London Underground Fashion Victims

Fashion Victims on the Tube

After a bit of a break it's the final fashion victims of the year. Most Fridays I take a look at commuters on the Tube who're following a particular trend, taking astyle and "making it their own" or who could generally be considered erm ..... eye catching.

Zig and Zag Boots Return

We've seen a lot of these boots over the year and it never ceases to amaze me that grown women want to wear boots that look like Zig and Zag.



Zig and Zag's Native American cousins

At least these were a different take on the Zig and Zag look


Freaky Tights


I've still not been able to work out what is going on with the tights here. All I know is that they made my eyes hurt.

Colour Co-ordinated?

Finally, to end with a guest shot. It's great how a number of you have risked getting lamped to snap victims for me. So I must thank Chris "Awkward" McKenna for this shot of a lady with a love of colour. Just a shame that the colours are all competing wildly against each other.

Chris says "The photo doesn't show the leggings ended at mid-thigh to show tan-coloured socks and black ballet-style shoes." I'm kind of pleased about that actually.

Eagle eyed Chris managed to spot that she was wearing a little Legoman brooch and took a close up of it:


That's it for this year with the victims. The previous victims can be found here and the complete picture gallery can be seen on the following Flickr set.

Is it Art?

Camden Town gets new paint job

Whilst the Tube network had its annual Christmas Day shutdown, a graffiti gang were hard at work playing with their new spray pounds beneath the streets of North London.

Having walked south down the tracks to Camden Town, they then set about covering the entire length of the platform walls, CCTV cameras and display panels with paint causing tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage. (See Bixentro's and Dave Knapik's photo sets and blogpost)

LU officials have said that the station will remain open and fully operational meaning that the clean-up could take several weeks as contractors will only be able to work after services finish each night.

Transport Police are hoping that CCTV images will provide clues to who did this however at Christmas this is a wide spread issue. Just looking through some of the discussion forums on the net such as yahoogroups, there are many reports of mainline trains running in service yesterday having been covered in graffiti over the Christmas break.

So is it Art? or just an illegal mess?

A Pigeon's Eye View of the Tube

Unsung bloggers

Hope everyone had a good Xmas, commisserations if you're back at work today, or even if you're not, perhaps you could help BBC Radio Five out with nominating some Unsung Bloggers of 2006 for a New Year's Day broadcast. Chris Vallance from Up All Night and Pods & Blogs is looking for some of your favourite blogs which not many people may have heard of. I had nominated Brian the Pigeon blogger and just before Xmas went in search of him in Trafalgar Square along with Salvadore Vincent from Smaller than Life.

The results of our search for Brian were on Radio Five at about 11.30pm Boxing Day Night and you can catch them on the Listen Again feature (if you skip to about 1hour 25 mins in - you'll hear the section on blogs). or for a speedier version, Brian who is far more technical than me managed to record it here.


We never found Brian, but I did manage to leave with a deposit from one of his mates on my hood. One also flew onto my shoulder during the recording and on to the microphone so they are bold little b'stards and not publicity shy.

I'll leave you with Brian's pigeon cam of an evening he spent on the London Underground. Hopefully looking at the tube from that perspective won't make you feel too weird as I think he was a bit drunk when he shot it as he spends too long focussing on a discarded can of Carling at the start.

Santas on the Tube

Why do I ALWAYS miss Santacon?

Every year I try to remember Santacon and every year I forget. Santacon for the uninitiated a mass congregation of Santas which must scare the Bejeesus out of little kids. There's usually one in London and not surprisingly they travel by Tube:


Fortunately one of the blog's regular readers and commenters was around and snapped the following Santas getting up close and personal.

A herd of Santas from theshangrila's fab Santcon set


Plus some Tube Santas caught in action on YouTube

Enjoy!

Festive Greetings from Glamoursmith

Avoiding eye contact

Do you remember the days when ads didn't remind us about the delights of public transport?


I'd love to think that this ad must have been written purely for Hammersmith as it has more than its fair share of weirdo's but I'm sure I'll be proved wrong.

Apart from drinking WKD (blue drinks are wrong, as are drinks that sound like a teenager's text message), they have a point though. Once you inadvertantly gain someone's eye contact on the Tube, I find it really hard to completely stop looking at them if you haven't got something to read. After you've done the quick look down to apologise for invading their eye space, one of the two of you will inevitably be drawn back to make sure they are still not looking at you. Then, the whole thing starts again until one you pretends to sleep, takes an unhealthy interest in the ads opposite or leaves.

I suppose an alternative is for the London Underground to sponsor staring competitions where you could be given an incentive for staring out the person opposite you. I'm not sure if World Records for staring at people without a break exist, but little kids or babies with no sense of Tube etiquette would win hands down if they did.

