London Underground Fashion Victims

Hurrah it's Friday and time for the Tube Fashion Victims or the TFV's, travellers on the London Underground who have "taken a style and made it their own" (to quote Louis Walsh out of X Factor) or have decided to go all out for "fashion for fashion's sake" and have the fashion police come rushing to their door.

However, this week I want to start with two poster campaigns for fashion brands which use the London Underground as part of the backdrop. Mainly because most advertisers think the Tube equals London, trendiness, edginess & uber coolness.

Top Shop on the Tube

Last time I featured a picture of Kate Moss peeking out from beneath old ads on the Tube and the shop she designs for - Top Shop have grabbed some models & got them to look all sulky in Tube carriages for their poster campaign.


You might want to have a guess at where the poster above was shot, as that moquette or Tube upholstery looks quite old.

Another poster which doesn't work as well for me, is the one for E & O - Skiwear on the Edge


Apparently it's edgy to stand in the middle of the lines at Caledonian Road Tube station, wearing your ski gear.

Now onto the TFV's - although I'm starting with a RFV or a Railway Fashion Victim.

Pirate Look at Richmond

I know it's the time of year where people do a lot of dressing up, but I spotted this guy at about 8.30am, which is a little early for fancy dress.


You don't often see pirates on your morning commute. Or maybe he was a highwayman. Either way I was lucky not to stand behind him on the train as that feather would have tickled my nose.

BTW speaking of dressing up for parties - Alfie spotted some pictures from a recent Tube Fancy Dress party on Moblog - with High Barnet & Green Park very well represented. If you're looking ideas for London Underground Fancy Dress party for Xmas there's a fair few in the comments on an old post of mine.

Super Gold Trainers

Spurred on by my spot of some dazzling gold shoes last time, Pete from the Londoneer spotted some more gold footwear.


He said "My eyes nearly popped out when I saw them". But like me, he thought that the pink shoelaces with them, really err ... set them off! The woman sitting next to gold shoe woman with the Gucci bag, also has an interesting take with their zipped jeans. I'm sure it's just me, but wouldn't you just buy a shorter pair of jeans if you were going to have them with zips at the bottom? Or perhaps the point is to have that messy "I'm too cool to care" scruffy turned up look.

Low Slung Jeans

Finally a couple of little Emo style teenagers with their low slung jeans


I seriously thought the guy with the blue T-shirt was going to expose all of his paisley pink underpants, but even he had the sense to try to pull down his T-shirt a bit as he approached the stairs & escalators.

Until next time, the previous fashion victim post is here and the complete picture gallery of all the TFV's can be seen on the following Flickr set.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, October 31, 2008 Permalink

Westfield Shopping Centre finally opens to Transport hitches

If you're a Londoner but have been living on Mars for the past couple of days, you might have missed the news that Westfield Shopping Centre finally opened today. Over the last few weeks I'd already blogged about all the new London Underground stations (Wood Lane & Shepherd's Bush stations), and transport links set up to support the masses of people who'll be heading over to Shepherd's Bush / White City for a shopping extravaganza at Europe's largest new shopping centre.

However, the transport system had some technical hitches this week. Safety technology and a lift were not working at Wood Lane Tube station today, and one of the new 3 million quid escalators at the new Shepherd's Bush station broke down on Monday. Meanwhile over on the Hammersmith & City Line, the screens which show drivers when it's safe to shut the doors aren't working at Wood Lane station.


The Evening Standard earlier reported that "The current problems come after the opening of the new Shepherd's Bush overground station had to be delayed because the platforms were 18 inches too narrow. A TfL spokeswoman dismissed the problems, saying: "Three of the lifts at Wood Lane Tube station have been commissioned and provide enough capacity to meet passenger demand. The fourth lift is waiting for a part."

She said that platform screens would be working "shortly". TfL insisted the two escalators at Shepherd's Bush would cope.

The broken escalator was "swiftly repaired" and the station remained open, the spokeswoman added.

Hammersmith & Fulham council leader Stephen Greenhalgh said: "We intend to hold TfL to its promise of providing step-free access. We will not let this matter rest."

Let's hope that TfL can keep up.

I love shopping and can shop till I drop, but like Debbie Davies, I was somewhat bemused to see the rather err... worshipful advert for Westfield Shopping Centre's opening.


I couldn't have put it better than Debbie who said "Oh get over yourself! It's a glorified shopping mall, not a cure for cancer."

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, October 30, 2008 Permalink

Not on the London Underground

It's been a while since I've written a post on London Underground roundels that you've found on your travels that are not in their natural Tube habitat.

As Halloween's around the corner it seemed appropriate to start with a ghoulish spot at Brick Lane in East London by Melissa


She said: "I snapped this on my way to work one morning. I have no idea what it means, but this was stuck to a road sign indicating the diversion away from Brick Lane (it's currently closed for East London line work but I continually see GPS idiots go up there anyway, and I laugh)."

If anyone has any idea, it would be appreciated!

Going a bit further afield now, Pete from the Londoneer spotted this in Poland.


He said: "Here's a roundel I saw one weekend while I was in Wroclaw (pronounced Vrots-waff) in Poland - cheeky or what! I think it's offering an internet service...".

Finally some sporting roundels. The strapping lads below are from the Putney Magpies, a team in the British Australian Rules Football League or BARFL.




Before TfL's solicitors go racing across to Putney to rip the shirts off these guys, I'm told by Peter O'Neill who sent them to me, that there were a number of complaints by opposing team members & referees, saying it was too hard to see the players' numbers against the roundels, so they no longer use these shirts.

Thanks to you all for sending the photos in. The full set of Roundels Not on the London Underground can be seen here. If you spot any more roundels in unusual places please email them to me and I'll put the best up on the next post I do on this.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, October 30, 2008 Permalink

Abram Games - London Transport Museum Event

Last night I was lucky to go along to a talk by Abram Games daughter - Naomi, on her father's life and his prolific work in graphic design. Even though I had seen lots of Games work around, I never knew he was the man behind the striking work such as the BBC's first animated logo, the Queen's Award emblem (he didn't like to call them logos), Penguin's first colour book covers from the 1950's and of course some amazing posters for the London Underground and London Transport.

I had no idea, that he produced one of the Victoria Line's mosaics - the beautiful swan at Stockwell Tube station below:


Games was trying to sell most of his works in the 1930's and he was continually told that it was "too modern", so hats off to London Transport who commissioned his first commercial poster - A Train every 90 seconds - and yes, he was well aware of the irony!



His school report said that he was "Lazy, careless & untidy and drawing was weak", fortunately he saw this as a challenge rather than a put down. However, he never really got on with formal artistic training and only spent two terms at Central St Martins College before dropping out.

He owed a lot of his success to travelling on the top of double decker buses in London and said he should have paid rent to London Transport. From the top of buses he got a great sense for how posters were seen by a lot of travellers. Fleeting glances from strange angles, so the message had to get across quickly. His motto was "Maximum Meaning, Minimum Means", and he used limited colours & limted typography but to striking effect.


He left his students at the Royal Academy of Art with three C's that they should apply to their work. Curiosity, Courage and Concentration. Sound advice for most work actually.

Naomi's book Poster Journeys: Abram Games and London Transport launched yesterday and contains all of Games work for London Transport with some fascinating sketches which led to all of the posters.

