Bristol Temple Meads - station, facilities, incidents and events (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[Western Pathfinder]

Me too I've played a couple of skittle matches there myself. In the 1970s the WLA used to have meetings in the bar ,iirc. That's The Western Locomotive Assocation ,not The Woman's Land Army !.


Whilst I'm here

It would seem that SOS Transport Paid a visit to Temple Meads today see the attached below.

https://www.westofengland-ca.gov.uk/transport-secretary-supports-major-project-to-improve-rail-services-across-the-west-of-england/.

[grahame]

As well as the exit to the underside of the incline,that comes out below the Station frontage,.

I didn't know about that one - and I used to work there 

It's still used occasionally as a route to busses on rail replacement.

I have used it and it felt as though we were walking all the way to Yatton.  It also needs a good scrub and a coat of paint.

Where's the entrance from the subway then? Under the stairs by the lift to platform 3?

Yes

Confusion seems to reign on this one.

[snip]

Someone's going to love me for so many levels of quoting.   As a picture paints a thousand words, can I try to interpret this ...



* The currently well loved known passenger subway in Cyan
* The subway being described in this conversation in Orange
* Suggestion of an exit to the east side where the PO building used to be in Sickly Green

[stuving]

 As a picture paints a thousand words ...

If you "go" down Lower Station Approach/Bristol & Exeter Mews via the medium of Google Street View, you can see the locked exit door with its "Rail Replacement Bus Services" sign. If your medium is Google Maps, you can even see how that sign has moved in mysterious ways since 2012. And of course the bricked (stoned?) -up entrance from the forecourt can be visited too.

[Phantom]

Me too I've played a couple of skittle matches there myself. In the 1970s the WLA used to have meetings in the bar ,iirc. That's The Western Locomotive Assocation ,not The Woman's Land Army !.


Whilst I'm here

It would seem that SOS Transport Paid a visit to Temple Meads today see the attached below.

https://www.westofengland-ca.gov.uk/transport-secretary-supports-major-project-to-improve-rail-services-across-the-west-of-england/.

I shiver when I see Chris Grayling involved with anything. Is there such a thing as an anti Midas?

[jamestheredengine]

Confusion seems to reign on this one.

Imagine you have stepped off a service from London via Parkway at TM^‡(resolve) on platform 15 and have climbed down the staircase to the subway and are heading along the subway, past the toilets on the left you come to some 4/5 steps up to a plinthe where you have the option to then turn left for more steps up to platform 4 or right for more steps up to platform 3. If you were to knock a hole in the wall which forms the 4th edge of the plinthe opposite the 4/5 steps you would find a flight of steps which takes you up to another wall which if you knocked a hole in that wall you would find you are out on the station forecourt.

When was this closed? The masonry on the outer wall looks old.

[martyjon]

Confusion seems to reign on this one.

Imagine you have stepped off a service from London via Parkway at TM^‡(resolve) on platform 15 and have climbed down the staircase to the subway and are heading along the subway, past the toilets on the left you come to some 4/5 steps up to a plinthe where you have the option to then turn left for more steps up to platform 4 or right for more steps up to platform 3. If you were to knock a hole in the wall which forms the 4th edge of the plinthe opposite the 4/5 steps you would find a flight of steps which takes you up to another wall which if you knocked a hole in that wall you would find you are out on the station forecourt.

When was this closed? The masonry on the outer wall looks old.

Got no idea.

[Western Pathfinder]

From platform three go down the steps to the underground subway ,and as soon as your feet hit the floor look to your left and there is a blue line on the floor that leads to the passenger lift, walk towards the lift and the doors that lead to the passageway are on your left hand side, it's not a public area inside ,so I will not go into any further details.

[johnneyw]

From platform three go down the steps to the underground subway ,and as soon as your feet hit the floor look to your left and there is a blue line on the floor that leads to the passenger lift, walk towards the lift and the doors that lead to the passageway are on your left hand side, it's not a public area inside ,so I will not go into any further details.

It sounds like it might be the concealed entrance to the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) U.N.C.L.E  HQ^▸ (Headquarters). I'm giving my age away a bit there. 😁

[Western Pathfinder]

Walk into the Taylor's shop and ask for Mr Solo !.

[johnneyw]

Walk into the Taylor's shop and ask for Mr Solo !.

Just open Channel D.

[johnneyw]

And I am still the proud owner of a Man From UNCLE badge!

[Red Squirrel]

From platform three go down the steps to the underground subway ,and as soon as your feet hit the floor look to your left and there is a blue line on the floor that leads to the passenger lift, walk towards the lift and the doors that lead to the passageway are on your left hand side, it's not a public area inside ,so I will not go into any further details.

I've been through that way on a couple of occasions, and don't remember signing an NDA^▸ (Non-Disclosure Agreement) either time... sadly all I can remember is that it's really scruffy down there, and they advise you not to touch the walls because toilet waste from not-retaining toilets heads that way under gravity.

[Robin Summerhill]

Confusion seems to reign on this one.

Imagine you have stepped off a service from London via Parkway at TM^‡(resolve) on platform 15 and have climbed down the staircase to the subway and are heading along the subway, past the toilets on the left you come to some 4/5 steps up to a plinthe where you have the option to then turn left for more steps up to platform 4 or right for more steps up to platform 3. If you were to knock a hole in the wall which forms the 4th edge of the plinthe opposite the 4/5 steps you would find a flight of steps which takes you up to another wall which if you knocked a hole in that wall you would find you are out on the station forecourt.

When was this closed? The masonry on the outer wall looks old.

I have used that route out of the station as a kid, and also the one to Cattle Market Road. They were generally only open IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly) at peak traffic periods, by which I don't mean "the peak" in the accepted sense of the term, but when 10 or 12 coach trains from WSM or Weymouth disgorged their hordes of day trippers on weekend evenings during the summer, and all of them were going the same way - out of the station.

I can't give a specific closure date either, but an educated guess would suggest some time c.1962

[Red Squirrel]

When was this closed? The masonry on the outer wall looks old.

Bristol Temple Meads became a Grade I listed building on 1st Nov 1966 (see here for details: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1282106). Even if, as Robin Summerhill suggests, the entrance was blocked a few years before that date, I think they would have had sufficient sensitivity to use matching stonework.

[Rob on the hill]

The BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI)) tunnels tours begin from this passage. They are part of the annual Bristol Open Doors Days and the tours are free, but get booked very quickly due to limited spaces and high demand.

From a google search: https://www.flickr.com/photos/newage2/sets/72157624024078970/