Meet the guy who overhears on the Tube

The Man Who Fell Asleep Virtual Book Tour



This is the first time I've been asked to host a virtual book tour. But it's by one of the very first people that I linked to and gave a regular feature to on www.goingunderground.net in the days before I had a blog (ah .... the blessed days before I had a blog.... can't believe the blog will be four years old at the end of the year). So I'm going to step aside to Greg who more people have said - "Oh have you heard about the overheard on the Tube site" more times than I can shake a stick at.

"Hello, this is Greg aka themanwhofellasleep. Annie has kindly lent me her blog today to help me promote my novel, A Year in the Life of TheManWhoFellAsleep. Some of you may already know my website themanwhofellasleep.com, and in particular the tube gossip, which is used weekly in Time Out London.

Anyway, my book is good. Annie likes it. Other people like it. It's got lots of tube goosip. It's very London and is the perfect Christmas present for young and old alike. There. That's the plugging over and done with.

I thought I'd spend the rest of the blog writing about the London Underground. I love the London Underground. I should make it clear that I love the Tube in the way I might love an abusive relative: the relationship is painful, shameful and I’ve told myself a hundred times that I should leave, but the ties are too strong.

So, here are the best Tube lines, in order. I should add that this is all purely subjective. But I am right.

Number 1: The Victoria Line. You know what I like about it? It's straight. There are no forks or deviations. And there are just the right number of stations. It is pure in thought and function. It’s true that there are some alarmingly long gaps between stations, but no-one is perfect. And I love it for the simplicity of the platform to platform change onto the First Capital Connect (formerly WAGN) line at Highbury and Islington. It is all that a tube line should aim to be.

Number 2: The Piccadilly Line. Mainly for sentimental reasons. I grew up around Wood Green, and for a while lived 30 seconds walk from Bounds Green station. All the north London Piccadilly line stations are lovely old Art Deco buildings, albeit in terrible condition. The other end of the line is something of a mystery to me. I once did a day’s work at Sky and had to go to Osterley. It was quite terrifying. After I got past Acton Town, civilization seemed to have come to an end. The gap between stations was about 47 minutes.

Number 3: The Central Line. For the nice seats. And the lovely red colour of the line on the map. It's quite a posh line, really. Queensway – Notting Hill Gate – Holland Park. It's not for the paupers. Plus, there's a station called Grange Hill. I bet there's no train station in Newcastle called Byker Grove.

Number 4: The Northern Line. The Misery Line. Yes, it's awful, but I spent much of my youth traveling from East Finchley to Camden Town to go to Mega City Comics. It has far too many forks and splits. It’s a damned crazy line. It could quite sensibly have been split into two different lines, but that would have been too reasonable. Did you know: At some point in the distant past there were plans to extend the Northern Line all the way to Muswell Hill. Yes! Muswell Hill would have been on the tube map! Madness!

Number 5: The Hammersmith and City Line. So named to confuse youngsters and tourists: "So, is it the Hammersmith Line I should take? Or the City Line? What? They're the same line?!? No! My brain is melting!" Still, I am fond of the H&C Line. I don't know why. Maybe it's the pinkness. Incidentally, it may just be me, but I remember a time when all Circle Line train interiors were yellow, and all H&C Line train interiors were pink. Nowadays you can get on a yellow-painted train and it's a Hammersmith train and vice versa. You need to keep your wits about you.

Number 6: The Metropolitan Line. I must say, I like the colour. That deep, rich purple is quite sexy. Sadly, that sexiness is spoilt by the fact that the line goes to Watford. Still, the Metropolitan Line is unique in that it's the only line to have "fast trains" that skip stations. These trains confuse me. For years I have had a morbid fear of accidentally getting onto a fast train and not being able to get off until Moor Park. I begrudge these fast trains and their passengers. They should be forced to pass through every station en-route, like normal human beings.

Number 7: The Circle Line. If Camus and Satre were alive today (They aren't. They're dead), they would be traveling endlessly on the Circle Line. Nothing represents the futility of existence better than a bright yellow line that just goes round in circles all day (pausing for ages at Aldgate and Edgware Road for no apparent reason besides existential angst). For some reason I am very suspicious of any Circle Line station that isn't also on the Hammersmith and City Line.

Number 8: The Bakerloo line. It's an unremarkable line really, isn't it? When they were picking the colours for the map, the Bakerloo must have drawn the short straw. A slightly muddy shit-brown. It's not pleasant. But it does go through Willesden Junction, which is a place I am fond of. Harlesden isn't all just stabbings and gun crime.

Number 9: The Jubilee Line. It's grey. It is the greyness of London, of overcast skies, soggy chips and warm beer. It’s unrelentlingly grim in its greyness. In its favour, the Jubilee line extension has some fantastic stations, and the security door/barrier things on the platform are quite useful as they allow me to know exactly the doors of the train will be and therefore snaffle a good seat. Oh, and it’s good for disabled access. At the moment I don't need disabled access, but I like to plan for the future.

