Scavenger Hunt London Underground Quiz

Win the Limited Edition Anagram Tube Map Mug

This Friday's competition sees the very special prize of the "banned" London Underground Anagram Tube Map Mug kindly donated by regular contributor Fimb.


Fimb had the foresight to buy this mug before Transport for London got in touch with Cafe Press to get it pulled. So it is a very, very, limited edition. Hopefully someone from the Tube or their lawyers will win it, so they can smash it smithereens!

Not only has Fimb donated the prize but she's also created the quiz & it's a goodie. As you know if you search hard enough (or rather with hardly any effort) you can still find the "banned" Tube maps - so we want you to search the net and find the following items:

1) A Tube train you can eat

2) A Tube map you can wear (official or unofficial)

3) A Tube related tattoo

4) A pre 20th Century picture of the London Underground

5) A picture of someone famous travelling on the Tube

6) The lyrics to a song that contain the FULL name of a station on the London Underground. It mustn't be something that was written specifically as a spoof like the "Going Underground London Underground Song" or any of Anthony's songs, or any of the songs featured on this site.

As my haloscan commenting system only lets you put three links in each comment, you will have to make two comments if you want to enter.

There is a bonus point if your answer to 1-5 is different from the person who guessed immediately before you.

Plus each answer to number 6 MUST be different - so you can't make the same guess as someone else. There are tons of songs that feature station names so you shouldn't be hard pressed to find them.

You have until 23.59 GMT Sunday 9th April to make your guesses and please leave either your email address and/or blog or website in the comments when you make your two posts. As usual Neil's paperclip selection will come into play in the event of several people getting the same high point score.

Have fun and thanks again to Fimb for donating the prize and devising the quiz!

UPDATE - me and Fimb are loving the answers we've had so far. So much so, that we are going to give some runner up prizes (fridge magnet calendars, badges and whatever else I can find in my goody bag) for originality. So if you manage to find different pictures to 1-5 eg celebs on the Tube other than Ken Livingstone, a different answer to the Tube train you can eat, a good Tube related tattoo etc, you could be up for a runner up prize.

PS - don't forget the Tube Seat Upholstery Pencil Case Quiz closes on the 2nd April 23.59 GMT. At the time of writing no one has all 5 answers correct, so there's still a chance someone could sneak in and win it - otherwise it will be judged on points!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, March 31, 2006 Permalink

London Underground Fashion Victims

Fashion Victims on the Tube

Back to the regular weekly look at commuters who are slaves to fashion. After my time in Paris it's back to London - the city of Uggs and metallic bags. Really pleased that I managed to find a Flickr group that "celebrates" the Ugg(ly)ness of Uggs.

Here's a variety of Ugg style boots spotted this week:

Uggs and Furry Wedges

The woman in the foreground is wearing a pair of real Ugg boots as I could spot the branding on the back of her heel - not that that makes them any better. But I was particularly transfixed by the woman wearing a pair of wedge heeled boots with a furry top and some Twiggy jeans


I suppose unless you are wearing a skirt, Twiggy jeans "sort of work" with the furry wedges, but I think if I were her, I would have worn drainpipes and tucked them into the boots. But then again, if I were her, I wouldn't have bought the hideous things in the first place and I certainly wouldn't go out in a bright orange coat.

Still then, anyone who has Marilyn Monroe luggage doesn't really stand much of a chance on this blog.


It was actually quite kind of her to move her suitcase round like that, as it stopped me staring in a "car crash TV" kind of way at her boots!

Furry Bobbly Uggs

I think these boots speak for themselves:


Possibly if they could speak, they'd be saying "Get us back to the set of the Muppets. We're puppets we're not supposed to be on this girl's feet!".

Steady on guys, hold yourselves back

Quite simply the most unattractive backside I've seen for some time


If the ill fittingness of these "combats" wasn't enough she topped it off with a large metallic back. Unfortunately I managed to get the bag in the glare of its own brightness so you can't see the true metallicness of it.

Metrosexual?

Here's a guy (yes it's a man) who's clearly in touch with his feminine side with a very vibrant green cardigan and a Harvey Nicks patterned shoulder bag:


I think the phrase "just gay enough" would be slightly err.... wasted on him.

That's it for this week. The previous entry for London Underground fashion victims is here and all of them together can be seen on the following Flickr set.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, March 31, 2006 Permalink

Commuter Cupid returns to Metro

Will you get horny in Hornchurch? Will you meet your angel at Angel

Yesterday, Metro announced the rebirth of their Commuter Cupid section, where people can post messages or write in about people that they've seen on public transport that they fancy, in the hope that the person may be reading Metro and respond.


Here's my favourite ones from the London Underground:

"To the hot bloke I sat next to on the Northern Line on the evening of Thursday March 9. You got off at Colliers Wood and were wearing a navy pinstripe suit and let me read your newspaper over your shoulder. You caught me looking at you as I looked back one last time" (Very much a James Blunt moment) "You have a very sexy smile."

"To the girl who gets on the Bakerloo Line at Elephant & Castle at about 8.15am. You have long brown hair and it's silky and straight. I think you are gorgeous and would love to get to know you better. Even if you don't swing my way, we could still be friends, right?"

Interesting. I suppose if she did "swing her way" there'd be more chance of success. Otherwise it might be a tad awkward striking up a friendship with someone the same sex as you, when you knew they fancied you. Specially if the only thing in common is that you travel on the same train. But you never know!

Finally, "To the girl struggling with her copy of Metro in a jam packed Central Line carriage on Monday March 6. You had black hair in a bob, dark brown eyes and a long black jacket. I was the guy reading an oversized book from under a beanie hat". (Strange place to read a book, perhaps he's a alien with eyes in the top of his head) "I tried to get out of the way so you could fold the page over - to which you flashed me an amazing smile and whispered 'thanks'. You got off at Bank, but made my day".

I think that one has the most chance of success, as at least she actually spoke to him which puts him streets ahead of the other love struck commuters!

Ian Marchant in his interesting book Parallel Lines or Journeys on the Railway of Dreams says that "Romance is hardly to be found on the Underground. In its place you have over-sexualisation. Passengers are crammed into tunnels like sperm in a fallopian tube. Posters depicting giant women with vice like thighs and ballooning breasts leer down from the walls. The sight of a well turned ankle climbing on to a train still fills the male passenger with enough fluttering excitement to last all eight hours in the office. The Underground is horny".

Well is it? I can see his point and in a previous post I was interviewed about my thoughts on "romance" on the Tube. It's ripe for close encounters, but even with Metro and sites like Isawyoutoday.com can true love ever blossom, or is the Tube just horny?

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, March 30, 2006 Permalink

Are these cleaning Tubes?

Big Yellow Duster or something else?

Frankie Roberto asked me a while back if anyone could throw any light as to what these yellow trains were


He said "This was spotted at Euston station. A few friends have seen these trains around too - kinda spooky when you're expecting a regular Tube to turn up..."

I did a bit of searching around and found some pictures of the Tunnel Cleaning Trains (or Big Yellow Dusters - as they're apparently known as) on District Dave's site and it looked similar to the above, (well it was yellow) but had enough differences for it not to be exactly the same!


If anyone could confirm what the first picture is that would be great.

Then with this talk of cleaning reminded me of the London Underground Fluffer. A band of night-time workers called Fluffers or Fluffies used to go into the tunnels and shift all of the hair and skin cells that we deposit on the Tube every day. They actually removed all of the dust, dirt and debris by hand with brushes and brooms.

There's a fascinating little film of their work on the ITN archives' website (you need to register to view the film). Thanks to Helena Wojtczak who wrote the fab book Railwaywomen for pointing this film out to me.

Although the film makes the women look as they had a fun time in their work, but that has to be quite simply one of the worst jobs in the world!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, March 29, 2006 Permalink

Playstation Ads banned from the Underground

Will we take transport ads too literally?

Random Tom Reynolds sent me a link to a story about a Playstation ad being banned from the Underground in Manchester as it was thought it might encourage people to jump onto train lines. It said "Take a Running Jump here". The ad had been on the platform in the underground station at Piccadilly and a spokesperson from Network Rail said: "An employee spotted it and said it was a bit inappropriate. The message goes completely against all our safety messages, particularly because Playstation is aimed at youngsters and we are constantly telling them not to trespass."


