Archive

Circle line

41. The alcoves at Barbican

14 August 2012
Architecture, Circle line, Hammersmith and City line, Metropolitan line, Numbers 26-50, Zone 1
5 Comments

Still mortar offerThis was suggested by Mark Siddall (yes, I am open to any and all nominations).

My photos don’t quite represent the full breadth of eerie elegance created when the sun is in a certain part of the sky and you are standing in a certain part of the station. But it’s the alcoves that best capture and amplify the effect of having so much of the area both cut into the ground and open to the sky.

The shadows and illuminations can give the impression of descending into a baroque catacomb – or, if it’s an especially warm day, an enormous kiln.

Catacomb with a viewThe sensations are heightened – literally – by the tall buildings rising up on all sides. It’s quite an atypical design for a station on almost the oldest stretch of line on the entire Underground. In fact I can’t think of another station on the Circle line that is quite so exposed to the sky, at least not in quite as dramatic a fashion.

This impression of cavernous space is compounded still further by the now disused platforms that sit alongside the Underground tracks:

Dead endThameslink trains to Moorgate used to come this way. Now, nothing. The platform wall is still dutifully updated with the latest advertisements, should your gaze drift momentarily across the tracks. Some of the roundels could do with a bit of attention, though:

Dirty rotten roundelI know some people think the “true” Underground is never open to the elements. I disagree. Barbican exposes the heart of the Underground in the heart of the London in heart-tugging style.

(Oh, and thanks Mark!)

28. The GWR logos at Hammersmith

17 June 2012
Circle line, Designs, Hammersmith and City line, Numbers 26-50, Zone 2
6 Comments

God's Wandering RelicsAnother unexpected find. These benches must be at least almost a century old, for they bear the emblem of a company that helped to build and run this stretch of track long before anyone thought or tried to stitch together a single, unified Underground.

They’re on the Hammersmith platforms that are served by the Hammersmith and City and the Circle lines. It’s a chunk of the network that’s been subject to a number of revamps and rebrandings during the last 150 years. Decades ago it was the Metropolitan line that terminated here; centuries ago it was the Hammersmith and City Railway.

Each name change brought its own batch of new signs, furnishings and corporate clutter. Much will have been cleared up and thrown away down the years. But these benches have somehow survived, and they bear the imprint of the Great Western Railway: the company that helped build this bit of the line all the way back in 1863-64.

GWR: God’s Wonderful Relics, Granted Wise Reprieve.

Granted Wasteful Reprieve

19. The heritage map outside Temple

15 May 2012
Circle line, District line, Maps, Numbers 1-25, Zone 1
3 Comments

Mis-mapTo avoid having my virtual collar felt by the long arm of Transport for London’s copyright police, I can’t reproduce any sort of maps on this blog. But I’m pretty sure I can reproduce my own photos of publicly-displayed copies of heritage maps. Well – fairly sure.

I think I’m on safe ground with this one: a copy of a 1932 attempt at a map of the London Underground, which is on permanent show by the entrance to Temple station:

It's a photo of a map, not a map. Honest.I guess most people might find this mildly diverting. I find it continually fascinating, but then I’m not most people.

The map pre-dates by a matter of months the publication of the first of Harry Beck’s groundbreaking diagrammatic versions. As such it became a museum piece remarkably quickly, being officially redundant by January 1933 (and forever more).

Unofficially it has gained a second life as an exhibit on the wall outside Temple, reminding those who care to look that stations once existed called Addison Road and Post Office, that Archway used to be known as Highgate, and that if you wanted to travel anywhere west of Turnham Green you were pretty much on your own.

There is no single credit for this intriguing if eccentric map. Instead it is attributed to the London Passenger Transport Board, along with a few words of advice for stupid people:

Well, dur