Archive

Objects

46. The uplighters at Southgate

3 September 2012
Numbers 26-50, Objects, Piccadilly line, Zone 4
3 Comments

An uplighter shade of paleI was chased out of Southgate station for taking this picture.

It’s bemusing how arbitrary the “rules” about photography inside the Underground are implemented. In most locations staff turn a blind eye. In some they even look on with encouragement, especially at the station I’ve earmarked for number 50 (spoilers!).

But there have been a few – and only a few – where stern gazes have been topped with stern words, and on one occasion, here at Southgate, stern actions. I was followed back up the escalator and off the premises, my behaviour judged disruptive enough to merit the kind of treatment I’d expect to see  meted out to a bottle-wielding stoner than a camera-wielding loner.

The whole episode rather spoiled my appreciation of the uplighters at Southgate, which only now, several months later, I realise are utterly gorgeous.

Fifty-two steps to heavenThey are originals – survivors of the inter-war years, stoical and mute, speaking volumes but saying nothing. They radiate history as well as illumination. They inject a dose of the exotic into the otherwise pedestrian business of moving between daylight and the deep.

Slack, drool... illuminations!They are also products of the delicious imagination of Charles Holden, the man who dreamed up the station’s brave, eternally-beguiling exterior.

An exterior I got to know rather better than the interior.

45. The police box outside Earl’s Court

1 September 2012
Circle line, District line, Numbers 26-50, Objects, Piccadilly line, Zone 1, Zone 2
1 Comment

Timey-wimeyParked by the eastern entrance to Earl’s Court is something that competes for attention from passers-by with a frozen-yoghurt parlour, a branch of Pret a Manger, and a kiosk selling international newspapers.

When I was there, it was losing to all three.

Like the TV series, it’s a relatively contemporary reimagining of a once ubiquitous staple of everyday life that had ended up somewhat irrelevant and unloved.

Unlike the TV series, it’s seen better days, looks somewhat shabby and could do with sprucing up a bit. The dirt has, however, led to some topical graffiti:

Hello sweetie!You can’t use it to call the police. You can’t even go inside. And those that have the power to do so better not think of lighting up.

Sterner on the outsideIt’s probably sterner on the outside than the inside.

A thoughtfully-embossed brass panel fixed to the box explains who, where and when:

SpoilersI’m used to being eyed suspiciously while taking photographs outside an Underground station. On this occasion, though, not only did I fail to be eyed at all, I also got the sense of being actively ignored, even shunned. It was as if the twin bodies of the London Underground and Doctor Who had suddenly aligned in such a fashion as to send anybody in close orbit scurrying for less obsessional climes:

The anoraks have landedEarl’s Court station: change here for the District, Circle, Piccadilly and Gallifrey lines.

39. The wall of plants at Edgware Road

29 July 2012
Bakerloo line, Numbers 26-50, Objects, Zone 1
3 Comments

The Underground goes greenThere’s the wrong sort of Green, about whom I’ve already written. But there’s also the right sort of green. Edgware Road on the Bakerloo line has them both.

Flora herdIt’s a veritable flora herd.

The wall of foliage is so dominant it completely upstages those all-too-ubiquitous ox-blood red terracotta tiles. Less impressively, it threatens to overwhelm that rather lovely TELEPHONE sign peeking out from under the main entrance.

I hope they remember to trim it enough in summer months to stop unsightly growth (stop giggling at the back). Otherwise it might end up more like Hedge-wear Road.

I’ll stop now.

Hedgeware Road