Now this ad from Playstation seems to be OK as I only took this picture yesterday. Maybe it's just me, but isn't that an open invitation to do something fairly unsavoury in public? I say, in my best Daily Mail voice, "ban it" we don't want our youngsters to be corrupted in this way.

Seriously though, I can see the point of how an advertisement telling someone to "take a running jump" might possibly be seen by someone who was feeling a bit suicidal, and might seem like a "message from above".

Also Gigi sent me a link to an ad on the Berlin subway "tempting strap hangers to come a little closer". But if the excuse from Manchester, is to ban the ads just to stop kids from tresspassing, I think it's a bit lame.


Are we so "controlled" by ads that we feel we have to do everything they tell us to? I like to think we all (including kids) have a bit more judgement than that, otherwise we'd all be bankrupt!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, March 28, 2006 Permalink

Name that bar. The winner is..........

Unveiling Ian's bar

Well the name anyway. Many thanks to everyone who came up with a suggested name for the bar that Ian (of whoknowswherethoughtscomefrom) is building at the bottom of his garden.

Over to Ian: "I think the winner should be The Flying Aspidistra, by... err you. But if you can't give a prize to yourself, then I think IanD's "Always Touch Inn" must be the winner!"


As I couldn't really give the prize to myself that means that IanD will be the lucky owner of the delightful Mind the Gap Spillage Beer Mat pictured above!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, March 28, 2006 Permalink

Metropolitan delays mean Wembley Park unveiling not quite on time

"The work has been delivered on time and on budget"

According to Ken Livingstone, so there was much trumpeting at how the new Wembley Park Tube "gives London a world-class station to serve a world-class sporting venue and provides local residents in Brent with a substantially improved transport link". Just a shame the Metropolitan Line had severe delays this morning. As the Edinburgh Evening News said "Once guests finally reached Wembley they were greeted by London Mayor Ken Livingstone and former England goalkeeper David Seaman who together opened the station."

David Seaman said "It's great to see the Wembley Park Tube station in action today. Millions of fans are going to be travelling to sport and music events at Wembley Stadium in the next few years and they now have the public transport they need to get them there.

"The national stadium will be the envy of the rest of the world and we have equally impressive transport facilities to get fans to and from the stadium. Wembley Park will certainly be a fans'favourite. "

Seaman then spent time to "test out the new, larger ticket hall" with local school kids who used the station to carry out penalty shoot outs with him. Let's hope that's just for today's unveiling.

Other improvements at the station include:

A new events ticket hall

Widened stairs to Olympic Way for use during events

Extended roofs on platforms 4 and 5

Five new lifts, providing full accessibility to all platforms

Upgrade and expansion of CCTV

New Help point and information systems

Not quite sure why a station would need "extended roofs" - perhaps someone can enlighten me.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, March 27, 2006 Permalink

Pocket Planet Radio Podcast Interview

Going Underground Podcast Interview

Back from France now, and I remembered that a few weeks ago I did an interiew with Chris Vallance who does a daily slot on BBC Radio Five about blogs and podcasts but also has his own podcast and blog called Pocket Planet Radio. Chris had now posted it on his blog. As you may remember he interviewed Geoff about all of the Tube Map Mashing stuff, and Chris also has great podcast with Russell Davies the guy behind the fab Eggbaconchipsandbeans blog which has now been made into a book.

If I sound a bit peculiar at the start of the interview, it's because we were walking quite quickly down the street, as I had a train to catch (not helped by bumping into two work colleagues who shouted out hello). We continue the interview on the Northern Line and then finish at Waterloo (where we were getting VERY suspcious looks from one of the transport police there, so apologies for my Ummm, and Err, quota rising, as I thought we were going to be stopped by the police for some reason - he seemed happy that we weren't filming though).

Cheers Chris for the post and the podcast - and yes, yes, he knows that it was Marc Brunel who designed the Wapping Tunnel and not his son Isambard.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Sunday, March 26, 2006 Permalink

Final impressions of Paris Metro

Mind the Gap in Paris

In the interview above, I talked about how in France my boss had said that the Parisians wouldn't put up with the rubbish service that we get on the Tube, with the delays and stopping between tunnels and breakdowns and everything about the Northern derground (will be interesting to see if they put their money where their mouth is), but this is nothing like some of the ad spaces on the Metro


That was a bit of an assault on the eyes and hard to take in, but I liked the larger ones they had in the corridors with the ornate framing around them:


I thought the next ad looked a little like a black and white version of the ad for Derailed, with a man and woman in the foreground and the subway scene beneath.


But it's for a film called Renaissance and is set in Paris in 2054. Quite a stylish looking animated black and white film which reminds me slightly of the animation in Sin City.

Finally when leaving Paris and travelling to Gare du Nord, I got onto a high speed train that wasn't part of the Metro but still runs through Paris.

It's one of those "monster" three story trains, where you can go upstairs or in a "basement" section below platform level too.

I went upstairs as it was the only place to get a seat. It all felt a bit weird, travelling at such a high speed, looking down the stairs and holding onto my luggage hoping it wouldn't topple down and hit the people below me.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Sunday, March 26, 2006 Permalink

London Underground Fashion Victims

Fashion Victims on the Tube

As I'm still in France, there's not many Tube fashion victims this week as I've only been in London for a couple of working days. As I said, in some comments yesterday, in Paris I've been lucky that my eyes haven't been hurt looking at loads of metallic bags (I've only seen one so far and that was a reasonably tasteful one). There's also been no sightings of Ugg boots I'm really pleased to say - I'm actually further south today and can see the Alps from the office window, so it just goes to show that you don't need to live in icy conditions to feel that you have to wear Uggs!

Anyway, back to the victims spotted on the London Underground who have "taken a style and made it their own".

"Trendy" Bags

Speaking of Ugg boots and metallic bags, here's the same lady who was wearing the most hideous pair of platform Uggs I saw last week.


She's now in a bit of a quandary about which type of bag to choose from the current favourites doing the rounds - the more tasteful patterned look - this one influenced by Mackintosh (Charles Rennie) I think, or the metallic look, borrowing its influence from McLoughlin (Colleen). I know which one I prefer! But well done to her for managing to appear amongst my victims two weeks running.

Socks on display

I know that people will argue with me on these, but I just don't think that these brightly coloured lacy socks work with this woman's tweedy looking shoes


In the fashion victim discussions we've been talking about the merits (or not) of fish net tights and the merits (or not) of bright socks which you want on show. I suppose because I generally wear boots at the moment my socks or under boot wear is never on display.

Turn Ups

Quite simply the biggest turn ups I've seen recently


She's also doing that "my top's so long it's virtually a dress", look over jeans. I can't seem to work out what's going on with her shoes here either and am undecided as to whether I like them or not.

That's it for this week. The previous entry for London Underground fashion victims is here and all of them together can be seen on the following Flickr set.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, March 24, 2006 Permalink

Tube Seat Pencil Case Quiz

Another London Underground Pencil Case up for grabs

The day before I left for France I picked up a cool pencil case and draught excluder made from Tube Seat upholstery:


They were made by the mother of a regular contributor to this blog and hopefully she is going to start selling them on e-bay - the pencil case will start at seven pounds (plus P & P) and the draught excluder - seventeen pounds (plus P & P).


However, you can win a pencil case by answering the following questions:

1) Which London Underground Line does or did the upholstery come from?
2) Whose mum makes the pencil cases and draught excluders?
3) Which line on the London Underground has the newest design of upholstery?
4) What's the generic term used for this type of upholstery?
5) There was a popular urban myth going round about the sorts of nasty things that were found on Tube seats. Name one of the things supposedly found on them (anybody being a smart alec and naming more than one will be disqualified). There is a bonus point on this answer, if you don't name the same thing as the person who guessed before you.

To enter leave your answers in the comments below with your email address and/or blog/website. Please leave all five answers in one comment - no second guesses! You have until Sunday 2nd April 23.59 GMT to enter. If more than one person has the most points they will go into Neil's paperclip selection.

