Leigh-on-Sea was considered to be in TfL Zone 9 during the 2012 Olympics. It was because mountain biking was at Hadleigh Farm (near LoS).

The reason for the demise of this service was that the ancient electric engines used by the District had mostly failed, and by 1939 there were only two left. One took a direct hit early in the War, and the service was therefore not sustainable. These engines dated right back to the times when the big railway companies had running rights over underground lines in certain places, and therefore used steam engines. There was starting to be a lot of consumer resistance to smoky filthy tunnels, so Government required the big companies to buy these electric engines for use underground. The other side effect of running LTSR coaches through District tunnels was caused by the toilets in the coaches. Like all railway toilets of the time, they flushed through a hole in the floor and so, to avoid nasty smells, the world's first retentive toilets were invented for them. There would have been great relief in the LTSR sidings after 1939 - they didn't have to clean the toilets out any more.

I can understand why LT withdrew services to Southend. If they had kept it with four rail upgrade perhaps Brighton would have eventually wanted the Northern line to be extended from Morden. What a ride that would have been !!!

Southend was the south end of the village of Prittlewell in the 1700’s but because of its close location to London and miles of beaches became a seaside resort. Stagecoaches, Trains and Steamships brought holidaymakers from London. The Pier was one of several on the east coast including Clacton and Walton which paddle steamers visited. There was also a service to Kent to Hern Bay, Margate and Ramsgate. My Father lived in Southend working as a portrait artist and actor with his own theatre company and often took the steamer to Hern Bay and back.

I liked the LTS route as a kid 'cause it was still steam then. Passing a BR standard as we got off at Benfleet was truly awe inspiring as a 5yr old. Sometimes, engineering work would divert your train over the Tilbury route coming back from "Sarffend", which seemed to take forever for us kids. Bear in mind, it would often be non-corridor stock. My Mum travelled back to London during a Luftwaffe raid. She said it was raining incendiaries, but they didn't stop, and just went for it. No tunnels for refuge, I guess. Nice one JH, ta.

21 views in 2 minutes at 8am... That's an achievement in itself, the power of interesting content

Gosh! My stomping ground! 😀 As far as I know, the water tower at East Ham has probably been there since the year dot as it is on the original alignment. Funnily enough, I use it when travelling eastbound (down) to pop a bit of brake on to slow down for a speed restriction around East Ham depot 😉 Those abandoned platforms are actually used as refuges to allow passengers to alight if there is a major fault.😳 The current tracks used by c2c were added later to accommodate the increase in traffic after the developments around Barking, Becontree, Hornchurch and Dagenham. Originally the LTS stopped at Hornchurch, Dagenham (now Dagenham East) and Upney, which is why additional platforms were built on the new ‘fast’ lines. West of Barking, WestHam did not have LTS platforms but the other stations still had a stopping service. LTS ran a shuttle out of Plaistow bay platform to Fenchurch Street at peak times to ease congestion (it was where the main LTS engine shed was found). My father in law can remember mainline services still stopping at East Ham in the 50s, and the now-abandoned bay at East Ham which still ran trains via a long abandoned curve onto the North London line to Broad Street and St Pancras. I think the change of engines may have come from the original layout at Barking, i.e. before the flyovers were built. The District electric platforms lead into a dead end depot and served what are now platforms 4 and 5. Thus if they used the electric engines into Barking they couldn’t change engines. Mainline LTS (i.e. via Upminster) services then ran through what is now platform 2 and 6. If you want top info, try the books by Peter Kay. I have 7 of them all about the LTS and it is a wonderful source of everything LTSR 👍

The allure of possibly seeing from a mile away a lady scandalously showing her toes must have been a great draw. 😂

I grew up in Benfleet in the 50s. I'm fairly certain that the BR trains on the Fenchurch Street line still stopped at East Ham at that time. At Tilbury there used to be a rail extention down to the wharf where the passenger liners used to dock. The old customs hall is still there, right next to the ferry that still runs across the river to Gravesend.

The pier also had a steamer service to a town called Herne Bay in kent.

