Old Posters from "Ghost Station" Euston at new Exhibition

An amazing display of posters from the 1960's discovered at Euston Underground Station opens at The Red Gallery on 12th December and runs through until 28th February 2013. Photographer Andrew Stanney, who is in-house photographer of The Old London Underground Company, started taking photographs in 2009 and became fascinated with "ghost" or abandoned Tube stations.

He said: “I saw a programme about people exploring underground tunnels beneath London and after doing a bit of research on the internet I found out that when Euston Station was refurbished in the 1960s, part of it had just been blocked off. You can still see the old entrance on Drummond Street.”

Stanney's passion turned to persuasion.  He managed to get Hasselbad to lend him a £30,000 camera in return for use of some of the pictures and also got TfL to take him down to view the lost ads.

He echoed the feeling that I myself had when being on a Tube platform that few other people have stepped on in recent years (I was lucky enough to have a tour of Old Brompton Tube station): “There was a real eeriness to it. You are above the new tunnel and you can hear the trains and feel the vibrations. When the station was refurbished, they just shut the tunnel off and it hasn’t been touched since. Everything is as it was, which is great for me as an artist."

Now his exhibition records the "secret museum" of the lost ads.  Red Gallery dramatically describe the display. "Here are the remnants of communication, silent, their voices irreparably changed, occupying depopulated spaces. They are function mutated with age. Silent witnesses to the millions of that once past, they haunt their subterranean world, glaring patiently from the walls. As posters, they insist they should be taken as reality, but are too damaged to make a cohesive statement."

Whatever statement they might be making, the exhibition "In Passing" will appeal to anyone with an interest in advertising, uncovering the past and the lost wonders of the London Underground.  The exhibition takes place in new space which is a part of the Red Gallery project the 'Bird & Ballard' gallery cafe, at 84-86 Great Eastern Street, EC2A 3JL

You might also like:
What are the Oldest Ads on the London Underground?
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Old Posters found at Richmond Station  
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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, December 11, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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New Year's Eve Free Tube Travel Poster - Signs of Xmas on the Tube

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas on the London Underground.  One of the biggest signs of Xmas on the Tube is the arrival of the posters for  free New Year's Eve Travel.



Once again, booze company Diageo are sponsors of this year's free New Year's Eve travel on buses, Tube, Tram and DLR services from 23.45 - 04.30 and on the London Overground until last train times.

This is the second year of a three year deal with TfL to sponsor free travel on New Year’s Eve. I saw my first ad this morning and the ads will run into the New Year.  For the first time this year Diageo will be sponsoring free travel in Edinburgh for Hogmany celebrations.

Look out for special Oyster card holders that will handed out at Central London stations re-inforcing the message of "responsible drinking". They'll feature top tips from Drinkaware for a great night out in the run-up to Christmas so you don't end up with the ambulance ride or "booze bus" journey as shown in the poster.

Andrew Cowan, country director for Diageo GB,said: “This is a time for great celebrations, especially after what has been a tremendous year for Great Britain. As always we want to remind everyone that the best celebrations are those that are enjoyed responsibly. Getting home safely is the conclusion to a great night out, and we hope our campaign this year will encourage everyone, on New Year’s Eve and throughout the festive period, not to let good times go bad by drinking too much.”


Be Careful After Drinking by bixentro
TfL are also running their own posters about watching what you drink when travelling on the Tube, in an attempt to reduce the amount of alcohol related injuries.
 

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, December 10, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Northern Line Extension & Battersea Tube Financially backed by Osborne

Finally, George Osborne has given the financial  backing to ensure that the Northern Line will be extended to Battersea.  In today's Autumn Statement the chancellor said “I today confirm a billion pound loan and a guarantee to extend the Northern Line to Battersea Power Station and support a new development on a similar scale to the Olympic Park".

Approval to build two new London Underground stations on the Northern Line as part of a £5.5bn revamp of Battersea power station was backed by the mayor, in 2010

From Stefen Cz's post on Albert Square and Saint Stephen's Association blog

It's part of a multi-billion-pound programme of funding  designed to "get Britain's economy moving". Along with the Tube stations will come a redevelopment of Battersea Power Station, which will include shops, office space and leisure facilities. The Treasury will provide a guarantee that allows the Greater London Authority (GLA) to borrow up to £1 billion from the Public Works Loan Board, at a preferential rate, to finance the construction of the extension of the London Underground line.




