Tube Facts D To K
Dagenham Heathway
Although the main line station Dagenham Heathway appears to handle twice as many passengers per year as Dagenham East, when we look at the platforms, we can see there are only two tracks, compared to the 4 tracks at Dagenham East. The passenger figures also show that both stations have approximately the same amount of passengers on Saturdays and Sundays, while Dagenham East is busier during the week. London Overground’s newest station Dagenham Heathway has recently opened, and it seems that in the days since, there has been a fair amount of debate about the cost of building such a small station.
I thought I would look further into it, and try and understand why the price tag for this station was so high, My City of London (mycityoflondon.co.uk). While not a station you would normally think of while getting on the train, Dagenham Heathway has a relatively long history. Although the current site didn’t officially open until 5th July 1985, it is in fact the third to be built in the area. Why? What is it about Dagenham Heathway that makes it twice as good when it comes to passenger numbers? Why does this station have such high passenger numbers?.
Debden
You might be used to thinking of Chigwell as being the location of the hallowed Chigwell Club and that’s about it. However, this is a mistake; actually it’s Debden station that gets this honour, which in my opinion, is better for reasons that I will reveal shortly. However, before I reveal why you should consider attending a party at Debden train station instead of your usual haunt in Chigwell proper, we have to establish the setting for this story….
I admit I did just look up the lyrics to this song because, although I remember it being about a stationmaster’s wife, I was never entirely sure what the word ‘chigwell’ actually meant. Turns out it refers to the nearby brook. In a bid for extra points with the programme makers, I suggest we use this in our show opening: she sells seaside rock by Chigwell Rock (you get my drift). How come? Dagenham Heathway has no direct bus route.
Dollis Hill
It was November 1938 when Sir Hugh Alexander, a future code-breaker at Bletchley Park, travelled to Dollis Hill. Alexander had been in the navy during the First World War and was now working for the British Tabulating Machine Company (BTM). These were based at nearby Barnet, so he took the tube to Dollis Hill to help with their new secret project – a machine that would break codes and crack Germany's Enigma cipher. Why had he been invited? Because the firm wanted to use some of Britain's best brains to build a better Enigma machine which they could then sell to the government.
Dollis Hill is in North London and is considered a part of Brent. The area includes some of the most expensive properties in NW6, with some people paying upwards of £800,000 for their dream home here. One major feature of this area is the Dollis Valley Green space, which can be found on Clifton Road. This small woodland stretches northwards towards Kensal Green, and is home to nearly all types of bird and animal life.
Dollis Hill is an area of north-west London in the London Borough of Brent, England, and forms part of the northern reaches of Greater London. Its name derives from the Dollis family, who had possession of much of this land at the time of Domesday Book. It is situated 7. 2 miles (11. 6 km) north-west of Charing Cross, beside the A1 trunk road midway between Barnet and Finchley. Dollis Hill has a rather complicated history.
It was originally known as Holloway Sanatorium and opened in 1879. The site’s owner, Andrew Mearns, renamed it to Dollis Hill House in 1881. The name Dollis Hill appears to have come from the area’s previous use as a covered reservoir for water supply. Kensal House, the home of Dollis Hill Community Centre, was built in 1682. It was lived in for over 200 years by various people including William Heath a Quaker who had his large family of nine children with wife Jenitta Burnet.
Dollis Hill is one of my favourite places to walk around London. It's on a hill just off the North Circular, a great place if you're looking for some peace and quiet away from the centre. There isn’t even a service with less than two changes. Ever thought about that? It’s a bit of fun, but it demonstrates how absurdly expensive many commuter routes are. But I’m not here to whinge about the cost of travel.
Ealing Broadway
Most of the tube stations in London have distinctive roundels. Because Ealing Broadway has two platforms, it can be argued that it should have four roundels (One on each of the two lifts and one on each side of the area where the lifts meet). The northern end does feature separate walls with different roundels. However, a larger than usual gap remains between them. The southern end has a single wall with a double roundel stuck to it.
A decade after the rest of the station was rebuilt and modernised, Ealing Broadway finally got its makeover. The station was closed for two years from October 2005 and a £42m scheme to improve the station environment in line with London Overground’s “A new face for rail” project saw the replacement of platform canopies (dating back to 1910), the installation of two new lifts between street and platforms, and major work on the exits. Ealing Broadway station is a London Underground station on the Uxbridge branch of both the District line and Piccadilly line.
The station is situated in the middle of Ealing; its platforms are split either side of Ealing Common at the end of the branch, with the District line on the west side and Piccadilly line on the east. It’s the historic place to meet, where local workers and visitors, shoppers and diners, pass by for decades…But who knew that these ordinary-looking tiles on the ground complete with symbols are an integral part of our railway saga.
Look closely and see the names, locations and street names built into the mosaic flooring. London's Underground Map was designed by Harry Beck in 1931. Over time many of the design aspects of the map have slowly been tweaked or completely changed. However, one thing which has remained constant over the years is that colour scheme. At least until recently. There are many things to amuse you in the Covent Garden area. I never get bored here, because there is so much going on all the time.
Ealing Common
We start with no. 11 Ealing Common, which I think may take some beating as my favourite station. It’s a gem of a classic Victorian London Underground station, situated in the heart of a pleasant hilly suburb, and yet still in walking distance from Northfields underground (overground) station on the Piccadilly line and the Turnham Green Overground station on the Hounslow Loop Line (service to/from Heathrow). Ealing Common (central) is the most central London Underground station in zone 3 and with the Circle, District and Central lines within and around it, it's hugely useful for transport.
Plus it's one of few stations that still feels like a mainline station – due to being on the East Coast Main Line. It is also home to the West Middlesex University Hospital. One of the most fascinating London Underground stations is Ealing Common. It was constructed using a German technique which sees concrete poured horizontally and then lifted into place vertically, leading to a very open feel among the ticket hall, platform area and passages which lead to it.
Ealing Common is one of my favourite Underground stations. The ticket hall is one of only two heptagonal entrances to a station (the other being at South Woodford), the platform layout feels spacious and its central location gives it good interchange opportunities with other services. Ealing Common is a London Underground station in West London. The station is on the Uxbridge branch of both the Piccadilly line and District line, between South Ealing and Acton Town tube stations and is in Travelcard Zone 3.
East Ham
The area we know as East Ham was originally a small village at the foot of the larger and more prosperous town of West Ham. In 1851, the coming of the London and Blackwall Railway led to the establishment of a station here, right beside where the Barking Road crosses. A handful of developments began shortly afterwards, and slowly the streets grew in popularity. The name “East Ham” was adopted long before it actually became its own separate district, becoming extinct by all but a few older residents who carry on whispering about it.
East Ham. The station that brought commuters into east London back in 1851. But what about the people in the area? East Ham saw a 7,585% increase in its population during this period. It’s not something we talk about much when we think of London’s big growth. But it happened. A huge proportion of which were immigrants coming from the US and Ireland looking for a better life, and a big number of them were escaping the potato famine.
East Putney
Located in south-west London, East Putney station forms the western terminus of the District line and is a stop on the London Overground network. One of the original stations on the London Underground network as opened by The Metropolitan Railway Company in 1874. London Underground (LU) has bought many properties over the years, but they have never bought a house before. Although it all sounds like a scene from Life on Mars, this is the reality for the residents of East Putney.