Good luck!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, March 24, 2006 Permalink

My Parisian Commute

Paris looks better when the sun shines

Woke up quite early this morning and decided to have a wander around Paris as I'll be in the office for most of the day

This was the view crossing the Seine from my Metro journey:


I nipped off the train and took a picture of the Eiffel Tower from ground level but also went to the Trocadero and took a lot more pictures as the view from there was fantastic and lots more impressive than from this direction


At the Trocadero though I saw my first "traditional" Metro sign which was quite cool


The sign is loads more atmospheric than the more modern Metro signs


Like every big City though Paris has its stalls selling tourist tat. You could see mini Eiffel Towers everywhere, but so far I only saw one piece that was Metro "branded" - this pretty yucky photoframe



Back on the Metro and again like every major City, Paris isn't without its homeless


I also managed to hear and spot a few buskers, although the Parisians don't seem to have sponsored spots for them to play


Just to finish for today with a shot of one of the trains coming into the station


Back to work now, so more pictures will be up tomorrow!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, March 23, 2006 Permalink

Greetings from a very wet Paris

Ah, bollocks to all this I'm off to France

With apologies to Jack from Green Fairy for the sub-title, I'm in our French office for a couple of days and was really pleased that I navigated the Metro like it was the London Underground and then managed to get totally lost when I got to the streets as I stupidly had forgotten to print off the address of my hotel.

Anyway, one of the smarter things I managed to do was buy a two day ticket for Le Metro (which also includes some buses & mainline trains too) while I was at Waterloo & about to get on the Eurostar


So I worked out where I needed to go and where I needed to change on Line 2.

All was well when I arrived at Gare du Nord, I got to my interchange station and found that at least the Parisians have chocolate machines that work and that pigeons seem as much in force over here as in London, although I didn't see any actually get into the carriage like the cheeky little blighters do in London.



Inside the carriages, much was the same as London, not many people talking and everyone looking fairly miserable.

Interesting, however to see ads hanging from the ceiling of the carriages.


Otherwise, the carriages generally seemed cleaner than London's, but the seats were a bit starker looking and much more uncomfortable than our nicely upholstered ones:


I managed to get a quick picture of Rome station, which I'm sure confuses some tourists who may have fallen asleep and wake up in Rome possibly thinking they have travelled for thousands of miles on the subway!


More to follow if I get a chance to explore Le Metro this evening or tomorrow.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, March 22, 2006 Permalink

Mind the Zip

London Underground becoming like Tokyo's subway

Sometimes we'd quite like the Tube to be more like the super efficient subway in Tokyo, but not if it means the pervy behaviour that some guys exhibit when they're squashed up against women. The Sun reports today with the understated "Perv yanked down zips" that "A pevert who unzipped women's trousers on Tube trains was banned from the underground yesterday - and told he faces jail.

Bernard Da Conceicao, 35, was released on bail by a judge who told him not to go to any station or travel on trains after assaulting seven victims. The court heard how he used his satchel to hide his hand during attacks on the Victoria and Piccadilly lines in London.

The horrified women only realised what he was doing when they felt a "light pressure" on their groin.."


One of the women he groped said: "I felt something on the zip of the front part of my trousers. The train was very congested and I thought my bags had squashed against that area. There was lots of movement and when I looked down I saw his hand."

I can't believe they'll be able to enforce his ban and the judge says that its likely he will receive a jail sentence when he goes back to court in May.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, March 21, 2006 Permalink

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy on the Tube

No it's not another anagram map

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy isn't just an anagram for Lazy Goon Holy Slam but the name of a Hungarian designer who Frank Pick commissioned to create a poster for the London Underground in 1937. Liz went to a show currently on at the Tate Modern (Albers and Moholy-Nagy: From the Bauhaus to the New World) and bought me back a postcard of the poster pictured below:


As well as the pneumatic doors Moholy-Nagy also created a poster promoting escalators on the Tube. London Transport must have been particularly proud of their new pneumatatic doors though and the poster explained how they worked "The doors which are edged with rubber are kept closed by air-engine arms one for each door. The arms engage in slots in the doors which open when the arms swing round. The doors are held open by the arms. The signal to start cannot be given while the doors are open".

I assume they still work the same way today, given the amount of grief some of you gave me for saying that I sometimes barge into the doors as they are about to close and hold them open so I can squeeze myself in.

Anyway if you're into Bauhaus, the exhibition is on until the 4th June and if you show a valid Oystercard you can get 30% off the adult ticket price and pay £4.90 rather than the standard price of £7.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, March 21, 2006 Permalink

Puntastic London Underground Ads

It's a gas on the Tube

I haven't noticed many Tube related advertisements on the London Underground recently, (not including ones that are actually publicising Tube things like the Bakerloo Line Centenary) so I was pleased to spot this ad for British Gas last week:


They've certainly packed in as many London station name puns in as possible, when referring to the boiler breakdown cover you can buy from them. As you don't want to get a Wapping bill you need their highly trained engineers who are so good you'll want to Clapham.

My friend works for British Gas in the Marketing Department for services like boiler breakdown cover, so I'd Bank on her being responsbible for these puns. When I next say Harrow to her, I'll see if see knows how Poplar they have been.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, March 20, 2006 Permalink

Date the Tube Map quiz plus Metro Competition

The answers are.......

There are only two correct answers in the "Date the Tube Map" quiz



Many of you were in the right ball park with early 1930's making it one of the last pre-Beck maps, but the correct answer was 1932. Take a look at Clive's site which has most of the variants of London Undeground maps dating back to 1889.

In terms of the current names of the lines in the Edwardian Tube map here - between all of you, you guessed most of them:

Central London Railway is today's Central Line
City and South London is part of today's the Northern Line via Bank
Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton is the Piccadilly Line
Great Northern and City is the WAGN line or Northern City (which isn't part of the London Underground any more)
Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead is the Northern Line via Charing Cross
Baker Street and Waterloo is the Bakerloo Line
and of course the Waterloo & City is now the Waterloo & City Line which was too easy to guess.

Anyway, the two people who guessed 1932 are Jamesthegill and Rich, Neil did his paperclip selection, or tossed a coin, and the winner is Rich. As promised, Rich will receive a copy of Train and Transport - A Collector's Guide, kindly donated by Graham O'Mara.

BTW speaking of the Tube map, the London Underground Map came second to Concorde in the Great British Design Quest to find the best British Design Icon. According to Transport for London over 200,000 votes were cast.

BTW 2 - Metro have a fiendishly difficult competition today where you can win a copy of Mr Beck's Underground Map by Ken Garland and Underground Maps after Beck by Max Roberts (who's been commenting on this blog of late). To win you need to answer "How many copies of the London Underground map are distributed each year?" and email your answer with your name and telephone number to metrocompetitions@tfl.gov.uk by 5pm tonight. The answer is on a link somewhere in this post. The winner will be picked at random from all of the correct entries. Good luck!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, March 20, 2006 Permalink

London Underground Fashion Victims

Fashion Victims on the Tube

Here's this Friday's weekly look at commuters spotted on the London Underground who are to quote Louis Walsh of X Factor "taking a style and making it their own", or are slaves to a current trend regardless or whether or not it looks good on them.

St Patrick's Day Shenanigans

Speaking of Louis Walsh, last Sunday was the official London celebrations of St Patrick's Day - even though it is actually St Patrick's Day today. There seemed to be a trend of wearing large hats. Some with shamrocks:





Some with a Guinness Theme with a shamrock shape just to rub it in


However my favourite was this girl with very low slung jeans with an Irish flag wrapped round her


Bird Flu Hat

One from South West Trains, but this woman clearly had something against our feathered friends or perhaps it was some strange way of trying to ward off bird flu


Twiggy Trousers and Fishnets

I'm not really sure if these were Twiggy Trousers or Twiggy Shorts (the cropped trouser worn by Twiggy in the M&S campaign which revived the ailing store's sales), either way regular readers know my opinions on fishnet tights and when worn with Twiggy Trousers, or Shorts, I personally don't think it's a great look


21st Century Girl

It's the metallic bags AGAIN, but she had a nice 21st century twist with them here as she was scribbling away on her palm pilot electronic notebook thingy


I quite like the way the bag strap round her wrist looks like a handcuff!

