Platform 9 and 3/4

The last time I was in London, I took some time to wander about King’s Cross Station looking for platform nine and three quarters. Unfortunately, there was no barrier to be found between platforms nine and ten, only train tracks. It looked like this:


Happily, I found that the barrier between platforms four and five look remarkably like the description of the entrance to the magical platform from the Harry Potter series. I took a picture of myself running through it and was satisfied know that platform nine and three quarters is actually platform four and a half.

Today, I visited the station on my way to the British Library and found someone had made an attempt to correct the number confusion, and placed a sign so that curious muggles would be able to find what they sought. Apparently, the real entrance to platform nine and three quarters looks like this:


Yet something is still not right. The sign and partially disappeared trolley in the photograph are in between platforms eight and nine. Is it possible that Wizard children are to busy studying Arithmancy and Transfiguration to learn basic arithmetic and counting?