Number 10: The District Line. Is there anything skankier than a District Line train? The rolling stock appears to predate the London Underground by many centuries. And the line is green on the map. There's something wrong with that. Green in the colour of nature. And the District Line is an offence to nature. It's an abomination. It confuses me. There's a strange "V" annex between Kensington (Olympia), Earl's Court and High Street Kensington. The "V" just sits there like a vestigial limb yearning to be amputated. Also, any Tube line that goes to Wimbledon is not to be trusted.

Number 11: The East London Line. Just totally pointless. It's tiny, it's orange, and it's never open. Like an early-closing Satsuma.

Number 12: The Waterloo and City Line. Even smaller and more rubbish that the East London Line.

I'm sure one of the regular readers and commmenters who lives in Wimbledon will have something to say about the District Line definition. But I can't defend it in any other way. Skankier could be my new word of 2007! Cheers to Greg for the post and best of luck with the sales of the book.

Christmas on the Tube

Snogging Tiger, Hidden Dragon

You know that it's close to Xmas when you see women being snogged by a stuffed tiger, under watchful eye of a bear:



And vacuum cleaners dressed as Santa taking up busking


More signs of Xmas pictures on the way. If you've spotted anything particularly festive on the Tube please pass it my way.

Vandals or Passenger Action?

When does vandalism become passenger action? This morning the District Line was suspended between Richmond & Turnham Green due to people breaking up the copper lines at Gunnersbury. On the radio they were described as vandals. By the time I got to Waterloo it was described as "passenger action", but on reaching Leicester Square it was good old "vandalism" again. I always think of passenger action as some sort of commuting protest - with placards, loudspeakers and petitions. Not a bunch of hoodies ripping up the lines. And it the second time in two weeks. Pesky passengers!

Interesting Christmas Gift

Re-build the London Underground Game

I'm sure many of you look at the problems we face on the Tube each day with over-running engineering works, broken escalators, delays, dust, broken lifts, dust and the general misery of the Northern Line and think to yourself "If only I could run the Tube, I'd do a far better job of it than TubeLines and Metronet ....."

Well now, thanks to Sebastian Bleasdale you can. He's created On The Underground - "a board game about building the London Underground - the way it should have been built. Each player takes charge of a number of lines, building them to connect to key stations and to help the Passenger in his quest to visit the whole Underground system."


The rules look pretty simple and don't seem to involve PPP or major advertising & PR campaigns or dealing with Ken Livingstone, although it might be quite fun to add these various wranglings to bring it more in touch with the real world. It would be nice to have the sorts of Risk cards that you get in a game of Monotony. "Your maintenance men are going on strike as it's almost Christmas, lose 3 points", "One of your contractors is the son of a terrorist, lose 4 points."

Instead the rules are as follows: "Build Track: Each turn a player builds four lengths of track on the board. The first length of any line can be built anywhere, but later lengths must extend the existing line from one of its ends. You may branch your track by paying branch tokens, which you collect by skipping track builds and by building to termini. You get points by building track to National Rail stations or termini, by linking connection stations or by building loops.

Move the Passenger: Then each player moves the Passenger to one or two destination stations. The Passenger is lazy, and chooses his route to minimise the distance that he has to walk, and the number of lines he has to use. For each line that he uses, the owner of that line gains a point. The visited destination cards are replaced, and it is the next player's turn.

When the deck of destination cards has been exhausted, the game ends, and the player who has gathered most points wins."


Here's what some reviewers of the game from Board Game Geek have said:

"I thought 'oh joy, yet another train game...'. However I was very taken with it. Everyone was engaged throughout (it played out in about 90 minutes), scoring was pretty close (though I was last in each game...no change there then), and there there are plenty of game and scoring options to deliver a decent amount of replay value. It's well produced and attractive, and will probably appeal to both my lighter and more gamey groups.."

"For anyone conversant with the "traditional" London Underground map, the end result of each game of OTU results in a wonderfully plausible "alternate universe" map but with all sorts of odd quirks (just like the real one.) And that makes it stand out from the usual "rail game" crowd."

Interestingly the rules are in English and German, implying that On The Underground might be going down a storm in Germany. It's £25 plus £3.75 post and package to buy. (Cheers to Neil for the heads up with this).

Underground Rug (Thanks to Martin Ellwood for spotting this)

If you are looking for a Tube gift and have fairly large pockets you might want to shell out £749.99 for a designer rug. No, that's not a typo and is obviously for the person who has everything (well, everything but a London Underground designer rug). Although perhaps after several plays of "On the Underground" you might feel like you have a winning Tube system on your hands and can apply to be Chair of TubeLines, then I'm sure that almost 800 quid would seem like small change and you could carpet your mansion in designer rugs.