Platform UGGs

The week wouldn't be complete without seeing someone in some UGG boots or pretend UGG boots. These ones were particularly err....attractive with a platform!



That's it for this week. The previous entry for London Underground fashion victims is here and all of them together can be seen on the following Flickr set.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, March 17, 2006 Permalink

Stephen Halliday London Underground Lecture

Fraud, Bankruptcy, Suicide and Transportation - The History of the London Underground

I managed to get to yesterday's lunchtime lecture by Stephen Halliday at Gresham College. Even though there were some signs around saying that both lecture rooms were full, I've never really taken too much notice of signs like that, and me and another girl decided to ignore them and stroll casually into a downstairs room. We hung around by the door of a pretty full room with no sign of a lecturer even though we could see the London Underground map being projected onto a screen and hear a scholarly sounding voice. It seemed to be the overflow room for the main lecture taking place upstairs, so we slid in and listened with everyone else.

I've not been to a lunchtime lecture for ages and should definitely go to more of them. This one was full of fairly elderly people who had made a special trip to hear Dr Halliday. He was a very knowledgeable and entertaining speaker.

As I predicted Charles Tyson Yerkes was one of the characters featured when bankruptcy was mentioned. However, he wasn't the only Tube "jail bird" (to quote Halliday) - Marc Brunel who built the Thames Tunnel served a jail sentence as did Whitaker Wright the financier behind the Baker Street and Waterloo Line. However, before he went to jail he managed to pop a cynide tablet into his mouth to top himself. Not only that but he had a loaded firearm in his pocket throughout his trial.

Stephen said that Ken Livingstone had many dealings with the High Court but as far as he knew had never bought a gun into court. "Ken Livingstone is a pussy cat compared to some of these characters" he said.

At some stage today the lecture will appear on Gresham College's website so if you have RealPlay you'd be able to see it for yourself - it's a good hour's worth of Tube history.

After the lecture finished I went into the main room and got Stephen to sign a copy of his book - Underground to Everywhere. Most people were buying the paperback version, but I had a well worn copy of the earlier hardback edition which he was happy to sign. I got a bit star struck and muttered what a fantastic lecture it was then hurried back to the Tube clutching my new prized possession.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, March 17, 2006 Permalink

Name the Bar Quiz

Name Ian's bar and Win a Mind the Gap Beer Mat

When I was at the London Transport Museum Depot in Acton I picked up a couple of Beer Mats, or those pub spillage mats that mop up beer from overflowing glasses, and I thought they would make a good prize. But I couldn't think of something beer or pub related to go with them. I did a post last August about the pubs that used to exist on Tube Station platforms - one was called The Hole in the Wall. Ian is looking for a name for a bar he is building.........sooooooooooo


Instead of naming Ian's baby's bear, you can name Ian's bar. Leave your suggestions here or on Ian's blog, but to enter the competition leave either your email address or your website/blog.

Competition is open until Sunday closing time 10.30pm (well if the pub doesn't have an extended license) on the 26th March. Have Fun!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, March 17, 2006 Permalink

Variant on the Way Out Tube Map

A request for help - which carriage door is best for the exit?

Paul Luna recently signed my message board with the following request: "I recall that back in the late 1960s London Transport Magazine (the Underground staff newspaper) carried a piece about a booklet called Tube Buster (or maybe it was Subway Buster). An American and his son had travelled on the Tube and explained exactly which door in which car was the most convenient for alighting at particular stations, especially interchange ones. Does anyone have any more info about this book? I'd like to track down a copy.

Hope someone remembers!"

Well it's the first I had heard of a booklet being published, although I know that Neil and Geoff were thinking of doing something like this themselves, and Neil always seems to know which door is the right one. I use the Way Out Tube map a lot to work out which is the best carriage for the exit I need, but I certainly haven't got it fine tuned down to the best door yet.

UPDATE - It appears that The Clever Tube Hopper is the closest to what Paul is looking for.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, March 16, 2006 Permalink

Get them before they're banned as well

Anagram Tube Map T Shirts on cafe press

If you want one get them quickly. It will only be a matter of time before TfL get onto Cafe Press and force them to take these down too.

The person who put these up said of the T shirt "Just don't wear it around any of your friends who happen to be TFL lawyers."

There were similar issues with the Tube Relief logo but someone at TfL had actually sanctioned the slight variation of the logo use and the resulting T shirts - probably because we were doing the challenge for the bombing victims.

Thanks to Simon for alerting us to Anagram items in the comments!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, March 16, 2006 Permalink

V for Vendetta

Not C for Conspiracy Theory

Last week I happened to be walking through Leicester Square when it was all being decked out for the premiere of V for Vendetta, with a giant screen playing the trailer. Fimb's husband had told me and Neil to watch out for the film as there is a scene in it where a London Underground train is blown up. In fact there appeared to be a bit of controversy about it as the producers refused "to re-edit the scenes which closely mimic murderous events in the city"


In Vendetta, a futuristic London is the target of a terrorist attacks and sees the Tube lines destroyed by bombings." One of the producers David Lloyd said, "In terms of what happened in London it's important to try and understand what leads people to terrorism", and director James McTiegue went on to say, "Terrorism is one of those themes that never really goes away." From imdb.com

At least there were no conspiracy theories this time about the film makers predicting the bombings or with "chilling echoes of the London bombings" as we had with the making of the latest Bond film Casino Royale.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, March 16, 2006 Permalink

More Map Malarky

Tube Maps in the News again

You can't seem to blink right now without seeing a Tube Map story in some shape or form on the Net or in the press. Geoff's saga continues as now the ISP who host his site have forced him to take down the pages which simply link to the mirrors of the spoof Tube maps. Transport for London's lawyers are obviously on a mission here. Not only that for some reason that I've not been able to work out yet have pulled all of the pages about his Tube Challenge attempts.


Some previously undiscovered plans that Harry Beck had for the Parisian Metro Map in 1951 have been errr,.... discovered and are going to be archived in the London Transport Museum. The French rejected many verisons of Beck's maps preferring their own, but Beck being a persistant bloke kept trying. I'm off to Paris next week myself, so I'll try to grab some pictures of the Metro while I'm there.

And don't forget tomorrow sees the great unveiling of the winner of the Great British Design Quest to find the best British Design icon and the London Underground map is in the final three. The results will be broadcast on The Culture Show on BBC Two at 7pm tomorrow night.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, March 15, 2006 Permalink

Tube Relief Reunion

Tami and Tube Relief Challengers

Last night a group of us met up with Tami Brisset who was over from New Orleans. Police Chief, Tami flew over to take part the Tube Relief Charity Challenge last August in aid of the London bombing victims and their families (we raised around £12,000), only to find herself "stranded" in London when Hurricane Katrina hit her city a few days afterwards.

She's a remarkably strong woman and gave an interview to GMTV on the morning she was due to fly back home, at the time not knowing whether her sister and some of her other family members were alive or not. Fortunately they all were and she faced the tough challenge of helping to get her city back together in the wake of the chaos, looting, death and floods which followed the hurricane.


She was in great spirits last night and bought us all an enormous amount of Mardi Gras beads. The Mardi Gras was a sign that things are gradually beginning to get back to some semblance of order and normality in New Orleans, and a number of other people in The Garrick Arms pub where we all met, also joined in the celebrations and draped themselves in beads too.

Here's Jenni and Jon slightly weighed down by the beads:


Anthony Dust Masker Smith looked fairly blinged up to the max


Chris Searle wearing the most beads of the night and Chris Presswell on the right discussing more Tube Challenge plans


Neil and Fimb deep in conversation


Neil and Pete Lupton with a bit more bling:





And finally, a blurry picture of Steve, Chris and Sam

It was great to see Tami again and to meet her husband, niece and her husband who also came over.

