Well, we had to do it at some point. Hatton Cross.

I shouldn’t like this station, I mean look at it… I could post this picture in colour and it wouldn’t look any difference. It’s awful isn’t it? It’s grey, and dirty, and ugly, and it’s surrounded by a nasty concrete jungle of industrial airport buildings, dual carriageways, car parks and NOISE.

And yet, there’s just something about it.

Not many new tube stations were built in the 1970’s. Only this, Brixton and Heathrow Terminals 1,2,3 (023) were true products of the decade. Both those stations have since undergone not just renovations themselves but whole area regeneration in which they sit. Hatton Cross on the other hand hasn’t had the same treatment, or at least not on the same scale. I’d be slightly disappointed if they ever knocked this down to build something better, partly because there’d be no point, but mostly because there’s really no other station as terrible as this. And that makes it unique. It still holds onto it’s optimistic 1970’s charm, even if it is decaying into the shabby heap of concrete and despair that we see today.

And that’s why I like it.

Image copyright A Carter – CallingAllStations.co.uk