'By the 19th Century, Southend had become a fashionable seaside resort.' (Deliberate pregnant pause) 😂

Very interesting. I live in Southend on Sea. The line used to be known as "The Fenchurch Street Line" by locals until C2C was invented. I didn't know about the underground connection. We're still "The Eastenders' playground" and have hundreds of thousands of London visitors every summer.

Blimey, an almost complete overview of my train, uni and commuter lines I've taken in my life in one video.

I've never been to London or even the UK, but this was still a very interesting video. You have a good voice for documentaries, I think. And good storytelling.

Very interesting and good storytelling. One remark though, when you're telling something like "these stations are very close to eachother" it would be helpful to show a little map to point out where these mentioned spots are. Unless you're a citydweller you really don't know where these stations/streets are and it's hard to imagine the situation. It's very interesting to learn about all the history behind all these old facades and (sometimes abandoned) buildings.

It's a shame that the Northern Line never got to Skegness

I worked for a lot of years on the railways , all of East Anglia and London. I love seeing my old stations I used to look after.

This channel is my nerdy little secret shhhhh

My father worked at May & Bakers at Dagenham East, and the company used to have a large social section which organised factory family outings and recall catching a works special for a Christmas showing of The Wizard of Oz Ice Show in London from what was then the unused ex LTSR (BR) platform in circa 1960. The special went to Upminster where the new diesel loco ran round the train to return right road, but broke down in the process. The train turned up late to pick us up hauled by a black 5 steam loco from Shoebury or Tilbury shed! It was in a dishevelled state, and never got the number, but it was experiencing troubles of its own. The train being steam heated we couldn't see much as the windows were all steamed up and it was snowing out side! There was another water tower at Upminster which remained at the end of the Romford platform, but I believe it went some years ago. Plaistow Sheds became a Volkswagen Distributors main dealers workshops, but don't know if the buildings still exist. Probably a block of flats! As the LTS became part of the LMS regime, there were apparently St. Pancras / Southend Specials utilising District Line electric locos, probably changing to steam haulage at Upminster or Barking?

Great video as always!Imagine if they built 4th rail electrification all the way to Southend! We might have seen the S-7 Stock specced out differently more like the S-8. Or even without the 4th rail a dual voltage S-Stock. Some alternate realty has that! Maybe the same one that the Bakerloo runs to Hayes in!

Crossrail, 100 years early! Great video, I hadn't realised the District services to Southend ran for such a long time, I'd assumed it was a sort term service.

I'm really enjoying all your videos, you have a great way of presenting things, a good voice, and I like your sense of humour. I once found a derelict line, it was the best thing I ever found whilst exploring. There was an ancient beautiful wooden train carriage, loads of old machinery and tons of old metal signs waist deep in a huge shed, just closed off and forgotten. Spent all day there being dangerous/ looking at everything. It's probably knocked down now as this was over 20 years ago.

Remember as a kid the church club took us to Southend, special excursion steam train from Upper Holloway to Southend via Barking. Got lost and handed myself in to police that wore white helmets in those days (1960/61/62) in Southend. They came back for me and had to catch the electric train Southend to Fenchurch St home. Exciting to even be on a train then and never knew the District ran to Southend.

Reminds me of how Kyoto's underground tunnels are also used by suburban railways, so you can get the "tube" all the way to Nara.

As I write, over a thousand upvotes to one down and hopefully that was a mistake! One of the highest ratios I can recall. A testament to the fascinating content we get from Jago!

Some really nice attention to detail in this one. The ironwork and old signage particularly. Great vid

The allure of brass bands playing tiddly-om-pompom was considerable.

Ceased in 1939 due to the threat and then outbreak of WW2. The water tower at East Ham is a survivor from the service which once ran from there to Gospel Oak before it was diverted to Barking. Some of the coaches from the through train which were jointly owned by the District and Midland Railway were sold to the Army and ended up on the Shropshire and Montgomery shire Railway when the army took that over in WW2.

Southend-on-Sea is my hometown! 😁

Ahoy there Jago! - At 0:13 you can see the base of the NLA tower in Croydon and I heard that needed to be such a strange shape because there was a little old lady who refused to sell her house when the plans went through so they just had to build the tower around it or something. It might be an urban myth but what isn't nowadays!