Oystercard & Barclays tie the knot

Buying Oysters with your Oystercard

If you're a Barclaycard customer watch out from some trials in February where you can use your Oystercard to buy low cost items in newsagents, pubs, and coffee bars, as well as car parks. So in a matter of seconds you can potentially pay for sarnies, beer, coffee and your paper by waving the card over a reader just as you do on a Tube or bus. TfL have been in talks with Barclays for some time now about exclusive rights for "wave & pay" technology. If the trials are successful the service will be rolled out for all Barclaycard holders and I'm sure it's something that other banks will want to cash in on eventually.

According to the BBC "The trial will combine two distinct elements; one for the combined credit/Oyster card and the other for the contactless technology.

But the Oyster and credit or debit accounts would still remain separate.

"If you tap the yellow Oyster pad at a tube station, to buy a ticket, money will be deducted from the Oyster account," said Barclaycard's Ian Barber.

"But if you pay for a coffee and a newspaper in a shop that will come from your credit or debit account."

I've only just got my head around using an Oystercard, so I can't see myself rushing to get a Barclaycard for this. Industry analysts also believe it might take card users might take some time to get to grips with the idea.

"This type of innovation is very much welcomed in the cards market," said Robert Kenley, head of credit cards at Moneysupermarket. "However, the convenience of having three payment types on the same card could potentially lead to customer confusion about which part of the card is being debited."

As usual with anything Oystercard related, Sheriff Ken is a happy bunny as he reckons it will save us having to carry as much cash around. Any thoughts? Plus if anyone's used Hong Kong's Octopus card - you might be able let us know how it's going down there.

Not on the London Underground

More Tube Roundels not on the Tube

Thanks for sending in some more roundels not in their natural home. Firstly, from Jon T, we have a taxi firm in Bronxville who may be trying to imply that their service is as fast (or as slow) as the Tube


But my favourite is from Jo Oakley who had been meaning to send me these for some time. The roundel is used to pretty good effect to front a clothes shop in Tokyo which seems to think that London is very er... hot!




I'm sure the Tube's lawyers will be shuddering to see the beloved roundel used to promote raunchy explosives.

Thanks, Jo & Jon. Keep 'em coming and I'll add to the set.

Great Tube Fine Dodging Excuse

Tory Leader Escapes Fine on the Tube

Has David Cameron read some of the tips for dodging fares on the Tube? Or is "I don't routinely break the law. I can assure you I did buy one," a good enough excuse for not having in valid ticket? Apparently so, as the London evening papers and the Mirror took great joy in reporting that Cameron managed to talk his way out of getting a fine for not having a ticket on the Tube.

Cameron was on the way to a Morrisey concert and by the time he reached Wembley he had somehow lost his ticket. The LU employee he approached gave him a telling off saying "Surely in your line of work you would have the money to buy a second ticket?" I would have been tempted to say "Surely in your line of work you have the money to pay a twenty quid fine".

But Cameron, the wag, replied: "Yes, I can, but there's not much job security in my line of work." Which says a lot for his position. Cameron's spokesman said "He wasn't trying to dodge his fare, which is why he wasn't fined."

Well lucky old David, as Cherie Blair wasn't so fortunate back in 2000 when she was fined £10 after being caught without a ticket at Luton station. So just remember if you are even caught in a similar situation as long as you are not trying to dodge your fare, you won't be fined.

Has this happened to you? Have you, or someone you know or passed by, been let off paying a fine by saying you've lost your ticket? Or is it really only a gambit that can be used by the leader of the Opposition?

Milan Poledancer on Subway

How to brighten your commute

There seems to have been a new twist on the subway busking with the arrival of poledancer in Milan. Last week, a woman in her twenties looking fairly normal with the exception of some cat ears, boarded trains wearing a long black overcoat and carrying a portable boom box. When the doors closed she ripped off her coat and danced to the stereo in a black latex girdle, black fishnet stockings, black boots and shiny, black, fingerless gloves.

After a bump-and-grind routine using the carriage's vertical poles and strap hangers she takes a collection and leaves the train.

My Italian's not good enough to tell whether Lisa Ragazza's antics were a publicity stunt for some sort of "art installation" or if she's simply a bit strapped for cash and needs some money.

However in case anyone's thinking of trying the same on the Tube, I'd put away your latex gear as soon as possible as London Underground said "We would frown upon any behaviour that would upset other passengers."

But from the look on the faces of most of the commuters, no one seems to be particularly upset. Maybe the Italians are more receptive to pole dancing commuters than the Tube think we might be. The Italian journalist who was one of the first to write about the woman said "All the passengers seemed to enjoy the show. It was not at all vulgar — everyone was smiling and laughing."