Boris Johnson was delighted and said "after months of intensive discussions and hard work we have got the go-ahead from Government on financing an extension to the Northern Line. It will be an incredible confidence boost for developers preparing to invest there and it will also be a considerable boost for local people who will benefit from the new Tube link."




The pictures above are from a walking tour of Battersea Power Station I did back in July 2008 when the plans were only just being formulated.

Two new stations at Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station will be opened. Earlier estimates were that the first phases of  work to develop Battersea would be completed by 2016.

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, December 05, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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London Underground Stamps for 150th Anniversary Celebrations

What do London Underground, Jane Austen and Doctor Who have in common?  Next year they're all going to have commemorative Royal Mail Stamps.  As part of the 150th anniversary celebrations for the Tube in January 2013, Royal Mail will be issuing eight new stamps.  The Tube was last featured on postage stamps in 2009, when Royal Mail highlighted the Tube map as a British Design Classic.  The first six stamps feature the system from 1863 to 1999 and the remaining four cover a selection of London Underground posters through the years.


The six historical stamps, designed by Hat-Trick Design, show a timeline of the development of the London Underground from the early Metropolitan Line service with its steam driven trains to the most modern Jubilee Line Station, Canary Wharf, designed by Sir Norman Foster.

The poster stamps each show three posters including work from Tom Eckersley, Edward McKnight-Kauffer and Abram Games.  Interestingly enough Abram Games was also a stamp designer himself.

Philip Parker, Royal Mail Stamps spokesperson, said: “The London Underground has a unique status as the oldest and one of the busiest underground railway networks in the world.

“For this first stamp issue of 2013 we have tried to capture the incredible history behind ‘the Tube’, which for millions of people is an integral element of their daily lives and an iconic part of London’s identity.

“Both London Underground and Royal Mail share a rich and extraordinary design heritage, so it’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate a dozen classic Underground posters, featuring several artists who also designed posters for the GPO.”   Check out Stamp Magazine to see all of the stamps.

Other "everyday" items in production to help celebrate the London Underground's 150th birthday are a special Oyster card (available from the middle of this month) and also a £2 coin (available from mid/late January 2013).  I've already seen some of the commemorative stamps available on eBay for those eager beavers who can't wait to get hold of them.

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Tube Map on new Postage Stamps
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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, December 05, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Mapping the new London Overground Extension

From 9th December 2012 London will have another Circle Line (kind of). From around 7am you'll be able to travel on the new London Overground extension from Surrey Quays to Clapham Junction, which will be completing the long awaited outer orbital railway. Will this look like a large irregular circle on the map?

TfL has built a new 1.3km of track just south west of Surrey Quays station which links the East London line section of London Overground with existing track just north-east of Queens Rd Peckham. The route will run south of Surrey Quays station following a disused railway viaduct, past Millwall Football Club rising over Surrey Canal Road and along the edge of Bridgehouse Meadows before joining the existing National Rail lines at Old Kent Road (between South Bermondsey and Queen’s Road Peckham stations).

The diagram above shows how £75 million link will join Clapham in this huge circle.   Although you won’t be able to travel the full route on one train though – you’ll need to change at both Highbury & Islington and Clapham Junction, and often Willesden Junction, to complete the circuit.

The Department for Transport has committed £40 million towards the £75 million cost. Boris and TfL have contributed £15 million. The remaining £20m has been paid by Network Rail. The new connection has led to the hire of 48 new drivers and five extra train support employees. Six four-car trains will be required to run the 4 trains an hour service. It's estimated that 12.3m passengers will use the service each year. There's more facts and figures about the extension on TfL's site.

There is a new Tube map coming out next week, which will doubtless show the extension.  However,  particularly liked a new "fantasy" Tube map by Oliver O'Brien that puts all of the circles in perspective.

