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 COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/10/art-of-poster-preview-night.html

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 COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/10/seatless-on-new-york-subway.html

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 COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/10/london-transport-museum-roundel.html

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 COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/10/plotting-on-london-underground.html

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 COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/10/alan-partridge-on-london-transport.html

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 COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/10/london-underground-fashion-victims.html

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 COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/10/100-artists-on-london-underground-100.html

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 COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/10/can-you-run-faster-than-tube-train.html

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 COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/10/stationmaster-cat-adds-11-billion-yen.html

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 COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/10/oyster-card-hack-can-be-published-part.html

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 COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/10/shepherds-bush-station-re-opens-on_06.html

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 COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/10/bags-bingo-blogging-social-media-camp.html

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 COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/10/overcrowding-survey-tell-london.html

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 COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/10/kings-cross-tube-getting-film-ads.html

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 COMMENT HERE
Tweet http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2008/10/mixing-tube-cocktail-london-bloggers.html