Comments from the YouTube clip above range from - outranged of the Internet to Italy you rock. I suppose the secret's in the timing. As far as I can tell she was poledancing on fairly late night trains. Problem is that those poles are crying out to be poledanced around and I'm really surprised that we don't seem to have had any known reports of this on the Tube. I've seen a few girls larking around and doing this and it's a lot harder than it looks. But maybe you've seen people doing it more professionally....

Air Conditioned Tubes on the way

2009 sees cooler Tubes

Firstly thanks to Chris n Neil for looking after the blog while I've been away, but what a welcome back from Cuba to read what seems like a science fiction headline in the Evening Standard. "Air-conditoned Tubes on way". It's not jet lag, or an illusion caused by too many mojitoes:


Sheriff Ken who's also not been long back from a trip to Cuba (at least mine didn't cost 30,000 quid) said the £3.1billion upgrade "is the next stage of TfL's investment in the renewal and improvement of LU. Passengers will benefit from air-conditioning and extra space on the trains" (see Metro for more on this)

The cooler, longer, newer trains will only be on the Metropolitan, Circle, Hammersmith & City and (hoorah, hoorah) District Lines which are used by more than one million people each day and it will take until 2013 before all of the new trains are in service. But it's the first time that the entire fleet of 177 trains on the four lines will be replaced.

Quite how the air conditioning will work on the new fleet tailor-made by Bombardier in Derby, I haven't managed to fathom out yet. End-to-end open gangways and wide aisles will allow each train to fit 340 more passengers than current maximum of 3,881.

There's always a Cassandra in the wings wringing their hands with tales of doom and gloom and this time it's in the shape of Geoff Pope, the Liberal Democrat transport spokesman on the London Assembly who predicts that works to extend platforms would cause disruption.

"The last thing we want is the kind of mess-up that occurred recently due to contractor overruns when Tube lines were not handed back in time for the morning's rush hour.

"London already has one misery line, we don't need another four."

Damian Hockney, leader of the One London party on the London Assembly was in a similarly cheerful mode "Adding a seventh carriage to the Circle line could mean closures and disruption for years. Rather than looking too far into a crystal ball and proposing more disruption, we need to start with the major problems we have at the present."

And Brian Cooke from London TravelWatch added "Obviously, better trains mean better journeys for passengers, but we do question whether the same interior seating design is suitable for the long journeys, of over and hour on the Metropolitan Line and for the short journeys that are the norm on the Circle Line."

Splitting Headache Relief?

Is a Northern Line Split on the Way?

The Mayor last week launched his Transport 2025 policy document looking forward at what capacity improvements (amongst other issues) could be achieved on all of London's transport systems.

One of the suggestions to help lessen the capacity issue on the inner south London to central London corridor is for the Northern Line to be split into two separate services - permanently.

By 2025, Mordern-Stockwell will be operating at 30tph (trains per hour) however the West End and City branches will only each operate at 22tph because of the allowances needed at the junctions around Kennington/Camden.

The answer is to split the Northern Line with 30tph running Mordern-Bank-Edgware and 30tph running Kennington-High Barnet. This avoids using the junctions at Kennington and Camden. Late Night/Early morning service would still run through.

There is however the requirement for extra rolling-stock/stabling [Chris' note: By 2025, the Northern Line stock will be 30 years old and probably falling apart] and capacity improvements at Camden Town.

Just another Metronet Monday on the Waterloo and Pitty Line

Dust, anyone for some dust?

After a weekend where The Tube has generally managed to avoid major disruption due to the high winds and rain, a small breeze may have been useful as the City returned to work this morning.

The latest in crazy excuses for the Waterloo and City line was that it was closed due to "excessive dust on the platforms" and was expected to remain that way for the entire morning peak period.

Update: 05/12/06 12:30

The line finally opened mid-afternoon yesterday but was again closed this morning following some drivers still complaining that their vision was being obscured by dust. The line has since reopened at 11:30.

Tim O'Toole said Metronet had failed to carry out enough dust suppression leaving a "terrible mess" on Monday. The dust had been caused by rail grinding over the weekend.

Tube Sent to Coventry's Aid

Coventry City's football team had to travel on the Tube to reach their Championship tie with QPR after their team coach became stranded.

According to BBC News, Coventry's manager Micky Adams commented "We were told the bus was stuck in traffic so we decided to get on the tube... We bought 23 single tickets at Hanger Lane station and our unsung hero was Jay Tabb, who knew we had to change at Hammersmith to go to Shepherd's Bush. I feel a bit sorry for him as well, as I did not even put him in the team." Adams added: "We took a bit of stick from West Ham and Fulham fans and got to the ground at 2.20pm."

The trip on the tube to Shepherd's Bush on the Hammersmith and City line obviously did not upset their preparation too much - they went on to win 1-0. You may however class themselves as lucky, as Hammersmith is not on the Central Line - one might assume that they actually started their journey at Park Royal.