He said "My starting principles for the diagram were concentric circles for the orbital sections of the Circle Line and the Overground network, and straight lines for the Central and Piccadilly Lines, with the latter two converging in the centre of the circles. I then squeezed everything else in. I realised that the Northern Line’s Bank branch passed the Circle Line three times so was going to need something special, so I added a sine wave for this section, and extended this north and south as much as possible."

It's another "Curvy Tube" map which it would be amazing if TfL decided to adopt one day.  You may remember Max Roberts' curvy London Underground map which has a big following (online anway) and it pretty pleasing on the eye.


He originally produced this in 2007 when the East London Line was only a tiny stalk in the East and not part of the current extension. So it's interesting to see Oliver's take of the state of play as from next week.



There was also another attempt to map out the full circle a couple of years ago.  It's less curvy and shows how the line run as a complete circle, but again, highly unlikely to be used!

For those who'd like to see a preview of the 40-minute Dalston Junction – Clapham Junction journey in real time, Ian Visits went along to last week's preview ride and has a driver's eye view.

If you want to be one of the first people using the trains when they start the complete loop, the first train southbound will leave Highbury and Islington at 7.11am.   Or if you want to take the nothern route get to Clapham Junction for 7.20am.

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, December 03, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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What are the Oldest Ads on the London Underground?

What are some of the oldest ads you have seen on the Tube?  By this  I don't mean advertising that has been uncovered from the 1970's and 1980's (interesting though these old ads at Richmond station are).  I mean ads that CBS outdoor (the people responsible for ads on the London Underground) appear to have forgotten about.

We know that times are tough and that it might be hard to sell all the positions available on the network, but does that mean we have to glance at ads that are well past their sell by date.

Luckily Christmas adverts do seem to get taken down fairly quickly after the festive season, but there's a number of ads on the Tube for films, shows  and events that took place months - and in some cases - years ago.

London City Nights spotted this poster for 2009 film Nine only last week at Swiss Cottage! Even without going online to see when the film first came out, there's a huge amount of dust and dirt on this ad that automatically dates it.  Take a look around the next time you're on the London Underground, particularly in stations that are outside of zone one and see how many out of date ads you can spot.

Hopefully none of them date back as long as this, but you chances are you'll see ones for the Ideal Home Exhibition (from April) still up.  I used to see some awful ones around Holborn with some shouting city gent, advertising horse racing, that were also up for months after the event had finished.

I wonder just what proportion are expired.  10%? 25%? Maybe even more. And what's the deal here?  Even if there's not enough demand to fill all the spaces, why not give the space to charitable campaigns or even to TfL for their own in-house or public service ads?

Does anyone check or have a system in place for taking down old ads if there's no new PAID ads to put in their place?  Are CBS happy for some advertisers to be given months more free exposure than they've paid for?  Perhaps I'm the only person that this bothers.  Perhaps it's an experiment by CBS and the powers that be to see if anyone notices or cares.

If you see any old ones, tell us where and when.  Then we can track to see how long it is before they're taken down.

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, November 26, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube Strike by Engineers on Northern, Piccadilly & Jubilee Lines this Friday

From 6am on Friday 23rd November 2012, Tube engineers are going on a 24 hour strike in a row over pensions.  It's going to be carried out by engineers on the Northern, Jubilee and Piccadilly lines.  If all the trains are running well, the services won't be affected, but any breakdowns that take place over the strike period will take longer to repair.

The RMT union said after months of discussion between management and the union over pensions and benefits a "satisfactory conclusion" had not been reached. Industrial action at the weekend also  led to cancellation of major works on the Northern Line which RMT said had "serious and widespread impact across the system."

The ongoing pensions dispute concerns hundreds of staff working for Tube Lines. Union bosses say the pension and benefits are not as good as  enjoyed by other TfL staff.

Jon Lamonte, chief executive of Tube Lines, believes this is incorrect and said:  "Further industrial action on the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines on this issue is completely unnecessary. Since becoming part of TfL all Tube Lines employees have kept their existing terms and conditions of employment."

RMT leader Bob Crow, countered this and said: "This dispute is about fairness and equality, nothing else. Tube Lines is now a wholly owned subsidiary of TfL and there is simply no excuse for refusing equal pension and (travel) pass rights."

