might as well close if they did.

[@coyotelong4349]

Because after leaving work for the holiday, by the time you’ve finished changing lines at Bank the holiday is over. That’s where the term “Bank Holiday” comes from

[@kaitlyn__L]

I suspect this is a joke, other replies :)

[@Alucard-gt1zf]

@@hannahk1306 I believe they picked the days football would be on to take a holiday

[@sidneymaster5]

Lol I suspect this comment was made as a joke

[@18robsmith]

One needs to understand the Bank/Monument station(s) is(are) actually a poly-dimensional entity that exists in several different time and distance zones.

[@emjackson2289]

The Lion, the Witch and the Underground Station

[@armorer94]

The entrance to bank is actually the front door to a tardis.

[@henrybest4057]

@@armorer94 Yes. Its much bigger on the inside than on the outside and you can get transported to a different time and place from there (Epping).😀

[@flyingbeep]

The Backrooms: London

[@orsomethingorno]

pretty sure it's Zone 1, but okay

[@crayzmarc]

I once helped a girl with her bags when I knew the escalators were out of service. She stopped to say thank you and I was like no there is another one after this.

[@crackhead4540]

😂😢😅

[@cloudbasedbear]

OH NO

[@rachel4539]

?

[@Vodaph0ne]

Did you get her number though?

[@bassekaman8315]

😭😂😂😂😂

[@rodjones117]

I particularly hate the bit where to get to the Central Line platforms you have to go up two flights of stairs and then down two flights of stairs...

[@mdidris4414]

Yes I always found that ridiculous going to the DLR platform.

[@oliverpunter3323]

I think its because it needs to go over the tunnel for the central line train. But I do also agree it feels like an obstacle course.

[@mdidris4414]

@@oliverpunter3323 it's good exercise I suppose!!

[@rodjones117]

@@oliverpunter3323 Yes, I'm sure that's the reason. It's a classic example of engineers solving a one-off problem to suit themselves, and inconveniencing thousands of people over a very long period of time. Even knowing thereason doesn't stop me hating it - you always see older people and those with buggies struggling over what seems like a pointless climb.

[@IshtarNike]

YES!

[@alanmoss3603]

It's generally accepted as true that Franz Kafka wrote his most Kafkaesque stories after spending an afternoon lost in Bank station (and NOT because he was frightened by a large beetle in Pret a Manger)!

[@davidpeters6536]

Classic reply. Thanks made me laugh.

[@rogerjenkinson7979]

VW's latest advertising shock tactic to increase sales.

[@yb958]

😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@zupermaus9276]

In WWII a mega-bomb felw down the entrance awning, bounced down 3 flights of stairs and exploded on the crowded platforms, creating a ginormous crater and killing over 50, of people sheltering there deep under cover from the danger on the surface

[@caligula3607]

😂😂😂

[@MrGreatplum]

I’ve always assumed that the Labyrinthine nature of Bank was to ensure that city workers got their 10,000 steps a day!

[@Ergamenes1]

I remember back when I was a college student, I once carried everything I needed for an entire term through the Northern to Central line interchange at Bank station. The experience, including the spiral staircase scarred me for life.

[@domramsey]

I once got lost in Bank Station. Three days I was down there. Aside from the light-up signs, I think the signage is terrible in Bank. I think that's one of the biggest problems with it. Elsewhere on the Underground, we are spoiled with incredibly well thought out and logical signage.

[@18robsmith]

Only three days - it was once rumoured that one of the builders spent years down their trying to get out......

[@Evgeniyasunbeamru]

@@18robsmith WHAT

[@domramsey]

@@18robsmith Some say he's still there, roaming the corridors between the Central and Northern lines.

[@AndyG73]

When I first started working at a firm in Docklands about 20 years ago, I used to go there via what I thought was the 'best route' - King's Cross Thameslink (an awful station - platforms too small and always very overcrowded) to Bank via the Northern Line then on the DLR to Westferry and then walking the rest of the way. Needless to say after about a week of this, I hated it for both the horrible slow ride on both lines (the DLR is fine but just rather slow, the Northern Line at the time was bad, cramped and hot) and the terrible, confusing, hot/crowded interchange at Bank. Instead I changed from my train at West Hampstead Thameslink, walked across the road to the Jubillee Line station and went all the way (quickly and almost always getting a seat) to Canary Wharf, which is a very nice, airy station indeed. A MUCH better journey all-round, including the journey time. Ever since I have tried to avoid Bank / Monument like the plague.

[@lugaretzia]

You got lucky. I had an uncle who was last seen in Bank station 7 years ago. Nobody knows what happened but having met my aunty I have my suspicions.

[@AtheistOrphan]

‘The Bank-Monument complex’ - I believe this can now be treated by drugs or therapy.

[@JagoHazzard]

“Doctor, he keeps babbling about an “oyster” and a “tube.”

[@jerribee1]

@@JagoHazzard The Oyster and Tube sounds like a really up to date pub name.

[@henrybest4057]

@@JagoHazzard "Nurse! We need to put in a central line and a drain immediately. Quick, before he goes DLR!"😀

[@millomweb]

@@jerribee1 Isn't Oystertube an underground station in the middle of nowhere ?

[@millomweb]

@@henrybest4057 A rather nice injection of humour.

[@lesleygall8237]

I spent over decade day in, day out changing at Bank from Waterloo& City to Central Line when I lived in Hainault. I absolutely hated that bloody station, in particular that sodding travelator. I had no idea that crowd management was a factor until I watched your video. I spent literally years being manipulated. I wonder how many years of my life was spent in eternal corridors and on escalators? Great video. Loved it!