London Underground Fashion.......

Not exactly Tube Fashion Victims

Quick post from me as I'm off to Cuba later today and the blog will be left in the capable hands of Neil and Chris while I'm away so be nice to them.

So before I go it's not Friday's "normal" victims but people who've deliberately gone out of their way to look a little unusual on the Tube.

Firstly we have the glam crowd of seventies throwbacks at glamourous Glamoursmith, who possibly could be auditioning for either Brookside or Harry Enfield's The Scousers - Calm down, calm down.


Finally and incredibly well spotted by Andy Green (although he would have been hard to miss), a nice set of buns!



See you in a couple of weeks, I'll be smoking large cigars, sunning myself and hoping that Castro stays well enough so we can see his belated 80th birthday celebrations!

Not on the London Underground

More Roundels from around the World

A bumper pack of roundels today which will keep the Tube's lawyers on a nice winter break.


Firstly two from Ghent in Belgium taken by Andrew. He said "I was staying at a B&B in the suburbs of the city, and nearby was a bar called Speakers' Corner. It's very close to Ghent's modern art museum and in the student area. They were using roundels in the windows, both straight London Underground logos, and one's adapted with the bar's name. I managed to get a couple of photos, but apologies they not that clear. I was struggling to avoid reflections from the glass."

From Belgium to San Sebastian in Northern Spain and Ian had taken the another Underground establishment:


Not exactly sure what it is though!

Now moving further away from London we go East where Jacob "found this one whilst wandering around Budapest near the Moskva Square station near Buda Hill. It looked like it was a cafe using the symbol."


Also looks like someone was using the bin as a toilet!

Finally we go across the Pond. Sharon was in New York and took this near their Chinatown area


"It's the banner of a furniture store, I believe."

And in sunny Southern California, Julia G spotted a hair salon with a very familiar signage:





Perhaps blokes who go in there and ask for a Livingston or a Hendy rather than a number 1 or two. Or for something a bit more bouffanty (is that a word) they could ask for a David Brown.

Thanks to everyone for those and they've been added to the ever growing roundel set. I'm off to Cuba tomorrow so will see if there's anything in Havana. Please email me if you spot any roundels on your travels.

Welcome back Wood Lane

And the Shepherds can go to market

For the first time a brand new station on the Tube will be given a disused station name. Wood Lane will open in 2008 a hundred years after the old Wood Lanes opened in May 1908. There was one on the Central line and the other on the Hammersmith & City line. The new Wood Lane will be back on the Hammersmith & City Line between the new Shepherd's Bush station (Shepherd's Bush Market) and Latimer Road (Thanks to Moley for giving me the heads up here).


The renaming of Shepherd's Bush to Shepherd's Bush Market is to stop the confusion between the two Shepherd's Bush stations that exist. One on the Central Line and one on the Hammersmith & City Line. Mmm like the two old Wood Lanes. Are you still with me on this?

LU Managing Director Tim O'Toole said in a press release: "The new Wood Lane station on the Hammersmith & City line is a very welcome addition to the Underground network.

"The station will play an important role in getting people to and from the new Westfield London development, the major new retail development in the area.

"The other major benefit is that passengers will be able to travel straight to the White City area on the Hammersmith & City line instead of having to change to the Central line." Good news if you work at or are travelling to the BBC.

It came as a surprise to me to learn that the last station name change occurred on the Tube in 1989 when Surrey Docks on the East London line was renamed Surrey Quays. Apparently London Underground received a load of requests to change the names of Tube stations (most recently in the news was the move to change Arsenal back to Gillespie Road) But they very rarely change them.

If you're wondering what the significance of the first picture is to this story, it's from 1970's UK sci-fi TV series The Tomorrow People. They were a group of trendy teleporting teenagers whose base "The Lab" was in a disused Tube station.

"With a hiss and a rumble the underground train moved slowly out of the station, treating its discarded passengers to a low, whining farewell as it disappeared into the tunnel. The assorted throng of theatre-goers and businessmen kept late at the office scurried for the escalators, hardly sparing a glance for the two boys in Hell's Angel jerkins who hung around a chocolate machine at the rear end of the platform. Watching until the attendant was out of sight, they immediately turned back and raised a small trapdoor hidden close to the tunnel entrance. In a moment they were bent low in a sewer-like gallery which ran off at an angle and eventually brought them to that little-known part of the London Underground which was doomed to remain forever sealed off and silent."

That little known part of the Underground was Wood Lane and you can just about make out the A-N-E from the remaining letters in the roundel.

If you want to find out more about Wood Lane, past, present and future check out Hywel Williams' disused Tube Stations site.