From Fraser Mitchell, husband of Leslie Some time in the 50s when me and my brother were staying at Grandma's at Putney, she took us out for the day to Southend. I can't remember the detail of the journey, but obviously we had to change somewhere. We started on the District Line at Putney Bridge Station. We also had a trip on the pier railway as well. A good day out all round !

I would imagine if the District Line went all the way to Southend-on-Sea. But now you got c2c and Greater Anglia providing services from London to Southend. With c2c trains from London Fenchurch Street to Southend Central and Shoeburyness and Greater Anglia trains from London Liverpool Street to Southend Airport (for London Southend Airport) and Southend Victoria. Plus I live near to both lines and Southend-on-Sea.

love how you find the smallest detail which still exists. Ive seen the water tower but the rest of the detail never took any notice

Another very interesting film , didn't realize , would explain my grand parents moving to Southend pre war from bow road and returning to London often , thank you !

Fascinating video for me as I have a family connection with relations living at Tilbury, Benfleet and Hadley. I spent some time in the area back in 1998. I was lucky to ride and photograph the Class 302 slam door sets not long before their withdrawal.

I think the District line Southend trains were withdrawn on the outbreak of WWII, and of course never resumed post war. I’m a retired BR worker and I still get free travel over the District line to Upminster ( I can’t remember off hand where from at the London end.) The District line basically took over the local LTS service as far as Barking from the LTS, that’s when the Tilbury line platforms were closed at places like West Ham.

I now feel the need to sit on a Tilbury line bench 🤗 💕 Tea for 2d!

When listening to Jago I'm always struck by the thought that he must be a right laugh to listen to down the pub.

It would be nice if it came back. At one point the metropolitan wanted to run trains from Manchester to Paris

As a kid in the 60s I regularly used to get the Eastern National Bus from Wood Green to Southend - it took a couple of hours and I'd play the only electronic games machines with my pocket money on the arcades at the seafront. In fact it was only one game - a submarine shooting down a trawler. Happy Days! That would be another video entirely.

The district also used to go to Windsor, presumably for similar reasons as Paddington is also awkward to get to.

As a District line guard we used to joke about how nice it would be to do a “Rounder” to Southend.. that would be a duty I’d enjoy

Brilliant as always The coaches used on this service were probably the first in this country to have retention toilets ( for obvious reasons !) . One of them ended up as a holiday bungalow at Dungeness ( visible from the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch railway). But it was destroyed in a fire in the late 1970s. Keep your films comeing keeps me going in these strange times !

Jago you are a true gem love watching your videos before I fall asleep, thank you for putting out quality content so often recently

I like the idea of taking a boat from London Bridge to Southend. Another great video.

You are, in my opinion, a latter day Jonathan Meades. Not sure if you are familiar with him, but he made a series of fascinating documentaries on a variety of topics in the early 90’s called ‘Abroad in Britain’ and his documentaries were delivered in an absolutely deadpan style with complex language, laced with caustic wit and surreal interludes. He was an absolute genius, and take it as a compliment that I think you deliver your documentaries in a very similar style to him.

England of the 1800s must have been a fascinating and magical place.

I just realized that this was operational at the same time as the through services the GWR ran along the Met. Imagine a service running through on both ends. Crossrail a century early!

The Southend Corridor Express service was a casualty of WW2 - it was withdrawn right at the start of the war and as far as I am aware none of the rolling stock survives. Also withdrawn at the same time were the former Metropolitan Railway Pullman Cars which provided freshly cooked light refreshments and the through GWR trains which used a special fleet of 'City' coaches that swapped between steam & electric haulage at Paddington station. Happily two of the coaches survive and one has been restored so that it can sometimes see passenger service at the Didcot Railway Centre. But unfortunately all the of articulated coaches which were built for this service have been lost.

Love the vids man. Very interesting. Keep up the good work

Great vid as usual, gov’nr. About 45 years ago I was working as a guard/motorman on LT out of Hainaut. One line we ran was the Epping to Ongar shuttle, Just a few stations, including Blake hall & Theyton Bois. (Sorry, not sure about the spelling of that). It was closed & sold off long ago of course to a stream restoration society, but bearing mind how Ongar has grown & continues to grow, it’s a decision TFL are probably regretting. How about a video on the history of the Epping to Ongar? It needs to be done... and nobody can tell it like you can tell it!