[@paulveitch]

Before covid, I used bank every day. I enjoyed finding the fast ways and going against the traffic

[@millomweb]

@@paulveitch Could it be a contender for the first pedestrian roundabout ?

[@iankemp1131]

The big snag is that the W&C is always far away because it was originally a completely separate station built with no thought of future interchange. In fact the W&C was built before any of the rest of Bank! My dad remembered it in the days before the travolator when you had to walk the whole of that passage, which was even worse!

[@paulveitch]

@@iankemp1131 there is a cut through to the northern line.

[@iankemp1131]

@@paulveitch But not avoiding the travolator surely? Unless it's new - I don't use Bank regularly and it has been changed a bit over the years.

[@truckerallikatuk]

"Keep the station Hazzard free"... sounds like you're doing a fine job of that Mr. Jago.

[@fumthings]

he already said he didn't like going there...

[@jmtubbs1639]

The previous shot showed a poster that said some people need more time than others, all day at Bank, it seems. I lost my ticket last time I was there. Thanks to banks I was able to buy another.

[@jgodfrey546]

One really has to bank on one's sense of direction to negotiate around such a monumental station

[@dimensional_fusion]

Da dun tss.

[@DealerD8vE]

I'll get your coat.

[@UndergroundRolo]

Best comment I've ever seen

[@krissp8712]

Double whammy!

[@lavieenrose5954]

Love it 😍

[@albertbatfinder5240]

I have quite a few recurring nightmares and this video made me just now realise one of them is set in Bank. I recognised in a flash the entrance to the Northern Line at 2:14 from my dreams. Lost, chased, no way out, etc, etc, the usual stuff. I try the exit to the right, but run into a closed steel gate. I left London in 1982 so yeah, I am well and truly sick of this particular nightmare. But now that you’ve cemented it back in the real world maybe I can heal and move on.

[@alejandrayalanbowman367]

The secret is to get off one station before or after Bank and walk on the surface to one station after or before, respectively on the line you wish to change to thus avoiding the change at Bank.

[@JagoHazzard]

That’s my favoured method.

[@alexwright4930]

Or if you were travelling from Waterloo to Aldgate East, I guess you could walk over the Thames to Monument instead and avoid the Waterloo & City line.

[@uknowmyname007]

Good, for season ticket holders. But what if you use contactless. You would have to pay for another journey by tapping out

[@davidemmott6225]

@@alexwright4930 you'd walk to Embankment surely? Quite a bit nearer.

[@andeegreen]

I love Bank. Not many other places can you be frowned at by a yuppie city boy in a £3,000 suit in the morning and then help the same person [covered in his own vomit] not fall off the platform blind drunk at 7pm! It’s a unique place and when you’ve worked around this area, it actually becomes a special and almost personal place. :-)

[@caw25sha]

Drunk by 7pm? Lightweight!

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@caw25sha I suspect he’d been drinking since getting into the office…

[@coyotelong4349]

@@caw25sha Not if he’d been drinking since 7am 😂

[@mraeece]

Can’t forget the Telegraph folded under the arm of the yuppie

[@justsamoo3480]

We love a Stockholm syndrome moment

[@dyslexiksteve2488]

I travel to bank often and never could understand why I could not learn the route around it. Now that I know it's like the staircases at Hogwarts, I feel a lot better about myself 😂

[@Marvin-dg8vj]

There are also werewolves on a full moon.

[@Snowshowslow]

That is such a great comparison! 🍪

[@dyslexiksteve2488]

@@Snowshowslow thanks!

[@paulsengupta971]

@@Marvin-dg8vj I thought the werewolves were at Tottenham Court Road?

[@richardharrold9736]

@@dyslexiksteve2488 some say Jo Rowling got the idea for those stairs when she spent a week commuting into the City via Bank Station...

[@zork999]

I don't like Manument/Bonk in general, however, my favorite thing on the entire underground is there. That being the Greathead shield that they discovered when digging the walkway to the DLR. It had been used to make the Drain and just left in situ. OK, it's not much to look at, but just the idea that they ran across it 89 years later and incorporated it into the pedestrian tunnel is really neat.

[@AidanMmusic96]

Still the best T-shirt I own ;)

[@iankemp1131]

Didn't know that, I must look out for it next time I'm there. Even more appropriate given that Greathead's statue is on the surface. I wonder if it's directly above the shield?!

[@daria.morgendorffer]

Bonk. Teehee.

[@crispoman]

I would like to propose a new portmanteau (as the tube is so fond of them) for the Monument/Bank complex: "Mank". So anything as depressing, dingy and outright soul-destroying as the aforementioned complex would be referred to as "Manky" which, of course, it already is.

[@wafflewoman4769]

😆😆😆😆😆

[@4623620]

This reminds me of one of my visits to London. I got out to change lines at Bank, I became rather disorientated while on the move and it took almost an hour before I found the platform I was looking for (that's why I remember the name of the station). Thinking it over now, I suspect I was a victim of changing routes, walking to the end of a corridor and then being sent back by direction arrows that had been switched while I was on the way.

[@joline2730]

462: Yep, they do that for fun ... they have a right larf in the control room ‼️‼️😁😁

[@BlaiddLlwyd]

I ended up changing trains a lot at Bank when I was studying in London, at all times of day. Most times I felt like I was in some, improbably given their budgets, vast set for Doctor Who or Blake's 7. A sort of futuristic, brightly lit, dystopian maze of corridors expressly designed for Daleks or Federation troopers to rush along in pursuit of the main characters.

