Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Stansted Airport - a warning!
I travelled from Stansted to Ireland last week and the experience was pretty terrible, partly thanks to Ryanair (I know, I know..) but also due to the fancy redesign of the airport. After queuing for 45 minutes to get through security, passengers are now channelled directly through the duty free shop in a narrow winding 'river', grind to a halt crowded into a small space where there is a flight display board, and then have to continue through a further meandering channel of shops until finally arriving in a waiting area which seems to have been stripped of most seats. If you then want to return to the shops, having deposited your family/bags etc somewhere, you have to fight your way back 'upstream'.
There probably isn't time to sit down anyway as by now you are having to run to your gate, which is as before, miles away down endless corridors or even at the end of a monorail shuttle.
Whoever designed this as a way of coping with vastly increased passenger numbers needs their head examining. It took me every minute of two and a half hours to get from arrival at the airport to the gate, just managing to grab a coffee en route, let alone stop and browse in the shops. Several people who had allowed the recommended two hours almost missed the flight. (I was forewarned, having flown to Greece in June, but without the additional long queues for Ryanair baggage drop - also at least 45 minutes.)
Coming home, I flew from Shannon in Ireland - immediate check-in, no security queue to speak of, pleasant waiting area. Then a rather long boring tube ride home from Heathrow, although much cheaper than Stansted Express - all in all I think that is the preferred route for me from now on.
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Maddy on
-
Apparently I am not alone - most passengers on this site agree. Average rating 2/10.
-
Permalink Reply by hob on
-
Ryanair cut a deal with the new owners of Stanstead a couple of years ago that they would increase passenger numbers by 50% within 10 years. In return they get lower landing fees. Ryanair are holding to their side of the bargain but Stanstead haven't kept up. They are carrying out extensive works there at the moment, so that adds to the mayhem and chaos. Thanks for the first hand information. Avoid like the plague obviously.
-
Permalink Reply by KP on
-
Yes been hearing quite a few stories like this about Stansted recently. Flights missed due to ridiculously long queues at security. Clearly there are some serious problems there...
-
-
Another small fly in the ointment: car drivers entering the airport are charged even if they don't park their car but just drop off a passenger. £2 for up to 10 minutes - including time spent queueing to pay at the automated barrier. £20 if you overstay your 'welcome'.
PS Norman Foster's practice designed the Stansted terminal building - I understand he repudiates it these days because so many internal accretions have been added to the original spacious design.
-
Permalink Reply by Milda Rami on
-
They have been doing this in Luton for a while now.. And they charge you for using the baggage trolleys!
I'm surprised to hear Stanstead is still so awful. I few in October last year and it was as described, only I thought this was due to the renovations.
-
-
When Foster designed the original building his idea was that when you entered the building you should be able to see the planes on the other side of the building and instinctively know where to go, hence the all round curtain walls. This was before low cost flights - Sadly he forgot that security and border controls would be in the way ( more innocent times). Consequently the building never quite worked as intended. However, I remember using the airport when it first opened and what a pleasure it was. 30 mins from home, wide open spaces and no people. Sadly all that has gone and it is now no more that a shopping mall with an airport terminal attached.
Welcome to the new world of airports/ shopping malls. Won't be long before harringay green lanes is accessed via sainsburys.
-
Permalink Reply by Robert Pike on
-
That said the original concept to move plant and other mechanical kit downstairs has created the big open flexible floor space that successive owners have used to adapt the airport to changing requirements...including adding shopping malls. In other airports such changes might be more difficult due to the lack of flexibility.
However I do find it sad that the connection to that big airy space is lost by the insistence on deliberately creating an enclosed convoluted claustrophobic disco ball of a retail complex, and at the end an apology for a waiting area. The deliberate design aspect is a boiled down version of all you see at Westfield et all.
-
-
Your right, it was a beautiful space when opened. But I wouldn't say that what they've done with it is boiled down, it looks like a full on retail space to me and I bet the owners are making killing using the meandering iIKEA walk though with no escape plan. Still , nothing lasts forever and I'm sure once they've finished these changes another group of designers will squeeze another 10,000 sq m of retail space out of it. Maybe a mezzanine or two strung between those beautiful support structures.
I really do sound like a miserable old fart - I need to lighten up!
Viva the super retail experience !!!! Who needs to get on an aeroplane anyway!!
-
-
A friend told me (though I'm not sure how he knows) that Stansted has increased duty free sales by 50% by cramming passengers through the shop this way. Shame they've completely ruined the travelling experience.
-
Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
-
If accurate, this would be another example of the "Nudge" theory where commercial organisations use aspects of human behaviour to encourage purchase of goods or services.
I think of this as funnelled footfall -like the way the Olympic Park is designed to maximise the numbers of people going through the Westfield shopping centre. (Zena and I went there for the first time last week. The fourth Circle of Hell.) Or how the IKEA stores seem to be a deliberate maze so people are guided past products they may not have known about.
Have a look at this report on a talk given on shopfloor design by Alan Penn of the Bartlett School of Architecture. Penn mentions the work of a Masters student Farah Kasim, who analysed the shopfloor design of IKEA.
It occurs to me that while the Airport may be trying - perhaps successfully - to increase its revenue, the airlines may be very unhappy if more passengers are late for their plane because of obstacles in their way.
-
-
I remember leaving the Olympic park after going to watch the Athletics - the route was crowded but moving quite swiftly towards the tube, but the minute we entered Westfield everybody slowed right down and started to look dazed and distracted...
-
-
Exit through the gift shop.
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