Thanks again to London Transport Museum for inviting me and also for having the courage to commission a difficult but brilliant artist who was seen by many as ahead of his time.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, October 29, 2008 Permalink

Magic Carpet for new Tube Map Cover

From yesterday you'll be able to pick up a London Underground map with new artwork from Los Angeles artist Pae White.


'...fragment of a Magic Carpet, circa 1213' is a section of a Persian rug, made up from the colours of the Tube map.

And you've guessed it, the Persian rug means "the flying carpet motif as a suggestion of magical transport". So even if you've not got around to making an Oyster card wand or watch, and waving it with the command Open Sesame when you get to the barriers, you can still get a sense of the Arabian Nights.

White said: 'The work plays on the idea of networks, storytelling and mythology, weaving the colours of the different Underground lines from Harry Beck's iconic Tube map together as a rug.

'Tapestry is considered to be one of the highest forms of art in the Middle East and by taking this form, the work is a small tribute to cultural integration.

'I felt that presenting it as a fragment acts as proof of the 'real thing', even though the carpet itself is mythological. I'm interested in the relationship between an antique, imaginary object and the digital representation of it.'

I would love to have a magic carpet and would use it instead of the Tube any day. Although I would miss the magic of seeing how many people can squeeze themselves into a tiny space, fit for about half the amount that get inside a carriage. Or the magical way that the District Line is slowly transforming itself into the Northern Line in a bid to becoming the worst line on the Tube.

Any other magical Tube sightings or experiences to complement the new Tube map design are more than welcome.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, October 28, 2008 Permalink

Poster Journeys - London Transport Museum Event

Apparently, Abram Games was one of the 20th century's most innovative and important graphic designers. He produced a number of striking posters for the London Underground and tomorrow evening his daughter, Naomi, will be talking about his work at the London Transport Museum.


Naomi is also a graphic designer and the event marks the launch of her new book Poster Journeys: Abram Games and London Transport and is supported by a small exhibition of original Games posters from the last 40 years.

The event runs from 6.30pm to 7.30pm & tickets can be pre booked on 020 7565 7298 and cost £8.00 adults; £6.00 concessions; £4.00 student. However, I've managed to get a couple of tickets to go along. If you'd like to come with me, send an email to themole AT goingunderground.net or DM me on Twitter. As usual first come first served.



Looks like Games had a slightly more efficient service to work with if his A Train Every 90 seconds poster, is anything to go by. I hear that King's Cross Tube station was a tad overcrowded this morning and was closed for a while. So well done if you managed to avoid that.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, October 27, 2008 Permalink

Oyster card may be replaced by mobile payments

In August we learnt that TfL will be terminating their £100m annual contract with Oyster. Thanks to Alex Gollner, I learnt that mobile phones and bank card payments are being considered as replacements for the Oyster card.

The Register reported that: "Will Judge, head of future ticketing at TfL, told the London Assembly's Budget and Performance Committee on 21 October that the body is looking at various technologies and providers to take over from Oyster in 2010....

Judge said TfL wants the new ticketing system to be contactless and fast, and suggested it could be delivered through another smartcard or on a phone or bankcard. He said it wanted to take advantage of good practice elsewhere.

Judge also told the committee that the replacement for the contract with TranSys is unlikely to take the same shape. It could be broken up into a number of segments, each let individually rather than under a large private finance initiative as in the existing arrangements."

They're hedging their bets with this statement and covering a load of bases, so personally I'm not holding my breath or getting excited or worried about the prospect of paying my London Underground fares with a mobile phone. By 2010 anything could happen & the Japanese will have probably invented something amazing like paying for your subway fares by touching a pad or staring into a screen. Doubtless we'll be many years behind them.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, October 24, 2008 Permalink

Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman & London's Queen Rats

Tonight I'm going to see one of my favourite authors Neil Gaiman who amongst other things wrote the fantastic Neverwhere. Regular readers to the blog and even Goingunderground would have heard me rave about Neverwhere in the past. It's a book based on the BBC TV series Gaiman co-wrote with Lenny Henry in the mid nineties. Neil wasn't too pleased with the TV series, but wanted to work on the idea of a parallel London (London Below) which operated underground and was populated by feudal characters some with names based on London Underground stations.


There was the Angel Islington, real Barons and Earls at Earl's Court & Barons Court & even a London Below Tube system made up from those "Special" trains with no lighting in them that speed past your stop.

Neil was one of the very first famous authors to have his own blog & I still can't get over him being kind enough to be interviewed for One Stop Short of Barking and even blogging about my request for an interview.

He said "Congratulations on the book contract! I'll be in touch about the comments or interview, but I put the e-mail up here on the journal as I've been meaning to link to Going Underground for ages, and you plug the site better than I could. Lovely site filled with odd, London underground things. The weblog is an excellent place to begin -- lots to read. Learn about commuter pigeons, for a start." You seriously don't know what a comment like that from an author like Gaiman means to me.

But enough of the Gaiman love, I'm sure lots more will be showered on him tonight. Last night I went on a London Ghost Walk hosted by Qype as an early Halloween treat. Chris who carried out the walk, was full of amazing stories about hidden London and as we stopped under bridge he started to talk about London's Queen Rats (speaking rats feature heavily in Neverwhere) and Death Line or Raw Meat a 1970's horror film about the London Underground, which also features in One Stop Short of Barking.


The premise of Death Line is fantastic and is about a lost troglodyte type underground thing, that lives on humans who missed their last stop on the Tube or somehow got stranded on the Underground. The only human words it has learnt to say are "Mind the Doors". I muttered that this was the worst film about the Tube that I have ever seen in my life. It doesn't even get into the "so bad it's good" realm in my opinion. But each to their own.

One of the many fascinating things about the London Ghost Walk was hearing about London's Queen Rats. This is an East End legend about a giant rodent that could change itself into a gorgeous woman & seduce dockside workers. Legend has it that if the men satisfied the Queen Rat they'd be blessed with wealth and many children. The first born would be a girl with one grey eye and one blue eye. Chris also publishes a magazine called One Eye Grey!


There was a particularly weird moment while Chris was telling this story and we heard a trumpet pumping out the fab lounge musak of Burt Bacharach's Walk on By from some buskers beneath the bridge.

Thanks to Qype for hosting a great night which ended up back in the pub with booze and more of Qype's golden food.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, October 24, 2008 Permalink

Lastminute.com, Fancyapint.com & Google - 10 years on

A lot of my favourite websites are having their 10th birthday this year. Even what I nostalgically still call my "main" site the sadly neglected Goingunderground.net will be ten on New Year's Day. A key site for me in those early days (specially for my London on the Cheap page) was Lastminute.com, so I was somewhat shocked & kind of flattered when I heard that they really wanted me to visit their labs & show me some new products they were launching.


On Monday evening, fighting the wind, cold, heavy rain & the beginnings of man flu, I grumpily made my way to their offices at St James's Park, thinking this'll better be worth the trip.

Thankfully it was. I was introduced to Marko Balabanovic (top name) their Head of Innovation, who showed me a couple of tools that they just launched in beta yesterday. Pronto & Radar. We spent a lot more time talking about Pronto as I'd recently just used Lastminute to book a hotel for a trip to Paris in December & I often book restaurants & theatre tickets online.

Basically Pronto makes the search a lot more human, friendly & visual and lets you look for things with out ticking endless boxes. So you can start typing a sentence like "I want to find a Chinese restaurant in Crouch End tonight .." and it cleverly second guesses the things you might be looking for as you type.