[@ladiorange]

Great video. Both pregnancies I used bank. There is a little known lift. Also, easy to continue watching Netflix downloads on city travilator. True story, once I saw sign saying Waterloo and city partial closure- always regret not taking a photo

[@ArinatorGrande]

Is it to get to the DLR

[@ladiorange]

@@ArinatorGrande i live near @high path so I can take either the district line; the northern line; the thameslink or southern rail to get into town. Once in town, I can use a number of exit stations - bank, moorgate, liverpool street, blackfriars, mansion house, cannon street. So as a result I have used all of the above mentioned lines and stations. DLR is used for special occassions. Seriously. You can sit near the front which is great for the young ones. And it feels like a roller coaster. you also travel over water. If I recall correctly, one of the DLR stations is near Emirates so you can also go on that. Again for the young ones.

[@ladiorange]

King Williams's lift goes to the road. Bank is under refurbishment. They are not introducing step free from northern line add king William lift did this before refurb

[@upthebracket26]

A group of schoolkids from Luxembourg got lost in Bank tube station in 1981. Only five skeletons have been recovered. the other 3 and their teacher are still missing.

[@tt-ew7rx]

I was there no more than five times and previously I could swear that each time it was different. And this has been a recurring dream/nightmare for me similar to sitting an exam without any knowledge of the paper. Now I know it was not just imagination.

[@alexrobertssings]

Some say if you walk far enough down those corridors. You can find a whole society of forgotten souls who got lost down there. Some still dream of "outside", to some they've been there so long they've forgotten what outside even is. All that exists is "bank". Of course these are only roumers as anyone who has ventured that deep has never returned to tell the tale.

[@yamiyomizuki]

I think Neil Gaiman wrote a novel with a similar premise.

[@aljol54]

In my day, the tube map showed Monument and Bank as two separate stations with an "escalator connection" drawn between them. I think you might have been able to buy a ticket between the two stations, just to travel via the escalator. As I remember, the connection between Monument and the Northern Line was quite reasonably just the escalator. However, to get to the Central Line you had to walk the entire length of the dangerously narrow Northern Line platform, then along interminable corridors and stairs. Calling it an "escalator connection" seems like misrepresentation.

[@ianhelps3749]

I once had to change at Bank from the Northern line to the W and C. There was building work at the station so had to follow diversion signs. It was about 20 minutes following dingy corridors, up and down flights of steps, and a metal spiral staircase which may have been temporary. It really was taking the p*ss. There might be old corridors which are no longer used and are closed off to the public (maybe Siddy Holloway would know). Also in Berlin, Kurfurstendamm and Zoologischer Garten are so close together they could knock a couple of walls down and make one station.

[@wibblywobblyidiotvision]

I had a dream last night, that I was at King's Cross, which had mysteriously changed place with Camden Town. I needed to get a northern line train on the city branch, but the names of the branches and all the stations had changed, except at Euston, so I had to change there. Wierd.

[@AndreiTupolev]

"Only last night I found myself lost by the station called King's Cross" - Pet Shop Boys, 1987

[@DeathInTheSnow]

Bank is actually so warped that time folds over itself, causing spatial anomalies, such as the aforementioned Cannon St. St. issue and is actually why part of it is called Monument. In the timeline you have here there's actually a part that bisects into your neighbouring dimension, who happened to call it Monument instead. They're also curious as to why part of theirs is called Bank. There are also pathways and tunnels that you can use to explore the time anomalies to visit ancient earthlings that exist in their own time and yours concurrently, such as Nebkheperure, Anthracotherium, Docodonta and Dickinsonia. I'm not sure if any of them use the Tube.

[@netking66]

There was a science fiction story about that sort of thing years ago. A city built a new subway line that improved the connectivity of the whole network. Trouble was the connectivity was so good that trains got caught in a fourth dimension time warp and just disappeared for long periods.

[@RobertS1089]

@@netking66 A Subway Named Mobius by A J Deutsch

[@netking66]

@@RobertS1089 Thanks - I read it in an anthology of pretty wacky SF stories such as two guys who approached the Superintendent of a building to lease the 13th floor when there was no such floor. To cut a long story short the Superintendent ended up being trapped for ever on the mythical 13th floor.

[@tsk67166]

Your description of Bank Station made me thinking about mycelium. I read that fungus can create massive sprawling network of mycelium under the soil, which also wraps tree roots and so on... Actually whole Tube network with every tunnel, vent shaft, branches and station entrances could be compared to mycelium....

[@dblyth5098]

.....but Mycelium use (somehow) the most efficient way of getting from A to B.

[@martyonline1957]

mycelium was one thing I never considered while travelling through Bank

[@ironjade]

See Star Trek: Discovery for advice on mycelial networks.

[@reggie18b]

I'm sure someone told me once that Japanese had used mycelium as a way to find the most efficient design for an underground system...

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@reggie18b might be slime mould.

[@michellebell5092]

Ahh, Bank and Monument. I’m glad you appear to consider it to be one station. I used it for the best part of 40;years. It does have two quite distinct main ticket halls, the Bank - Central, W&C and DLR and the Monument - Circle/District and Northern . ( Northern should definitely be a Monument tube line). But it’s “Bankument “ or “Monubank”

[@millomweb]

Monu-mental Bank ?

[@julianaylor4351]

I've only ever done the Bank corridor walk twice, never again, awful. The second time that put me off forever, was during rush hour, when the staff were waving us around like a policeman, on points duty. That was in the early nineties. They may be doing the reroutes with signs now, but twenty years ago it was staff bossing you around. Plus the lighting was minimal in some areas, and the first time it was damp from rain soaked people.