Eastcote
Eastcote is a very tiny village on the border between London Boroughs of Bromley and Hillingdon. According to great British historical novelist Terry Pratchett (I liked his Discworld series), it used to be a pretty big place — in the middle ages it changed hands some 13 times. It currently has 12 hearses, which are vehicles used for transporting corpses from place of death to burial site, and 5 post-boxes. I like this fact, as you would expect me to.
The earliest records of the manor date back to at least 1242. The land that would become Ascot was given by William le Breton, a tenant of Frederick Barbarossa who owned much land in this area. William's grandson, also named William, became the first Lord of Ascott. See the full history of the place name here. East Putney is a stopping place and interchange between the District line and the Piccadilly line, in Zone 2.
Edgware Road
Edgware Road is a London Underground station on Edgware Road in the borough of Barnet, north London. The station is served by the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines, and is in Travelcard Zone 2. Edgware Road station was opened on 24 December 1867 as the northern terminus of the Metropolitan Railway (MR), and the southern terminus of the Met's extension to Westminster; it was replaced the temporary wooden structure erected 200 yards (180 m) to the south for the MR's inaugural journey from Paddington a week earlier.
Edgware Road station will soon see the installation of a living wall between the escalators from street level to the ticket hall. Situated in the heart of Paddington, it will be one of only three such walls in the underground network, and the UK's largest living wall. This initiative will make it one of the most sustainable stations on London's transport network. While on the Jubilee Line, there is a station called Edgware Road. This particular station has a living wall wall of plants outside the station, the only one in the underground network.
Elephant & Castle
Having heard of Elephant & Castle a couple of times but not having any idea about where it was, my curiosity was piqued. However, after searching for an image online it still wasn’t clear to me exactly where this is – I just knew it was ‘near Southwark’. That’s no good if you need to know where to head if you’re coming from the City, so I thought I’d use my favourite tool to figure out a route and my favourite coffee place nearby as an excuse to go have a look.
Elephant and Castle is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark. The name refers to a local public house of that name, which became a popular meeting place for fleets of riverboats during the 18th and 19th centuries. The area was heavily damaged during World War II by German bombing; work to rebuild it began in the late 1940s, under the supervision of Leslie Thomas and Austen Harrison. One of the most exciting things about living in London is that you never know when you are going to stumble upon some fascinating piece of History.
This is especially true in London's South Bank. The area has been inhabited for over two thousand years and is littered with interesting (and sometimes gruesome) sites to visit which might not otherwise be known about if you don't live within the area. WELCOME TO ELEPHANT & CASTLE ------------------------------------------ This is a gem of an underground station, with plenty to see and do on the way in and out. It's also in some ways an island; London Underground has used it as a testing ground for new technologies which may eventually be rolled out elsewhere.
Embankment
London Underground Northfields Embankment (grid reference TQ252370, near the junction of Euston Road and Albany Street) played host to one of the even more secret tube stations, as it was home to a bunker which was built in World War II. Northfields came about because it had space, with an adjacent substation provided power for some of the most important military HQs in London. Home to the DefenceOperationsRoomX (or DORx), it was a command center which could coordinate a counter attack if London was ever attacked by German bombers during the war.
It also featured listening places for monitoring enemy broadcasts and a small communications outpost. The bunker wasn't completed until April, 1957 when the need for it had. Covered trains are only a section of this site: as you climb the stairs out of the substation, right in front of you is a huge railway tunnel containing no less than five tracks. However, none of the five tracks connect to anywhere, and they appear to have fallen out of use.
The walls have street names on them, so I don't know if any parts of this line were connected to the mainline at all. However, there is evidence that this area was once used physically by trains there are stencilled numbers by each track, presumably indicating where each train goes; however none match up. One theory for this is that it was an internal rail system for moving material around, perhaps in relation to the power.
When walking through Embankment Tube station, you may find yourself wondering what it would be like to walk down the narrow, spiralling iron staircase that descends seemingly endlessly from street level to the tunnels below. After a while, you might begin to doubt if the staircase was actually descending at all. You might then feel tempted to explore further. You would be right — the staircase does loop in on itself in an endless helix.
A local urban explorer was walking this tunnel with a torch and camera when he came across an old piece of graffiti that appeared to have been sprayed onto the wall almost directly opposite the exit where he began. It read simply: EMBANKMENT 80m. Located in an industrial (and now thriving) part of London, this relic is a remnant of the Victorian era. The power substation has been left to ruin as the area is expanded, and now sits behind a heavy blast door facing onto the Thames.
It's directly connected to Embankment station, with tracks still in place between the building itself and the station. I've been out near the Embankment a lot recently, looking for photos of local flora and fauna, but I finally found time to dash down to my tipi spot. With work taking over my life at the moment, I haven't been in here since before Christmas. I've got to keep ticking things off the list. So let's take a look at what it's got to offer .
Epping
Epping is a usual entry on every new passenger's list, especially if they're new to using the London Underground. It has a fairly large car park which is free for employees or other users who don't wish to pay for parking but is usually full by the time I reach it at 6. 05am, which is when I have arrived every morning that week and also last Monday. The journey from Epping station to Moorgate takes around 15 minutes and costs £5.
40 once travelling via Zone 1. You then have to pay an extra £3. 70 as your fare takes you into Zone 2 but it's a straight run from there without any interchange. The same amount of zones if you travelled from Shenfield would cost you £. I've lived in the area all my life. On school days I walk to Epping either from my house or from the busstop opposite the Co-Op, which is right by the Police Station (if you're familiar with the area).
It takes me about 15-20 minutes depending on where I'm walking from and if I'm chatting to anyone. Sometimes it can take longer but I have a lot of spare time whilst getting to school so chat to people along the way. Epping is one of the largest of the London Underground's stations with five entrances. It lies between Chingford and Loughton, and is the newest station on the line having opened. Epping has the largest public London Underground station car park with 519 spaces.
Its usually still full by around 6. 30am each day though. On the bottom of the Epping tube station car park and it looks as if it has been snowing I am not sure whether its ice or snow. The plants help to absorb carbon dioxide and other gases from the air. Edgware Road. Has a living wall of plants outside the station, the only one in the underground network. It is between Southfields and Gunnersbury.
Euston
I like Euston, it is a nice enough, it always has hot food and the loos are the best I've seen. It's just that I think it's a very shoddy looking station, too busy and above all really dark. When you enter, you are in some kind of corridor-covered-by-glass tunnel thing going halfway down, so that's cool. The hallways, however, make me feel trapped. There are two of them also covered by glass and they're overlooking the railway lines.
I was on a train once and someone dropped their whole McDonalds meal under the seat next to me right next to the window, so I had to stare at it (minus ketchup) for an hour going back home. Euston station is located outside of the city of London and next to a major train network hub. It is used by over 60 million people every year, making it one of the busiest stations in the UK.
The original structure was opened in July 1837 but it has undergone a number of revamps, especially after the Thameslink project was completed in the early 1990s. I think those were the words that caught my eye while we passed by Euston station. For some reason I found it amusing seeing this ancient rock in such an active part of London city centre. I’m not sure why, but because of this, I thought this was a cool location to explore for some street photography to start off with.
Euston station is a London Underground and National Rail station in Euston. Its name is shared with the wider Euston area which encompasses Euston Square, Euston Station and Warren Street, which are all interlinked by a number of under-ground passageways. Euston. I’ve always thought it was an odd name for a station but maybe that’s because I’m new to London. It was about two weeks ago that I first visited Euston and became familiar with the place.