Keep an eye on TfL's website before travelling on Friday morning if you use any of the lines that may be affected.

UPDATE - 22nd November 2012 - This strike has now been called off - see more on BBC

Related post
Tube Drivers may strike on Boxing Day 2012

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, November 19, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Train Related Deaths tackled by Melbourne Metro Video

Melbourne Metro are trying the curb the number of train related deaths with a cute / odd video and an annoyingly catchy song.  This isn't exactly something I could see TfL or any rail company in the UK doing, but it's a novel approach to advertising ways to stop people getting hit by trains.  "Dumb Ways to Die" features a number of weird ways to get yourself killed. It ends with a number of train related ones including standing too close to platform edges, forcing open train doors, walking across tracks and skating or roller blading  around platforms.

“We’ve got people eating superglue, sticking forks in toasters and selling both their kidneys. But truth is indeed stranger than fiction, and we still couldn’t come up with dumber ways to die than driving around boomgates and all the other things people do to put themselves in harm’s way around trains. The aim of this campaign is to engage an audience that really doesn’t want to hear any kind of safety message" said McCann Melbourne, the agency behind the campaign.


Chloe Alsop, marketing manager of Metro Trains, said: “The safety of our customers is our single most important consideration. So it’s terribly sad to see so many preventable accidents or near misses on our train system.”

“This campaign is designed to draw people to the safety message, rather than frighten them away. Especially in our younger segments. We want to create a lasting understanding that you shouldn’t take risks around trains, that the prospect of death or serious injury is ever-present and that we as a community need to be aware of what constitutes both safe and dumb behaviour.”

In additon to the video, the song's also available to download on iTunes and radio ads and posters in Metro stations will also help to drum the message home.  Thanks to Jon Justice for sending this my way.

Rail safety's quite a tough subject to tackle as the consequences of taking risks around high speed trains are obviously pretty deadly.  Constant signs saying "Danger of Death" have the danger of being ignored and even London Underground have taken a cartoony approach to safety with their Mad Men inspired campaigns

 

Perhaps something lighter is the way to go and Melbourne's approach of humour as an attempt to tackle a deathly subject may have cut through with a lot of teenagers. 

It's worth saying that the wording of some safety signs may need to be looked at carefully too.  Not sure if the above is a warning or an invitation! 

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Saturday, November 17, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Commuting times rise for Women

Did you know that it's Commute Smart Week? Me neither until today.  I also didn't know that apparently us women are seeing an increase in commuting times.  On average in London men spend 77.2 minutes on a daily commute to and from work, which is a slight reduction from 2006.  In the same time frame, women have seen average commuting times rise from 69.8 minutes a day to 72.8 minutes.

The TUC who collated the survey put this down to the recession with an increase of men in part time job: "Recent trends suggest there is a link between long commute times and longer hours in the office, with the growing number of men in part-time work having shorter journeys to work. This trend is concerning if it means part-time workers and those needing to balance work with caring responsibilities are being excluded from certain types of jobs."


I certainly agree on the points about long commute times and longer hours in the office. I was in the office until quite late last night and strangely enough on the Tube coming home, there were a whole row of women sitting opposite me, looking like they were also coming back from work and playing out the long commute research to the letter.

Even though London commuting times have fallen, we still have the highest commuting times in the country. The national average is 52.8 minutes, whereas the average London commute is 75 minutes.  The Welsh have the shortest average commuting time of 41.4 minutes.

“The average commuter spends the equivalent of more than five weeks a year just to get to work and back. With rising transport costs far outstripping pay rises, reducing the number of peak-time commutes would save both time and money for hard-pressed workers." said TUC secretary Brendan Barber.

I actually thought my commute was particularly long, but it appears that I'm average at 75 minutes.  Not that it makes me feel a lot better, but it does explain why so many people do look really knackered on the London Underground and that falling asleep too and from work is a common occurance (if you're lucky enough to get a seat).  I certainly think that the daily grind of a long commute means there's a case for employers to be more flexible on where and when people work.

Work Wise UK Chief Executive Phil Flaxton said "Commute Smart week provides a real opportunity to revise tired working practises, how and where people work and set about adopting flexible approaches to people management as a key component of effective change."