Just another (insert M here) Monday

Monday woes on the Tube

Someone is bound to come up with all the reasons as to why Metronet are performing brilliantly and somehow are not to blame for the major delays on the Central, Circle, District and Northern Line yesterday morning which spilled (and I'm being charitable here) over into the evening, so I'm not even going to attempt to to attack them. I'll just sit back and wait for my refund to come from TfL.


What I will do though is help out the Evening Standard and London Lite with some more suitable alliterations for the next time this happens - on a day other than Monday. London Lite's Meltdown Monday was good:


But on balance I preferred the Standard's Monday Mayhem.


Mayhem has a sort of Peter Andre and Jordan seldom heard quaintness about it (remember Marriage & Mayhem the story of their nuptials).

So for other days I'd like to suggest - Tuesday Turmoil, Woeful Wednesday or even Wonky Wednesday. Thursday - Mmmm another T. OK Traumatic Thursday. Friday's alot easier - Frightful Friday, Freaky Friday, Filthy Friday, and Friday Failure slip off the tongue. Metronet can you kindly note that Mondays and Fridays are definitely easier for headline writers, so can we stick to those days please?

Earl's Court Platform Announcements

The next train will be calling at the G Spot

Saturday was a fairly rubbish day for travelling on the Tube. You might imagine that I would be the first person to check the realtime travel news, but I had my weekend head on, the sun was shining and I thought, nothing could be simpler than going to a factory sale at Olympia and then heading off to see my friend and her new baby. She lives in Woodside Park which is probably the furthest north I've ever travelled on the Northern Line. Remind me to check the Tube's site before I do that again.

The Sadistic Line had engineering works with no trains running between Whitechapel & Earls Court. This led to Earls Court looking like Piccadilly Circus with people looking lost and piling themselves into the first train that appeared. Trains heading towards Wimbledon seemed unnaturally popular.


Our platform assistant was giving minute by minute countdowns of the every train leaving Earls Court but he took great pleasure in announcing the ones heading for Olympia. "Your next Olympia train for the Erotica exhibition will be here in 9 minutes time". A few minutes later "Your next Olympia train for the Erotica exhibition will be here in 7 minutes time" and so on.

It was as though he felt those heading for the Erotica exhibition were itching to get their hands on .... well whatever you'd get your hands on at an Erotica show.... that they needed these precise blow by blow accounts.

When I left the train at Olympia it wasn't quite the hedonistic experience I was expecting with people in sexy black boots or whips charging off to the exhibition. Erotica is now mainstream with 31,000 people attending the exhibition and as the blurb says of "all ages and sexual persuasion".

The ticket touts took this to heart as it was impossible to spot likely Erotica attendees so were dashing round trying to hawk cheap tickets to everyone. A few sad looking blokes with bad highlights and leather trousers were un-enthusiastically handing out flyers for "out-there" nightclubs. And weirdly, someone who at first glance looked like they were in a foam rubber Subway Man sandwich outfit was at the gates with postcards. However, I'm sure he wasn't from Subway, the foam was definitely more flesh coloured than normal, and as for the special sauce around his cape. Mmmm, I won't go there on a Monday morning.

Oversized Carrier Bags

Bag Spotting

Travelling on the District Line, I get more than my fair share of people armed with large carrier bags coming back from exhibition at Earl's Court or Olympia? It's normally fairly easy to quess what the exhibition has been about, but I was struggling with the bag below:


The Home of Quick Bridge. Mmmm, first off I thought it was an online casino or gaming exhibition and expected to see some ads for quickbridge.com appearing on the Tube next year. It could be for bridging loans, so perhaps an investment show. Or maybe even an instant bridge - a bridge in a bag - a construction exhibition. No idea - if anyone knows or wants to hazard a guess at an alternative, let me know.

The girls below were much easier with their eye-catching eye bags:


They looked like upmarket bag ladies, as Miss Sixty bags have that "laundry bag" feel about them. They seem to made out of the same material as those mis-shapen, non-stand-uppable, almost useless blue bags they hand out at IKEA.

As usual, I expect to be wading through a sea of over-sized carriers on the Tube in the run up to Xmas. Still better on the floor than on the seats. If there's one thing that's guaranteed to wind me up on the Tube more than anything else it's people who put their bags on the seats next to them. If I had enough nerve I would just sit down on top of bags, rather than giving the owner a hard Paddington stare.

The Queen maybe just about, has an excuse as when pictured here it was probably only the second time she'd been on the Tube. And with a small bag like that, I'd probably just plonk myself down on the seat anyway and pretend I hadn't seen it.

Good luck getting to work

First London bus strike in 7 years and Victoria Line part suspended

Not great news for North & South London today as bus drivers in North London begin a strike about pay and currently the Victoria Line is suspended between King's Cross and Walthamstow Central and between Victoria and Brixton due to a signal failure at Seven Sisters. There's also severe delays on the rest of the line so check out the real-time section of the Tube's site to keep up to date.

