The Bizarrely Huge Station at Pudding Mill Lane

good evening I had a look at my upload schedule back in November and I realized that I had a slot on Christmas Eve this sounded like a fine opportunity for a festive video but what I racked my brains for literally minutes before deciding that I was going to profile a station with a christmy name I went to my friends on patreon and gave them a choice of three pudding Mill Lane turkey Street and Star Lane on reflection I suppose I could also have gone with Shepherd's Bush oh or Maryland but anyway the people spoke pudding Mill Lane was the clear winner and that's where I went to film today's video pudding Mill Lane is a weird station it's on the docklands light Railway just outside Stratford in fact it's right alongside the main line as you can see it's quite a large station but this is the area it's serves so that's the second question why is it so big but the first question is why an earth is it called pudding Mill Lane well this is pudding Mill Lane right here there are no signs to identify it as such though the council should consider putting one in putting Mill or St Thomas Mill to use its official name was about here on this Junction apparently the mill got its nickname because was shaped like a pudding Basin and disappointingly not because it was a mill that produces puddings I'm not aware of any images of this Mill so unfortunately I can only speculate as to what a pudding basin shaped Mill would look like there was a mill on the site from the 12th century when it was first built it was known as fots Mill or possibly foots Mill historic pronunciation is tricky the rivers around here were tidal and the mill was likewise powered by the tide there were numerous tidal Mills in the area and that caused problems the further up River you were the less tide there was to power your Mill Upstream Mills like pudding Mill were often in dispute with Downstream Mills later a Wind Mill was added to the site which presumably partially solved the problem the mill was used to grind flour and later for distilling the mill lasted until 1934 when it was demolished as part of the river Lee flood relief scheme speaking of flood relief there was also a pudding Mill River there are a few rivers around here known as the boow back Rivers but alas pudding Mill River like the mill that named it is nowhere to be seen it was filled in in 2007 as part of the preparations for the Olympic Park a move that attracted some controversy as you might expect in the 1830s the railways came to Stratford the station was opened by the Eastern counties Railway in 1839 there was no station here actually that would have to wait for over 150 years a station at pudding Mill Lane would arrive in 1996 what happened was this the docklands light Railway had been opened in 1987 with the aim of regenerating the largely disused London docklands up until 1983 it looked like the northern Terminus of the line would be at Mile End then the planners changed their mind and decided to use Stratford instead key to this and indeed the entire DLR plan was the network of abandoned Railways in the area the Stratford Branch would use an abandoned line originally built by the north London Railway as far as bow then it would jump up onto the bow curve which had been built by the London and black wall Railway this would take it alongside the main line then finally the line would terminate at Stratford in an abandoned Bay platform Royal Ascent was granted in in 1984 and the docklands light Railway was go the Stratford Branch opened in 1987 but at that time there was no station at pudding Mill Lane the duckland light Railway was built on the cheap so unless there was a really good business case for a station right now a station didn't get built no one was really sure if this light rail thing would even catch on at this time putting Mill Lane was just a lot of Light Industry however what the DLR planners did was was they made passive provision they figured that while they might not need a station now they could well do in the future so they planned their line in such a way that if they did need to build one it would be easy to do so the line into Stratford was single track again built on the cheap but a passing Loop was put in at pudding Mill Lane this is a spot where the track doubles to allow one train to pass another it's also a good spot to put a station if you have a mind to do so well the docklands light Railway was a huge success actually a far bigger success than its planners had anticipated the short trains and minimal station facilities just couldn't cope with the numbers of passengers and so the idea of a station at pudding Mill Lane was dusted off the new station opened in 1996 nothing fancy you understand just an island platform a basic canopy a staircase it's not like there was much there to serve it was just a station to take a bit of pressure off Stratford for the benefit of people working at the light industrial premises around there anyway in 2005 it was announced that the 2012 Olympics would be held at Stratford the Olympic Park would be very nearby hence the filling in of the pudding Mill River and somewhat embarrassingly it turned out that pudding Mill Lane was far too small for the Olympic crowds so in what should have been its moment of Triumph it was closed to passengers but more was to come in 2007 an ambitious new Railway was approved cross rail an east to west Railway across London this would connect with already existing lines in the east and west the Eastern Connection would be at Stratford and it was due to plow straight through pudding Mill Lane station so whatever happens the DLR here would need building one of the ideas behind putting the Olympic Park in Stratford was that it would bring regeneration there's that word again to the area so the new pudding Mill Lane would be future proofed no longer a basic halt it would be a two-platform covered Affair capable of taking whatever the future held for this part of Stratford it would be built on a new concrete Viaduct to replace the old track alignment the new station opened in 2014 and that's what we have today at present it's a lonely station there are signs of new development but things are proceeding slowly at the time of recording it's the station for the Abba Arena where the Abba Voyage virtual concert is held whatever that is thereafter I understand that the plan is to build Flats there hopefully the virtual Abba members will have been switched off by then I've seen enough Star Trek to know the dangers of Rogue Holograms they might develop self-awareness and attack humans or Worse write more ABBA songs it's hard to say what the future holds for putting M Lane is its future sweet or is it a bit of a Duff only time will tell well I hope you enjoyed this video if so please do leave a like and consider subscribing for more I would like to thank my donors on Kofi and patreon and here on YouTube for your generous support you are the Brandy butter to my Christmas pudding I would like to wish all my viewers the very best of the season and I will see you again very soon cheerio for

Channel: Jago Hazzard

Views: 88,422

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Id: dt0RCy6jdIc

Length: 8min 51sec (531 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 24 2023