I asked them how easy it would be to incorporate all London Underground Tube stations into it too. So you could say, I want to find a restaurant near Gloucester Road Tube. Also finding restaurants that had free wifi or reliable wifi would be a god send. Apparently the Tube thing was doable and the wifi, possible depending on the info they had about the restaurants themselves.

Anyway, they are really open to people playing around with the tool and making suggestions for improvement, as it's only in beta and they'd love to know what you think. We also discussed stuff like adding more human reviews to their restaurant listings, as if you've booked any hotels with them - you'll know you can see real people's reviews from Tripadvisor next to the hotel.

Google also turned 10 this year and last week the Queen visited their London HQ to check out her gmail and have a look at YouTube.


Apparently both Queenie and the Duke of Edinburgh are avid internet users who regularly send emails to all their grandchildren. She's got her own Royal Channel on YouTube, (which Google own) that's been viewed 1.6 million times since Xmas.

Finally, last night I went along to Fancyapint.com's London Pub Awards. Fancyapint is also about 10 years old & this is the fifth year of the awards. I liked how they ran the visitors awards, as rather than just using pubs that get the most reviews - they also judge on which have the most visits arranged to them through the site. For example they look at things like usage of the "Let's meet here" tool & how many people print off directions or maps to the pub.


Fancyapint for as long as I can remember have had a tool where you can find a pub by its proximity to a Tube station and I use that a lot when arranging places to meet.

I loved the very British looking landlord of the Windsor Castle pictured above, who was clearly delighted to win a Reviewer Award. He rocked as he had a fab tache, a cravat, a jolly landlord's beer belly AND a monacle. I only hope that we went outside for the odd puff on his pipe. Thanks muchly to TikiChris for taking me along the awards last night.

Congrats to all the dot.coms that have managed to survive 10 fooking hard years & the prospect of some rough times in the credit crunch. The good ones certainly look set to survive it & are responding to what their visitors want. Here's to the next ten!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, October 23, 2008 Permalink

Paranoia & dirty hands on the Tube

Apparently a good way of studying paranoia is to go on a London Underground train and watch how people look at each other. I blogged about Dr Daniel Freeman's paranoia Tube experiment from the Wellcome Trust on April 1st earlier this year and a number of you thought it was April Fool's Joke. However, The Guardian's Science Weekly podcast tried to re-create his virtual experiment on a Central Line Tube where the reporter describes the way people sit or stand, what they're reading or listening too & how that behaviour can affect other people's levels of paranoia.


According to his study one in four of the general public have paranoid thoughts. Freeman said the results suggest that paranoia was a quite normal emotion: "In the past, only those with a severe mental illness were thought to experience paranoid thoughts, but now we know that this is simply not the case."

In the middle of the podcast (about 15 mins in) they comment on last week's findings from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which states that commuters have dirty hands. That's no surprise really, but the further North you go, the dirtier people's hands get.


The scientists swabbed the hands of 409 people at bus and train stations in five major cities in England and Wales. More than one in four commuters had bacteria from faeces on their hands. Men were likelier to have dirtier hands than women except (and I'm ashamed to say this) in London. At Euston station men had contamination levels of 6% whereas women had 21% - urgh.

The one good thing for Tube travellers (if anything good comes out of this) is that people who had travelled on the bus had higher rates of hand contamination than commuters who had used the train.

The BBC reported: Dr Val Curtis, director of the Hygiene Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "We were flabbergasted by the finding that so many people had faecal bugs on their hands.

"The figures were far higher than we had anticipated, and suggest that there is a real problem with people washing their hands in the UK.

"If any of these people had been suffering from a diarrhoeal disease, the potential for it to be passed around would be greatly increased by their failure to wash their hands after going to the toilet."

Perhaps we ought to forget being paranoid about how people look at each other on the Tube & spend a bit more time washing our hands, not only after the loo, but before and after commuting.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, October 22, 2008 Permalink

Live blogging from BBC2's Working Lunch

I'm here at the studio of BBC2's Working Lunch doing some live blogging. Which is always a challenge specially as I was half way through a post and the computer froze!!! Such are the everyday trials and tribulations for a blogger - ooops presenter Declan Curry just asked me how things were going and I had to tell him.


So onto the blog post. The main story on Working Lunch today is the announcement that 350 million pounds is being given to small businesses to help them to train & learn new skills. The focus is on vocational skills with numeracy and literacy. The place to go to is Train to Gain

Anyway in other news Helen Pattinson's company Montezuma's makes tons of chocolate every year, which is music to my ears as last week was National Chocolate Week. I went along to a chocolate tasting with a number of other bloggers to well, err, taste chocolate.

However, she lives & breathes chocolate and put her family home up for sale to finance her business, which is a massively brave step - although she said it was "stupid" in hindsight.

Declan's asking Helen about that nightmare moment that every person who starts their own business has, when they think, can I actually do this? What am I doing here? Have I made the wrong decision? Thankfully she decided to carry on even though her product is a luxury item at around £2 a bar, so far things seem to be going really well and she's had massive growth of direct sales through the internet.

Update - if you're in the UK you can watch this episode of Working Lunch on BBC iPlayer.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, October 21, 2008 Permalink

Want to buy some secret Underground Tunnels?

Underneath Chancery Lane London Underground station there are more than a mile of underground tunnels that are up for sale. So if like Griff Rhys Jones who explored them, you wanted a quick shortcut to work through the hidden network you'd be laughing. John Pannell & Jon Justice both gave me the heads up to this story which was part of Greatest Cities of the World with Griff Rhys Jones and also in the news & on the BBC's site last week.



The site is known as the Kingsway Tunnel (a deliberately misleading name, because Kingsway is hundreds of yards away) was originally dug in 1942 as a bomb shelter for 8,000 people during World War II. The tunnels were then taken over by military authorities as a communications and intelligence centre and after the war became a place to store historic documents.


They're now being put for sale by their current owner BT.

According to the Associated Press - "BT spokeswoman Gemma Thomas said that the company no longer needed the tunnel because the Internet was cutting down on the need for telephone exchanges. She said restrictions on the tunnels' use meant they could not be converted into a cool new concept hotel, an underground office or a subterranean home. BT suggested they might be suitable for government use or for a major corporation. Thomas refused to reveal was BT was hoping to get from the tunnels' sale."

BT are also remaining fairly cagey about how you find the tunnels. You won't find the entry door unless you know where to look.

Andy McSmith from The Independent was one of the journos lucky enough to get a tour of the secret site and said

"This would be a fabulous place to open a nightclub, but health and safety laws would never permit it. Likewise, a hotel, offices or living accommodation are out. Somebody should grab the chance to use the tunnels as a film location, because they are eerie, dated and full of places to hide away from the bad guys. Although much of the kit in use there in the post-war era has been removed to museums, I saw enough relics to make it a trip back in time. There were machines bearing names of manufacturers long since wiped out by mergers and recession, such as English Electric (Stafford), Metro-Vickers, Hackbridge and Hewittic Electric, and Ruston and Hornsby. The huge tubes forming the walls of the main tunnels bear the initials LPTB, meaning they were built by the old London Passenger Transport Board."

Now they are up for sale, BT are obviously trying to get some renewed interest in them again, but their secrecy was compelling for former reporters who were desperate to know what government secrets were going on down there.

"In the 1980s, the investigative journalist Duncan Campbell, then of The New Statesman, did not take no for an answer. John Tasker, the former manager of the Kingsway Tunnels, said: "He had an obsession about government secrecy. He phoned BT security one Christmas and told them 'if you go down, you will find a Christmas tree'. He had planted it. They still don't know how he got down there."

