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From my very first time in London I've always been fascinated by the London Underground or Tube. There are probably several reasons for that: - having been fond of trains in general since my very early youth, - the "dungeon-like" quality of some of the stations and passageways, - and maybe also the fact that until recently (2002) there has not been a real metropolitan railway system in DK - and actually very few train tunnels at all(!) What prompted me to write this particular page (in my "London series" was the search for information about a "Down St. station" during my (re-)reading one of the Cardby books [book and linked page in DKish]. In the book there was this reference to an underground station called "Down St." and that one I did not recall having seen at all(!) A quick search in "London A-Z" (see my London maps page) didn't make me any wiser, but I quickly recalled having once seen a page about abandoned stations of the London Underground in h2g2 (the HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Earth Edition:-) That page did indeed mention a Down St. station and that the station was taken out of use in 1932 - actually before the particular book in which the station appeared was published(!) (I later learned that such inconsistencies even occurred in official maps of the underground around that time(!) - see the note about South Kentish Town on this page (a couple of lines below the map).) The mentioned page about abandoned stations itself references a marvellous site of the London Underground History, which has a couple of - very interesting(!) - pages dedicated to Down St. station. The site also has a large collection of links to other sites about the Tube. In one of those pages it is mentioned that there are supposed to be 3000(!) people on the waiting list to go see Down St. station's still existing underground parts. And this is but one of several abandoned stations the underground tunnels and passageways of which still exist. Seems silly that the London Transport doesn't seem to have an interest in exploring this apparent source of revenue!(?) (The very same page also caused me to learn a new (new to me, that is:-) word in English: eponymous.) Another very interesting page (remember: I'm "addicted" to maps:-) is Clive Billson's page: A History of the London Tube Maps. It was on that one I found the 1932 map showing Down St. station on the Picadilly Line that I reference in the page about Cardby's London [in DKish]. The page provides a lot of history about the Tube, revolving around reproductions of the Tube maps from 1889 and until today. Clive's page too has a lot of further links to interesting sites and pages related to the tube, e.g. a page with a very interesting animation with transformations between the current (2004) tube map, the actual geographical layout (including an overlay street map) and Harry Beck's original 1933 map. I myself had an idea about doing a variant of today's map but including - or adding - only those stations that existed in 1932 in order to show where what and where Down St. station was. Having seen this excellent animation dwarfs my idea a bit, doesn't it!:-) Well, I might do it anyway one fine day....(?) One fine day I might add some more here with pictures I've taken myself in the Tube and the experiences I've had there. Like the one time I sat next to a bunch of youths one of which bragged about having once (only once?) killed someone. Very easy for me to concentrate on the book I was reading until they got off, wasn't it!:-) And about my sport of walking (no: running!:-) up the emergency stairs from especially the deepest stations. Or the architecture and decorations on the walls on the stations. Etc. etc. ..... |
Last updated: 2006.05.28