Thanks Jago, that explains all those posters you can buy from the thirties offering District Line trips to Southend. I always thought it was a through ticket and you had to change. Great video!!!!

The service was possibly withdrawn in 1939 because travel to seaside resorts was discouraged because of you know who. Also seafronts covered in barbed wire and mines were a deterrent and only essential travel was encouraged, all having a depressed effect on passenger numbers.

Perhaps you could do a similar video about the District Line service to Windsor.

The withdrawal of the District Line excursions was forced on the District Line and London, Tilbury and Southend Railway by the declaration of war with Germany in early September 1939. The war had been anticipated and immediately the railways were brought under the control of the Government whose first action was to ban all rail and road excursions as well as withdrawing all Dining Cars on long distance trains and London Transport was included in this and as a result the excursion trains were stopped along with the Green Line coach services.

This is so similar to the metro system in Tokyo. Many of the trains which make up the metro system in the centre of the city continue well into the suburbs on lines run by suburban railway companies, even having the same express only stopping pattern in the central section. The Fukutoshin line immediately comes to mind.

There you go Jago, as the comments on this video (and others) show you really touch the world with your channel.🚂🚇🌍

Anyone who thinks the station's too far from the front should try Brighton.

Very cool! One future episode as a successor to the Slap Fight for the Circle Line could be the Fenchurch Fallout when the Midland yoinked the LTSR from under the nose of the GER.. who promptly blocked the LTSR's new locomotives from using the station... And other hijinks!

Fascinating, informative and very evocative - many thanks!

Superb infomation

Brilliant!

Thank you, Jago. Another good watch! And, there I was upon seeing the title thinking that this video was going to be about tube trains upon the Isle of Wight!!

The 'Tea 2d a cup sign' at 6:23 is at East Ham station.

In 1939 a lot of the Railway lines would have been used for the war effort many piers were blown up and Southend pier became for military use only, perhaps that is why the service was removed

I think as the Tube became more government run and less privately owned, more focus stated to be put on services within the limits of the city whose transport budget ever more subsidized the lines operation, from being a railway that happened to be in London and Underground, The Tube was becoming a London service run for and by London...

I would like to see an annual special between Southend Central and Windsor Central. Run it with an electrostar, attaching a tube maintenance locomotive between Barking and Ealing Broadway, and a diesel at Slough.

Thaks again Jago. Learnt something new today. More please.

It's great to start the day with a Jago Hazzard video

Thanks for this! All the permutations and combinations of trains that ran over the London & Blackwall; or its offshoot, the London, Tilbury & Southend are mind-boggling. Add this to the long list of trains that ran to exotic destinations! (In this context, it's not Southend that's the exotic destination, but Ealing Broadway! :) )

Your channel and content are my favorite find of the week. Looking forward to my next trip to London. Hopefully in 2021. Stay safe and keep up the great work.

Looking forward to this one!

Getting a steamer from London Bridge to Sarfend to get completely steaming. East Ham sandwiches behind the bar for lunch. Barking mad.

Well I never knew that! Fascinating . thank you

I never would have guess that the UndergrounD would have had a route that paralleled the sung A13, Trunk road to the Sea!

Um 1939 outbreak of World War II. Beaches became off limits and sometimes mined as a precaution against invasion.

My favourite line on the London Underground. When visiting from Canada, we stayed with my aunt who lived close to the Upney station. As a railway fan, I picked up the LTSR monogram very quickly. With respect to the service to Southend ending in 1939, perhaps this was a war-time economy. The plan might have been to restore service when the war ended, but it didn't happen for one reason or another.

Great video Jago, I never knew that info about the district line. I used to live in Wickford which of course goes to Southen Victoria, but I worked for years in Southend at the Zero 6 Nightclub!! it was here that I met my mate Neville who was from Melbourne, and the reason that I came to live in Australia where I am now with my wife and 2 gorgeous kids!! so Southend on Sea and the Zero 6 nightclub completely changed my life for the better!!