Thanks to Ann - Pixeldiva, Neil, Jonny Lyon and his dad, Pete Lupton, Jenni, Jon, Stephen Knight, Chris Presswell, Fimb, the Dust Masker Anthony, Mex, Chris Searle, Sam Cawley and Steve for making it a fun night! There's a few more pictures on the Flickr set here. Plus Jon also has his thoughts of the night and some more pictures here.

On a more serious note Tami had made some CD's showing movie footage of the aftermath of Katrina and gave us all a copy. If anyone wants to see it - Jon kindly downloaded a copy on YouTube.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, March 15, 2006 Permalink

Name the baby, Name the bear results

The Bear Neccessities

Me and Ian managed to come to an agreement on naming the bear from your great suggestions


It's Brunel which was suggested by Ewan. As Ewan said it "sounds kind of like Bruin which is a fairly traditional bear's name, but with added Tube engineering connections." I also went to Brunel University so I'm slightly biased and obviously Brunel's Thames Tunnel Tour is one of the most entertaining things on the Tube too!

Now with naming his baby, I think Ian's choice is bizarre, he said "My vote goes to Virginia's "Kessler". It sounds vaguely scientific." However, he also said "Bonus points, too, for Fimb, as I did have Isambard on my shortlist were it to be a boy, before being rejected by someone with more sense."

I haven't got enough bears to give three away, so a bear will go to Ewan as at least I agree with Ian on that one, and a surprise gift will go to Fimb and Virginia Gal. Also as promised Ian will get a bear for his first born so she doesn't feel left out with all the attention going to the new arrival ..... er Kessler Isambard!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, March 14, 2006 Permalink

Geoff gets Map Crackdown interview on BBC Radio Five

Tube Map Mashing on the Radio

Chris Vallance interviewed Geoff on BBC Radio Five in the small hours of the morning about the London Underground pulling his maps page and the many other maps that are mixed on the web. Listen to it here.

Chris read out a statement from Transport for London who said amongst other things: "We cannot allow alternative versions to be produced unhindered without some regulation".

It's a good interview so if you have a spare five minutes have a listen.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, March 14, 2006 Permalink

100 Years on the Bakerloo Line

Centenary Celebrations

Looks like the people at Oxford Circus made more of an effort than the people who designed the poster for the Bakerloo centenary celebrations last week

John Pannell took the picture of some Edwardian looking people getting on the Tube at last Friday's celebrations

There was also a bit of a "The Prisoner" feel about the station as large white balloons were floating around. Many thanks to John for letting me use his pictures!


Yesterday I saw the poster that was made for the celebrations and it's a shame it had a bit of a "clip art" feel about it, particularly with the photos which looked like they came from a rather cheap photo library.


Ah well, at least London Underground aren't wasting our money sourcing some better pictures or a better agency to produce this.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, March 14, 2006 Permalink

Oystercard used to catch crooks

Speaking of The Prisoner.....

Both Dmitri and Ian sent me a link to a a feature from the BBC's site on how the police are increasingly using Oystercards to follow people's movements: "In January, police requested journey information 61 times, compared with just seven times in the whole of 2004. The Metropolitan Police said it was a 'straightforward investigative tool' used on a case-by-case basis."

Last month I blogged how Oystercards could be used to track down partners who were being unfaithful and claiming they were somewhere where they weren't, but this use of Oystercard is either a good way of finding criminals or an infringement of people's privacy depending on what side of the fence you sit:

Charles Monheim, from Transport for London, told the BBC London reporter: "Big Brother is not watching you. We collect journey data so we can provide customer service and answer customer queries. A by-product of that is that the data is on record if the police seek records in individual cases, but we only provide that data in response to a written request from the police that is then reviewed on a case by case basis".

Whereas Heather Brooke, from Privacy International, said: "I think it's outrageous. Londoners are already the most watched people on earth.

"If the police can't conduct effective investigations with a CCTV camera on every corner, then that's really indicative of a more serious problem with police investigations."

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, March 14, 2006 Permalink

London Underground Lawyers have too much time on their hands

Spoof Tube Map Clamp Down

Some of you probably knew that the anagram Tube map was pulled from its original home by London Underground's lawyers - The Times got onto this story too. Apparently Transport for London said it was "Completely without humour - complete waste of time. We see ourselves as having a duty to protect Harry Beck's legacy." (Funny they didn't mind rejecting most of Harry Beck's maps later on or using one of their PR guys - Harold Hutchison - to produce an unpopular follow up)

Now the Tube's lawyers been in touch with Geoff who has a collection of spoof maps on his site and he has to take most of them down by some time tomorrow, as he says on his blog download them while you can.

A regular visitor to this blog and Geoff's made the following image, which sums up what most of us think of their clamp down:


Admittedly, they're perfectly within their rights to do this, but I wonder why they don't go after all of the knock off T-Shirts and other stuff being sold for a profit, rather than spend time & money picking on easy targets like websites which aren't trying to make any money out of the spoofs.

Perhaps when it's in the name of art it's OK though, or maybe Simon Patterson paid them the couple of hundred quid licence fee before he then went on to win twenty thousand quid by selling The Great Bear at auction and earn loads of royalties selling reproductions of the "spoof" since then.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Sunday, March 12, 2006 Permalink

London Underground Fashion Victims

Fashion Victims on the Tube

Here's Friday's regular look at commuters spotted on the London Underground who are taking a look and making it their own, or are slaves to a current trend.

UGG Boots

Hoorah, I finally managed to snap a picture of someone wearing real UGG boots and not the hundreds of imitations that are knocking around at the moment. However, just cos they are the real things doesn't make them look any less ugly!



Too much Pink

Not really a fashion victim as such here, but I think she's tried a little to hard to co-ordinate her umbrella with her bag



Leopardskin Lady

I have a feeling that the blue haired lady below is a busker, so she may feel that she has artistic licence to go around looking like a younger, blue haired, skinnier, punkier version of Pat Butcher off EastEnders



It's quite hard to see as I caught her getting on the train just as train was about to leave, but she's resplendant in leopardskin bag, skirt, and well, err, .... leggings.

That's it for this week. The previous entry for London Underground fashion victims is here and all of them together can be seen on the following Flickr set.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, March 10, 2006 Permalink

Tube Map Competition

Date the Tube Map

Well, it had to be done, with all the discussions we've been having over the Tube map this week and last week and its merits (or not) and worthiness (or not) to be up in the finals for the Great British Design Quest, this week's competition is focussed on the map. There are two parts, firstly can you date the Tube Map below - and by date, I don't mean wine and dine it or buy it flowers, I mean can you identify the year that this version was issued?



The map is from the cover of a book called Train & Transport - A Collector's Guide, which is a collection of "tickets, notices, leaflets, labels, folders, billboards and other throwaways ....an epitome of Mankind's love affair with the way from A - B".

In the book, there's a picture of an Edwardian Tube Map sponsored by the Evening News paper and shows the lines that existed at the time. With the exception of the Waterloo & City Line (as that's way too easy), can you give the current names for the lines shown in the map? Please only give one line each (no prizes for being able to name all of them) and you get a bonus point if you don't make the same guess as the person immediately before you.



There's a larger version here which may help you read the names of the lines a bit better.

Tube map experts Max Roberts and Mark Ovenden (who've been contributing lately) are not allowed to enter, as they'll easily be able to get the first part!

Everyone else you have until Sunday 19th March 23.59 GMT to give your answer and as usual - one attempt only please and please make your guesses to both parts at the same time. Leave your answers in the comments below and remember to leave either your email addrress and/or your website or blog. Thanks.

Ah, the prize, it's a copy of the book the pictures came from! - Train and Transport - A Collector's Guide. It was kindly donated by Graham O'Mara as a prize. Cheers again Graham for donating another book!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, March 10, 2006 Permalink

Another Wapping Weekend

Wapping Thames Tunnel Tours

This weekend at 2pm and 4pm, there's another opportunity for you to take part in "Carry on Shafting" or rather the innuendo ridden but informative journey by Tube train through the famous Thames Tunnel!

Over to Robert Hulse the excellent tour guide and curator of the Brunel Engine House Museum. "This is Brunel's first project and the oldest tunnel in the London Underground. This is the birthplace of the Tube system. Descend the original sinking shaft, and view Brunel's original map of the Tunnel's geology.

