The Wembley Tower, Or, Watkin’s Folly

It should have been the most amazing building in London...

[Gordons]

I love the Darth Plaguis reference at the start

[spurioustransients]

Having been born in Penge and living my early years in that area, I always had a fondness for the Crystal Palace television transmitter mast which I thought of as a British version of the Eiffel Tower.

[ojigbo]

His voice is perfect for the style of video he's making. Very informative video, I'll gladly watch more!

[thomasw]

Sir Edward Watkin was my great-great-great grandfather!

[highpath]

I see in the London Transport Collection there is a poster from 1980 showing special services (A stock or C stock ?) from Wembley to Barking for West Ham's FA Charity Shield Match v Liverpool

[McRocket]

That was a great story - and well told, IMO.
I knew nothing of this tower before.

BTW - the tower with trains winding up the side was my favourite.
Not the best looking - but what a train ride that would be.

[MylesHSG]

There used to be a pub a short walk from Wembley Park station called Watkins Folly.

[crossleydd]

Way out of Jago's geographical area, another impressive tower was actually built near Liverpool. New Brighton Tower was a steel lattice observation tower at New Brighton in the town of Wallasey, on the Wirral. It stood 567 feet high, and was the tallest building in Great Britain when it opened around 1900. However, it only lasted until 1921, when it was discovered that maintenance neglect, necessitated because of World War One, had made it unsafe and meant it had to be demolished, with associated buildings going as late as 1969. Yet virtually nobody has ever heard of it. The story is on YouTube/Wiki.

[panzerkami]

Your subs have exploded, it seems. On your way to 50K. Well deserved.
I take some pride in having been around watching since early on.

[shauntodd]

Mr Watkins gave us so much and great image of the Tower.

[smallstudiodesign]

Another wonderful historical look at the unbuilt ... which, to me is as intriguing as that which was.

[StepAheadPress]

The tower is mentioned on the John Betjeman "Metropolitan Line", but I like the extra detail you give here :) Keep up the excellent documentaries!

[YetAnotherGeorgeth]

A football pitch? At Wembley Park? That would never catch on!

[theguvnor]

No dislikes, straight facts and a interesting story

[neilwoodward]

Fascinating. I never heard of the tower before! I was born in London, lived in London over 50 years. Keep these films coming please!

[billburton]

A public house near the beginning of Empire way running up to the stadium was named “Watkins folly”, but that had to close due to lack of support also.

[wentonmastermind]

Hello, Jago - our paths cross again thanks to your lovely and good-humoured postings. I grew up in Canons Park, now on the Jubilee Line but previously on the Bakerloo and before that on the Metropolitan, ie, the only stretch of the Tube ever on three successive lines. The Stanmore branch was the Met's last branch. Before the branch was built, Neasden Station was Neasden for Kingsbury - as you say, it was very much open ground. So much so that for a few years around 1918 to 1922, the open greeny area was used to test tanks - as in military tanks. One last note regarding Eiffell, back in 1980 I went on one of the most beautiful and scenic railways I had ever traveled on. It left Jerusalem and went down to the coast at Tel Aviv (previously Jaffa.) Some of the little bridges were designed by the same Eiffell. Keep up the good work, Jago! Michael, Toronto.

[christineshortman]

Great videos. I wish all history learning was like this...where every event has some association with a real object and place. It makes it easier to remember.

[IamRobotMonkey]

Yay! Was hoping you'd do one on this! Huge fan of your work and The Metropolitan! Bravo!

[julianaylor]

Hello from Wembley. ❤️
Wembley is mentioned in The Doomsday Book, as land belonging to a Saxon landowner called Wemba, hence Wemba's ley which is Saxon for a field. ❤️
Currently the local council is promoting the new retail park, over the actual town centre, in fact they didn't even put Christmas decorations on our high road, but they put them in the retail park which is a tourist attractions and of little use to the actual locals, except for a large Tesco's. Bit like the tourists who go to Bicester, only to go shopping and ignore the town and it's historical places. In our case that includes a Victorian parish church remodelled by a famous architect, one of the Gilbert Scott family. 🙄