21. The interior of North Greenwich

22 May 2012
Architecture, Jubilee line, Numbers 1-25, Zone 2, Zone 3
2 Comments

Time for a mean GreenwichJust when you think the Jubilee line has exhausted its potential to dazzle and entrance, you arrive at North Greenwich with its deep blue caverns and colossal illuminations and your breath is taken away all over again.

All points NorthThe size of the place alone is awe-inspiring. Only those without a soul would fail to get real tingles of excitement when descending into its vast, flickering chambers. Well, those without a soul or those on their way back from a lousy night at the O2 arena.

North Greenwich station sits in a trench 15 metres deep and over 200 metres long. Such dimensions merit, in fact demand, architecture conceived and realised on an epic scale. Which is exactly what happened:

Deep deep downThe batteries of imposing columns, covered with shimmering blue tiles, heighten (literally) your awareness of the ensemble of architecture. I’d wager it’s rare for your eye to be drawn upwards in an Underground station. That’s definitely not the case at North Greenwich.

Why the grand scale? To match the grand intentions of the neighbouring Millennium Dome, naturally, and to accommodate all those millions of people that were expected to flock through the station from around the country.

It didn’t quite work out like that. In fact, in terms of appearance, style and content, North Greenwich station totally outranked the Dome upon its opening in 1999.

And it still does today.

Blue is the colour

20. The wooden escalator at Greenford

20 May 2012
Central line, Numbers 1-25, Objects, Zone 4
7 Comments

Wood, you believe it?I was chased out of Greenford station while taking these photographs. A member of staff objected to me using my camera, even though I was, as I protested, pointing it “merely at an escalator”.

This was a slightly underhand remark, as it clearly wasn’t “merely” an escalator.

Indeed, I’d come to the station precisely because it wasn’t “merely” an escalator, and was instead the only one of its kind still in service on the entire network.

By looking at this photo you are breaking the lawWhy it’s the only one of its kind still to be found in use on the Underground I’ve no idea. I’m guessing it’s retained for its novelty value.

It’s around 100 years old and is certainly a charming oddity. All of its cousins across the network were scrapped in the wake of the King’s Cross fire in 1987.

It's rude to stairWhenever I’m chased out of stations for taking photographs – which is not often, admittedly – I find myself nursing a grudge against from wherever it is I’ve been evicted.

By all means take the effort to visit Greenford and experience this unique chunk of motorised history. Just remember to secrete your camera in a specially-designed satchel, or within a ring like the one Roger Moore had in A View to a Kill.

Oh, and don’t, whatever you do, behave as if you’re there to admire something.

(A different Ian has a different, and better, set of photos.)

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