In 2006, Brunel's Bicentenary Year, the Museum is proud to launch an exciting new children's book : 'Isambard Kingdom Brunel The Iron Man' by Amanda Mitchison.

Copies of the Brunel book cost £4.99 and are offered as the latest edition to the Shorts Books prize-winning series. The "WHO WAS...." series is aimed at 9 to 12 year olds: well-written, thought-provoking and refreshingly different from the established historical series for children.

As part of Science Week, families are invited to take a journey back in history! It is 1843, the Thames is the busiest river in the world, and Brunel's Tunnel is just completed. Your guide will fill in the details."



Robert continues as in Science week kids can make their own peepshow (not that sort of peepshow) of the tunnel (see image above) "It took Brunel 18 years, but with a pair of scissors and some crayons you can do it in half an hour...."

Check out http://www.brunelenginehouse.org.uk for full details of the weekend tours plus further tours throughout March.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, March 10, 2006 Permalink

Fraud, bankruptcy, suicide and transportation - The history of the London Underground Railway

Intriguing free lecture about the Tube

I imagine the American financier, Charles Tyson Yerkes, who electrified the London Underground in the early 1900's is one of the main topics of this lecture. Although Yerkes is often described as the saviour of the London Underground, you don't hear too much about the many devious ways in which he obtained his vast finances. Even though the Tube may not have been electrified so quickly without him, he left his railway companies heavily in debt when he died (before he got to see any of his lines actually opened).

Stephen Halliday who wrote the fantastic Underground to Everywhere, one of the best books about the history of the Tube I have read, is giving a free lecture at Gresham College (nearest Tube Chancery Lane) on the 16th March at 1pm.

"Dr Stephen Halliday is the author of many books based on Victorian London including 'The Great Stink' which has featured in several radio and TV programmes and 'Underground to Everywhere: London's Underground Railway in the life of the Capital'."

Thanks to Jon Allen for letting us know about this.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, March 09, 2006 Permalink

A moment's diversion - Spot the Spitfire

Spot the British Icon

Most people know by now that the London Underground Map is up against Concorde and the Spitfire in the finals for the Great British Design Quest (don't forget to vote if you haven't). Max Roberts (author of Underground Maps After Beck and a commenter to this blog) sent me an email & posed this interesting question: "Can the Spitfire really be a design icon of Britain when not many people actually know what it looks like!"


Well, can you spot the Spitfire? There's no prizes and I haven't got a clue, but hopefully Max will be able to enlighten us at some point!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, March 09, 2006 Permalink

James Blunt reveals Tube song inspiration on Oprah

James Blunt helps US know the subway is the London Underground

Just in case you didn't know James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" about his romantic passing moment with an ex-girlfriend on the Tube is Number One in the American Billboard charts. Yesterday he was on Oprah Winfrey and explained the song's origins: "It was about seeing my ex-girlfriend on the Underground in London with her new man who I didn't know existed. She and I caught eyes and lived a lifetime in that moment, but didn't do anything about it and haven't seen each other since".

Heart FM played part of it back this morning and the audience were laughing like a drain at Oprah, when she said "Hey James, I bet she'd have you back now, she doesn't know what she's missing!" They also clearly loved the posh Brit accent and the fact that "You're Beautiful" is about the London Underground and not just some unnamed "subway". "She smiled at me on the subway, she was with another man" to me, works better than "She smiled at me on the London Underground" or "She smiled at me on the Tube".

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, March 09, 2006 Permalink

Terminal 5 London Underground Station open already?

Do the people of Ealing know something we don't?

IanD (not Ian) went along to the Acton Depot at the weekend too and left early as it was too crowded, but on the way home had the opportunity to take the following pictures at Ealing Common





This is really weird, as as far as I know Terminal 4 station is still closed while Terminal 5 station is being built and re-opening isn't due until September 2006.

I suppose some sign makers or sticker uppers got a bit ahead of themselves or simply decided to confuse everyone!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, March 08, 2006 Permalink

Name a baby and Name a bear

Win a Going Underground Teddy Bear

Speaking of Ians - the other Ian he of whoknowswherethoughtscomefrom recently had a baby girl - Congrats! Although the bear below kitted out in a London Underground T shirt is not suitable for under 1 year olds, I thought he might like to have one for his other daughter. But he needs some help naming his new born and I need some help naming the bear.



So if you can come up with a name for both the bear and a suggested name for Ian's baby daughter, you can win the bear and I'll also send one over to Ian's growing brood.

Please leave comments below for the bear and ideally the ones for Ian's baby on his blog. Leave your email address or your blog/website on mine if you want to enter. You've got until Sunday 12th 23.00 GMT to make your suggestions. Have fun!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, March 08, 2006 Permalink

Panorama TV programme replays Stockwell Tube Shooting

Stockwell London Underground Reconstruction

On tonight's Panorama there is a reconstruction of Jean Charles de Menezes' last moments, which will show that he was NOT running from the police and he was NOT wearing a padded jacket as we were all originally led to believe. From reports I have heard on the programme it's not an issue of finger pointing or apportioning blame, but an attempt to investigate the "shoot to kill" policy and try to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. Panorama is on BBC One at 9pm tonight and also features exclusive inerviews with Met Police commanders and filming of CO19's firearms' team training.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, March 08, 2006 Permalink

Improving the Underground means more Weekend Disruption

Same Story, Different Spin

The early editions of yesterday's Evening Standard were screaming about the amount of delays and chaos we should expect on the Tube next year, whereas the London Underground sent out a press release saying that £10billion is being invested in London's Transport system with half of it being spent on the London Underground.


"Commuters have been warned to expect severe delays on some London Underground lines over the next year as billions of pounds worth of improvements begin." say the Standard

"The improvement works will inevitably result in some disruption for passengers, but information and alternative travel options will be available." say the London Underground.

"Starting next month, sections of the Northern line will be closed virtually every weekend for the rest of 2006 and the Waterloo & City lines will be closed for five months from April 1. And about 50 stations will have improvement works." say the Standard.

"We recognise that the Northern Line's performance is not as we would like, but we are looking forward to Tube Lines taking this opportunity to accelerate the amount of track renewal work undertaken." said the Service Director from the London Underground.

Unfortunately, as commuters we have to grin and bear it, as there's no other way for improvements to be made to the system. As London Underground say, if you're travelling at weekends check out the Tube's website at www.tfl.gov.uk/tubeworks before travelling.

However, every Monday the Tube will be issuing a Transforming the Tube media bulletin, which will "summarise all the forthcoming weekend's work and provide links to more detailed information." - such as this schedule of station closures for the next six months.

The main disruptions include - Regent's Park station on the Bakerloo Line being closed for a year from July 2006, for modernisation and lift replacement works; 15 weekend closures on the Central Line from April; major closures each weekend on the Northern Line from April, partial suspension on the Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines for about six weekends from November 2006; more closures on the Piccadilly Line between Acton Town to Uxbridge and Cockfosters to Wood Green / Arnos Grove closures from May and just in case you thought the Victoria Line had escaped, Brixton station will be closed and the line will terminate at Stockwell from 8 to 17 April 2006 and there will also be 15 track closures at the northern end of the line. Currently the Jubilee Line looks like the only line with no weekend disruptions or closures!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, March 07, 2006 Permalink

Model Tube System

When the London Underground runs like clockwork

On Saturday I saw the only time when you can safely say that the Tube runs like clockwork.


Shame the all the trains were running from a fictional station though!


Abbey Road is a model London Undergrond station which was one of the many miniature railway lines on display at the Museum Depot in Acton where the London Transport Museum had an Open Weekend.

The next two pictures show the scale of the models, and not an invasion of giants over London:




These models (by Metro Models) were featured on the last TV series of The Tube and they were incredibily detailed and obviously painstakingly researched and created.

This was my first time at the Museum Depot at Acton and I was amazed at how crowded it was. Admittedly there were a large collection of men there who could be only be described as errr, ...... trainspotters who were poring over the models and stalls selling photographs of trains, buses and railways, and old timetables. However, I was as geeky as everyone else at the end of the day and spent some time buying old books on railway ghosts, a cheesy looking horror story / thriller set on the railway, a social guide to trainspotters and a double sided, 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle of Waterloo station during the 2nd World War and post war time for just three quid!

