Holyhead

CRS Code	HHD
Collected date	14/08/19

To Holyhead to catch the ferry to Dublin for WorldCon but I messed up my timings and unexpectedly had a few hours to spare on Anglesey. What to do but to visit a few stations? Holyhead station itself is a bit odd; it's part original station, welded on to a modern ferry port terminal building, but the terminal building is some distance away from where the ferries actually dock so you end up taking a little bus onto the ferry itself.

My train arrived on platform 2 which is in the main trainshed. We look at it here from its access bridge:

To the right of the entrance is a stretch of slightly dilapidated dockfront or something:

A mysterious swirly pattern on the floor just inside:

Looking back out the front:

Inside to our right we can see the trainshed, with platform 2 on the right and platform 3 through the wall on the left:

On platform 2 looking back towards the entrance:

Entrances puncture the wall opposite to provide entrance to platform 3:

Further south along platform 2:

Looking back from the same point:

Rusty spandrels support the roof:

Next along platform 2 is the entrance to the Virgin part of the station...

Or what was the Virgin part of the station; there's now a cavernous void there visible through mucky doors marked "this door is locked until further notice":

We'll see more of this cavernous void later. For now it's further along platform 2, with bricked up archways along this section:

Another disused building on platform 2 with the trainshed end beyond:

Finally we look towards the end of platform 2:

To our right is the rather low tunnel which connects to platform 1:

Inside the tunnel -- I didn't have to duck, just -- looking towards platform 1:

And we emerge on platform 1. Looking south:

Looking the other way, the state of the surface suggests this platform hasn't seen much love recently:

It turns out the ramp we passed under was access to the station car park. Platform 1 has a 1970s-style building to it:

Holyhead platform 1 and car park:

Under the canopy on platform 1, there's not a lot to see. Windows are mucky or boarded up, signs are fading... Does anything still stop here?

Ah, here it is, the platform 1 entrance to the opulent and empty Virgin lounge:

Peeking through more mucky door windows it's that cavernous void again, and we can just see platform 2 over the... water? What's going on here?

We exit platform 1 to see what's going on:

OK, so platform 1 and platform 2 are at angles with water in between them. Possibly ships used to dock much closer to the railway than they do now?

Looking across the water with platform 1 on the right and platform 2 on the left. I think the building straight in front of us is the Virgin Cavernous Void [tm]:

We get a long view of the back of platform 2 here. I think the big brick rectangles might once have been a means to get things on and off ships:

From the bridge which spans the platform 1 tracks as they meander off and turn into sidings, looking back south towards platform 1:

As well as the water between platforms 1 and 2, at the other (southern) end of the station there's a bit of space, in which lives this clock:

Stena House is the building whose ground floor is cavernous, empty, etc. You'd think I would tire of taking pictures of empty space through mucky windows, but no, here's another one. Platform 2 off to the right, platform 1 to the left:

The entrance from by the clock to platform 2:

Back to the main concourse and we see the curved ramp which provides step free access to platforms 2 and 3:

A plaque on the wall explains the art above:

The art itself:

On a bit to get to the entrance to platform 3:

On platform 3, looking north towards the ferry port concourse:

And looking south along the platform's length:

All photographs are © Alexandra Lanes You may reproduce them anywhere for any purpose. Coastline maps are reproduced from Ordnance Survey map data by permission of the Ordnance Survey © Crown copyright 2001