Times Square-42 St
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The Upper Mezzanine at Times Square-42 Street forms a square, that surrounds the Times Square Tower (there is very little evidence of this tower) in the middle with two different corridors leading from its southern end below 41 Street to its northern end below 42 Street. The area in the middle of it that has special greenish tiles on it and little glassed over peep holes to Times Square: 35 Times of little ceramic sculptures, that depict scenes of New York. There are thirty-five of them. We begin our description of the mezzanine from the farthest staircase down to the lower mezzanine, it comes up to the upper mezzanine at its southwest corner, where there is a short staircase up to three High Entrance/Exit Turnstiles that lead to 41 St & 7 Av, NW corner, set inside the storefront of a Red Lobster.
Continuing straight and beneath 41 Street, we come to two staircases down (one on each side of the mezzanine) to the IRT 7th Avenue platforms, along with elevators these are the IRT's platform elevators, the Downtown & Brooklyn elevator serves double duty to serve the lower mezzanine and beneath that the 7 line's platform. It has four landings in all. There is also The Return of Spring/Onset of Winter along the wall, and couple more mosaics of Revelers. There is also an exit at the end of this quite wide mezzanine to 41 Street & 7 Avenue that has a large bank of turnstiles and the old-fashioned blue still-full service token booth, this exit leads to two streetstairs on the SE corner. Going up a short flight of stairs we reach another passageway that continues to lead us beneath 41 Street, towards Broadway. The top of a long staircase from the lower-mezzanine below is here, and an up-only single escalator directly from the 7 line platform.
Shortly after at the next corner of the passageway a High Exit Turnstile exit only to a streetstair at the SW corner of 41 Street & Broadway, next to it is a staircase down to the Downtown BMT Broadway Line platform that has an unusual design that goes down a bit before splitting into two to reach the platform. The passageway now continues north towards 42 Street beneath Broadway and goes on for awhile just barely beneath the street. Small bits of sunlight pours down from glassed-over holes in the sidewalk before the passageway dips again down a short flight of stairs to an area I consider the BMT Broadway Line's upper lobby.
This is a large area directly (one single flight of stairs) over the Broadway Line platforms, that offers a bit of view down to the platforms between the ribbon of passageways above and a few staircases down. After going up another flight of stairs to the level that we were before the two Broadway Line platform elevators can be accessed now that were at a similar level, and the 42 Street Shuttle platforms are off to the right (east). On the wall facing this area is New York in Transit. Right next to us, cutting into the central core is what I consider the main Super Entrance to the whole complex. It is two escalators a staircase and the only elevator up to the streets in the entire complex that lead up to a decently sized full service fare control area at street level set inside a building right at 42 Street & 7 Ave, SE corner. The entrance to the subway here even has flashing lights advertising the subway and fitting in with the rest of Times Square. Facing the opposite wall from the escalator bank is a 1904 name tablet that was formerly on the Shuttle platform for Times Square.
Back down at the concourse level it continues underneath 42 Street where Wachovia ATMs are present along with another installment of the R.A.G. store that is also on the IND 8th Avenue Line's mezzanine, these are on the north wall of the mezzanine. South of the mezzanine wall to the super entrance is Record Mart, a Latin music mecca that lines the wall to the next corner of the station where the mezzanine turns south again to connect to itself. The very important Public Restrooms are here on the inside corner along with a ramp and some steps up to the mezzanine before it curves south to re-connect to itself, at the 41 Street and 7 Avenue corner where I started, with an intermediate staircase down to the uptown IRT 7 Avenue Line platforms.
There is a branch of the large mezzanine that is not part of this continuous loop at the North West corner underneath 42nd Street where there are two large staircases down to each of the IRT 7 Avenue platforms. To note, a historic uptown or downtown mosaic above the steps down to the platforms have been preserved here. This branch of the mezzanine continues west to an exit with a large bank of turnstiles to Times Square-42 Street & 7th Avenue (there is a LED countdown clock outside of fare control displaying the next IRT Broadway-7 Avenue line trains) that lead to staircases on the NW corner of 42 Street and 7 Avenue, and a set of escalators running both up and down and a staircase to the SW corner. Both of these entrances are set in storefronts and the illuminated circles for the bullets of trains stopping at the station look a bit incorrect and haphazard due to all of the service changes effecting different lines stopping at Times Square.
Photos 1-32: June 2, 2009; 33-39 & 42 & 49-56: May 20, 2010; 40: July 24, 2009; 41: August 12, 2011; 43-48: August 29, 2011; 57: September 6, 2011; 58: June 8, 2011; 59-65: October 31, 2012, closed after Superstorm Sandy! 66-76: September 3, 2023;
Arts For Transit at Times Square-42 Street