Me and Neil also bumped into fellow Tube Relief Challenger, Chris Preswell, who was leaving as we arrived, and regular commenter Fimb and her husband - pictures from him here. Fimb managed to out geek us all by asking the guys in the shop intricate questions about a particular model bus series she is collecting.

UPDATE - Regular commenter and Tube Relief challenger SK was also there and has some pictures of the abandoned Space Train Project - it's about making more space in the Tube carriages, not running them to outer space, some 1938 stock, some 1930's Q stock and rows and rows of old station signs.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, March 06, 2006 Permalink

Centenary Tube celebrations & DLR extension rumours

Bakerloo Line is 100 years old

Ian (when he should have been changing nappies of his newly second born) sent me an email saying "Have you noted that this year marks the 100th anniversary of a few tube stations.... Covent Garden, Marylebone, etc.. Last year, the Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines were 100 years old. I presume the prehistoric rolling stock is part of some kind of celebration."

Well, according to the London Underground, the Bakerloo Line is 100 years old this year and on Friday 10th March there is an open day at Oxford Circus station where you can find out more about the centenary. I think I'd agree with LU on the centenary being this year as Baker Street to Lambeth North opened on the 10th March 1906.

In any case I bet that Leslie Green , the architect who designed a lot of the stations on the Bakerloo Line would be pretty surprised (had he still been alive) to see his stations still looking remarkably similar 100 years later.

Talking of old rolling stock, we heard at the Acton museum that there were plans to bring some 1933 Tube trains back into action for the Olympic Games. There are also pretty strong rumours according to Modern Railways magazine, that the Docklands Light Railway may be extended to Charing Cross by making use of the old Jubliee line platforms (thanks to Steve Everett for that). This is also confirmed by alwaystouchout who has more. The extension may also include re-opening Aldwych station! - see the tubechallenge forum.

Any more thoughts on the re-opening of old parts of the Tube most welcome.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, March 06, 2006 Permalink

London Underground Picture Competition

And the winner is.......

Ah, it's quite nice to have a clear cut winner to the competition for once.

I asked where the following pictures taken and there was a bonus point if you could also guess what the person in the second picture was doing:





Anthony "Underground Masker" Smith was the only person who gave the correct answer to both parts: "The first picture is at Leicester Square. The sign is in the window of the control room opposite the Piccadilly line ticket barriers (between exits 1 and 3).

The second picture is of the end of the hallway between the Bakerloo platforms at Paddington. The man is operating a Greathead tunnelling shield. He appears to be moving one of the panels that expose the rock face. Either that, or he is actually using a pickaxe or something to do the tunnelling - but if he's doing that, then they haven't drawn it very well. It doesn't look like he would achieve much leverage in that posture!"

Well done Anthony, let me know if you want either What's in Name or a stick of Tube rock as your prize.

The prize for the next Friday competition will be something I bought at the Acton Depot Museum and it's not going to be one of the many "Way out" and "roundel" stickers they were selling for 10p!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, March 06, 2006 Permalink

London Transport Model Exhibition this weekend + City Hall Open Weekend

London Transport in Miniature - 4th - 5th March

Sorry I should have blogged about this earlier to give people more advance notice, but this weekend, the London Transport Museum Depot at Acton is holding an exhibit of models of London's Transport. You can see "professional and amateur modellers' layouts ranging from five to twenty feet in length and from '00' gauge to '0' gauge for the working layouts" That may as well been in Greek as I have NO idea what the stuff about gauges meant!

Also "large or small, scenes are depicted right down to the finest detail and cover all modes of London travel from Underground trains and trams to cycling and walking."


"Family activities over the weekend include rides on different miniature trains (including steam trains) using the Museum's own track, craft workshops for children and dressing up to be mini transport workers." Let's hope they don't teach them how to go on strike too!

Me and Neil may be popping down (although we haven't booked). Remember that this weekend engineering works mean there are no trains between Earl's Court and Acton Town (the nearest Tube to the Depot - nice timing guys), so if travelling by public transport you'll need to "travel via the Central Line to Ealing Broadway and change for the District Line to Acton Town"!

Opening times: 11.00 - 17.00 (Last admission 16.00) - and you can find out how to get there here

Admission (tickets valid both days): Adults £6.95, Concessions £4.95, accompanied children under 16 go free. For full details click here. Have fun.

City Hall Open Weekend

Speaking of Open Weekends, London's City Hall is also open to the public this weekend. Londonist are very excited about this: "This weekend is one of a selected few when London's City Hall gets opened up to the public. Home to the GLA and dear Ken since 2002, opinion on the asthetic pleasure of the buliding is always under discussion. We think it's pretty snazzy and hear the view across London from the top is pretty spectactular even if they have rather pretentiously named the top floor 'London's living room'."

I can confirm the view from the top is spectactular and while I was on an overnight Circle Line Walk for Maggie's Cancer Charity last September, I took the following picture of Tower Bridge from City Hall at about 5am and we all spent an hour or so there watching the sun rise. It was an amazing experience!


Londonist continues: "Most excitingly you'll be able to visit the bottom floor - home to the London PhotoMap. Made up of 200,000 photos taken from above, this is a detailed aerial view of the whole of Greater London. Man, this is like a live action role player, who really likes google maps, dream! They even let you stand and run about on the damn thing!

We are geeky and excited. You should be too! Last entry is at 4.30pm on each day, so don't miss out." More details here.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Saturday, March 04, 2006 Permalink

London Underground Fashion Victims

Fashion Victims on the Tube

Here's this week's regular look at commuters spotted on the London Underground who could be considered to be slaves to fashion, or people who have taken a trend (or something they thought was trendy) and "made it their own" - with apologies to Louis Walsh off X Factor. There's a bit of a theme this week as it's all mostly to do with footwear and ladies jeans.

Overworn Boots

To be fair this next picture isn't a fashion victim as such. You know when you have a pair of shoes you like so much you just wear them and wear them. Well, I think that must have happened with the lady below



If you look at the toes of her boots you'll see holes or areas that have been worn away. Quite how she managed to do this is anyone's guess. Perhaps the pointed toes were so pointed that she kept bashing them into things. I'd imagine that it would be quite hard to get them repaired.

Metallic Bag and Blue Socks

Regular readers know of my personal hatred of metallic bags. (Please, please, please fashion designers stop making the things, they are hideous). However, what I found interesting about this woman is the glittery bright blue socks worn with the round toed brown shoes. An errr, ..... interesting colour choice!



I particularly like the way her metallic bag reflects the brightness of her socks too.

Lacy Jeans

To say it's fairly cold in London right now, is an understatement, so quite why this woman chose to wear jeans with holes deliberately cut into them is beyond me. In fact, not quite sure why she ever bought them in the first place, I just think the lacy pattern doesn't work in this example and it's quite hard to actually say why. But perhaps you'll have other opinions.



Technically she's not a Tube victim as she was on South West trains, but hey ho, I thought I'd include her anyway.

Malteser jeans

Quite possibly the most hideous pair of jeans I have seen in some time. Let's ignore the "Ugg" style boots - I can almost excuse them as it's sooooo cold right now. But nothing can excuse someone buying a pair of jeans where it looks as though they have pieces of Maltesers stuck on them.



The mind truly boggles, specially when the whole ensemble was accessorised with a Gucci bag!

That's it for this week. The previous entry for London Underground fashion victims is here and all of them together can be seen on the following Flickr set.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, March 03, 2006 Permalink

London Underground Map in Top 3 Design Icons

Vote for the Tube Map

Yesterday the three finalists in the Great British Design Quest were announced and London's "iconic" Underground map has made it into the final three.


You have until Sunday 12th March to get your votes in, and the winner of the Great British Design Quest will be announced on The Culture Show on BBC Two at 7pm on the 16th March.

