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Annie Mole's, daily web log (blog) & “guide” to the London Underground
If you like this you'll LURVE One Stop Short of Barking, the fun and informative book about travelling on the London Underground.
When I started Going Underground in 1999 the only sites about the Tube were the official tube site and a few hobbyist sites and lots and lots of sites with pictures of rolling stock (trains to the unintiated). I'd never been wild about seeing rows upon rows of pictures of trains, especially if there was no story behind them. Then came a few sites with pictures of stations but it's only today through the excellent Londonist that I came across Londonstation.com. A few years ago G Goldwater, started taking black and white pictures of Tube stations and then hand coloured them in Adobe Photoshop. (Incidentally, I really can't remember when the seats at Hammersmith station looked like this picture below, so it's great that someone is recording old stations before they change beyond recognition)
The results are really brill and give a great retro look to the stations. It may be because he's (apologies if G Goldwater is a woman) deliberately chosen older stations on the network before they get refurbished, but it's as though he's given them a lick of paint himself. I bet the Tube would love it, if they could tart up stations this way.
Anyway, G Goldwater received a grant from The London College of Printing for the work and has had exhibitions and been featured on radio and in print and is now asking people to send in anecdotes and Tube stories as it looks as though a book will be coming out. Well done. Check out all of the pictures at www.londonstation.com
Many thanks to all of you who nominated us for the 2005 Bloggies. Well the results were out this morning and The London Underground Tube Diary is in the finals for not one, but two (count em) two categories - Best British or Irish Weblog and Best Topical Weblog (funnily enough the same categories the blog made it into for 2004). I'm really pleased and I'm sure Neil n Geoff will echo this, we have some really stiff competition in both categories (especially the British or Irish category as I'm much more familiar with the blogs there - D'OH Greenfairy, and D'OH Londonist).
So more international and new visitors will be coming this way - hope you enjoy what you see and us Londoners aren't really too bad, once you get to know us.
Anyway, it's up you the voting public now to cast your votes - you have until January 31st - use your vote and tell your mates and their mates. If we win we'll share the KitKat that's on offer as one of the prizes. Thank you once again.
UPDATE - Just received the following email from the organiser:
My apologies, but I'm sending out another mass e-mail since a lot of finalists have been asking about the status of the Bloggies site. This is my first year hosting the Weblog Awards on a different server, which is why I got caught with too little bandwidth. I arranged today with my host to get some extra for the next month, so the site's back online, plus the voting has been extended to February 3 to make up for the downtime. So now voting can really commence. :)
"The London Underground; the tube � our capital city�s 250 plus miles of mainly antiquated and filthy tracks and tunnels. We hate it. We hang from roof handles like monkeys, jam packed in ancient rolling stock full of enough sweat to drown an elephant. It�s hell. Well, at least we think it is....."
We know who wrote it
I'm sure most people have now heard the famous London Underground Song written to the tune of The Jam's Going Underground. I've just received an email from Jakob Whitfield from Imperial College who wrote:
"I noticed that the (by now infamous) rude tube song has been featured on
your weblog. (11th January below) I thought you might like to know that it's from an album of comedy/parody songs written by two medical students at Imperial College, Adam Kay and Suman Biswas. More info and details on ordering the CD can be found at http://www.amateurtransplants.com"
The London Underground song is track 8, nestled between The Menstrual Rag and Mr Burton.
Cheers Jakob now that will put a stop to the rumour that it was our very own Neil and Geoff.
I remember blogging briefly about Creep in (February last year) when Sheriff Ken's paper The Londoner reported a bit about the making of it. Basically, it's the story of a woman who falls asleep on the Tube, finds that she's missed the last train when she wakes up and the station is locked. Cue a creepy train which she boards and then she meets a load of psychos and weirdos and it's a Brit flick horror with lots of running aruond Tube carriages from the sounds of it.
A viewer's IMDb review Creep wasn't too hot, but hey, funnily enough I like this sort of thing:
"Run Lola Run meets Halloween with a touch of Jeepers Creepers on the underground. And on a budget. A patchy schlocker with a smattering of tension but no real scares"
There is a trailer for Creep here and the meticulous Hwyel Williams from the Hidden London Underground Stations website has done an analysis of the frames featured in the film trying to locate precisely where each shot was taken. Those who like that sort of thing can see his full analysis here.
By the way, doesn't her skirt look like it was made out of the upholstery of the Olympic bid Tube trains seats?
I'd be quite interested in seeing the film myself as we haven't had a film based primarily on the Tube since Sliding Doors and Tube Tales. If anyone fancies coming along with me, let me know - I'll see if my partners in crime Geoff and Neil and others are up for it too.
The Standard wrote: "LU used the music at Elm Park station, on the eastern end of the District line, where gangs were hanging around and assaulting staff and passengers. A spokeswoman said: "The theory behind it is that the youths were unfamiliar with this type of music and didn't like it. They certainly didn't like Mozart or anything by Pavarotti. The gangs just disappeared."
Goodness knows who came up with this theory on the Tube - it sounds like something out of Monty Python.
But I wonder if this work on other types of crime? Are people with classical music playing ringtones less likely to have their mobile phones nicked? Should your car alarm play Vivaldi?
If anyone knows who did it - who recorded it? Etc.. please let us know!
(Having just played it again, I should just re-iterate that it is quite rude, and I'm not agreeing with the words that are sung... just having to say that again as I bet there's someone that still misses the funny side of it, and takes massive offence!)
Update from Annie
Not surprisingly some of my friends sent me this too - I wondered why lots of people had been searching Google looking for London Underground spoof song.
It's top must have been done in response to the ridiculous frurore about Jerry Springer The Opera. Well done to whoever did it.
On the actual day of opening The Daily Telegraph reported:
"Of the general comfort in travelling on the line there can be no question, and the novel introduction of gas into the carriages is calculated to dispel any unpleasant feeling which passengers, especially ladies, might entertain against riding for so long a distance through a tunnel."
Not sure when gas in carriages has ever been particularly pleasant - perhaps it was laughing gas, of which we could all do with some on this wet and miserable Monday.
It's funny that other lines were supposed to follow "in the next few months" - with the Victoria Line and Northern Lines coming next. Well, we're at least eight months down the line and still nothing else.
However if you hop along to Tubetrackyou can download a desktop programme that has the Bakerloo Line and the DLR (most handy for me) and National Rail and the Dublin DART times on it, if you're so inclined. It's a top idea as they guy who wrote the programme said: "Do you work or live close to a Bakerloo tube, DLR, DART or UK rail station? Rather than making a mad dash and then facing an indefinite wait at the station, check Tubetrack for your next train. Then pop down to the station when you're ready!"
I love the way the DLR one has a cute name DAISY - (Docklands Arrival Information SYstem).
"The magic, mystery & sometimes maddening shortcomings of London's Tube are documented with love,
enthusiasm & sometimes despair by its unofficial social historian." The Guardian
"On some mornings it can feel like the only reason to be grateful that the Tube exists" Time Out
"a big hit on the Web...one of London's obsessives" Metro
"an irreverent and informative must-read for everybody, not just subterranean commuters" The Times
The posters for the new 'Creep' film (as discussed below - 17th Jan) have been banned from London Ungerground stations in case they "Frighten customers".
