If you’ve ever felt that you’re being stung when you pay for a ticket at Waterloo Station, it might be the legacy of the time there were bees on the roof.

Sixty years ago, in 1958, Waterloo station based Wilfred Green kept over 40,000 bees on the roof of Waterloo Station.

He was featured in this old Pathe News video, which apart from their classic clipped narration also includes some wonderful views of the railways below and the Queen Elizabeth Hall being constructed in the background.

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3 comments
  1. Andrew Gwilt says:

    Bee-tastic I would say. 🙂

  2. Sarah says:

    Roofs have always played host to weird and wonderful hobbies and activities – in that respect, bee keeping doesn’t seem too unusual. Certainly strange to have in on a station in the middle of London, but as long as the travellers didn’t complain, it seems like a perfectly decent idea!

    • Carol Gould says:

      Wilfrid Green was my late father and I well remember going on to the roof of Waterloo station in the 1950s and 1960s to visit the bees.

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