How does your commuting time compare with the averages given above?

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, November 14, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube Drivers may strike on Boxing Day 2012

We may face Boxing Day disruption on the London Underground for the third year in a row as Tube drivers union Aslef may be balloting members for strike action again this year.


Photo by Tom Roper
Aslef has been demanding triple pay and a day off in lieu for working on bank holidays however TfL stress that there is already a long-standing agreement for working on bank holidays, including Boxing Day.

Apparently talks between TfL and Aslef are already under way, but  Mick Whelan, the union's  general secretary  said: "We have not seen any positive response, but we are hoping it will be resolved. The company has only recently agreed to sit around the table with us."


 Howard Collins, London Underground's chief operating officer, said: "It would be quite wrong for the Aslef leadership to ballot for industrial action while we remain engaged in discussions to resolve this issue. We have had a series of positive discussions with Aslef representatives and there is a proposal on the table.

"LU has a long-standing agreement with all trade unions which cover working arrangements on bank holidays, including Boxing Day. However, we have shown good faith and have further reviewed Boxing Day service arrangements."

It's obviously early days and there is opportunity for a positive result.  However for the past two years TfL failed in legal challenges to get the strikes called off. Even though the RMT union are not involved in this dispute, they may compound the issue by refusing to cross picket lines should a strike take place. 

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, November 07, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Star Trek Look-a-likes on the Tube

If you were on the Central Line at Oxford Circus today, you may have spotted Picard, Worf & Data on your journey.  As you can tell by the creases in the costumes, they're not the actors that played the characters but look-a-likes.  Although it appears the budget ran out when they came to Worf & Data, but the Picard look-a-like is pretty good.

Photo by David Parry / PA

Why the Tube was chosen for the promotion of launch of Star Trek: The Next Generation in high-definition, is beyond me.  As far as I know Picard and crew never travelled on the London Underground, although on the Star Trek Tube Tour (a fun tour of the Tube with tenuous links to Star Trek characters), Oxford Circus is the first stop!  Perhaps the time has come for a proper Tube Map mash up linked to Star Trek characters. If it's good enough for Doctor Who, it's certainly good enough for Star Trek.

Hat tip to Andrew for alerting me to the picture from The Evening Standard

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, November 05, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Halloween on the Tube

Tonight's the night on the London Underground to look out for people with colour drained from their faces, walking zombies and those who've lost the will to live (and no, I'm not referring to the people stuck on the Central Line this morning).  It's Halloween.


I spotted these very well kitted out Halloween party goers on Saturday afternoon, clearly getting into the spirit of things quite early. I liked how the guy on the right looked slightly like an old school ticket inspector, checking to see if the undead had still paid the right fares.

Look out for ghosts, ghouls and other Shaun of the Dead extras on your journey tonight and also for people studiously trying to ignore them.

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, October 31, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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James Bond Street

Following on from the various "guerilla" London Underground stickers that have been spotted across the network, here's a less than subtle transformation.  Someone seems to have taken to heart, the fact that some of the new James Bond film is set on the Tube.


N Vikor spotted this at Bond Street yesterday & uploaded to Londonist's Flickr Pool. It looks like it's an opportunist piece of work rather than some official promo for the film. Although I do wonder why the Bond Empire haven't done something around this station. If it was good enough for Sherlock Holmes, surely it's good enough for Mr Bond

Baker Street Tube was temporarily re-tiled last December for the 2nd Holmes film & previously a Robert Downey Jnr wax work model had its home at the station too.

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, October 29, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Free Hangover on Board Badge

For those times when you feel a little delicate, some bright sparks - Johnny and Angus - have come up with a way to tell fellow commuters to treat you carefully.  They've released some free "Hangover on Board" badges for London Underground travellers.


I'm pretty certain they won't guarantee you a seat (not that the TfL's official Baby on Board badges actually do this either), but you never know they might stop those eternal optimistics who tell you to "cheer up, it might never happen". Rather than saying "it already has", you can scowl at them and point at your badge.

If there are people who are playing their iPods too loudly, you might also be able to glare at them and point at your badge.