In the show Griff Rhys Jones hazards a guess as to how much the Tunnels might be going for (£5 million), but I'm sure with such limited commercial uses it'd only be in the price bracket of the mighty rich. Let's just hope that whoever buys it has an imaginative use for it & that more people get to see the eerie underground maze.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, October 21, 2008 Permalink

Wake me up at.... Subway Sleep Masks

The Japanese had to go one further than the "Wake me up at XXXXX station", stickers that you might have seen on the London Underground. The stickers were for people, like me, who want to be woken up before they miss their stop. Manga artist Pyocotan has invented "Noriko-san," a sleep mask which has an electronic scrolling display fitted inside that tells fellow commuters where the wearer wants to get off.


The video below shows the mask in action - but in this instance the Japanese haven't quite got it right:


Sadly it didn't work. The theory is that other passengers will feel compelled to wake you up so they can sit in the empty seat you leave behind or just wake you up out of courtesy. In this video above, passengers probably thought he looked like a weirdo and no one woke him.

Pink Tentacle said: "Pyocotan admits that Noriko-san is not 100% effective, perhaps because the unusual appearance makes other passengers feel uncomfortable and prevents them from acting. But the device will likely grow more effective as it becomes more widespread, he suggests. Until then, the fact that the mask might encourage others to act makes it a little easier for the user to relax and sleep more soundly.

Noriko-san cost about 20,000 yen ($200) to develop." Thanks to Jon Justice for letting me know about this.


It's a lot cheaper, but possibly not much more effective, to spend four quid on a set of "Wake Me Up at .... Stickers" and hope that someone does indeed wake you up.


As the instructions above imply, the problem is getting the stickers off the sheet in the first place. I'd add to that being sober enough to write your station on them, that's if you don't live at one of the most frequently used Tube stops that are already printed on them. You also need to hope that you don't fall asleep with your head down or have long hair that covers up the sticker.

I still stupidly rely on my "luck" with the Tube fairies, who have the sense to wake me up at roughly the right time. But on a number of occasions they've really let me down badly and I've woken up near Heathrow airport too many times than I'd like to admit. I also have that 30 second confusion thing if I just about wake up right at the station I need. It takes 30 seconds to get to the side of the carriage where the doors are opening, collect my thoughts and make sure I have all my bits with me. Usually by then the doors are just closing and I'm off on another trip to Acton Town, hoping not to fall asleep yet again and end up in Hatton Cross.

Any techniques which don't involve spending four hundred quid on a proto type "future boy" looking sleep mask & people's good Samritaness would be most welcome.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, October 20, 2008 Permalink

New Wood Lane Tube Station photos

Continuing with the brand spanking new stations in West London, many of you probably know that Wood Lane London Underground station opened on the 12th October. The new station on the Hammersmith & City Line is supporting the new Westfield shopping development and is the first station to be built on an existing section of the Tube for over 70 years. The last one was Elm Park Tube station on the District line in 1935.


TfL predict around 6,665 people will use the new station between noon and 3pm on Saturdays, once the nearby Westfield shopping centre opens.

The thing I really like about Wood Lane, is that rather than go completely all 21st century with steel & glass like the new Shepherd's Bush Tube, architecture from the original station has been used.

Bowroaduk and Tompagenet took some great pictures when the station first opened.






This certainly gives the impression that old & new can get along together quite well and we don't have to wipe out all traces of the Tube's heritage for the sake of progress & modernisation.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, October 20, 2008 Permalink

London Underground Fashion Victims

It's Friday and time for the Tube Fashion Victims or the TFV's, commuters on the London Underground who have a unique look or have decided to go for "fashion for fashion's sake" regardless of how it looks or how practical it is for a Tube journey.


This week I wanted to start with the poster of Kate Moss above. I think it's from an old Calvin Klein campaign. It's amazing how her face is revealed from the layers of posters on top. It almost looks deliberate and I couldn't stop staring at it last night.

Miss White Boots

I mentioned practicality and I know that that fashion isn't always function, but I always marvel at how people managed to walk in such pointed stiletto heels.


I run for Tubes quite a lot and go up and down escalators quite quickly, so simply couldn't imagine myself tottering around in those without breaking my neck.

Rocking Boots, Torn Jean

Love the colour of the boots below, but I'd be a bit cautious about those heels too.


It's a shame that she went for the overdone torn jeans look with those boots. It was just a little too "hobo meets boho" for me.

Metallic's Back

Oh Noes, run for the hills. Just when you thought metallic bags had gone forever they seem to be making a comeback.


My eyes didn't know where to focus as the clashing metallics of the bag AND the shoes, were both fighting for attention to be the most hideous things on the carriage.

Yeti Girl

The woman below seems to have got to Old Street Tube via a trek from the Himalayas.


The boots almost look as though they have a life of their own, however can't quite compete with the Chewbacca boots I saw in July


Until next time, the previous fashion victim post is here and the complete picture gallery of all the TFV's can be seen on the following Flickr set.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, October 17, 2008 Permalink

The Art Gallery of the Street - London Transport Museum talk

At the preview of The Art of the Poster - A Century of Design, exhibition I was introduced to Catherine Flood, a curator at the V&A. She also co-curated the London Transport's exhibition. I have no idea how you choose 60 pieces of artwork to represent 100 years of posters on London Transport, but she'd done a pretty good job of taking us through the Edwardian directive statements, through to more experimental art and the self-referential, slightly derivative work from the 21st century:


On Tuesday 21st October she will be discussing the growth of the public poster over the years and how it impacts us.

"From the suffragettes to Selfridges, advertisers were exploring new ways to claim a visual identity and presence within London in the early years of the 20th century. Catherine Flood, curator at the V&A, discusses the rise of full colour pictorial posters and their sensory impact on urban space. From posters by Toulouse Lautrec and Pierre Bonnard to those by the Beggarstaffs and John Hassall, she looks at the British experience of the international 'poster craze' and explores the context of the Underground's early and progressive patronage of poster art."

The hour long event starts at 6.30pm at the London Transport Museum. Tickets can be pre booked on 020 7565 7298 and cost £8.00 adults; £6.00 concessions; £4.00 student. I'm not sure if I can go, but the kind team at the London Transport Museum have offered us a couple of tickets. Please email me: themole AT goingunderground.net, if you'd like a ticket & I'll give them to the first to respond.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, October 17, 2008 Permalink

The Art of the Poster Exhibition - London Transport Museum

Last night I was lucky enough to be invited to a preview night of the London Transport Museum's latest exhibition which celebrates 100 years of poster art on London's public transport. As I mentioned yesterday, it was opened by Sir Peter Blake, who looked like a pocket sized Santa behind his podium. The art gods will kill me, I'm sure, for calling Peter Blake a diminutive Father Christmas before saying he's the Godfather of Pop Art or one of our greatest British artists.


The preview night was opened by a surprisingly amusing speech from the Director of the London Transport Museum, who pointed out the irony of some London Underground posters extolling the virtues of it being warmer down below. There was also another one which wasn't at the exhibition about how it's a place to escape the summer's heat!


The artists also were given the challenging brief of "By Bus to Staines", which I imagine would be difficult in anyone's books.

I was quite puzzled by the first picture in the post - The Seen by James Fitton. I did quite a lot of artistic chin stroking in front of it. Apparently the 1948 poster promoted the Tube's reliability & cleanliness to help boost the post-war blues. A guy next to me, heard me saying "What's this all about then?" to Fiona from Flickr who came the exhibition with me.

