23 Street
23 Street is a local stop on the Broadway Line with two side platforms for the four-track line. The stop is on the Southwest corner of Madison Square; where Broadway crosses 5 Avenue and it seems surprising the stop does not include this location in its name. The decor is green with blue and brown boarder trimline, and 23 in white on blue it. Name tablets say 23rd Street on blue with gold inner and green outer boarders. These platforms are narrow at their ends and wider in their midsections where there are blue columns. The platforms have two exits, towards the southern end the downtown platform has two high exit only turnstiles up to a single streetstair at the NW corner of Broadway and 22 Street, the uptown platform has a streetstair from the NE corner down to two high entrance/exit turnstiles with not enough space for a MVM making it one of the few entrances left where there is no way to purchase a fare.
The main fare control areas are towards the middle of the platform, the downtown fare control area is located beneath the middle of the large intersection where Broadway, 5 Avenue and 23 Street intersect. This means the two streetstairs to the unstaffed fare control area with two separate banks of turnstiles require real walkways from the bottom of the staircases to reach the entrance. These streetstairs come from the SE corner of 5 Avenue and 23 Street, and in the middle of the block on the west side between 23 Street and 24 Street where Broadway merges away from 5 Avenue opposite the square. The uptown platform is more conventional two streetstairs at the NE (along Madison Square) and two at SE corners of Broadway and 23 Street.
Photos 1-2: February 12, 2004; 3: August 15, 2007; 4-9: June 17, 2009; 10-12: January 2, 2012
Memories of 23rd Street, 2002
Glass Mosaic and silk-screned ceramic tile
By Kieth Godard
Station Subway Lines (2010-2016)