[@PavlosPapageorgiou]

Two-phase randomized routing: To prevent congestion between A and B, route from A to somewhere random and then from there to B. This was invented in the 1980s for data packets, but maybe it has found other uses.

[@millomweb]

Don't we all use that 'lose it-find it' system ? There's a train-load of passengers - now where did I put them ?

[@RogersRamblings]

The idea was first applied to London underground stations. In some cases the route from the escalators to the platform is longer than the route from the platform to the escalators. Holborn Piccadilly is an example.

[@stephenhunter70]

With RIP version 1 used in the traffic flow for "good" measure! Not to ensure the route with the least hops is used, but to ensure the route with the most hops is used.

[@EmmaVB82]

@@RogersRamblings I used to work next to Holborn station around 2008-2010-ish, coming in from Holloway Road on the Piccadilly line (actually, starting in Upper Holloway, so first there was a walk down the road on particularly energetic days, or (most often) a ride on the 43 or 271 bus). As someone with lifelong punctuality challenges, especially in the morning (and undiagnosed ADHD at the time), my lasting memory* of that commute is the sense of rising panic and frustration from *almost* being on time to work and being basically there already from a birds eye view, but being held up in queues and overcrowding trying to get from the platform up to those escalators, and having to end the commute marching up that fairly substantial escalator and arriving to my desk as an out of breath sweaty mess. Such joys! * One other lasting memory from that commute - during the tube strikes in June 2009, I ended up walking either all or part of the way there and back, and walked past Stephen Fry on a quiet leafy street in Russell Square! Not the most exciting anecdote because at most I might have nodded and smiled and said hello (but probably a subset of those), though by London commuter standards that’s basically a full conversation! (The company later relocated to an office in Soho, and my lasting commuter memory became frequently being stuck outside of Oxford Circus when it was closed for overcrowding… and I subsequently moved house 3 times, going a bit further north east each time, to the point where that 4 stop single tube line commute from Holloway to Holborn seems like an unbelievable luxury now!)

[@RogersRamblings]

@@EmmaVB82 In the late 1960s I worked for a few weeks in a shop in High Holborn travelling in from Hanwell. At the time the upper escalators were the longest on the system and being a reasonably fit teenager I usually ran up it two at a time. Now, I take the opportunity to relax., 😂

[@CyclingSteve]

Bank is my favourite tube station, perhaps because I realised long ago that you can shorten Northern/DLR transfers to Monument by using the Northern line lifts and wandering through some alleyways.

[@loltangera]

Great video! I believe there was a sort of competition for the redesign of the station with the winner being the consortium who could create a design that sped up passenger flows the most.

[@rogerjenkinson7979]

Presumably the Loser is routed into Bank and the arrows are switched onto the continuous cycling program so they can't get out.

[@gigitrix]

I think I have some form of stockholm syndrome with Bank, after a while of dealing with it it's sheer ridiculousness became it's own art form that I have somewhat of a soft spot for. Feels somewhat parasitic, won't be long before the thing absorbs Cannon Street too and I for one welcome our liminal underlords

[@ridbensdale]

I LOVE Bank. It’s like being in a secret bunker with all those corridors.

[@Thepuffingyank]

back in the 90's i flew from hartford to Jamaica. changing planes in nyc and miami. i don't know if miami has redesigned their airport since but going from domestic to international, endless corridors that go for what feels like miles. never again. i got the distinct feeling that whoever designed it, never erased their mistakes but just kept going until they got it right

[@stephenweston1807]

I used to travel Heathrow to Dublin in the days when the planes went from terminal one gate eight. I often though of asking for a partial refund on the ticket as it felt that I'd walked a lot of the way there!

[@alejandrayalanbowman367]

Miami is ghastly or was, the last time I was there (15 years ago.) Atlanta is nearly as bad but at least there is a train to get lost on.

[@rjjcms1]

If you want a nice brisk,long walk,try any of the farther-out gates at Hong Kong's airport.

[@jameshughes2658]

Miami hasn't changed at all then, changed there on my flight home from Jamaica in 2018. Just feels like one endless corridor that stretches for miles and miles and walking forever to try and find your gate for your flight

[@dcarbs2979]

Jamaica is in NYC. You went too far! If working airside at Gatwick for a number of years is anything to go by, and I witnessed the building and opening of an entirely new pier. Then it is designed for one purpose but is difficult to change as traffic and route demands do, so it gets left there, and new parts built/adapted. Sometimes they need to expand the airport service (e.g. more gates/stands) without expanding the footprint of the airport. Increasing traffic and passenger numbers by having more stands to load aircraft from. Sometimes this can only be done as an extension of the existing terminal building due to the airline contracts (e.g. some *must* have airbridge access to the building, while other, usually smaller airlines opt for remote stands that require buses to take passengers to the terminal over the aircraft taxi ways). The latter is cheaper, so more popular with smaller airlines.

[@Hollandstation]

As a dutch person that loves making videos about transport infrastructure, I really want to go to the London underground now!

[@CatnipMasterRace]

I think the biggest problem with bank (which also happens to be the one they're fixing) is that the northern line platforms double as train platforms and as the only viable interchange route between the district/circle lines and the central and waterloo and city lines.

[@Marvin-dg8vj]

Exactly.It is too busy with too many different lines of commuters crossing each other at peak times. People are rude , impatient and walk fast.I have seen one unpleasant fight caused by pushing.

[@Tapman99]

As a Bank regular, I find it best not to follow the lit up arrows. Once you find a good route out of the station or between platforms, just remember it and use that one. Just be aware that some routes are shut at the weekend. Weekdays and weekends are night and day, it is like navigating a completely different station.

