Eight intrepid members answered the short notice call for the chance to walk the Liverpool Street station roof tour arranged by our Adam Turner. Unsurprisingly, it was fully booked within 32 minutes of opening. The advert read: 'This is a chance to see a different side of the country's busiest station!' It certainly was.

I was lucky to be one of the group which met a Network Rail Shift Station Manager and Adam at 11 o'clock, outside the station reception on Platform 10. Our guide took us upwards and past the façade of the Great Eastern Hotel facing the bustling concourse. Once 'back of house', we traversed a stairway in what is now a service and ventilation well with grubby white glazed tiles. After safety information had been given, we were on our way up a metal stairway onto the base area between the Great Eastern Hotel and the 1980's glass roof covering the revamped concourse below and were guided along this to view the Bishopsgate pedestrian entrance below.

Then it was up to the peak of the roof here. We would appreciate the sheer massive size of the glazed area covering the concourse and western train shed beyond. It should not be forgotten that the east side of Liverpool Street station was also covered with a glass roof (designed by WN Ashbee and opened in 1895), until the 1980's redevelopment removed it and covered the tracks with a new office complex.

Our guides were obviously very knowledgeable and we were shown how the new 1980's concourse roof and the original 1884 Charles Bury GE Hotel and 1874-75 Edward Wilson Westside roof over Platforms 1 to 10 were connected in these rebuilding works. This was a massive undertaking which had a major impact on passengers over a prolonged period.

The tour continued and we were escorted along, then up and over the spans of the main westside trainshed in two separate places, before taking in the view from the country end down to track level and over the piazza (Exchange Square) that now covers the station throat area track. This was the only point in the tour that I had slight effects of vertigo! It felt quite strange to be at a similar level as the workers in neighbouring office blocks, who seemed oblivious to our presence.



We made our way back towards the Hotel end and were able to reach good photographic vantage points with views of the surrounding area. Close inspection of the reinforced Perspex glazing panels solved the question of why the interior floodlights of the station remain on 24 hours a day. Their surface was encrusted with a hard black mould which could not easily be removed without great cost. Replacing them with glass was not possible either, as the glazing bars are incapable of taking the additional weight, we were told. There might be light at the end of the tunnel though: https://tinyurl.com/42xuvypkI

I was quite relieved that we were not required to climb ladders at any point during the tour and that the weather was kind to us - although we were shown an escape ladder down, thankfully there was no need to use it! No wind but with just enough cloud cover to enable photographs to be taken in all directions. Luckily it remained dry, as access would have been restricted on wet slippery walkways.









We returned down by the same way we had come up and back on to the concourse, where we were able to thank our NR guides for their unhurried and detailed visit up on the roof. I considered that we were extremely privileged to have been allowed to undertake this visit.

Having used Liverpool Street since my youth, initially with my Father in the early 1950s, on Saturday mornings when we would watch locos being turned on the vacuum operated turntable past the end of the eastside platform ends... Britannias, B1, B17 and the odd J15 or B12... pure magic. We travelled from home at Wood Street on the Chingford branch, with N7 power into the smoky west train shed Platforms 1 to 3, but that's another story. [Sounds like the start of your Railway Memories (please), Duncan.]

Many thanks to those involved with the arrangements for the tour, particularly Adam Turner and to our friends at Network Rail for making it possible. The tour raised a donation of £456 for Samaritans.