Fairlop
Every corner of this city has something unusual going on. From Roman sites to clusters of odd shops, and some pretty impressive parks that could easily be mistaken for another city (Finsbury Park’s one of my favourites). It really is an incredibly diverse place. And Fairlop is no different. Positioned in the middle of Essex and right beside Gidea Park, Fairlop station is the only one in London to be named after a tree. And what a tree it is.
If you spend any time at all on the Northern Line then you may well have found yourself dwarfed by the looming concrete structure that is the Fairlop Loop. This colossus of engineering dominates the landscape of South East London, and is so vast that even the most observant of commuters can often an hour or two late to realise it exists. Well, that was quite a long opening sentence. Not entirely sure that's the most fitting one for the blog post about it but hey ho.
It deserves a closer look, and yet not one major publication in or around London has looked at it, at least to my knowledge. So here I am. It's Fairlop Oak. Fairlop station may be the only tube station in Greater London named after a tree – but it’s a pretty cool one. It’s not as well known as other nearby stations such as Woodford or South Woodford (which sounds like the beginning of some sort of tropical jungle/dance movement).
Finchley Central
Finchley Central. I've lived here for the last five years, and it's taken this long to find out what the pub's name is. It's not a major convenience factor, but when I'm in a station, and my Oyster card's low on credit (you'll end up doing that; trains cost a fortune), it helps to know which pubs nearby accept cash. Finchley Central. Now that I think about it, one of my greatest memories as a child was seeing the Harry Beck Tube map displayed in its original form at the London Transport Museum.
Finchley Road
Finchley Road underground station is a railway station on the Victoria line in Travelcard Zone 2, at the junction of Finchley Road and Hampstead Road. As part of the first section of the Victoria line to open (between Seven Sisters and Warren Street), Finchley Road station was opened on 7 March 1968. It serves Finchley Central and also the nearby Canonbury, which are both in the London Borough of Islington. Finchley Road is a London Underground station in the Finchley area of the London Borough of Barnet, north London.
The station is served by the Metropolitan, Hammersmith & City and Circle lines and is in Travelcard Zone 2. On peacetime express trains this was on the Great Northern Railway (later part of the London and North Eastern Railway) main line from Finsbury Park to Edgware. The station opened on 30 July 1907 and is served by London Overground trains on two routes; the West London Line and the North London Line. Passengers using Oyster cards in Zones 1–6 now receive a discount when they travel from Finchley Road.
The Finchley Road & Frognal Station Site is between Finchley Road and Frognal, over 1000 feet below Baker Street, and within the area of the Central London Railway. It was used by Baker Street and Waterloo Railway from 1906 to 1939. I lived nearby and visited all the time and loved the fact that there was something so ordinary yet so extraordinary about a Tube map. The Eastern, Central and Hammersmith and City lines all go through London’s underground tube station called Fairlop.
Finsbury Park
The Finsbury Park area has deep historical links with duelling. Given that the Kings Highway (now called the New North Road) runs through the centre of the district, it used to be one of the most popular spots for people to settle their disagreements in a mutually agreed upon duel. The frequency of the duels understandably freaked out locals who felt compelled to get involved in stopping these illegal practiced. After much outrage and persuasion, legislation ensured that duelling was made illegal in 1813, and all direct references to it were changed under common law.
Finsbury Park Station is located on Arsenal Road in Holloway, north London. It is a stop on the Victoria line and the busiest station in terms of passenger numbers on the Northern line, with nearly 44 million people using it in 2014. The station was designed by architect Stanley Heaps. He used traditional brick for the two street-level buildings and yellow terracotta to complement the red-brick Victorian housing nearby, but above this he gilded a giant winged statue of Mercury (which can be spotted from the surrounding streets).
You may not think its a top tourist hotspot, but Finsbury Park tube station is in fact one of the best-kept London secrets. If youre in the capital and have a spare hour, you dont have to make your way down to Greenwich or Piccadilly, there are actually plenty of weird and wonderful things to see right on our doorstep! And the best part is theyre all free. Finsbury Park station is a London Underground station in Manor House near the border of the London Borough of Hackney and Islington, North London.
It is on the Piccadilly line, between Manor House and Archway tube stations. The station entrance is on Green Lanes just south of the Finsbury Park roundabout, and is in Travelcard Zone 2. Finsbury Park is a Grade II listed London Underground station in north London. It served as the terminus of the short-lived Wood Green – Southgate line from 1939 to 1941 and is now served by the Piccadilly line. It lies within Travelcard Zone 2.
Fulham Broadway
The more I hear about Fulham Broadway the more I start to realise that it actually is one of the most important transport stations in London. Not for its size (comparable to many other tube stations) but for its history and the part it played on 13th July 2005. You see, I’m not really sure I understand why Fulham Broadway is such an important interchange. Is it because it brings together Thameslink and Southern services? Or perhaps it is due to its sheer location lying right at the heart of Fulham? Or maybe its importance lies within a combination of these two factors? Whatever the reason, Fulham Broadway is a station used by thousands daily.
From Arsenal football fans travelling on match days, to commuters taking advantage of. You are currently standing outside the door of a different doorway. It has cars on the other side. It is big and blue and it is a train station. You look up at a sign above this doorway which reads Fulham Broadway. You stand there thinking about the significance of that name and what it would mean for your life if you were to go inside, walk up the stairs and leave via the other side of that doorway.
However you do not take that step forward because you have just come out of a movie theatre, and rather like in a dream where time has no meaning you go back inside to watch it again from the beginning. Fulham Broadway (or rather, a nearby Hammersmith & City line station called Latimer Road) is the starting point for the action in Sliding Doors. The film imagines two realities — in the first reality, its is raining heavily and Gwyneth Paltrow’s character misses her train, while in the second reality she makes it to work on time.
The film then examines whether her life would have been any different if she’d taken that train or not. This blog post will examine whether Fulham Broadway station would have been any different if its platforms had been lengthened to allow longer trains to pass through. Victoria line. Fulham Broadway is a station on the Victoria line. Everything is below ground and it can get pretty busy at peak times because of the large number of bar/restaurants near by.
A lot of people living nearby use this stop rather than Putney Bridge which is just a few minutes walk away. Fulham Broadway tube station is the central focus of the 1998 film Sliding Doors. This London Underground station has been around since 1926, and is located in north west London, England, and serves the district of Fulham. This shot of Fulham Broadway Station in London, was taken by Chris on May 2nd 1998. This is the morning after I presented at a conference in Sheffield, and I'm just waiting to go into my job interview at M&S headquarters.
Gants Hill
If you’ve ever wondered how this place got its name, wonder no more. The answer lies in the etymological history of English town and village names. There are two theories about the origin of the name Gants Hill. One is that it was named after a family called Gant, who lived in the area. Another is that the word ‘Gant’ came from an Old English word meaning ‘gnat’ (insect) (Gnats Cross), and that this was corrupted to become ‘Gants’ and then ‘Gants Cross’.
There isn’t a great deal of information available about the hamlet that I lived in for over seven years. Gants Hill is one of the most interesting places in Essex (in my opinion), and as someone who has been there for so long, the local history should be exciting to read about. So I’ve tried to collect together some information/facts about Gants; hopefully this will make for a fascinating offline read. The truth is much more prosaic.
A man called Richard De Garmeaux owned the land, and called it Garrates — a spelling mistake which became Gants. In 1217 the land was given by Henry III to his son, Richard, Earl of Cornwall, who built a windmill on the hill. Hence Gaunts Hill Mill — or so they say . The only tube station named after a tree. Apart from, technically, Burnt Oak (the station was named after a famous oak tree in the area).