He tried to explain that it was all about the "seeing eye" which means that the Tube staff are all familiar and friendly with you and you'd feel safe knowing that. A good point for the 1940's but maybe the "seeing eye" would compare well with our CCTV / "Big Brother is watching" culture and today's Art on the Underground posters, "I think I'm being watched".


Me & Fiona chatted about these graphic "font based" posters and wondered what many of the artists from the past would have thought about them.

There was another poster that led to some imaginary beard stroking, which featured St Christopher, the patron saint of travellers, being zapped by some rays. Electricity supersedes St Christopher was from 1934 and the stylised approach "reflects a trend in European art known as "cubo-futurism" based on cubist forms and dynamic movement." The artist Vladimir Poulin was chief set designer of the Russian Ballet.


Continuing with the Russian'esque theme, we come bang up to date with Visit Leytonstonia, which was commissioned as part of the 100 Years of the Tube Roundel exhibition.

This poster is by Bob & Roberta Smith who is an alumni from Goldsmiths college in London. Normally you wouldn't necessarily be hot footing it over to Leytonstone Tube Station in the East End, but it does have those fantastic Alfred Hitchcock mosaics in it.

The Art of the Poster exhibition is certainly thought provoking and I'd really like to thank the team at the London Transport Museum for inviting, me, Fiona from Flickr & Jamillah from the BBC's Pods & Blogs along. I also got a chance to say hello to Ian Mansfield from Ianvisits who regularly comments on this blog.

The exhibition is now open to the public and runs from 15th October 2008 to 31st March 2009. Full details are on the London Transport Musuem's website.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, October 16, 2008 Permalink

Circle Line to become Semi Circle Line?

Coming home last night I read a feature in thelondonpaper on TfL's plans to split the Circle Line, in a bid to ease jams. This London Underground line carries more than 75 million passengers a year and there's talk of splitting the service at Edgware Road. So all trains on the west side of the Circle Line would terminate & reverse there and if you wanted to go on to King's Cross or the City you'd need to change.


thelondonpaper said: "Tube chiefs believe the split would mean less congestion on the 14-mile line, which frequently suffers from a 'back-up' of trains at peak times.

Critics say that once a train is delayed in one of the 27 stations, it automatically has a serious knock-on effect for other trains on the line."

The good news for me as a West Londoner is that under the plans, the Circle Line would also be extended from Edgware Road to Hammersmith - which would increase the number trains from Hammersmith into the City.


A spokesperson from consumer group London TravelWatch said: "The idea is to make the service more efficient and our board is discussing the proposals today.

"We have an open mind at this point as this is the first time we have seen the plans in any detail."

Obviously this is just in planning stage at the moment and it could take some time for the blueprint to come to fruition. Transport for London are expected to make a decision on the plans next year.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, October 15, 2008 Permalink

Art of the Poster - preview night

Just a super quick post to say that tonight, thanks to the super lovely people at the London Transport Museum, I'll be going to private view of their new Art of the Poster - A Century of Design exhibition. I'm so excited as it's going to be opened by Sir Peter Blake who is one of Britain's greatest contemporary artists and responsible for the legendary cover of the Beatles' Sgt Pepper album.






I'll give you a full review of the event & the exhibition tomorrow.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, October 15, 2008 Permalink

Seatless on New York Subway

Regular readers will know that a couple of weeks ago I went to New York for the first time in my life and was pretty excited to travel on the subway in NYC & compare it to the London Underground. However, one thing of the many things I didn't know about, was the Take a Seat project, even though I may have inadvertently seen part of it at Pleasantville station.


On my last day, I went even further north of New Rochelle, where I was staying, and was somewhat surprised to see some wooden household chairs on the platform at Pleasantville. I thought it was a bit strange, but then in Pleasantville, they looked at me as though I had just landed from Mars when I asked if I could get a taxi from anywhere, so it was power for the course.

However, thanks to Jon Justice, I learnt about the Take a Seat initiative. "Take a Seat is an ongoing series of public furniture installations aimed at increasing the availability of seating options in New York City subway stations. Perfectly functional chairs are rescued from trash piles and reassigned to stations where limited seating options leave subway patrons no choice but to stand for extended periods of time."


"More than 5 million riders pass through the New York City Subway system every day, sometimes waiting as long as an hour or more for their trains. Unfortunately, benches intended for waiting passengers are sparse and inadequate, leaving many riders standing. According to NYC MTA's founders, "the subway should be an inviting and pleasant environment, geared to the user, with the highest levels of design and materials." I agree! What is more pleasant than sitting while waiting for your train?"

This is a genius idea by Jason Pink and results in random seats being placed on New York's subway:






You can see more pictures on the Take a Seat Flickr set, including where the seats were originally found and their new home on the subway.

If anyone wants to have a go at doing this for the Tube in London, I'm sure it would be most welcome by weary commuters, although I bet Transport for London would say it contravened public health and safety or something equally jobsworthy.


From my last set of New York Vacation photos
While I'm here, I must thank Stuart for taking my posts about New York Subway and putting them onto Metafilter. It led to some interesting & funny comments about the Subway fashion victims and what a touristy dork I was! My favourite is the following: "That made me a little crazy: She called everything the wrong name and just seemed clueless for someone who likes subways. On the other hand, she was really excited and cute. So I am just so torn."

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, October 14, 2008 Permalink

London Transport Museum Roundel Scavenger Hunt - Vote for your favourite team

At the end of September about 18 Flickr photographers went on a photographic scavenger hunt hosted by the London Transport Museum to celebrate 100 years of the London Underground roundel.


The London Transport Museum said "A great time was had by all as the teams raced against the clock to solve the cryptic clues and recreate images from the Museum's photograph collection. Images from the day were creative, inspired and just down right cool. You can check them all out through the Museum's brand spanking new online Roundel exhibition or from our Flickr page."


You can now vote here for your favourite team photographs. The winning team will receive a roundel-themed prize and be featured on the Museum website.


Choose from Team Johnston, Team Holden, Team Pick or Team Schleger. You have until October 17th to make your votes.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, October 14, 2008 Permalink

Plotting on the London Underground

Travelling on the Tube on Saturday I spotted the guy below wearing a "V for Vendetta" style mask, but as it was the London Underground, as usual, no one paid him any attention. But I've seen him a couple of times now and wonder if anyone else has seen him and knows what his game is:


He doesn't seem to do anything, but was wearing the same black and white suit when I last saw him. He was around this point 51.5004, -0.136213 when I spotted him and was travelling towards Richmond, but nipped off the Tube before I could see where he was heading.

A family sitting near me, saw me taking pictures, so they looked round and then started speculating as to why he might be wearing the mask.


The mother told her kids that he might have had a strange skin condition. It was a little too early in the day for him to have been going to a Halloween Party and there was just something very casual about him, as he checked his iPod, as though he travelled in the mask quite often. When I saw him before it was a weekday at about 8.30 in the morning.

Anyway, if you've seen him, know him, or indeed are him, please let us know in the comments. Any theories as to why he's wearing the mask would be much appreciated.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, October 13, 2008 Permalink

Alan Partridge on London Transport

If anyone caught my Twitter Tweet yesterday morning, about buying the Steve Coogan guest edited copy of Time Out London, it wouldn't have conveyed my joy. I'm a massive Alan Partridge fan and had seen posters on the London Underground about Steve Coogan's takeover of Time Out this week.


