Where was Red Squirrel 7/5/2024

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

I didn't want to make this too easy, so I cropped the original. Here's the full picture, with added clues. The backwards writing is due the the 'johnneyw effect', otherwise know as a reflection:

[Red Squirrel]

So I'm not sure if this just died the death because no-one found it very interesting, or whether everyone just thought 'Ah, yeah' when Chris form Nailsea hit the nail on the head...

The photo shows the stairs leading down to the subway between Platform 12/13 and Platform 14/15 - in the pre-1965 numbering scheme. I only became aware of this subway when I studied the planning application for refurbishing old offices in the Midland Shed. I suppose it should have been obvious that there was some means of getting across the Old Station, but I'd not really given it much thought.

There don't appear to be any plans to restore this subway, or use it is any way, This seems a pity, though the cost of making it accessible presumably outweighs it's limited value. The recent plans actually involve covering over the lift shaft associated with the subway.

[johnneyw]

The backwards writing is due the the 'johnneyw effect', otherwise know as a reflection:

Arf arf!  I feel honoured to have an optical effect named after myself (I think)......even if it is confined to the august realm of the Coffee Shop.

I shall be endeavouring to have a look at this mystery staircase myself.... presumably no burly chap sporting a badge marked "security" will enquire as to my intentions.
It does seem a bit of a missed opportunity not to utilise this old feature of the station but perhaps there are planned operational rather than public uses for it.

[Red Squirrel]

I’m not aware of any plans to make any use of it, though it was, apparently, unblocked relatively recently.

My picture was taken through a window (hence the reflection) by holding my phone at full stretch above my head. You’d need a stepladder to get this view directly.

[Chris from Nailsea]

So I'm not sure if this just died the death because no-one found it very interesting, or whether everyone just thought 'Ah, yeah' when Chris from Nailsea hit the nail on the head...

Sorry about that, Red Squirrel. 

.... presumably no burly chap sporting a badge marked "security" will enquire as to my intentions.

You’d need a stepladder to get this view directly.

That sort of behaviour would (hopefully) cause a burly chap sporting a badge marked 'security' to enquire as to your intentions.   

[Chris from Nailsea]

Of course!  It's the stairs up to Platform 14. 

White hot, actually!

I'm going to offer you all a bit of background information here.

Red Squirrel and I were enjoying a pint in Stallards in Trowbridge yesterday, before the meeting at the WWRUG^» (West Wiltshire Rail Users Group - about).

He then challenged me as to whether I actually knew this answer.  I readily confessed that I did not: I had read his references to the undercroft at Bristol Temple Meads, (some of which I have visited, in a previous role) and I then had an inspired guess that his picture might be of the historic stairs up to Platform 14 (which, as any fule kno, doesn't exist ).

CfN