Let's hope the bus strike doesn't spur Bob Crow into thinking it's about time that Tube workers had a complaint about something. Perhaps they could just go on strike in general sympathy.

I'm up for a Chat on the Tube Day

Chat on the Tube Day - this Friday

If you find that people on the Tube seem to be a bit more talkative on Friday, it'll be because Hannah is organising the first "I'm up for a chat on the Tube" day. at the beginning of the year Hannah began a project where people could sign up for badges showing their willingness to talk on the Tube rather than stare into space/Metro/London Lite/book/sudoku etc etc. The idea was that you would then pass the badge onto the person who chatted back to you so that they could spread the "lurve". As far as Hannah knows badges have gone onto a 4th person.

Rolf Harris has a badge and so far 500 are out in the wilds of the Tube system. However on the 17th Hannah wants to go a bit further and get people to spend the whole day on the Tube chatting There'll be a break for a long lunch and inevitably the day will close in the pub. She says "For me the project is not simply about facilitating people chatting on the tube, but locating the purveyors of the (anti-) social construct that we shouldn't chat on the tube, but first and foremost, about simply getting people to ask questions about why things are how they are and where they fit in within this."

Here's a couple of reactions from badge wearers:

Jon said: "My mother was down to visit recently. She always likes to talk to people on the Tube, so I gave her my badge and she in turn gave it to a policeman called John from St Paul Park, Minnesota.

And I met another badge wearer. Last Monday, 'twas the Kingston Green Fair. I was there to run the Freecycle stall and I encountered a woman called Charlie who was wearing one of your badges. She's a slightly mad old stick, but very charitable."

Although some people may think that you're like one of those Japanese volunteers who help foreign tourists on the subway (Heartful Japan). G-Force said "I wore the badge on the Tube on Saturday, and just kept getting asked for directions. I might have well just put a tourist information sign on my head."

Whatever reaction, Hannah needs your help and ideally a small donation to get the project

London Underground Fashion Victims

Fashion Victims on the Tube

Back to Friday's look at commuters on the Tube who're following a particular trend and there's some definite copycat fashions going on this week.

Twin Bags

Large bags are definitely trendy again, but it's weird to see two identical models side by side. Good (not) to see that the metallic look is still going strong though


You'll also note the man in the foreground is following Madonna's trend of the little Kabbalah red band to ward off envious stars and looks of ill will.

Furry Uggs

Yet more Uggs, I'm not sure whether the fur makes them better or worse.


The following picture shows that we're still having fairly unseasonal weather, with some very cold snaps and yet bright sunshine all in the same day


So we have a display of Furry Yeti Uggs and some open toed sandals side by side. What's a girl to wear?

That's it for this week. The previous victims can be found here and the complete picture gallery can be seen on the following Flickr set.

What's in a name?

Strange Underground Station Names


I've just been sent an email from Robert Hulse the fab curator of the Brunel Engine House Museum and leader of the innuendo ridden Thames Tunnel Tour, who's in Tokyo and pondering on an unusual station name:

"I don't know if you have a column about signs & directions in foreign Tube stations but here is a troubling one. Whilst sorting out my 'bullet train' booking I noticed the following marked on the station map:

'Old Man's Place for Pleasure'

Of course Japan is right at the cutting edge of rail travel & customer service, but can we one day look forward to this sort of facility on LU? Or is this just an unfortunate phrasing of something quite innocent like 'Day Centre for the Elderly'..."

I asked a regular visitor & commenter who knows about these sorts of things and he says it could be a literal translation of a station name. "Kudanshita Station (pictured above) translates as 'nine steps under the station'. But that's only if you read the characters together. If you read them separately you may be able to intepret the meaning as 'swan, staircase, beneath the moon, lodge'."

Obviously if we referred to our station names by their original meanings, it would mean station announcers would have to do more than the advanced mumbling we hear at the moment. Change here for the "Saxon chieftan's clearing in the forest" sounds more exotic than Wembley Park (or rather Wemba Lea Park - its orginal name). Cyril Harris's little gem "What's in a name" would be required reading and we might find that some of our station names bring up a more evocative picture of the area.

Not on the London Underground

More roundels not in their natural home

Thanks to Toby and Malika for sending through some more pictures to add to the collection of places where the Tube roundel has been errr, influential, to the design of some other signs around the world (perhaps that will keep the Tube's lawyers at bay)

Toby B took the following at a bar in Victoria, Vancouver Island




Malika was in Mumbai when she spotted this:


She said: "It's actually the carshed for one of the Mumbai suburban railway lines, which all use a similar roundel for station names on the platforms, as do most of Indian Railways. No idea what spelling conventions are, though!"

Thanks for those and please email me if you see any more on your travels so I can add to the collection.