Pete would see you right if you wanted to pick up some flowers on the way home from work.
A little more on the "Flower Man" in a bit.
In the meantime, who’d have thought it would take nearly ten years to get from planning to opening? Twickenham Railway Station Redevelopment was originally due for completion by the 2015 Rugby World Cup, by which time work hadn’t even started. Then it was going to be completed by autumn 2019 ... but then it wasn’t. The new station actually opened its doors, (barriers, turnstiles, call them what you will), on January 27th 2020.
Angels sang! People cheered! Trumpets trumpeted ... or something like that. Oh, and in saying the station opened, what is actually meant is that the ticket hall and new barriers opened, but much of the place remains a dusty, noisy and restricted building site.
Approaching the new station entrance ... a thing of beauty (cough)
How bonkers is it to have the station name and logo set behind an external structure?
“The new Twickenham station will prove 5.5 million annual passengers with a bigger, brighter and better travelling experience” boasted developer Solum, and the Council. I’d say that objective has been partially met.
But, and despite shortcomings in station redevelopment, (see later), the project has always been about much more than the station itself. There are blocks of flats too, and scope actually includes building work that has yet to begin. Indeed, it's hard to resist the impression that station redevelopment was (is) an irritation; an obstacle to be overcome to allow full building resources to be thrown at the development of the more lucrative flats.
Personally I’d be in support of the new flats if they, or at least some of them, were targeted at first time buyers. But that doesn’t seem to be the case, as this advert by Solum shows:
“Find your dream home with our Help to Buy at Twickenham’s new landmark destination. Stylish 1, 2, & 3 bedroom new build homes available at Twickenham Gateway from £490,000”.
A snip at twice the price.
At least for rail users the new “opening” is some sort of progress.
Among by-products of the project, farewells were bidden to a number of longstanding outlets around the old station, including the Puccino cafe, the ABC newsagent and the aforementioned Pete the Florist with the flower stall he held just outside the station entrance / exit for many years, and whose raucous and, to me indecipherable call, was vaguely along these lines:
“Two bunches for five-fifty therrrrre”
In any event, he always had a smile on his face and he seemed to do alright.
Sticking with him for a moment, I understand options in Twickenham and Teddington were being explored by the council, where Pete might be able to continue selling to local shoppers and commuters. Wherever he ended up I’ve neither seen, nor frankly more tellingly, heard him since.
In the meantime, we’re reliably informed that the new station allows more space for passengers, step-free access to all platforms, lifts^, 250 cycle spaces, an enhanced queuing system for match days at Twickenham rugby stadium, (not sure if that includes music and other concerts), and a larger, revamped, ticket office. Astonishingly, arguably the most significant bottleneck, the number of passenger barriers remains at six, like the old station.
Now there’s a second phase of the project to look forward to, (we could already be in it; or it could be that it gets delayed another 10 years - who knows?) Solum say “Phase Two of the development will see six [they seem to like that number] retail units open, and over 100 new homes built by early 2021. A number of the new homes, a mix between 1, 2- and 3-bedroom homes, are already built and are available”.
Considering the delays, the seemingly endless building works, (once they finally got going), the noise, dust, “temporary” access constraints and the apparently permanent addition of cranes to the Twickenham skyline, I think the 5.5 million annual rail passengers probably expected something better from a new station costing about £60m.
A quick look back to when Twickenham railway station originally opened. The London and South Western Railway Company arrived there in 1848, having used its powers of compulsory purchase to acquire a stretch of land from the Cole family of brewers for the line, and six cottages for demolition for an access road to the station.
Here are some early (archive) photographs of the original Twickenham railway station:
Construction was massively disruptive, (nothing new there). In Teddington, for example, it divided the village roughly in half for over two years, until a road bridge was built over the track, linking High Street to Broad Street again. The completed railway brought many people to Teddington to buy or rent property. Passengers could now travel to Waterloo and the City. This combination of available land and good transport links saw the population rise by 240% in the decade to 1871.
The increase in population led to many things*, including the expansion of the tramways, and trams arrived locally in the early 1900s. Electrification came to the area in 1916/17. Transition to the Southern Railway in 1923, and to British Railways in 1948, had little effect on passenger services, but freight facilities were largely withdrawn in the 1960s. Privatisation introduced South West Trains, with South West Railways winning the franchise a couple of years ago.
Twickenham railway station is about 11 miles from Waterloo Station, and these days that journey takes around twenty minutes on the fast service, or almost double that using the “all stops” service.
*More building, including places for worship, and more food growing, including many cabbages! Other posts expand on these.
^It didn't take long before there was bother due to from staffing issues at the newly opened station. Disabled passengers found lifts inactivated and unusable; on other occasions passengers sometimes found themselves stranded, with those that were able resorting to climbing fences to get in or out. The matter of staff leaving before the last train(s) of the evening had arrived or left was escalated with Twickenham MP Munira Wilson.
March 2024 update: Last I can trace are some reports saying Pete may have set up his stall outside Teddington station. No longer commuting, and taking the train infrequently, I haven’t seen (or heard!) him, nor have I seen evidence of a flower stall.
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