I grabbed a copy at Glamoursmith, sorry Hammersmith, Tube and spent the next half hour giggling away to myself.

Most of Coogan's characters are from the North, or are certainly outside the M25 in the case of Alan Partridge. They have a deep suspicion of London and Londoners and think we're all an arrogant bunch of twats. Partridge says from the editor's desk "In London the only thing you are greeted by are robots that look like humans ... but are robots". One place we're at our most robotic is the Tube and it's a shame that we didn't get Alan's views on the London Underground.


However, he has plenty of views on London buses and bemoans the loss of the Routemaster. Although he's not a great fan of public transport in general "it's not the way forward" and the main quote you can see above, about God not wanting us to travel on buses, sums it up.

"The number of pedestrians bendy buses have knocked over suggests they're too quiet. I wrote to the former mayor suggesting the middle section pay a note whenever it concertinas, just like an accordion".

Coogan's Mancunian character, Paul Calf, likes a drink or 10 and wasn't too happy about Boris's Booze Ban on London transport.


"Getting pissed and shouting at fellow passengers is a basic human right. If anyone tried banning booze in Manchester there'd be a f**king revolution".

Coogan's edition of Time Out is dotted with quotes like this and it's great having a such a London focussed mag taken over by characters who say "Patisserie Valerie? I don't know what all the fuss is about. It's just a posh Greggs." and "My guide to being a student in London? Act like a twat, you'll fit right in".

The final word and as a lead into the Tube Fashion Victims must go back to Alan Partridge. On Londoners' style he says: "I'm baffled by people's reluctance to embrace smart-casual clothing. The same shirt-trouser-and-blazer combination can look appropriate at a job interview, in the pub, or at the funeral of a close relative".

Update - Bus Strike

Speaking of buses - the 24 hour London bus strike started this morning at 3am and will affect 207 routes in the capital. Workers union Unite said the strikes were called after pay negotiations broke down. They're seeking a single unified London-wide salary of £30,000 pounds annually and a standard working week of 38 hours. So if you use First, Metroline and Metrobus routes to get into work looks like you'll have to use the Tube instead.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, October 10, 2008 Permalink

London Underground Fashion Victims

It's Friday and time for the TFV's. Back in London so it's the Tube Fashion Victims rather than my New York Subway Fashion Victims. If only I could have got Steve Coogan to guest post, I think that Pauline Calf "the most sophisticated dresser in Ottle" would have had fun. But you'll have to make do with me for a look at commuters on the London Underground, who've "taken a style and made it their own"!

Three Tube Boots

It's well and truly autumn and we virtually had no summer this year. But with the autumnal nip in the air we'll see a lot of boots on the Tube.


Last night I sat in front of a trio of ladies in boots. Clearly the woman in the middle stands out. Just look at the way she's holding her feet! This is what comes of wearing thigh high shiny patent boots with "F**k me" heels. Not the most practical footwear for the London Underground.

Leopard Skin Wedgies


Pauline Calf would have been proud of this look. You can't quite see the full glory of the leopard skin wedge heels on her shoes. Coupled with the just about the wrong length leggings and a err ... interesting Ra Ra Tiered skirt, I can't say I'm loving her look.

Tube Roundel Camouflage

A few Fashion Victim posts ago someone sent me a picture of a guy who matched the colours of some London Underground signage. The same is almost going on here, as the red headed lady with the blue scarf initially looks like she's trying to match the Tube roundel colours


It all starts to go a bit Pete Tong the further down you go. I'm not sure that camouflage and football player are two looks that go well together. And those dayglo Adidas trainers - they look a bit too box fresh for her to be sporty. But I could be wrong, she may have the rest of her training kit in her big bag or her "day wear" clothes.

Until next time the previous fashion victim post is here and the complete picture gallery of all the TFV's can be seen on the following Flickr set.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, October 10, 2008 Permalink

100 Artists on the London Underground - 100 Years of the Roundel

Today sees the launch of an exhibition dedicated to 100 years of the Tube Roundel or the London Underground logo, one of the world's most distinctive symbols. It's amazing to think that something so simple is still one of the world's most recognisable images and has led to so many other subway & transport systems copying or being influenced by it.


You've probably seen posters for the exhibition, like the one above at the rather naked looking Green Park Tube station, across the London Underground.

St James Park (the station where the London Underground's head office still is), started testing a variety of logos in the early 1900's. The "Bullseye" was rolled out from 1908 onwards. However for a while the Metropolitan and District Lines used their own "Diamond" version.


Now, the people at Art on the Underground have asked 100 artists to make brand new works of art that are inspired by the Roundel. Transport for London said:

"Reflecting upon a tradition initiated by Frank Pick in the 1920s and 30s, the project presents a unique collection of works that will be permanently archived at London Underground after a public exhibition in October.


The exhibition, which will open at Rochelle School, Shoreditch on 9 October 2008, will present a contemporary vision of one of the world’s most recognised brands. The artists involved interpret what the ‘logo for London’ means to them today, employing the Roundel as a symbolic element of their works as opposed to its more frequent use as a branding mark".

You can see all on display for three weeks in the East End and a selection will be dotted around the Tube itself. The Exhibition runs from the 9 - 30 October, from Wednesday - Sunday each week at 12:00 - 18:00. Eventually all 100 will be online.

It's great to see these new looks at the Roundel and as I work walking distance from the exhibit, I'll be popping along to take a look soon. Although as the District Line has been so awful lately I've been able to spend plenty of time at Turnham Green Station studying the ones there.


Going back to the rather naked looking Green Park station, if you been reading the comments in my post about the new Shepherd's Bush Tube Station on the Central Line, you'd have seen some discussion on the replacement of the earlier tiles.

I appear to be one of the few people who liked the old green & cream tiles at Shepherd's Bush and think it's a shame they were all taken down to be replaced by white ones. However, I think more people will be with me on the refurbishment taking place at Green Park London Underground station.

The distinctive colourful leafy tiles there are being covered over by plain white ones.




Bloo Phoenix took the pictures above and said: "It makes me sad too. The only hope is that they're being tiled over (just like the posters!), so maybe one day they'll find them during another "refurbishment" and wonder what the heck those idiots in 2008 were thinking."

It's a great point and I'd be interested in your thoughts on this.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, October 09, 2008 Permalink

Can you run faster than a Tube train?

Yesterday it felt like I could actually walk faster than a London Underground train as the Northern Line was screwed in the morning and Piccadilly Line was screwed at night. However, Olympic triathlete Tim Don was challenged to race against some Circle Line trains last week, for the launch of ASICS new shop at Argyll Street.


Could he run the 965 metres between Baker Street and Edgware Road faster than the 7 minutes it's supposed to take on the Tube? Or would he beat the Endurance length of 4,988 metres from Tower Hill & St James's Park and make it there faster than the 17 minutes it'd take on the London Underground?

The odds would have probably been against him as at his fastest he can run at 15 miles an hour, whereas the Tube's fastest speed is 25 miles an hour. But if you're an athlete you can beat the Tube, as you can see from the YouTube video below -


If you fancy seeing if you can beat the Tube on a treadmill rather than actually dodging traffic and trying it on the roads, there's a treadmill and stuff at the new ASICS shop. Full details are on their website.

