Sennaya Ploshchad

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Opened: July 1, 1963
Station depth: 45m
Project title: October
Popular names: Ira Horse, Peace/World Horse, Foam Horse, Sleepy Horse, Seminal Square, Pacificus, Hay, Foam, Capless
Type of station: pylon
Entrance to the station: separate ground lobby
Traffic: total about 1207 thousand people per month

The metro station "Sennaya Ploshchad" (Haymarket Square), until July 1, 1992 - "Peace/World Square", probably the richest in the city by informal names. The name "Sennaya Square" is assigned according to the historical name of the city square, on which the station lobby opens. Back in 1737, here, then it was the very outskirts of Saint-Petersburg, an area was built for a market for trading firewood, straw and hay. Therefore, the square was called haymarket - more euphonious and shorter than firewood or straw.

The station is part of the only three-station transfer hub in Saint-Petersburg, popularly called "walking in a circle", and is historically the first station of this transfer hub.

At the end of the station where Sennaya-Spasskaya, crossing is located, there used to be an end wall with the epic inscription "USSR is the bulwark of the peace". But during the construction of the crossing, the end wall was moved away, and now you can see the years of renaming of Saint-Petersburg on it. Personally, all three names are very dear and close to my heart. I was born in Leningrad, I live in Saint-Petersburg, I respect Petrograd.

At the other end of the station there are three escalators to the surface.

There is also a traditional hermetic door - vertical, like a "guillotine".

The pavilion of the station on the surface was built almost on the site of the church "Spas-na-Sennoy", although in fact the ground vestibule touches the foundation of the former church only partially. It is assumed that in the near future, a shopping center building will be built over the pavilions of the Sennaya and Spasskaya stations - they, as seen in the photo on the right, stand side by side, almost closely - and the lobbies themselves will be rebuilt.

To enter the lobby from the square, you need to climb quite high steps. There is an assumption that the station lobby was raised above the ground for flood protection. In any case, the height of the steps just corresponds to the level of water rise in this place of the city during the worst flood of 1824, brilliantly described in Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman". The rise of water then was about 420 cm above the ordinary. The pavilion of the neighboring station Spasskaya was built after the commissioning of the flood protection complex, simply a dam across the entire Finnish Gulf, so there was no need to raise the pavilion of this station above the ground.

The pavilion itself is very utilitarian and nondescript, but it also has its own history. On June 10, 1999, the five-meter concrete canopy of the pavilion suddenly collapsed, crushing 7 people. I remember this day very well, I myself passed under this canopy about 10 minutes before its collapse. The forensic examination revealed the grossest mistakes made in the design of the pavilion. Of course, no one was punished for this. However, the same canopies on the pavilions of other stations (station Vasileostrovskaya, for example) were urgently either reinforced with iron trusses or dismantled.

There are no special decorations above the escalator here, so we'll just go back underground. The ceiling of the inclined passage here is not smooth, as at many other stations, but wavy.

Interestingly, initially the station "Sennaya Ploshchad" was also a "tiled" station, and with tiles on the track walls not white, but such a specific color.

However, during the 2013 renovation, the tile on the track walls was replaced with marble of approximately the same color.

Here, in one of the side halls, a camp of mobile scaffolding is organized for the repair and maintenance of the station.

The lighting of the station is mainly built on behind-the-curtain lamps.

Although there are plafonds of direct light, and beautiful classical-style lamps in the center of the hall - near Sennaya-Sadovaya, crossing.

Here, in the center of the hall, the monotonous floor is decorated with a rose of the winds.

The side halls have their own visual dominants - long horizontal metal grilles.

It is also interesting that earlier in the middle of the central hall of the station, exactly opposite Sennaya-Sadovaya, crossing, there was a newsstand.

Now, finally, everything superfluous and interfering with the passage from the station has been removed. Common sense has finally overcome greedy stupid commerce.

The station has always been distinguished by a large flow of passengers, and no one looks around much. And, in comparison with the stations of the first stage of the Leningrad metro, there is not much to look at here.

Due to the large flow of people, it is only possible to take pictures here either early in the morning or late at night. At the same time, evening shooting sometimes gives amazing spontaneous pantomimes.

The very pylon structure of the station dramatically reduces the space for people to pass through and greatly reduces the capacity during rush hour.

Also now the light at the station is almost white...

...whereas it used to be yellowish. Previously, the entire metro of Saint-Petersburg was poisonous yellowish.

In general, this station is a workhorse. And although in all slang names the word "horse" rhymes with the word "square" from the original name "Peace\World Square", but there is still something in this word ;)