Amazing that all three finalists are transport related and that a "regional" design like the Tube map has made it into the final. Original designer of the map, Harry Beck would have been proud!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, March 03, 2006 Permalink

More "Metro's" - Free Newspapers on the London Underground

More free news is good news

Yesterday Associated Newspapers Ltd, the people who publish Metro (and The Evening Standard & The Daily Mail) gave up their exclusive rights for free morning and afternoon newspaper distribution on the London Underground.

This means that the road is open for more free newspapers to be distributed and according to London Underground's Press Release "This is good news for London as additional revenues generated by any new contract will contribute to the upgrade of London's transport system being carried through by TfL's £10bn 5-Year Investment Programme".

It's very good news for late commuters like me who travel in the tail end of the rush hour as often the Metro dispensers are empty by the time I get on the Tube and I have to make do with "left overs". It will be interesting to see which publishers decide to respond to the tender to produce more free papers.

By the way, I must thank Metro for adding this blog to their "Pick of the blogs" section on their revamped website. Through that I discovered their two other picks Generic Title (some very funny reviews of Tesco basic products) and City Hippie (how to live a greener and more ethical life), which are cool reads!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, March 03, 2006 Permalink

Catching "Criminals" on the Tube

Fare dodging and Mr X on the London Underground

In Monday's Metro there was a feature with figures on how many people fare dodge and London Underground prosecuted 6,427 people who had "purposefully set out to avoid buying a ticket". I do overhear a lot of sob stories from people who claim to have forgotten their travelcard or Oystercard. I suppose in situations like that you bite the bullet and just pay the fine - but can you actually claim the £20 back if you really have forgotten your card and you can prove that you had bought it when you get back home?

The feature continued saying that "The Tube is patrolled by 280 ticket inspectors and supported by 681 officers from the British Transport Police. In the last year they have issued more than 43,000 penalty fares." The conclusion was that it's difficult to get away with dodging your fare. However, I would argue that it's much easier to do this late at night particularly if you're travelling on suburban lines which often leave the barriers open and unmanned. Richmond is a classic example.

Strangely enough there is a board game called Scotland Yard where you play the role of detectives trying to catch Mr X who for some bizarre reason uses a selection of public transport including the Tube to make his getaway.


The players can only move from one location to another if they have a ticket of the correct type. You get three types of "ticket": bus, taxi and underground and have to work together to trap Mr X. Tube Tales had a good short film - Grasshopper - about a group of ticket inspectors and transport police "chasing" criminals around the Tube, so perhaps the whole scenario is not that unusual.

In reviewing the game Funagain Games says "To plot a move demands ingenuity, wile and the proper fare. No ticket... no ride! Try to plan your route several moves in advance to avoid getting hopelessly stranded or cornered.

Taxi, bus or underground? You decide which route is best for fleeing or for following when you play Scotland Yard, the detective game of "fare" play!"


Thanks to Magpie Moon who took the above picture for emailing me and reminding me about the game.

Also in Toronto people play a live version of the game every two weeks each summer. "One guy named Mr. X runs around Toronto's transit system in a bright yellow shirt, while three or more guys in red shirts try to find him using the clues he gives at every third stop he makes. The three detectives are coordinated by dispatchers who tell the detectives where they think Mr. X might be and how best to block him off." Check out the following site to find out more.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, March 02, 2006 Permalink

Where has all the commuters' chocolate gone?

Cadbury's Chocolate Machines are closed for safety reasons

Like many people who use the Tube every day you might have been wondering why for the last few weeks most of the Cadbury's chocolate dispensers on the London Underground have been out of order.


Martin Deutsch not only wondered but decided to email London Underground to find out why. He forwarded me on their response which had a massive disclaimer at the bottom saying that it shouldn't be reproduced in any shape or form whatsoever on pain of death, blah, blah, blah. But basically the gist of it was that they have been turned off for safety reasons while they were being checked out.

I wondered just how unsafe a chocolate dispenser could be, and had visions of the machines shooting out molten hot bars of Whole Nut or Caramel bars so that your hands were burnt when you picked them up. Or that they should have had those warnings like you get on McDonalds Apple pies or cups of coffee - Warning these contents are hot.

Fortunately the guys over at the tubechallenge forum had been debating the subject and it's not ALL chocolate machines as I had originally thought, but those on "section 12" which have underground platforms. According to an anonymous commenter on "On the District's blog" - "smoke was pouring out of the one at Oxford Circus a few weeks ago so LUL have had them all isolated if they are on a section 12 (underground) station."

So in a nutshell it looks like some of the machines have been overheating, which is obviously a potential fire hazard. How the fire is any less worrying if it's on an above-ground station is beyond me, but perhaps London Underground felt that overground commuters' need for choclate was greater and outweighed the fire risk!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, March 01, 2006 Permalink

Temporary sign seen at Russell Square Tube Station

This is why I love London

Alex just emailed me a picture of a sign seen at Russell Square last night, where someone had been having fun with the magnetic signs showing service levels:


Priceless!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, March 01, 2006 Permalink

What do the names Lou, Kitty, Walter & Anne have in common?

Naming things on the Tube

Since I changed jobs I've not had to face the prospect of the forthcoming Waterloo & City Line closure. The line that I used to use each day will be closed for five months from the 1st April for "much-needed engineering improvements that will deliver increased reliability of services, an increase in capacity and improved journey times." So it was good to learn from SK that Metronet, who are carrying out the improvements, have been having some fun and games with names.


Four new battery locos which will be used to haul materials and plant along the one and half mile line, have been designed and built to deadline - "in just 17 weeks". This in itself appears to have been the cause of much celebration at Metronet and the locos were given names to honour the occasion - Walter, Lou, Anne, Kitty. Can you see what they did there? Just in case you haven't got it yet, if you say the names together quickly they sound a bit like Waterloo & City.

"Metronet's Chief Programmes Officer Stephen Hall said: 'This is the first piece of work to have been completed in the programme; it's fundamental and extremely important to see it delivered on time.

'This sets the pace and says, "This project is under way now," and we are determined to deliver for our customer London Underground - and Londoners.' "

Now that Metronet have christened their "babies", let's hope that little Walter, Lou, Anne & Kitty get on with hauling stuff about as quickly as they can and don't decide they need too many nappy changes or throw unexpected tantrums and stop working!

While we're on the subject of naming, do you have any pet names for trains or other vehicles? My first car - an old Vauxhall Cavalier - was called Vivienne. It's a bit of a shame that Tubes don't have names like some National Rail trains and anonymous numbers instead. I would like to call the trains on the Northern Line "Mary, Mary" - because they're quite contrary!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, March 01, 2006 Permalink

London's Lost Tube Schemes

A book review

Regular contributor, SK, also kindly wrote a good book review of one of the books that was suggested in my 24 Days of Christmas - Tube related gifts. So over to him:

"London's Lost Tube Schemes by Antony Badsey-Ellis is one of the newest books available about the history of the London Underground. Instead of writing about the lines that were built, this book is about the many lines that were planned, but never built, between the opening of the Metropolitan Railway in 1863 and the outbreak of World War I.

Some of the lines that were planned would have been very useful these days. Interestingly, many of the proposed lines would have served Hackney, which is today still very poorly served by the tube. If some of these lines had been built, then the tube map may have been very different, and the newer tubes such as the Victoria and Jubilee Lines may never had been required. Yet some of the other proposals seemed rather crazy. One being the Kearney High-Speed Tube, which seemes like a hybrid
tube-monorail-rollercoaster. Other crazy ideas included a giant passenger carrying version of those pneumatic tubes that are sometimes found in banks and offices.

This book also answers many questions that many Tube fanatics may be interested in, such as why does there appear to be underground junction tunnels at South Kensington on the Piccadilly Line, and why does Holborn, again on the Piccadilly Line have such an odd layout?

The book is very thorough on its subject matter, and has plenty of interesting diagrams and maps. Although this book sometimes is verging on having too much information, I would recommend it to anyone who has a keen interest either
in the history of the Tube, or an interest in what could have been."

Cheers for that SK. When I was in the travel bookshop Stanfords over Christmas I heard a number of people ask for the book and it certainly sounds like a good read.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, March 01, 2006 Permalink