Be warned that the "Hangover on Board" site is not actually to be looked at when you have a hangover, as there's some flashing moquette backgrounds on it which will make you want to click the button to get your free badge pretty sharpish.

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, October 24, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube Roundel Re-mixed

Look out for a new book by Art on the Underground & Art / Books to be published on 22nd October.  We've seen a number of "re-mixed" or "mashed up" Tube maps.  In The Roundel: 100 Artists Remake a London Icon, the title reveals all as one hundred international artists have re-imagined the London Underground icon through photography, drawings, paintings, collage, sculpture and print.



The new book has an introductory essay by design & architecture critic Jonathan Glancey who looks back to the formation of the Roundel & its typeface a century ago & considers why it's had such an impact not just in London but also globally across cities including Kuala Lumpur, Salt Lake City, Shanghai and Osaka



Claire Dobbin, former curator at London Transport Museum, also discusses the artistic uses of the symbol in from earlier decades.  Created by calligrapher Edward Johnston and transport manager Frank Pick in 1908,
the ‘bar and the circle’ as the Roundel was originally known, was originally introduced to highlight station names on platform walls amidst the chaos of commercial advertising posters.

One of the artists Juneau Projects said of their roundel artwork, Cockades of the Revolutionaries: "The Roundel, for us, is a symbol of anticipation and relief, a silent travelling companion, whether outward or homeward bound. A travelcard becomes a canvas for daydreaming of moles and guitars impossibly torn from its surface."

The book will also have a launch event with a panel discussion on Tuesday 30th October at 7pm at the Hochhauser Auditorium, Sackler Centre, V&A Museum.  Chaired by Jonathan Glancey, several artists who contributed to the book will be on hand to answer questions and throw light on the inspiration for their work. Find out more on Art on the Underground's site.

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Friday, October 19, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Poppy Wrapped Tubes & Announcements for Remembrance Day

Look out for Poppy wrapped London Underground Circle Line trains this year as proposals have been put forward to acknowledge Remembrance Day across the transport network.

Photo by Julian Gajewski

In addition to the Circle line train wrapping, an Overground train and up to two buses will be covered with poppy livery. Normally I've only seen people selling poppies at Tube stations but this year there will also be "announcements to recognise the invaluable contribution of service men and women in London have made to the protection of Greater London and its inhabitants, communicating this to Londoners and others using the transport network who may not ordinarily be aware of the sacrifices made."

It looks as though 50 Tube stations will carry announcements by Barbara Windsor and ads will be displayed at Westminister Tube promoting TfL’s war veterans’ fares concession.  There are also plans for poppies to be displayed on the front and side of every Tube, DLR and London Overground train.

TfL will bear the cost (approximately £210,000) for the activities & advertising which will run up until 30th November 2012.  Full details are on Greater London Authority's website.

< I thought the justification in the GLA's memo for doing this was interesting, "With the passage of time and with the prominence of other matters, be it the state of the global economy, house prices or the alledged activities of the press, it is easy for Londoners to forget the invaluable contribution service men and women have made to and for the protection of London, Londoners and to the way of life to which we have become accustomed".

Although I wonder why this is the first year (correct me if I'm wrong) that this has happened?

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, October 16, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Spoof London Underground Stickers "Craze"

Welcome if you arrived to my blog from the BBC's article on the Guerilla Sticker Craze on the Tube and thanks to Andy Dangerfield for interviewing me about it.  As I said in the article, these stickers have actually been around on the London for many years in some shape or form, but recently they have become much more inventive.

They've moved from the subtle No Talking, No Eye Contact and No Sitting (I first saw these back in 2004)

 

To more imaginative ways of displaying our frustration with not being able to get seats on the Tube

Spotted by @Whateleydude in 2008

My favourites are the non graphical ones as they actually do blend into the commute more. 

Spotted by Stuart Clary in 2004

However, the inventiveness of the Stickers on the Central Line series which first started appearing last year took things to a new level with an accompanying blog and commentary


I love the explanation for Lille: "It is a little known fact that between Woodford and Buckhurst Hill there is a lightly used tunnel which provides London Underground commuters direct access to the Paris Metro. Providing you’re not in a hurry, you can just sit back (if you can find a seat), relax and simply show your passport when the border guards pass through the train."