[@dianastevenson131]

Even at Embankment station, some of the signage to the District Line is for crowd control and takes you a long way round. I'm always there outside the rush hour so I use the sneaky quick way down to the westbound District Line platform that I remember from childhood in the 60s when we went to the museums. It feels so good, going against the No Entry sign and skipping down the stairs to the platform in one minute - like being a kid again. And there's still a counter selling sweets at the bottom of the stairs.....

[@Jimverse_]

I use bank station all the time - I never thought of it as weird because I'm so used to it but you're right it is. I usually go from central to northern and you have to walk past signs to the other stations and then just happen upon the northern one. Getting to monument is a mission, you're better off just walking overground I think.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Funnily enough I kind of liked getting lost in the corridors. But then I’d noticed the light-up signs and decided to investigate if there were any gates or if they relied on crowd behaviours, and came pretty much right onto the platform I needed - the people I’d been walking with showed up 5-10 minutes later!

[@andrewfrancis3591]

Bank and Kings Cross. I cant help thinking the final iteration is going to be a DNA double helix of tunnels capable of holding thousands of passengers. I'm sure it will help to regulate the platforms.

[@ladiorange]

what about when thameslink kings cross was a full walk outside of kings cross underground! to me, the most interesting aspect of the kings cross rebuild is there is a sad little dead zone of stores on a cobble path - not sure if anyone even knows it is there. Kind of reminds me of the end alley at camden market (not sure if that is even there anymore - picked up the most amazing set of trays in the 2000s there....)

[@RJSRdg]

Actually KX is pretty easy to change lines at if you know what you're doing ;-)

[@scratchchris]

Back in the 60s, I lived about equidistant between Monument and Bank - always used Bank rather than Monument. If memory serves, there weren't any escalators to the Northern platforms so you had to use the lifts. There's an idea for a video... the old lifts on the Northern

[@29brendus]

I blame The Red Headed League myself who apparently started the first of many corridors near Bank. Elementary my Dear Hazzard!

[@richardmattocks]

I’m convinced that Bank is bigger on the inside, and they keep changing the desktop to confuse people 😊

[@hedydd2]

A bit like Dr Who’s evil brother’s Tardis.

[@AndyG73]

Rather like the Hotel California, you can always tap, in, but never tap out...

[@cjayos7654]

Bank/Monument is monumentally complex. Hope that the refurb makes things easier to navigate. Reminds me of Chatelet Les Halles in Paris.

[@katbryce]

Except there, you can take the Line 4 metro from one end of the station to the other. But if you really want confusing, try the Opéra / Auber / Havre Caumartin / Haussmann Saint-Lazare / Saint-Augustin complex. It links RER lines A and E with metro lines 3, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, and Transilien lines J & L Lines 3 and 9 have three stations within the complex.

[@nystemy]

Now I am curious how this maze of Bank stands in comparison to the maze of T-Centralen on the Stockholm metro. A station that also is so larger that its entrances are spread over a large portion of central Stockholm. Though, it has for now mostly managed to not overlap the neighbouring stations.

[@jonathanwells10]

I have spent a fair bit of time wandering around T-Centralen on various trips to Stockholm and had come to think of it as Banks distant Scandi cousin. Almost as confusing too.

[@eurovision50]

And they want to make it even bigger by extending Roslagsbanan to it!

[@caw25sha]

Reading through the comments on this video there seems to be a lot of competition between various countries for the title of Most Confusing Station. Maybe it should become an Olympic sport.

[@nystemy]

@@caw25sha I don't think T-Centralen is the world's most confusing. To be fair, it isn't too confusing to navigate and is rather well signed as well. However, it is a surprising labyrinth of a station.

[@nystemy]

@@eurovision50 I wouldn't be against seeing Roslagsbanan at T-Centralen. They can put it to the east of the green and red, preferably bellow them so that one enters it by the "new" passage from Citybanan. Just so one has to spiral down all the way to Blå gången and then take the stairs down to Citybanan but turn left instead of right. However, this might interfere with the nuclear bunker already situated there... Or perhaps build the station between Norra and Södra mellanplanet used by Citybanan. Though, the little stop in the escalators when going up from the blue line to Sergelstorg could be used to have a tunnel linking to Hötorget. Integrating the two stations into each other. They are after all very close.

[@OldQueer]

I went to a conference a few years ago at the ExCeL centre. Throughout the conference they were giving out silly amounts of free drinks and I progressively got more hammered as the day went on. It was about 32 degrees in June and was just before rush hour when I left. I needed to be back at King's Cross by 7pm. This was the start of a perfect disaster. Pretty much as soon as I boarded the first train my bladder decided it was at capacity. Once I reached Bank I was genuinely in pain. The station must have been about 37 degrees and the queues were enormous. 3 trains went by and I still wasn't any closer to boarding. My suit was nearly translucent from sweat at this point. Eventually I arrive at King's Cross at 18:45; much tighter for time than I anticipated. I ran to the toilets and realise I didn't have any change to get through the turnstyle. Panicking that I was about to wet myself, I thought sod it I'll see if my train home is here yet and ran to the platform. Relief! It was there I scramble on board and go straight to the first toilet. It was occupied. Who on earth uses a toilet before the journey starts? I didn't know how long they'd be so I left that carriage and went to the next one down. Vacant toilet, brilliant. I get in, lock the door, unzip, but in my folly don't to take myself out properly. The sweat had caused my underwear to stick to my leg and my hurrying around caused them to ride up a bit. I end up urinating directly into my trousers for a good 4 seconds before I realised what was happening. All that pain and suffering only to wet myself in a toilet. I then had to sit on a very crowded train to Edinburgh for over four hours stinking of sweat and urine. Nevertheless, it was best slash I've ever had and I give my thanks to Bank for its key contribution to the experience.