Gloucester Road
Since I was a little boy, I’ve loved Gloucester Road. There was something magical about this place, and it has been my personal inspiration for writing music. My friends would always laugh at me for how much the place intrigued me, but still I dreamed. In 1999, my band recorded our first ever track in what was then called The Gloucester Road Underground station — Wherever fans will know this song as [Banana Fame] ( mycityoflondon.co.uk That track gave us a reason to continue, we carried on creating music because it was fun & enjoyable… But in 2015 we parted ways.
It was an amazing run while it lasted, but things happen and we all went. June 13, 2018. Love this The disused platform at Gloucester Road station in London is now used as a permanent air exhibition. It was first discovered by artist Stuart Semple in January of last year and it made him feel much happier. Here’s the story behind this public art installation. In central London, between High Street Kensington and Notting Hill Gate stations lies Gloucester Road.
The street is one of the busiest and most vibrant in London. You’ll find cafes, restaurants and pubs. There's a platform that is used as an art exhibition, why? Because the artist who owns it got fed up of commuters sitting on it and making it dirty so he decided to cover it with statues. I'm always looking for new art to look at so I decided to have a proper investigative gaze at this permanently open exhibition.
Golders Green
If you like engineering and want to see how a signal box works or even look inside one, I can highly recommend a visit to Golders Green. It is just before the end of the Northern line and is always accessible as there is a gate next to the last carriage in the last train of the evening on weekdays. Piccadilly line trains also pass through it but they were not so accessible until 2011 when lifts were installed to replace the deep narrow steep stairs, which could not be used by big luggage, disabled people or anyone with young children.
Goldhawk Road
No station on the London Underground has caused quite as much confusion as Goldhawk Road station. Publicity campaigns and even a radio advertisement in 1923 were made to attract customers to the station. The resulting outrage over the lack of a station saw the then general manager of the Underground visit the site and order a hasty construction. Until the arrival of Goldhawk Road station, Shepherd's Bush was isolated from the rest of London: Edward Cecil Guinness (the founder of the Guinness Book of Records) lived in Ashfield Place from 1893 to 1928; his house is now the British and Irish Modern Music Institute.
When Goldhawk Road station was opened in 1914, it was situated at the north end of the cutting which had been created for the Metropolitan Railway's extension to its depot at Hammersmith, and south of Goldhawk Road bridge, which carried the road over the railway. It was a bitterly cold day in December 1914, and the air inside Goldhawk Road station was even colder. The weak flames of the gas lamps flickered and dimmed, and the wind whistled through the cracks in the station walls.
Grange Hill
During an English lesson, I was asked to discuss why I had failed my Math exam. Instead, like getting off the bus two stops earlier than necessary, I went off on a tangent about Grange Hill and how a V1 bomb destroyed it. The look on the teachers face when it dawned on him that he was talking to the person who designed Grange Hill is one that is forever etched in my mind and is a joy to recount.
". The Grange Hill area was flattened by a German V1 doodlebug bomb in June 1944. Today, this once vibrant community is a patchwork of local farms and woodland. It lies just to the north of London Stansted Airport, which now occupies the site of one of its school playing fields and most of the rest of the school itself. The school was flattened by a V1 doodlebug and was never rebuilt. The name for Goldhawk Road station came about in 1915, though it was not revealed until 1917.
Great Portland Street
I live and work in Central London, not far from Great Portland Street station, which is a Circle and Metropolitan line underground stop. Being so close it’s become a natural part of my day to day life. I decided to take my camera to the station and have a look around. Thankfully, Transport for London has been giving people access via the “ explore the tube ” project. So much so that I even hacked my way into for free by heading over to Aldgate East and hopping onto the Heathrower Express.
The tube station at Great Portland Street is very special. As you can see from the diagram above, it has three lines that run through it: the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan line. That’s a ton of trains, but only one pair of tracks. The underground platforms at Great Portland Street are pretty narrow and not a great length either. So when those crazy commuters come screaming through in the rush hour, it gets pretty tight.
Great Portland Street is a street in Central London passing from the Marble Arch area in the north, where it becomes Upper Great Portland Street, to the Grosvenor Road/Lower Berkeley Street area in the south, close to The Angel tube station. It is largely in the City of Westminster but also straddles Camden, forming the boundary between that borough and Islington. It is a part of historic central London. You might be forgiven for thinking that there are two stations on Great Portland Street.
After all, three different lines (the Bakerloo, Victoria and Piccadilly) serve it. And the platforms clearly aren’t cramped — there appears to be room for at least two, probably three, maybe even four platforms. So how come they only have one pair of tracks?. Completely rebuilt in the early 20th century (at the instigation of the Great Portland Street Railway Company) prominently with hotels, department stores and theatres along its length, it is still one of London's major shopping streets.
Green Park
It would be hard to find a more “romantic” location than the Green Park. It is one of the largest Royal Parks in the heart of London. Perched between Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park and St James Park, it was inspired by the gardens of Versailles. This is a wonderland of wildness and tranquillity where you can watch wide-eyed crowds gather to catch a glimpse of royalty – or even the odd celebrity. Green Park is a residential area just north of Regent’s Park and like its southern counterpart, it’s a green, serene oasis amid the bustle of central London.
It was built on land belonging to the Duke of York and is flanked by Burlington Gardens, Upper Grosvenor Street and Chesterfield Place a set of locations that are home to some of London’s most exclusive and sought after residences. Green Park is one of the Royal Parks of London. It's a 132-acre (54. 8 hectare) park in the St. James's area of central London, bounded by Buckingham Palace to the west, Piccadilly to the north, andSt James's Park to the east.
The park is almost rectangular in shape, and is mostly flat, with four shallow stream beds intersecting it. Green park it’s easy to see why. The area is peaceful and quiet when compared with nearby Vauxhall or Battersea Park. The trees offer plenty of shade on a sunny day and the canal that runs through the park makes it an ideal location for a jog (at least until you pass Wandsworth prison). Although there is no historic evidence of lepers in Green Park, the name has stuck.
Greenford
The London Underground has committed itself to spending millions in order to replace many of the escalators within their stations. It will take a lot of time, money, and effort to do so, but there is one tube station that not only has wooden escalators from the start (1911) but also used them right up until its closure in 2014. It was the last place on the London Underground to have any wooden escalators left and it’s sadly left an historical gap within the tube stations now.
The newly refurbished Greenford station is the winner of the 2 nd place award in the London Boroughs category. It's run by First Capital Connect and if you're a frequent commuter it's likely that you've probably passed through Greenford once or twice before. Never mind that it was named as one of the UK's worst stations in 2013, we are proud to be at Greenford now and can't wait to show you around. “Where are you going?” “Greenford, please.
” That was the first time I stepped into Greenford underground station. I had just moved into my new flat on the far outskirts of London and it was an exciting journey. There were no apps such as Google Maps or Citymapper that could tell me how to walk home. All I had was a map of London and Greenford marked on it. The Edwardian-era Oldbury Court Estate, in Greenford, West London, the site of a remarkable residence that has fallen into severe disrepair.
Constructed in 1907 and completed c1911 for the prominent Liverpool-based Whitaker family but that was more than 30 years before the arrival of escalators. The old wooden escalator at Greenford Station was removed on 15th December 2014, and is now used for training purposes. It had been in service since the 1930s, and recently had its wooden panels replaced. And it’s possible the park originally belonged to St James as it lies on a prime site close to what was originally the edge of London.