The whole exercise reminded me of the Beat the Tube Race which apparently was an annual event organised by chartered surveyor Richard Guthrie. Each April he got a group of blokes dressed in pinstriped suits and braces to get on a District Line train at Victoria bound for Wimbledon, get off at South Kensington, sprint like mad down the Fulham Road and try to get back on it at Fulham Broadway, a full 1.6 miles and four stops down the line. Very few of them actually made it, but it's all to prove the point that sometimes it's faster to walk or in these instances run like a maniac, than get the Tube.


On a more practical note for non sporty people like myself the distances between London Underground stations are often a lot closer than we think. You might remember that a group of students from Central St Martins College of Art put together a handy "Walkers Tube Map" which gave you walking distances between most stations in Zone One.

Perhaps ASICS could sponsor a running or sprinting map for budding athletes. Or the London Underground would probably ease congestion on the Tube a bit if there were more signs like the ones at Covent Garden, telling you it's quicker to walk to Leicester Square than travelling one stop on the Piccadilly Line.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, October 08, 2008 Permalink

Stationmaster cat adds 1.1 billion Yen to railway

Regular readers might remember hearing about a fab fat cat named Tama which was officially named Station Master at an unmanned station in the Wakayama Electric Railway in Japan.


It was really popular and attracted shedloads of tourists to the station. At the time I said it was "generating a nice little earner for the Railway." That nice little earner is now estimated by experts to be 1.1 billion Yen or around 6 million quid!

Japan Probe reports that on Friday, "Professor Katsuhiro Miyamoto of Kansai University Graduate School released an estimate showing that, in the one-year period since January 2007, when Tama first began "working" for the station, the number of passengers on the Kishigawa Line rose by 55,000 and that corresponding freight revenue climbed ¥15 million.

Photo collections and related merchandise featuring Tama grossed ¥27 million, and he is also credited with boosting tourism in nearby Wakayama City."


In the video above Tama is shown sleeping in his new office, where he is joined by two helper cats - Miko and Chibi.

"Professor Miyamoto believes one of the most impressive things about Tama's economic impact was its low cost. For the price of a cat-sized stationmaster hat and some cat food, the Wakayama Electric Railway has raked in a huge amount of money."

Many thanks to Jon Justice for the heads up here.

But this is yet another occasion where the London Underground could learn from Japan. Forget cross platform Tube ads. Forget sponsors for the Tube map. Get some cats in from some animal shelter or Battersea Dogs & Cats Home (yes, they house cats now too), get a few hats, get Purina behind it with some pet food, get them all kitted out in time for the 2012 Olympics and Bob's your uncle, instant revenue.

Although this time Bob Crow and other fat cats from the transport unions would definitely get involved. The cats would have to have lessons in advanced tea drinking and be ready to stop sleeping, sorry, stop working at the drop of a hat. They're already good at ignoring humans & doing things in their own time, so no extra training would be required there.

In fact we could even fly a load of cats out to Japan so they could learn the art of sleeping on the job from Tama and his mates. I'd be happy to volunteer Bolli for the job, as he's partial to poring over any London Underground stuff I leave lying around.


For six million pounds in potential revenue it would be worth every penny!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, October 07, 2008 Permalink

Oyster card hack can be published - Part Two

Another follow up story as details of how to hack a smartcard used in Oyster cards have now been published online. Thanks to Pete from the Londoneer for reminding me about this. In July a Dutch court ruled that details of how to hack the card could be released in the interests of "freedom of expression laws."

Earlier in the year members of Professor Bart Jacobs' team came to London to test their findings, and travelled on the London Underground using a modified Oyster card.

Shashi Verma, director of fares and ticketing at Transport For London, told the BBC its system spotted the security breach.

"We knew about it before we were informed by the students," said Mr Verma

He stressed that the Mifare Classic chip in the Oyster card is only part of a larger system. "A number of forensic controls run within the back office systems which is something that customers and these students have no ability to touch."

"We will carry on making improvements to the security of the Oyster system."

Commenting on their research, Prof Jacobs told BBC Click the information being disclosed was: "not a guidebook for attacks". I also bet it's not as much fun as creating an Oyster Card watch or a magic wand for Tube barriers.


The BBC's full report on this will be broadcast on BBC Click on Saturday 11 October at 1130 BST on the BBC News Channel. You can also find it on BBC World - check here for the times it'll be going out.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Tuesday, October 07, 2008 Permalink

Shepherd's Bush Station re-opens on Central Line

After the eight month closure & some speculation last week, as to when it would actually open, the brand spanking new Shepherd's Bush London Underground Station finally re-opened over the weekend on the 4th October.


Phill Price was there just before the re-opening and kindly sent the link to his Flickr stream of photos. He said "This is a one off burst of photos to show the exterior in all its glory in the wet evening of October 4th. It's warming on me already and I'm looking forward to using it again!"

It's all in readiness for the new Westfield Shopping Centre development which will open later this month.

All in all the Tube station's ticket hall has been remodelled with new escalators connecting to the refurbished platforms below. Sadly for some (including me) the distinctive dark green tiles have been replaced with more conventional white ones. Additional ticket gates were installed to handle the estimated 45,000 passengers a day, when the shopping centre opens. You can see from Phill's pictures, that above-ground the station is all modern & 21st century looking. It's right next to the new Shepherd's Bush Overground station, which opened last week.

Members of the London Assembly & local shopkeepers had questioned the need for a total closure of the station, as the escalators still had a number of years life in them. However, TfL felt that the temporary full shutdown meant the scheduled escalator work could be completed early with the rebuilding of the station. Ultimately, Transport for London argued this would mean less disruption rather than waiting for a few more years once the shopping centre was up & running & even more people would have been using the station.

Anyway, nice atmospheric photos from Phill and it will be great to hear what you think of the new station & whether it's growing on you too.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, October 06, 2008 Permalink

Bags, Bingo & Blogging - Social Media Camp London 08

Coming out of King's Cross Tube station on my way to Social Media Camp, I spotted some London Underground moquette (seat upholstery) out of the corner of my eye. You don't normally see moquette above your head like that and luckily I managed to get my camera out in time to take the picture below:


He was going in the same direction as me, so at crossing I took a clearer shot of the bag. Fortunately I wasn't quite stalky enough to find out where he was going afterwards, although he didn't head into St Pancras International station. I kind of hoped he was on some sort of trainspotting convention and that the moquette bag was filled with a flask of tea & sandwiches.

Spotting that guy & snapping the picture with a view to blogging, was power to the course for the rest of the day at the Social Media Camp. No blogger or "social media" person should be without their bag of tricks of a digital camera, mobile phone, notebook & an curious eye for the unusual amongst the mundane.

It was a great day where around 100 people interested in blogs & blogging, social networks, vlogs, podcasting, online communities, lifecasting, Web 2.0, avatars, ARG & other online buzzwords could hang out, share stories and present stuff.

I re-did my session from Bar Camp London last weekend and as promised here are the slides on Blogging Breakdown & How to Avoid it. It's basically some tips on how to try to keep people interested & engaged in blog (particularly if you've been writing one for years). Along with a number of slides from Technorati's recent & excellent "State of Blogosphere" report which show how blogs are bigger & just as powerful and possibly more influential than Facebook & other online social networks. Thanks to all who came along to see it.

If you look at Twitter & read similar blogs to me you'll see lots of reports & blog posts about all the sessions and the day itself. I really enjoyed the discussion about How not to get F**ked by Social Media led by the wonderful Girl with a One Track Mind. However, a highlight for me was right at the end. The animated faces below were also gripped.