[@starbarrothschild6597]

All the best novelists use this amount of detail to draw out the emotions of the reader. You didn't even reveal your gender until the last few sentences, by use of the word "slash".

[@cameroncook2048]

If you come into Bank on the Central line, go though the "No Entry" spiral staircase. It's the fastest route - despite it being a no entry area.

[@johalareewi]

Many thanks for the heads up about the lighting up arrows. Used Bank today to go from W&C to Central. At the top of the W&C travelator the signs for the Central line said go right (to the Northern line) rather than left down the escalator. Thanks to this video I knew to ignore them and take the escalator. Coming back (Central to W&C) I noticed the lack of signs to the W&C so I followed the Way Out sign to the escalator. At the bottom I could just make out an obscured W&C direction sign. I guess they don't want passengers using the escalator as a 'shortcut' between W&C and Central.

[@tlillis4]

If Mr. Hazzard doesn't care for Monument-Bank I can't imagine the heebee-jeebees he would have gotten from the most dire interchange in New York: Fulton Street. Four lines were connected in, as in London, a half hazard method which suited the individual train companies rather than make any sense whatsoever to the passengers. Connecting from one end to the other meant going through long, mugger infested corridors. In one place you came out at a platform and had to walk down about a quarter of the way to connect to the stairs that went under the line. No airconditioning - it was 100º one summer day I was there. I'm surprised they didn't provide sherpas for the tourists. Certainly they should have as routinely I'd be asked directions - in a subway station! It was only fixed in 2010 in a ruinously expensive piece of construction. I'm not kidding: $1,400,000,000! That's roughly half the cost of the Jubilee Line extension. For one flipping station!! I don't know much about the new station as, like many, I moved from the New York area and haven't looked back (I'm too busy counting the money I've saved). But certainly nothing like that will happen in London…

[@likklej8]

Baker Street used to have a cafe/ bar back in the late 60s. I love bank because of the Waterloo and City line. As a young train spotter we would catch the train to Waterloo. The stock was painted Southern Region green, lovely trains!

[@Gary0557]

I remember Bank station being hot even as a young boy in 1967, when we came back from the isle of Wight and I nearly fainted waiting for the Central Line train.

[@phystem1]

Thanks for this video. Being a foreigner Bank station brought me to my knees. I felt anxious, panicked and what felt like an endless walk before I get to the station. The next time I used the escalators. The next time it's the stairs again. I never used the same way in and out. I thought I was dumb to use the tubes. This video helped me boost my self confidence in ways you never know. I once walked round and round and went back 33 years in time. That's a story for another day

[@rwm2986]

Not on the same scale, but once when travelling from Waterloo to King's Cross, with a heavy suitcase, I made the mistake of Northern Line/Piccadilly Line changing at Leicester Square - never again!

[@a11oge]

been there, done that :-(

[@Loki1815]

I love the place and when I was 12 my cousin and I travelled in the front of the train with his dad, my uncle, who was a tube train driver from Waterloo to the Bank.

[@AndyG73]

Bank / Monument station (I too hate it) is typical of the British mentality - that of ingeniously being the first to do something technical (railways) but making a right pig's ear of the organisational side of things with next to no planning of note, which means we then spend decades, or even hundreds of years using said ingenuity (and treasure) trying to get around or overcome the serious failings of 'being the first' or 'doing it the British way'. Rather like after The Great Fire of London bowing to local landlowners and business to rebuild the medieval city quickly (to get them back up and running asap) layout under very similar higgledy-piggledy plans, rather than the sensible wide, mainly straight (but still very characterful) streets of most European cities, especially Paris. As an engineer, I've frequently come up against 'The British Way' which is mainly not thinking up front, waiting for the **** to hit the fan (expensively) later and then spending lots of time, effort and money dealing with it. It frustrates the hell out of me. We do though like to poke fun at this way of doing things, as the Heineken 'roadworks' advert showed. A pity it was only taken in jest and subsequently forgotten. Mild rant over. Damn you Bank!

[@alejandrayalanbowman367]

The building or re-building of a city on a grid plan is a delight for any invading forces - ask the Germans from WWII. The old Paris from the time of the Revolution had little twists and turns and little places which one could defend with just one person and a weapon. The same applies to the old Moorish cities and towns in Spain. If I take a wrong turning walking from my home in Spain to the village centre, I can find myself lost in several dead ends, such a move would be very inconvenient for invaders but then this village was often in the front line as the battles raged back and forth between the Moors and the Christians.

[@emy1975]

I did get lost there a year ago when they closed one route and you have to go out to change train. The sign didnt help . Thank God for the rare species of londoners who helped me find the interchange.

[@zdavis4222]

As a Brit who has never lived in London but who goes there occasionally, I have found the experience of the London Underground during weekday rush hours so irritating that I wonder why people are prepared to put up with the crowds, while gripping their handbags and wallets for fear of pickpockets. I remember going to Bank on a Saturday morning and walked along deserted corridors only to come out above ground and find that I had come out at Monument. I now know why, thanks to this video. I find it bizarre that the City of London is practically deserted at the weekend yet is absolutely rammed Monday to Friday.

[@camclark7046]

Oh. That brings up so many memories of an introductory queue theory course back in university. I had successfully blocked them for a long time. And now they are back. BTW, this very occassional visitor to London loves your Tales from the Tube.