The stickers have also made their way onto other trains in London such as the Gatwick Express


As Andy points out in his article there are some websites around that are selling the stickers, and now that the "craze" has been published in The Sun today & on Mashable in the US, one can only imagine there will be even more interest and even more inventiveness in the creations.

If you spot any more on your journeys, let me know.

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Sitting not allowed - Penalty £200 

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Thursday, October 11, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Folding Tube Maps

Here's something to pass away the time on a London Underground journey.  Matt Scroggs has taken up the task of folding Tube maps into interesting geometric shapes with some nice results.

He said "after re-reading chapter two of Alex's Adventures in Numberland (where Alex learns to fold business cards into tetrahedrons, cubes and octohedrons) on the tube, I folded two tube maps into a tetrahedron"

Sometimes in pubs I used to spend time folding empty crisp packets into shapes (don't judge me!), so I can see how Tube map folding could become rather addictive.  Perhaps it will take on & we'll see people folding maps with the same intensity as being invovled in a Sudoku puzzle.

Matt has moved on from one map to using a number of maps, which you can see on his blog. He is also spreading the joy by leaving the folded creations on the map holder at the end of his journey

"Each time I take the Tube, I am going to fold a tetrahedron from two maps and leave it on the maps when I leave the tube. I started this yesterday, leaving a tetrahedron on the maps at South Harrow. In the evening, it was still there.  How often do you think I will return to find a tetrahedron still there? I will be keeping a tetrahedron diary so we can find out the answer to these most important questions...:

Hat tip to IanVisits who found Matt's blog

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Tuesday, October 09, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Oxford Circus Central Line Interchange Changes?

Can anyone help with the strange interchanges at Oxford Circus London Underground or the Direct Access to Central Line Conundrum. London Lass sent me an email about some puzzling goings on at the station last night.  She wrote: 

"Why I am putting fingers to my keyboard, is I was hoping you might be able to shed some light about what's going on at Oxford Circus Tube Station. 

Photo by mattbuck4950

On arriving at the station last night I was greeted by a blocked off accessway (that usually takes you to a little escalator which whisks you down on to the Central Line platforms) covered with a plethora of construction and planning notices. 

An LUL member of staff was standing next to the blocked off accessway so I asked him what was going on? He replied, dont worry, the Central Line was still working. Ok so why has the usual accessway been blocked off?, I chirruped back. He replied that it was nothing for me to worry about. Oh, well is it works being carried out?, I chirruped further. Escalator, he chimed back, follow the notices on the way for alternative route to the Central Line. 

And do you want to know how long it takes to use their `alternative' route (esp. in the middle of rush hour)? Another 5-10 minutes on your journey (depending on how fast you walk) as it takes you to another bank of escalators, on to the southbound Bakerloo Line platform, which you then have to walk down, exit, walk on further, round and round, and then walk up and down steps, until you finally manage to come full circle to reach the Central Line platforms. 

Aside from the odd disgruntled comment on Twitter I havent been able to find any reference to these works on-line (not even on LU's website) and wondered if you might have any information on how long this accessway/escalator will be closed down for?"

If anyone knows what this is about or how long it's going on for please let us know.

Update - Just heard from TfL's Press Office who said "Due to planned escalator maintenance work, the single escalator that leads down to the Central line platforms will be out of service to passengers. Customers wanting to use the Central line from Oxford Circus will be directed to alternate routes around the station by staff and signage that is up at the station. The works which commenced this week are due to be completed by early November. We apologise to customers for any disruption this may cause to their journeys."  So now we know.

London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Wednesday, October 03, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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70 Tube Stations in One Picture Quiz

How many London Underground stations can you find in the picture below?  Someone has made an excellent montage of a street scene filled with puns of Tube station names.  Apparently there are 70 in total!

The full image is in the link here, and should keep you busy for a while!  Many thanks to @NewburyNewbie (who originally found this on News of the Unreal) for sending this my way. The answers may (at some stage) be revealed at the #lookforlonger site & a number of people have seen this as a poster at Tube stations too.

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Tube Picture Quiz

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London Underground; Tube Posted by Unknown Monday, October 01, 2012 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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