Another fantastic video - and a momentous one for me as I have now watched every single one of Jago’s videos! 😀👍🏻

With the right weather in the summer it could be great.

Thanks for yet another video Jago

Watching your videos keeps me from being so homesick for England!

Excellent video. I live in Barking and always wondered about the unused platforms along the District Line.

excellent video - i live on the C2C line so was good to see why the district line ends at Upminster

You can still get underground trains to the seaside in the UK- the Isle of Wight uses old London underground train as their only stock and runs to about 5 seaside stations, there is also a link from them to a good small heritage steam railway on the island..

Here's a little tip: if a post-war public policy decision appears to be odd, look for the cold dead hand of HM Treasury. As part of the route was run using steam, they wouldn't have wanted their money leaking into supporting it, which could have happened given the level of public subsidy needed to replace the stocks of damaged and knackered buses. There was also an internal conflict with the LT Green bus services, including the Green Line express coach services. Of course the same Treasury never supplied the readies for the proposed motorway network to be built for those same services to run on, but that's a different story. As ever, Yes Minister provides an excellent primer!

When I used to commute to Fenchurch Street from, er, a town in Essex, I had a fanciful notion that the District Line could continue past Upminster eastwards. However, bearing in mind that the line does travel alongside the main line for a considerable distance serving east London, it is logical that it terminates at Upminster as this is (I was going to say effectively but looking at the map it appears to be formally the case) where the Greater London boundary ends. After that it is countryside for a considerable distance before hitting Basildon.

Southend became a restricted zone at the start of the war so the Ealing Broadway to Southend service was withdrawn. The electric locomotives were due for replacement and components were required to keep other stock in service so they were scrapped. The special stock used on the services was sold on to the army who used it on the Shropshire & Montgomery line.

I read to read more underground history, this is so cool thanks for showing me!

Mum liked Southend but not London. So we went by a round about route. Our Local station was Catford Bridge. So trrain 1 Catford Bridge to Lewishan. Channge platforms for train 2 to Gravesend and a short waalk to the Tilbury Ferry. Train 3 Tilbury Riversidee to Southend. In the 50s end of life main line stock was normal and we would look for downgraded first. Electrification brought suburban slam door stock, very much a downgrade

At East Ham, at the end of the east-bound platform, you can see where there was a bay for the trains that ran round the curve to join the line through Woodgrange Park. On the map you can see where Shakespeare. Crescent curved to follow the line.

I always really liked the look of the 4-4-2 Tilbury tanks

For 35-odd years the Metropolitan ran out to Brill, on the Bucks-Oxon border, some 45 miles from Charing Cross

I'd suggest it was put on pause at the start of the war, then found there was no need to start it up again once the war ended

Hi Jago, I like the dry humour. Brings a smile to my face. Wonderfully interesting series you are doing and clearly a lot of research goes inypto making it. Many thanks. BobUK.

Give my regards to Ealing Broadway. I believe that the service was withdrawn because it no longer served its original purpose. I have a series of books on the history of the L&TSR which I recommend to anybody interested in this topic. They describe how the Southend service was actually just a way of getting around capacity problems at Fenchurch Street. After the closure of what was then the LNER's Fenchurch Street to Blackwall line (formerly the London and Blackwall Railway) in the late 1920s owing to tram competition, there was more capacity at Fenchurch Street, and modernisation undertaken in 1935 had largely eliminated the Fenchurch Street capacity problems, so the service was no longer particularly useful. It had already been cut back to, I believe, just one train either way each day, being thought to be useful to theatre goers who would board at Embankment or Temple stations from the theatre district and who lived along the line to Southend. The outbreak of war closed the theatres, so this last remaining scintilla of usefulness departed and the service ended.

Southers, “a fashionable seaside resort.” We are waiting our time for the full flowering of our potential. I have been waiting longer than most.

The LT&SR also linked Upminster and Romford, although the line still exists it is now part of London Overground

After the war there were regular excursions to Southend from stations on the Midland and North London. The latter ran via Biw and Bromley, the former via South Tottenham, using connections which no longer exist.

The person who designed fenchurch street for some reason didn't realize that fenchurch street will be crammed with 4 platforms but there has been speculation that fenchurch street station will be moved and have extra platforms