Gunnersbury
Little remains of the original station building, which was of the typical London & South Western Railway design, with two towers at each end, and a ticket office in between. There were also waiting rooms and refreshment rooms on the platform. The platforms were built to a three-alloy steel frame elevated construction with supporting columns. Greenford station was known as Goldhawk Road until 1924, when the name was changed. It was opened on 1 April 1879.
Hanger Lane
It is on an embankment, and the platforms are in a cutting covered by glass canopies. The station has two exits. One, the main one, is at the west end of the platforms leading to a long flight of steps up a steep hill to Cedars Road at the junction with Hanger Lane; the other exit leads out of the booking hall immediately opposite it. There are a few train stations which are strange in that you enter them underground, but they are above ground themselves.
Hanger Lane Station in North London is such a place; you walk into the ticket hall at ground level, under a soaring concrete canopy, and then board the train via stairs to an upper-level platform. Hanger Lane tube station is an interesting place. Start at street level and you're stood outside a huge shopping mall built with the station underneath. It's like walking into a high street, but none of the shops are open. The whole thing seems a little surreal (especially during the quiet periods).
While we're on the topic of strange parts of London, perhaps it's worth mentioning Hanger Lane. Technically, it's not a tube station, but an overground station owned by the London Overground network. However, unlike most normal stations it is entirely above ground and not below. Hanger Lane tube station is an underground railway station in Hanger Lane, north London. It is the nearest tube station for St Mary's Hospital, the Imperial War Museum, and Westfield Shopping Centre amongst others.
Hanger Lane is an Underground station in west London on the Great Western Main Line, between Ealing Broadway and Paddington stations, and served by local trains operated by Great Western Railway. London Underground station with the deepest lift shafts are East Finchley and Manor House on the Northern line. The lifts at these stations may be the deepest on the network but they’re also very fast. The lifts at these stations can take you from the bottom of the lift shaft to street level in just 15 seconds.
Harlesden
I have no idea why I even knew this, but I used to know the distance between Harlesden and Willesden Junction stations. And occasionally needed to calculate the distance between them. You think, I live in London and often use public transport of some kind. Why would I ever need to know distances between two tube stations? Well living in Zone 3 and being in possession of an OYSTER Card, you'll find yourself doing a lot of travelling between Zone 1 and 3.
And hence, needing to figure out which zones your travel passes will cover if you're not using zones 1 or 2. Ok, the title is slightly misleading it's not just that I live in Harlesden. Granted, I do have the honour of living in a place so nice we've had the word "Candy" named after it (see below). It's also where I founded my business ( WebDesignersLondon. co. uk ), fall in love with and have studied at university.
It may sound like a young person’s dream to live so close to their workplace and to be able to cycle or walk to work every day. And it turns out it may actually be better for you too. I’d love to say that the above quote is an amazing telling off of someone who’s trying make out that they live in this area (which would be funny, since its technically more than one area) but it’s actually one of the pieces of information on a Wikipedia page about a place called Harlesden.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Anyone can edit content on Wikipedia? And why would any sane person spend their time making up statistics like that?. If you live in Harlesden and ever make a single journey anywhere then the Google Distance Matrix API will tell you exactly how far away another destination is from your start and end points. For example the API will tell you that the distance from Harlingen to Southall is 14.
5 miles which is the equivalent of 19. 1 kilometres (1390 feet, 1308 yards, or most commonly used 172 'Game of Thrones'Westeros leagues). Nearly everybody in the UK knows where Upton Park Football Ground is (except for any Reading or Leeds United fans, of course). But not many people know that you can’t get from there to Harlesden town centre on the Tube even though they are only 6. 5 miles apart.
Even though it is really possible to get to West Ham from Harlesden without changing Tube line, it took me on average 58 minutes until recently. Harlesden is undoubtedly the most anomalously named place within the London Borough of Brent. Most people have no idea how Harlesden got its name. It makes little sense given its geographical location. The clue is in the railway bridge on West Park road (shown below), that crosses the Grand Union Canal, 10 minutes walk from Willesden Junction station.
Harrow & Wealdstone
Harrow & Wealdstone is the oldest station still in use on the London Underground system, having been opened on 11 April 1837. It was built by the Grand Junction Railway (GJR) company as part of its line to Birmingham. When it opened there were just two short tunnels from each end of the tunnel running through Wealdstone and Harrow-on-the-Hill to Pinner Green and beyond to North Harrow. Its location made it an important interchange between main and branch lines, with traffic particularly heavy between Aylesbury, Watford, Harrow & Wealdstone and Uxbridge.
Traffic from the west began to fall steeply from about 1960, and today only a few trains in the morning peak originate there. Harrow & Wealdstone is an old railway junction in North West London, England. It is north-west from Charing Cross and is in Travelcard Zone 6. It was opened on 13 February 1837 with the first section of the London and Birmingham Railway. It presently serves trains travelling from the north and west to Marylebone.
Harrow & Wealdstone is only a short tube ride away from Baker Street. In fact, at the time of its opening in 1906, it was known as Bakers Street Station. Baker Street Station is closer to the centre of London, but Harrow and Wealdstone is closer to my Mum’s house, so that’s where I went to take this photo. Harrow & Wealdstone is a National Rail station on the Chiltern Main Line in West London, serving the suburb of Harrow and Wealdstone, as well as Eastcote, Pinner and Rayners Lane.
It is 18 miles 49 chains (29. 29 km) down the line from London Marylebone and is in Travelcard Zone 6. Harrow & Wealdstone Station Platforms: 3 Deepest Platforms: 1 Ticket Office: Yes Escalators: 6 Toilets: Yes Coffee Shop: No Cash Machines: No Nearest Tube/Train station:journey. com Nearest Overground / TFL Rail station: Harrow-on-the-Hill Nearest Bus stops and. There wasn’t much about Harrow & Wealdstone in the (admittedly excellent) guide book I was using for exploring London.
Harrow-On-The-Hill
The Harrow-on-the-Hill area is a remarkable place for many reasons. The magnificent church of St Mary, Harrow Church, dating back over 700 years is one of the most beautiful & historic buildings in Middlesex. Inside are a wealth of ancient paintings and carvings that date back to the 14th century. Harrow on the Hill itself is possibly best known for its connection with the famous 17th century diarist, Samuel Pepys. Mr Pepys is buried here, and visitors can see his old gravestone inside church.
Anyone who lives in Harrow-on-the-Hill, or works there, will probably be familiar with Harrow Hill. It sits on the Hertfordshire side of the border with London, just to the north of Harrow on the Hill station. It can be a steep slog up there if you use the main road that leads to the hilltop. But if you choose your route wisely, there are some nice looped paths around London’s densest population of antique place name and pub history specialists.
The Green Hill Tower is part of an ancient monument known as Harrow-on-the-Hill. Harrow Hill is a man made hill constructed in the Iron Age, possibly by the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons. They are built over burial mounds and may have been used to worship idols. Kensal Green Cemetery is one of London’s most famous Victorian cemeteries. It contains the graves of some of the most celebrated people in English cultural, scientific and political life over the last two centuries.
Hatton Cross
Hatton Cross is a station on the Northern line between Highgate and North Finchley stations, on the boundary of Travelcard Zone 3 and Zone 4. Like all the stations on this part of the line it was opened in 1907 by the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR). As with other stations on the line, Hatton Cross was constructed by cut-and-cover as a pair of parallel tunnels which rise gently westwards towards Hampstead. The platforms are unusually wide for stations built using this method and are clad in symmetrical white tiling.
