150 great things about the Underground

Stargazers often wonder how the sky at night over London would look were all the city’s illuminations extinguished. I often wonder how London would look from the sky at night were all its illu...

https://150greatthingsabouttheunderground.com/2013/12/31/150-underground-stations-at-night/

When I began this blog, I had a shortlist of only a couple of dozen places about which I knew I wanted to write. That was all. There was no grand plan of campaign, no strategy to help me get to 1...

https://150greatthingsabouttheunderground.com/2013/12/22/149-the-platforms-at-east-finchley/

Welcome to an exclusive peek at the new look of Doctor Who’s Tardis. Yes, the roundels are back. All that steam-punk palaver is no more. Gone, the Heath Robinson-esque detritus and “charmingâ...

https://150greatthingsabouttheunderground.com/2013/12/16/148-the-jubilee-line-at-waterloo/

Any Underground station where you can see three trains side by side at the same time is a bit special. But Aldgate is more special than most. It has an atmosphere all of its own. I haven’t enco...

https://150greatthingsabouttheunderground.com/2013/12/04/147-the-platforms-at-aldgate/

When it comes to untamed nature, I’m with Terry Scott in Carry on Camping: “Funny thing about dirty, stuffy old London. I can walk for miles and miles without ever getting bitten, stung or st...

https://150greatthingsabouttheunderground.com/2013/11/30/146-the-branch-line-to-chesham/

When the balloon goes up and it’s time to head down to the air-raid shelter beneath Clapham South station, one of the last things we’ll see are colours. Rows and rows of gleaming colours, sna...

https://150greatthingsabouttheunderground.com/2013/11/24/145-the-tiles-at-clapham-south/

Like riding a bicycle, cooking a jacket potato or gargling, you have to learn how to fall asleep on the Underground before you can truly enjoy it. Luckily, of the many life skills it is useful to...

https://150greatthingsabouttheunderground.com/2013/11/20/144-falling-asleep-on-the-underground/

The entire top-left corner of the Underground map is pretty much off-limits to most Londoners. It has the status of a curio, the sort of thing that catches your eye as you pass the window of an a...

https://150greatthingsabouttheunderground.com/2013/11/17/143-the-secret-entrance-to-moor-park/

Stuck behind a filthy piece of perspex, its colours sapped by years of direct sunlight, the edges frayed, the lettering fading, mounted in such a way as to defy a decent photograph, and shoved in...

https://150greatthingsabouttheunderground.com/2013/11/12/142-harry-becks-map-at-finchley-central/

“It was about 8.00pm. I was standing on the platform talking to people when there was a terrific explosion above the station and, at the same time, all the platform lamps ‘arced’, and that ...

https://150greatthingsabouttheunderground.com/2013/11/11/141-the-memorial-plaque-at-balham/