Bleecker St
Bleecker Street today seems like a fairly typical IRT local station, it has two side platforms for the 4 track line and is located just beneath the street. These platforms have their original exits towards their northern ends with small fare control areas. On the Downtown platform high Entrance/Exit turnstiles only, these were unstaffed for a long time, with Iron Maidens (former High Entrance Turnsiles that only accepted tokens and jammed often) that were replaced by the current MetroCard High Entrance/Exit Turnstiles in May 1998. Meaning the entrance has been unstaffed for a long time, not just a consequence of the MTA's recent budget cuts basically removing station agents from all entrances except for one. [NYT Article] This small entrance has two street stairs to the NW and SW corners of Bleecker Street and Lafayette Street. As of January 2011 one street stair had been replaced by the modern standard, one still was of a nondescript 1950s maybe vintage. The uptown platform currently has now unstaffed (after the free transfer opened in 2012) turnstiles leading out to three street stairs, one is on the northside of Bleecker Street where Mulberry Street ends (maybe ten feet from Lafayette Street), and the SE corner of Bleecker Street and Mulberry Street. The third is at the SW corner of Beecker Street and Mulberry Street (almost southeast with Lafayette Street).
At the southern end of each platform are the connections to the IND Broadway-Lafayette Street Station. The Downtown platform's configuration has been the same since it was extended and a free transfer opened to and from downtown trains only originally on May 19, 1957. Here a short passageway leads to the IND's original mezzanine, with elevators almost immediately down to both the Uptown and Downtown IND platforms (these elevators provide the accessible route to the Uptown 6 platform from the street as well). Along each wall are two seperate sets of turnstiles leading to seperate, small entrance fare control areas. To the south one has two streetstairs to the south side of Houston Street on the very short block between Crosby and Lafayette Streets, to the north is the accessible entrance from the street with an elevator along the northside of Houston Street, and a streetstair down from the NE corner of Crosby and Lafayette Streets. Between these staircases is a wide staircase that leads down to the IND lower mezzanine (the IND station is quite keep, trains also pass under the Broadway line at the opposite end of the platform), and a passageway via the mezzanine to the other IND entrance at Broadway.
The new free transfer from the uptown platform to the B,D,F, and M trains opened at Noon on Tuesday, September 25, 2012 after a ribbon cutting. From 1957 until 2012, there was only a free transfer between IRT Downtown 6 trains and the IND B,D,F, and M trains. The was caused by 1910 and 1959 platform extensions for the IRT Uptown platform being extended to the north instead of south where platform extensions occured on the Downtown Platform. Adding the new free transfer between Uptown 6 trains and IND B,F, and M trains was a major construction project that cost $127 million. This began with the construction of a new 300 foot long platform extension to the south from the orginal uptown platform. Trains began stopping using the new southern platform extension on March 26, 2012. At this time, the northern portion of the uptown platform was abandoned and a new wall added between the track and former platform.
The new transfer facilities to the B,D,F,M trains consist of two elevators each directly down to the Uptown or Downtown B,D,F,M platform (going via either of these platforms is the only way to accessible station exit), a staircase leads leads down to an intermediate landing where it splits into two further staircases down to each platform. There is also an up only escalator that leads directly up to the Uptown 6 platform from only the Uptown B,D,F,M platform. On each side of this new transfer area are small banks of turnstiles (plus a couple of high exit only turnstiles for easier access from the escalator) that lead out to each side of a small fare control area, with a curved fence that connects the two entrances outside of fare control as well where some MVMs are. These new entrances (with temporary signs for Uptown 6 trains only) opened by August 2012 up to the SE corner of Houston & Lafayette Streets and the NE corner of Houston & Mulberry Streets.
The station renovation included installing many replicas of the historic large blue raised terra-cotta faience name tablets (there were originally just two on each platform) that say Bleecker Street so the platforms now have regular and now historical tiling. There are also little blue cornucopia Bs that form the stations trimline. Before the renovations, the downtown platform 1950s extension to the south for the downtown platform has simple white tilied walls with a blue trimline with Bs in it at regular intervals. About midway up the walls are single Bleecker tiles. The name tablets have white text on a dark blue background with a light blue trim. The former Uptown platform extension before it was abandoned had 1950s block tiling with Bleecker Street written along a blue trimline at regular intervals.
Photos 1-4: August 13, 2008; 5-16: July 30, 2009; 17-30: January 2, 2011; 31-34: August 22, 2012; 35-47: September 5, 2012; 48-77: September 25, 2012 (opening day, both before and after opening!); 78-80: November 1, 2019