[@BomberFletch31]

I was visiting London on holiday in late 2018 and being a foreigner, I had no idea that Bank was such a hassle to get around. I had to transfer from the Central Line to the DLR to get to Greenwich, and suffice it to say, I thought the tunnels were directing me all the way to Greenwich, such was the distance I thought I covered.

[@JamesSouthwood]

'Liked ' for the 'hazard free' sign at the end. Slickly done.

[@person7916]

Ugh the other day I did exactly that W&C platform to SS platform, I had to pass through the central line platform, the northern line platform and the DLR platform and walked for at least ten minutes I still enjoyed it 😶

[@hens0w]

Change at embankment next time

[@person7916]

😮

[@person7916]

Monument station shouldn’t exist

[@person7916]

@@sihollett So Canon street for the Central and W&C?

[@TestGearJunkie.]

I used to love Bank station, I used to go to college in Southwark and changed onto the Waterloo and City from the Central line there. Loved the spiral staircase and the travolator.

[@IIVQ]

From Wikipedia: "The station at Monument opened with the name "Eastcheap" on 6 October 1884, after the nearby street, and was renamed "The Monument" on 1 November 1884.". I might have missed it, but I don't recall hearing Eastcheap in your videos before. Does it count as the shortest-lived station name (25 days)?

[@Philosophiseraptor]

I used to think I was the only person frustrated by this station. I feel validated. Great video

[@JontyLevine]

On the subject of favourite Underground stations, I might just have to pick Mile End. It's just very (for lack of a better word) _cinematic._ Probably because a lot of movies are filmed on the New York Subway and the design of this station is rather similar and quite unlike most others on the network.

[@japethstevens8473]

All entrances around the Bank of England and the Royal Exchange used to connect to a circular access corridor. It was handy to get across the busy junctions simply by going down just below street level and going round to your required exit. City workers NEVER referenced the destination panels by each stairwell: that would indicate that you were a tourist (or worse, from out of town). The centre of the circle used to comprise a little warren of shop units that served the City workers: a tailor, dry cleaner, barbers, shoe repair, sandwich bar etc. I think we're just left with a newsagent, and they're on the outer wall of the circle. And one great feature still extant on the exit to the RE: public toilets (but they are run by the City of London).

[@CaptainPhlyer]

As a mathematician studying graph theory and networks (arguably a field well suited to modelling the tunnels of Bank/Monument), we... definitely are not witches, uh, no. Certainly not. Don't know where you got that idea, ahaha...

[@elliottg.1954]

Interesting video. As a young squaddie using the Underground several times a year in the mid-seventies to the 1980s, I always found it an unfathomable labyrinth. The escalators were a constant nightmare. It wasn't all that busy and there were plenty of available seats in those days, but I was always glad to get out of it.

[@delurkor]

As a non-resident of the sceptred isle, I have remind myself that Bank and Embankment are different stations. One you can see flowing water, the other you can see dough.

[@GinaCarden]

I generally only use the northern line-DLR at bank which is thankfully very close together. I don’t miss the days of the random spiral staircase up to the central line, the massive gap you actually have to mind and the three day trek to come out at monument. It took me so long to walk between lines once, I got lost and missed the last connecting train and was stranded in the city at night

[@dblyth5098]

It's years since I have done it, but Northern line (from the South) to DLR, seemed a very much longer walk, than from DLR to Northern Line (Southbound) I wonder if there is an online (3 dimensional) map of the corridors etc etc.

[@bentilbury2002]

There was, but they had to take it down. Everyone who viewed it went quite, quite mad.

[@distractionbucket7454]

I had a go at making a 3D model showing the current Northline Line upgrade works. As it only covers about half the station, it only drove me half mad! kzbin.info/www/bejne/f5uZe5h8pJlrias

[@rvedotrc]

I worked in London for 11 years, living there for the last 7 months of that, before leaving the UK entirely 3 years ago. During the time I was there, I started to get used to the shortcuts - if it was quiet enough, going the shorter route rather than the signed route. This video has suddenly made me realise that that's a skill while I have probably lost now. Thankfully I hardly ever had to use Bank!

[@michaelmorgan5559]

I once changed at Monument for the DLR and expected a long walk. Was pleasantly surprised the the DLR is actually very easy and quick to get to if you are entering Monument station. Made me wonder if saying DLR is Bank whether it was some sort of kudos at play.

[@hens0w]

So Bank and Monument are named for two points on the surface map (basically the junctions at each end of king William street) the Northern line and DLR platforms extend from one to the other (at different heights). (so if you are exit for Bank corner the DLR (Front of the train) is also very easy) But I think these should be called Monument to discourage connections at the Bank end non of which are easy. (Bank is build as a destination station)

[@martyonline1957]

I was a long time user of Bank station, Circle, Northern, Circle district....... the heat and humidity was always oppressive, even in winter. Seeing people with face coverings, just reminded my, how much I don't miss commuting. The maze of corridors through the station is a job for either Geoff Marshall or the tube runner guy, the quickest way in an out

[@rommee]

PLEASE do a list of stations that are a physical WORK-OUT!! ••• Bank/ Monument ; Green Park ; Euston ; Stratford ; Camden Town and any others you find

[@ladiorange]

The trick of Green park interchange is pretend to exit (escalator) and then take the correct line escalator down. Why is Camden Town a physical work out?

[@danielfrancis3660]

@ladiorange I've tried this when changing from jubilee to piccadilly line and vice versa. The time doesn't seem that different if you go via the station exit. I think thus is an urban myth

[@VioletteToussaint]

The 193-step stairs at Covent Garden. I still prefer that to the crowded lift though.

