Drunkenness and Dreams On London's First Late-Night Overground Service

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Drunkenness and Dreams On London's First Late-Night Overground Service

Photographer Orlando Gili captured what unfolded after the opening of the Night Overground.

London's Night Overground opened to modest fanfare on a mid-December Saturday. Modest, perhaps, because for now it only runs between Dalston and New Cross, an orange artery linking east London's two late-night hubs, ferrying the late-night pre-party crowd from the Marquis of Granby down south all the way up to Dalston's strip.

For that reason, you'd probably expect to see a fair bit of drunkenness onboard – and had you spent the first night riding one of the trains up and down the line, as photographer Orlando Gili did, you wouldn't have been disappointed. Passengers ranged from tuxedo and fur-clad Christmas party groups to the more disorganised rabbles wearing belts around their necks and blaring Girls Aloud from their phones.

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Each train contained a pair of policeman who had little to do except keep an eye out for the dreaming drunks.