Hatton Cross opened on the 15th of September 1975. It connected to two other stations, Hounslow East and Hounslow West, on what was the Piccadilly line at the time. The station had two different designs — one for each entrance, one up escalators and the other down. This was something that only happened for two stations. The underground lines were being run by British Rail at the time but most stations were designed by London Underground.
Hatton Cross is a station on the London Underground's Piccadilly line in Hatton Cross, Surrey. The station is on the border of three areas; Hatton, Raynes Park and New Malden. It is located in Fare Zone 3. The platforms are accessed from lifts and steps on a bridge over the tracks on Hatton Cross Road. 6 October 1975 was the day that a complex piece of infrastructure became a part of my daily life: Hatton Cross Underground station.
This new station was the result of an immense amount of labour, effort and expense; it wasn't something you could just put anywhere. From 1987 until its closure in 1997, the station stood at the corner of the Hatton Cross flyover, but following the demolition of the flyover it is now some distance from a junction. There are two hills. Harrow Hill is a beauty spot on the east-west route, consisting of two large hills and a valley with a small lake in the middle north of the town.
Heathrow Terminal 4
Heathrow Airport Terminal 4 (T4) is an airport terminal at Heathrow Airport located approximately 3. 5 miles away from Heathrow's geographic centre. T4 is the only station on the network to have one-way train service, meaning that one must travel from T4 to any other station by using a shuttle bus or by walking along a footpath. Today, the Heathrow Terminal 4 train station departs passengers from its platform and transports them to their destinations at the airport.
Passengers on this line are usually airport workers, such as baggage handlers and security guards, as well as business travelers. The idea was to have trains run in one direction from the Main Line station at Heathrow Terminal 4, and then back. I'm not sure why this wouldn't just be a normal track that would lead into the terminal, but whatever. There are a lot of things I can say about Heathrow Airport, but what I really want to talk about is the amazing airport which is: Heathrow Terminal 4.
Heathrow Terminal 5
What would you think if I told you that there is an airport terminal which is almost completely underground? That’s right, Terminal 5, the main hub for London Heathrow Airport is actually under ground. Despite being underground, the ceiling is made from laminate panels, allowing natural daylight to illuminate it. It might come across as strange but it isn’t without good reason. This means that passengers do not have to go through the trouble of having to combat the elements to get to their flight.
Many of us are familiar with London Heathrow and, more specifically, Terminal 5, the third-largest structure in the world by area. This massive structure connects flights from around the world with Europe, UK, Asia and Africa and, as you’ll see in our infographic below, it has a hidden design feature that makes it unlike any other terminal in the world. With an area of 6 million square feet (557 000 m2) and five levels underground, Terminal 5 is not your typical airport terminal.
One of the most well-known buildings in London is Heathrow Terminal 5. Opened in 2008, it links the Central Terminal Area with the two satellite buildings. The unique shape and form of its roof has made it one of London's most prominent landmarks. It is said that 75,000 people would be able to stand on its roof without meeting one another, although I can't imagine trying to get them all on there at once. Laminate paneling is used for all ceilings in the terminal.
These panels are made from a thin material overlaid with a grid of decorative plastic, metal, or wood. They are nearly impossible to distinguish from structural steel beamsand girders once they are installed. The following sections feature an example of a blog intro based on the topic "Guide to the flooring in Heathrow Airport Terminal 5". It has two pairs of one-directional platforms, one for trains to central London and the other for trains to the terminal.
Heathrow Terminals 1, 2, 3
First, Heathrow airport is straight out of a James Bond film and second, just before we flew back to Jordan from London, my mum managed to drop her bag right in the middle of Heathrow airport’s Terminals 1, 2 and 3. That’s what she got for always checking her bags at the last minute, I suppose. Three terminals in an airport can be a bit of a nightmare if you ask me. That’s why earlier today when I finally managed to travel through Terminal 5 with my parents without losing them or getting lost myself, it occurred to me that I would put up with anything for the sake of this course.
It wasn’t until the mid-1960s that plans for an underground link to Heathrow Airport were first mooted. That was when the Greater London Council decided that a branch should be built off the Central Line to serve the new terminal building, then known as Terminal 4. This is the story of how this groundbreaking link came to be built, and how it has developed over time. Heathrow Terminal 1, 2 and 3 are terminus stations for Heathrow Express, serving Terminals 1, 2 and 3 respectively.
One spur of the Heathrow Airtrack rail link from London Paddington station runs into each terminal and is linked to the airport underground network. And now, 40 years later, Heathrow Terminal 4 is set to open. It has been built on the site of the former Royal Docks and will feature shops and restaurants, as well as provide a convenient rail connection to London. All British airports were until that point serviced via bus services.
The London Underground system wasn't particularly well-developed at the time either. Now that the sixth terminal has been built, it’s important to look back at some of the history of Heathrow Terminal 1, 2 and 3, as well as the future. To the west is Green Hill, much easier walking. It was, according to the book, one of the few places that were just there — kind of like a lot of stations that no one really visits anymore.
High Barnet
The Grand Old Duke of York is a popular English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20296. A young man, "the Grand Old Duke of York", is caught cheating when playing at soldiers. All the others in the game were killed, but he was spared and so was given the post of "General". The rhyme describes how he marched his men up to the top of the hill, told them to "stand still" or ""halt!"" and then marched them down again.
There are many theories about the origins of this rhyme. One such belief is that there was a castle with a tall tower up on the hill called High Barnet. It has also been suggested that the rhyme might have originated from here because it was known as a place where highwaymen and robbers would hide. High Barnet is one of the major suburbs of London, England. It is twice selected by the Times ons 2001 poll for being among one of Britain's least favourite places to live, it's population numbers over 100,000 and it lies in the north west of Greater London.
High Street Kensington
The bus that I had to take to get from my house to Knightsbridge is the number 29. There's a bus stop opposite High Street Kensington station, an iconic London underground railway station built in 1865. It was on this bus corner on my way to Knightsbridge that I saw an old lady being assisted by her elder daughter/granddaughter. My bus stopped beside them after they had crossed the road. She was having a lot of trouble using her walking stick and needed support to put one leg in front of the other.
Her elder daughter/granddaughter helped her walk to the edge of the pavement so she didn't have to walk all the way until the traffic lights turned green. But then it was time for me to get off the bus. High Street Kensington in West London has the nickname of Billionaires Row ever since Abramovich and Lakshmi Mittal bought property here in the early 2000’s. Back in 1911 this was the location of a large railway terminus, but it was demolished 50 years later and replaced with a concrete office building.
Here is a history of some of the famous (and not so famous) people who have worked on this site. The Crane Halt was a small single-platform halt in New Malden, on the Wimbledon branch line of the Southern Railway, just before London Victoria. Trains only stopped here if a sufficient number of passengers were waiting to make it worthwhile. In its last year, 1955-56, there appears to have been insufficient demand and it was closed.
From old maps Ive seen, High Street Kensington was at the end of the line before you went to East Putney. There are two station buildings mostly identical but one has a break room for the drivers so this is where I think it was. (although i've also seen a photo of this building where railway sleepers had been laid outside ). Windsor House is a Grade II listed building located on Kensington High Street in London.
It currently serves as the headquarters for Capital & Counties Properties plc. The original architect is unknown but the exterior was built in 1875 and the building was renovated into office space in 2005. This little tucked away station is the home of many forgotten and abandoned places. One such place that has survived demolition is the old train drivers break room. North London based High Barnet has been described as luxury living and the ideal place for families to live.