It was all for a game of Bingo. But there weren't any bingo wings, dabbers and old ladies. This was Buzzword Bingo or Social Media Bingo, where we all filled out our cards with a number of Web 2.0 buzz words selected from the boards:


The words were then picked from a basket and we had to devise a "start-up" pitch or sentence including two of the words & people marked them off on their sheets.


As with normal bingo the first with a line got a prize and there were also prizes for a full house. Emma Persky & Utku Can did a fantastic job of organising this and I probably annoyed the hell out of my Twitter followers as I'd been asked to Tweet the "pitches" which you can just about see on the big screen in the photo above.


The lucky winners, some pictured above won some MOO Business Cards and a tour of Channel 4's office.

Thanks to Vero aka That Canadian Girl for organising a great day and to the sponsors for the brill food, drinks, schwag & venue at the Wallacespace. Also thanks to Zemanta for the blogging badges that I nabbed at the end of the day.


I've been very quietly using Zemanta on my blog since it launched in the spring of this year. It's got much, much better over the last few months. Essentially it's a plug-in which supports most blogging platforms and suggests appropriate links and creative commons photos, right as you type your blog post.

So now, in my blogger dashboard, I'm seeing photos about Twitter, wikipedia links to King's Cross and even links to old blog posts I've made myself about similar subjects. They automatically refresh the more you type and saves a whole lot of Googling or searching to find links for your posts.

A few more of my picture from the Social Media Camp London are on Flickr. Unsurprisingly, I won't actually wear the "Warning Fashion Blogger" badge in public as I'd never get away with another Tube Fashion Victim picture in my life!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Monday, October 06, 2008 Permalink

Overcrowding Survey - Tell London Assembly what you think

Although the focus is on London overground trains, the London Assembly's Transport Committee are trying to find a solution to the "overcrowding that plagues many of the overground rail routes coming into the capital – especially during the morning and evening commuter rush." Interesting that chose the word "plagues" for this announcement.


Underground Gal hadn't seen anything about this survey until she noticed a small paragraph in Railway Magazine. She did a bit of Googling and found the above press release from the Greater London Authority.

"While the problems of overcrowding are well known, the Committee will set out to map an accurate picture of the 'pinch points' on commuter routes into London – for example the stations where people have to wait for several full trains to go by before they can board - so that targeted solutions can be identified.

As well as mapping and analysis of how effectively overcrowding is currently being tackled, the investigation will focus on the passenger experience. The Committee will talk to commuters about how overcrowding affects their journey, and members of the public are encouraged to send their experiences to overcrowding@london.gov.uk"

Maybe it's because I've been on holiday in New York recently, but I agree with her following comment

"I read a fair amount of newspapers and haven't seen any mention of this, and although it's focusing on overground routes, rather than the Underground, I think it's fair to say there's a decent amount of overlap between the two sorts of commuters!"

So if you travel on overground trains which come into London, please send your views & experiences to overcrowding@london.gov.uk. I often use an overground train at Richmond to get into Waterloo and getting off at Waterloo and trying to get down to to the Waterloo & City line when you're walking against a tide of people coming the other way, is a particular bug bear for me. I don't use it regularly or early enough to experience major overcrowding - but whenever the Sadistic Line isn't working, I use the overground & it's then a major league squeeze to get myself onto the train.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Friday, October 03, 2008 Permalink

King's Cross Tube getting film ads

Looks like I'll soon be able to watch some trailers for films and endless ads for Orange phones while I'm waiting for my Northern Line train at King's Cross.


There's always a sure sign that London Underground cross platform advertising is coming to your station, when you notice there have been a number of weeks with really old ads, then that papier mache / collage / Tate Gallery exhibit style mess of old ads.


Then you usually get the grey panels seen in the first picture which I noticed at King's Cross yesterday, which herald the coming of the cross platform ads or Cross Track Projection or XTP as CBS Outdoor - the company responsible for the ads on the Tube - call it.

It's funny that it's actually taken us this long to get moving ads on the Tube. I always remember a great quote from a guy from the early 20th century, who had predictions for what the London Underground would be like in 1999.

Professor Archibald Montgomery Low (top name) wrote for the transport magazine Trains, Omnibuses and Trams in 1914 and was pretty good with some of his sooth-saying.

He predicted 100mph trains, mobile phones, solar energy, Eurostar and the Travelcard ... and an end to spitting on the Tube! But we're only just catching up with some of his stuff. He wrote:

"In 1999 every station will have comfortable waiting-rooms, with all the trains, the news of the moment - and perhaps the picture of the moment - thrown upon artistically illuminated screens".

Well that's our XTP - except we haven't got news or pictures of the moment but trailers for Pixar films & ads for mobile phone companies.

He also believed that Londoners in 1999 would be more polite. However a Tube worker replied to him in the magazine:

"Will the Underground passengers of 1999 try to enter the stations by the exits, ignore the notice to stand aside on escalators?"

Forget 1999, that's still happening now.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Thursday, October 02, 2008 Permalink

Mixing a Tube Cocktail - London Bloggers Meet Up

What would you imagine that a cocktail based on the London Underground might look and taste like? Last night I spent some time with other bloggers at the monthly London Bloggers Meet Up discussing that question. We were all at Diageo's head office behind Oxford Street as we were about to be treated to some Smirnoff cocktails that had all been individually designed & personalised for ourselves and our blogs.

Quite a challenge I'd have thought as there were about fifty of us for starters and out blogs ranged from food to fashion - geeks to general science & events to elephants. Plus as with any room full of Londoners we came from all over the world, so nationality based drinks would be interesting.


I was chatting with Flashboy & we imagined that a Tube Cocktail would probably smell of sweat and wet coats. It would have bits of old food and McDonalds wrappers in it. There'd be no alcohol in it because of the drinks ban, or any alcohol might be something from a tramps can like Diamond White or Tennants Extra. It'd also be late, overpriced and I be forced to drink it pressed up against someone else.

Luckily my cocktail wasn't anything like that. It started with a base of raspberries and blueberries to match the Tube's Roundel.


The genius part was because they know I like my MOO cards, they thought how could they put some MOO'ness into it, so they added milk but the more cocktail friendly coconut milk!


The mixologist gave it all a mash-up, added a huge shot of vodka, shook, topped up with ginger ale and added a mint garnish et voila my Tube Cocktail was born.


It looked and tasted fantastic. I thought it was going to be really sweet as the mixologist let me taste it before the vodka, ice & ginger ale was added. But it was really refreshing & zingy.

You'll probably see stuff on Twitter & other blogs about how well planned & personalised the evening was. The PR company behind the event - Splendid - had really pulled out all the stops for this, as I truly didn't expect we'd all get personalised cocktails.

There was a book with notes and our photos & avatars, so the mixologists could talk through the cocktails with us & make sure we were happy with the ingredients (we could have easily been allergic to some of the fruit or spices). We all had Moscow Mules before hand, there was plenty of food so none of us were rolling around drunk & we got a generous goody bag of a bottle of Smirnoff & some cans of ginger ale so we could make Moscow Mules at home.

We're also going to get our cocktail recipes emailed to us today, so we can make them again.

There's a few more pictures including a cool Russian Doll cocktail shaker in my Flickr set of the night. Thanks so much to Smirnoff & Splendid for a fab night and to Andy Bargery who organised the monthly London Bloggers Meet Ups for choosing such great hosts.

Update - They emailed us all our personalised cocktails and here's my Mind the Gap Moscow Mule:


It rocked!

London Underground; Tube Posted by Annie Mole Wednesday, October 01, 2008 Permalink