[@davidhorkan1868]

All those passages! Sounds like heaven to me.

[@cigibso]

Jago, as always a pleasure watching your posts. Here's a challenge for the Jago followers/Railfans. I'm remembering that fellow who lived in an American airport for years. So I wonder. What is the longest a visitor familiar with Bank/Monument could stay in this Liminal/Non-space without being escorted out? Your allowed to move from. Section to section, purchase from any vendors. Just don't pass any points where you have to scan your Oyster card. Just how long can one stay in Non-Space?

[@ladiorange]

That's easy. Exeter to Waterloo. then from the platform from waterloo, waterloo and city. then interchange to monument. Then circle line to any elizabeth line station. then the end of elizabeth line to west. Tap in a Exeter and exit at (is it maidenhead - i forget...)

[@ladiorange]

ah, no reading exeter to reading via bank. look it up on TFL journey planner - it exists :)

[@busylawbee]

@@ladiorange I think they meant how long can you wander around Bank station.

[@ladiorange]

@@busylawbee oh that is likely house of fraser end of monument to southbound northern line. You would think dlr, but no. Dlr starts at Bank so empty you can get on first train. At rush hour, you used to have to wait up to five trains to get on. Also see where you stand on the platform.

[@hillyhindleg]

Glad you mentioned Gants Hill, never noticed it that way.

[@thomasburke2683]

It is really five stations, all built separately but being forced to live together, like a polygamous man with four wives. You are my monumental subsurface station to my four deep level tubes.

[@hens0w]

You can apply that logic to every station not on the Victoria line. So I think we need to grant that both lines under king William street are in the same place and call it four Stations

[@alejandrayalanbowman367]

@@hens0w is that anything like "three bridges?"

[@robertbriggs5033]

I used Bank for the first time just a few days ago, and actually quite liked the walk up from the W&C platforms along the long rising tunnel. Trying to get back down to the W&C platform was hell, I somehow ended up on the Central line platform. And yes it was warm.

[@Outfrost]

Oh yeah, I remember Tom Scott's and Matt Parker's video about the "lies" at Bank. I love city infrastructure working its wonders to keep things moving, but I do also think some places - like Bank station - seem a bit overgrown and almost missing the point. Not in terms of the "lies", mind you, but in terms of just how long it takes to get out and start walking to your destination.

[@dcarbs2979]

Is that the one telling you about the 'wrong' way out due to crowd control as discussed in this video?

[@Outfrost]

@@dcarbs2979 Yeah

[@DarthCoco]

I had to click on this video right away. I am a tube/train fanatic, but hadn't visited bank station many times. Last september, I didn't know where I should go from bank station after going on the Waterloo & City line, and was very confused. A lady approached me on how to get the district&cicle line, and I said I couldn't help her, unfortunately. However as a fanatic, I decided it can't be too hard too. After following many signs with risk, I guided her smoothly.........................but was certainly shocked of how long that walking journey was. I immediately submitted a detailed complaint to Transport for London, including issues like unclear signage subject to assumption that day. I hope this northern line closure, calls for some decent restructuring

[@AndrewGruffudd]

If all else fails, blame Charles Yerkes. Especially when you're walking farther along the underground corridors than you would if you just moseyed to your destination directly...

[@PaulMcElligott]

“300,000 passengers use Bank every day.” And 100,000 of those arrived yesterday and are still looking for the exit.

[@martineyles]

I wonder whether they could somehow turn the Waterloo and City line into a DLR extension, replacing 4 terminating platforms with 2 through platforms, simplifying the station in the process.

[@MarilynnDelfino]

This video deserves more recognition.

[@Graham-ce2yk]

I went through the station in the 80s and the person I was with suggested that Bank had been designed by a rabbit!

[@stevefry5783]

Surely that was Warren Street?

[@Bunter.948]

And yet again another superb video. Thank you, Mr H. Simon T

[@RogersRamblings]

Monument opened in 1884. Bank opened in 1900. The connection between the two wasn't built until the 1930s by the LPTB. That's why they're two different stations. I'm sure TfL would be only too happy to close the connection between the two and save on the escalator maintenance bill if it would please some commentators to be able to describe them, once again, as two entirely different stations.

[@CyclingSteve]

Right? Those people who dislike it for it's size always insist it's one station.

[@gilldanier4129]

Wonderful places underground tubes. During the 70's I found myself at 'Clock House' The place that time forgot (Irony) Deep deep in the labrynths and bowels of London, I found myself, but completely on my own, not a soul around, not a footstep in the distance, but a strange quietness, the quietness of wood, as all the escalators there were of wood, not moving either, so I had to climb countless stairs to the top, only to find myself on an island in between traffic. I loved it, I loved that it was a place that I could find myself, and not many people, were there, just me. It was like a sort of meditation.

[@rainyfeathers9148]

Bank is a madness, I don't know anyone who hasn't lost a few marbles passing through🤕

[@lolageez1]

I did that whole walk a little while ago, it was such an up and down rollercoaster it really did stand out

[@saxbend]

So everyone hates bank because too many people use it, then if we could all just hate it a bit more such that fewer people use it, then those few people might find some happiness.

[@DMHS77]

Had the misfortune of using bank from the dlr the other weekend due to engineering works. It was taking so long to exit the station and its endless corridors that I was beginning to doubt my sanity. Finally seeing daylight made me deliriously happy!

[@kdisley]

5:52 Bit harsh to ban you, when all you've done is point out a few of the station's failings... they could've at least spelled your name right!