Highbury & Islington
The station opened in 1872 on the Metropolitan and St. Pancras Railway. Until 2nd January 2011, it was served by Eurostar services from Paris, Brussels and Lille as well as international services to Amsterdam and saps to Disneyland Paris. The station has been rebuilt twice. The first time, steel arches were built to support the large volume of traffic and two bridges were constructed over the East Coast Main Line; Wilsons Lane and Southbury Road (the latter was replaced by a flyover in 1960).
The old Highbury station building, a grade II listed building constructed in 1854, was instantly flattened. The V-1 flying bomb that struck the station was part of Hitler’s Operation Crossbow and is now commonly known as the “Doodle-Bug” doodle being the name scrawled on one of its casing by a nosey railway worker. The Flying Bombs were used to attack London and ports around the country for 63 consecutive days during the summer of 1944.
So, for all you Harry Potter fans, this article is dedicated to you. It's time to meet Diagon Alley. Its real name, or at least the name it was given in 1992, is Highbury & Islington. I'm sure you are wondering how on earth does that connect to the magical realm of Harry Potter since the station appears in the series as Kings Cross. Well, it isn't that simple at all. Highbury & Islington, Arsenal station.
Built in 1854 by the Great Northern Railway, Highbury & Islington was located on the Caledonian Road and opened to the public on July 2, 1856. However, not all was well at the station when it first opened. In fact, its opening day saw a train crash between Islington and Finsbury Park which sadly resulted in seven deaths. In 1885 the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR) opened a new station at Holloway Road near to Caledonian Road.
Highgate
Highgate underground station is a disused station in London, England, on the Northern line. It is between Golders Green and Archway stations and is located at the end of a short spur built when the line was extended northwards in 1907. The station has two platforms but has very few visitors as it is closed between midnight and mid morning. The entrances to Highgate are just off the northern section of Kentish Town Road, which starts at Camden Town, and also from Lyndhurst Gardens adjacent to The Spaniards Inn pub.
In the 1960s, two disused western platforms at Highgate Underground station were equipped with fake brick walls and roof panels to be used as a film set for Death Line (also known as Raw Meat), a low-budget horror film. Since that time, the former western end of platform 4 has been used for occasional filming as well as storage. In 2006, some scenes for the film version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was shot there too.
Highgate is a picturesque North London suburb. The pretty Highgate Wood sits in Highgate Cemetery which was formerly a private ground for Highgate House which was visited by Dickens and Queen Victoria. This underground station, and the disused platforms and tunnels have sometimes been used for filming and have appeared in several productions EastEnders and Waking the Dead. Gosh, have you ever been visiting London and looked around and wondered where are the abandoned tube stations? Well, do I have a treat for you.
For the wonderful creation of this platform and tunnel system used to belong to the Edgware-Highgate Line which was closed in the 1940s. It is easy to get to. You will want to climb up the escalators at Highgate station. The Highgate Underground station is one of those things that you don’t necessarily know about but have probably seen. EastEnders used the disused platforms and tunnels for Ricky and Bianca's wedding in 2002.
Hillingdon
The Borough of Hillingdon was established in 1965, after the dissolution of the Municipal Borough of Uxbridge. Uxbridge's MP, Rt Hon Sir John Boyd-Carpenter was to be elevated to the peerage, ending 56 years of Conservative control in Uxbridge. Enfield's MP, Harry Hylton-Foster was proposed as a suitable candidate by the local Conservative Association, and it was felt that he would be likely to retain the seat for his party. He had not long before defected from Labour, whose candidate, Sydney Irving had previously been MP for nearby Southgate.
However Hylton-Foster's elevation to baronetcy at introduced an element of uncertainty as to whether or not he would. Hillingdon is a London district located within the Metropolitan Borough of Hillingdon. The borough of Hillingdon is located northwest of Central London on the western perimeter of Greater London, although it is considered part of Outer London by some organisations; this is largely due to its history before 1900 as part of an exclave named the Municipal Borough of Uxbridge.
Most local government organisations and colloquial residents treat Hillingdon as an Outer London borough. Hillingdon is an affluent suburban town in the London Borough of Hillingdon in Greater London, with three town centres: Uxbridge, West Drayton and Yiewsley. The town is served by two railway stations West Drayton & Yiewsley on the Great Western Main Line which are both served by local and long distance services. Hillingdon (previously spelt Hillenden or Hyllingdon) is a district in the west of Greater London which was originally a separate village, but has completely been absorbed by suburban London.
It is 8 miles (13 kilometres) west-northwest of Charing Cross. Hillingdon is a district of west London, England and part of the London Borough of Hillingdon. It was an ancient parish and is now a modern outer borough of London. Four years later, the station was rebuilt by Edward Wilson and Sir Douglas Fox a few yards to the west on higher ground after the original station was damaged by a V-1 flying bomb in 1944.
Holland Park
Holland Park is the first of two postcards in my great 2014-2015 London postcard series. I've been living and working here in West London for almost nine years now, so I thought it was time I started exploring the back streets and byways more than usual. This led me to Holland Park, an area which took me by surprise. It's an amazing piece of world architecture with a beautiful park in the middle (obviously). Plus, embassies! Who doesn't like embassies? It has a Moroccan embassy, [South] Korean embassy and a Nigerian embassy (I kid you not).
The three buildings, especially the Moroccan one at the bottom right, do look like they were smuggled in from another country or planet. You can. There are very few buildings I know that are as recognizable as Holland Park. The red brick row of houses always seems to pop up in the periphery of so many photos, it’s become almost iconic in my mind. So when I got a chance to go see this building I was pumped! It's hard to believe but this is the first time I've been inside and probably the first time I've seen it with sun shining on it.
Holland Park consists of several buildings that were built in 1890s for the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society. The buildings were designed by James Lockyer and Alfred Heaver, who had just designed the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society store on High Street Kensington. The buildings are all striking examples of Victorian architecture with large rooms and high ceilings. It's a lovely building, and far grander than the usual residential block. It's another of Holland Park's distinctive blocks.
Holloway Road
This tube station is the only one in London to have a triangular ceiling. This shape was used to accommodate a new safe standing platform for commuters who were used to having a third rail between the running tracks—they remained in use until April 1949. Sidings West Depot, Holloway Road. At this point, part of it was a shop supplying trains and parts, another part was storage for standardised coaches (not Tube stock but the 'heritage'sdgs converted to carrying passengers).
Hornchurch
I want to tell you the story of how Hornchurch station has changed over time. Being born and raised in Hornchurch, I have seen the area change drastically over the years. It probably hasn’t changed as much as some other places but Hornchurch has definitely seen some changes since I was born in 1993. So let me take you on a journey through Hornchurchs history as we look at how the station has changed since 1932.
The London Underground station of Hornchurch serves the London Borough of Havering and is one of three Underground stations serving the town. It has two platforms and it is on the District line in Travelcard Zone 6. The original station was built in 1926 by the Architect’s Office of Metropolitan Railway to serve the influx of people hoping to move into new homes in Hornchurch after WW1. Hornchurch has been home to the Hornchurch Country Park since it was established in 1960.
At the same time, the station was upgraded with new platforms, footbridges and a tunnel under the tracks to make it step-free. Being an interchange station, trains can be boarded on platforms 1 (Fast services to London), 2 (Fast services to Upminster) and 3 (Local services towards Shoeburyness). Hornchurch station opened in 1929. Now, this may not seem like much when you consider that the last eighty years could be described as a mere eye-blink in geological terms.
