WGC Station Memories

Station Approach c1955
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Having left London to live in WGC in 1957, our family often went back to visit relatives so that was one of our most regular excursions. In the fifties and sixties we did not have a car and nor did many of our neighbours. We relied on the green double-decker 324 bus service to get us to the station. As it was a circular service, we could cross the road and go one way or wait at the bus stop on our side of Howlands and go via Hollybush. The building in the picture was demolished to make way for the Howard centre. As you entered the station, the ticket office was on the left-hand side and the newsagents was on the right hand side. At that time, steam trains were gradually being phased out and, especially in Kings Cross, there was sometimes a choice of train home. I preferred the modern trains having no nostalgia for the age of steam with its hot and dirty engines. Thanks to locomotive smoke and domestic sources of smoke pollution, every surface in the platforms and every handrail down the stairs was covered in soot. Londoners suffered terrible smogs before the government finally brought in clean air legislation in 1956. A few years later, my father and I did watch the Flying Scotsman (the first steam train to break the 100mph barrier) on its last trip from London to Doncaster in 1963 through WGC.
A popular summer excursion from WGC station would be a trip to Hertford, where there was an open air swimming pool in Hartham Park fed by the river – the water was always cold and the floor and sides were covered in slimy green algae. On another occasion we took the train from WGC to Luton to spend the day watching the gliders on Dunstable Downs. The highlight of the day was when the train stopped at Batford and my brother and I joined the train driver for a cup of tea. Sadly both branch lines which made these trips possible were victims of the savage cuts to the rail networks in the sixties. At least both lines now serve as footpaths, one through Sherrards Woods, past the ruined platform at Batford and on to Wheathamstead, and the other to Hertford.
Many of the family holidays started from WGC station with Isle of Wight being one of our favourites. We would take the boat train to Portsmouth harbour and queue for what seemed like hours to get on the ferry. We also visited my grandparents in Surrey by train but that journey seemed like a marathon compared with the ease of getting there now on the M25.