Auto-Ethnographic Review of Canary Wharf Jubilee Line Station Concourse (London)
Part of a conference paper to ID@50 at
University of Bath June 2016.
Provides video evidence for an explication of
boarding and alighting are similar activities. Taken on 17 November 2015 @
approx 19:30
We next unfold the surprising similarities in the way passengers move between things that are very different. Differences include entering or leaving a concourse, and entering or leaving a platform. Firstly, at the concourse level an elderly person walks with sticks towards the wide aisle gate (WAG). That provides a slower opening and closing access/exit for slower moving people with bags, suitcases, wheelchairs, and prams. Children are particularly vulnerable to fast closing gates. Coming towards us are two police officers. Waiting to meet a friend in the ‘wrong’ area might be considered an offence. How flexible is the authority looking after this space to allow minor transgression and freedoms? Waiting inside the fare-line means not having to pay to exit then re-enter. With no seats on the ‘paid side’ concourse, where is waiting allowed? Is filming permitted? While this station is built with public funds it does not feel public. We feel threatened and vulnerable “outsiders” waiting and observing surreptitiously.
The station is a hive of activity at rush hour in the evening (see Figure 5). Walking along the concourse and looking over the platform below; hearing the background noises, beeps of the fareline machines, trains entering and voice announcements and footsteps. These noises magnify and reflect against hard materials in the large echoic volume increases the reverberation time and inaudibility of announcements. Coping by 'fading-out' those noises as a way to survive. Our downward looking eyes avoid the glare of bright lighting against dark backgrounds. Such stressful crowded environments require us to ignore these visual, auditory, physical, haptic, emotional and psychological fears. These physical, sensory and mental stresses could impact our long term well-being, happiness and humanity.
At concourse level people circulate and move through the station from platform all the way upwards to their final exit (Figure 2). Tall barriers surrounding triple height voids prevent people falling or leaping onto the platform below. Platform edge doors protect passengers from falling into the train path, either deliberately or accidentally. A few more people wait at the ‘wrong’ area next to the fareline. The act of waiting and filming at this site feels subversive. Pretending to use a mobile phone and speaking into it. The aim is to look relaxed and stay calm. This strategy seems to protect us from interference waiting at the gateline on the ‘wrong’ side.
Our friend arrives and we descend the escalator, and move down the platform to where there is space to stand. East and westbound platforms are identical apart from slight differences in signage. It is easy to board the train going in the wrong direction. The train’s arrival ‘suggests’ boarding without thinking, or checking, to rush towards the first train. There are few clues. In a rush the right direction is not so obvious. The only way to protect ourselves is to take a little more time. There is a likelihood of making a mistake that could cost us dearly in lost time. Joining the ‘right’ queue, the train rushes into the station and we board the next westbound train.