But, more importantly for us tube fans, it also took roughly eighty years for the population of Hornchurch to increase its number of inhabitants by x43 times. In the 1930s, Hornchurch was a rural village, yet the latest census reveals that Hornchurch is now part of the most densely populated patch of Europe. You could drive around the 140-acre station and visit the vast majority of houses in under an hour. There are over 30 roads within a 10 minute walk of the station.
Hornchurch has had a huge population increase. In the 80 years since the station was built, Hornchurchs population increased by x43 times. It is the fastest growing town in London and the largest regeneration scheme in Essex. The plain white frontage is perforated with carriage-height, curtained recesses resembling jewellery cases. The brickwork is rough-casted, with dull red brick pilasters and stone cornices. ''Built with a flat roof in order for a retail unit to be built on top of it.
Hounslow Central
Now, just to give a little bit of history here, this is originally Hounslow Town station. This was the original name when it opened in July 1883, but get this! in 1885 the Great Western Railway renamed the station Hounslow West because they already had a station called Hounslow Town. It closed, for two years, between 1944 and 1946, during World War II. Hounslow Central is a London Underground station in Hounslow, west London.
The station is on the Heathrow branch of the Piccadilly line, between Hounslow West and Osterley stations. It opened as Hounslow Town on 1 March 1933 although District line services had run on the line since 1916 and previously as a. Hounslow Central. If you live near a mainline rail terminus, chances are that your nearest tube station has been replaced by one of these. There are lots of examples across the network — Aldgate, Bethnal Green, Brixton.
Hounslow West
Hounslow West, is the oldest part of Hounslow, Middlesex. The original settlement of Hounslow started at the junction of St. Mary's Lane (A315) and Bath Road (A3020) near this point. It is sometimes said that the name derives from Hundeslow (Old English), meaning a mound or rise sacred to dogs, but more probably it was a corruption of 'hallowes'which was taken as meaning 'holy-place'(i. e. a church), or an old word 'halsig'for 'corner'in Old English.
Travelling through Clapham Junction, you may spot a Blue Plaque commemorating its most famous passenger: The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Churchill favoured the train journey from his home at Hyde Park Corner to Waterloo, so he made sure to alight at this station in Hounslow on his daily travels. While waiting for his train, he would have a cigar and a brandy in the nearby saloon bar. The station opened on the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1941.
The GWR had originally planned to extend the Hounslow branch line via Cranford (over the present-day A4 road) and into central Hounslow, although this never happened. The Met Office weather observations for Heathrow Airport are taken from a rooftop at Hatton Cross Underground Station. Hounslow, in the western London borough of Hounslow, is home to over 200thousand people. The town was once an important industrial center though decline came after World War II. Today Hounslow West station serves the area.
Ickenham
I visited Ickenham not too long ago. Admittedly it was quite dark, but I'll never forget the sensation of a slimy hand dropping onto my shoulder from behind, and the cold corpse-like feeling that came over me as I turned to meet its owner, only to find that he was no one. Worse still, there weren't even footprints in the grass. Though I have to admit, the guilt of having placed my trust in railway station baggage claims myself over recent months has left me prone to fanciful imaginings and bouts of paranoia.
Ickenham has had a fascinating history. It was home to one of Britain's first crematoriums, was a WWI army camp, and an abandoned old people's home. According to some accounts, it is also a famous haunt of a strange but terrifying entity that has allegedly terrified many. Ickenham. A village in west London, close to Heathrow airport. Built in the late 19th century by workers of the Metropolitan Railway (hence the name), it is a suburban paradise that has lived through the 20th and is now part of 21st century London.
I was staying at a house in Ickenham in December 2013, which seems to have an urban myth attached to it that I felt compelled to carry out. And there was an obvious candidate for a ghost or UFOs: if not Ickenham itself then the nearby RAF Northolt. In the small London suburb of Ickenham is a nondescript 1950s council estate, not exactly the kind of place you would expect a ghost story to emerge from.
And yet…. Ickenham. Said to be haunted each Christmas since the 50s by a woman in a red scarf, who was electrocuted there. She flails her arms, apparently. the list goes on. Why do they do it? And why does it always seem to happen to Hounslow?. Hounslow town tube station was in the news recently for having a passenger killed by a train that managed to go through a station without stopping.
Kennington
Theres a place called Kennington, which is located in the Queenstown ward of the London Borough of Lambeth and is 2. 4 miles from the geographical centre of London. I went there to do research for this blog post because it was a location Id never visited before. I wanted to fill in some urban gaps in my mental map. Kennington lies just south of Waterloo on the South Bank of the Thames opposite Westminster and just north of Vauxhall.
It seemed like an interesting place full of historical links to the Huguenots. Personally Id never really considered going there before, despite having lived my whole life in London and working nearby. Kennington Loop is a London Underground loop formed by the combination of two long reverse curves on the Northern line, connecting its southbound and northbound tracks just south of Kennington station in central London. This allows fast trains to overtake slow ones; otherwise idle trains would accumulate in the sidings at Kennington or at Morden depot.
Kennington Loop is a physical railway loop that’s hidden in plain sight on the London Underground. The Northern Line doesn’t make a normal left hand turn when reversing direction, instead it goes into another tunnel and through another station, Kennington. Have you ever wondered why theres no station called Kennington? Or how you can get from Morden back to Kennington via Edgware? Its all thanks to a quirk of geography thats caused by the Vauxhall viaduct.
I must admit, Im not very familiar with the London Underground. The only part I know is the Northern line. Im a commuter and I take the same train every weekday evening from Kennington to Morden. A rare few people know that, by travelling on this wrong line – known as the "Bakerloo loop" or "Kennington Loop" – you'll loop around and return to where you started. 115 years later, there is still no retail unit.
Kensal Green
Kensal Green (grid reference ) is a station on the London Overground network in north west London, and before it closure was also served by the Bakerloo line. It is on Kensal Rise/Holland Park Avenue in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, between Ladbroke Grove and Willesden Junction stations. Formerly part of the London Underground network, it was closed between 1940 and 1994. It is now one of two National Rail stations in Travelcard Zone 2, the other being North Acton located to the north; only North Acton Underground station to the south is closer to Zone 1.
Kensal Green station is in the London Borough of Brent and on the Jubilee Line, between Willesden Green and Kilburn. It is in Travelcard Zone 2. It was blown up for the 1977 film The exploding man (also known as Rail Rage). It has two entrances within a few hundred yards of each other. Kensal Green was first opened to the public on 28 November 1833, making it the first London Underground station. This makes it one of the oldest stations that is still open today, and possibly the oldest in London itself.
Kensington (Olympia)
The station is located in Travelcard Zone 2, between Old Street and Barons Court on the Central London Railway (CLR). It is about 200m away in Westminster Bridge Road from the other main Olympia railway station, which serves London Overground, Southern and Gatwick Express. The Great Western Main Line runs parallel to the CLR to the south for much of its length but levels out as it reaches Olympia. Kensington [or Kensington (Olympia)] is an underground station in Kensington, London.
The station is served by the District and Circle lines, between High Street Kensington and Gloucester Road stations. It lies to the north of Kensington High Street and to the south of Harrow Road at the eastern end of Kensington Gardens. The station is currently only served by Chiltern Railways services, and lies just 1 mile 12 furlongs (3 km) from London Marylebone. The brick sized station building was also demolished to make way for a new building that serves both the Tramlink stop and a new surface Car Park which replaced the multi-story car park.
As you can see from the Google Street View image to the right, Addison Road Tube Station has undergone significant changes. This is a result of the station being closed in 1996 and being completely rebuilt as part of the Kensington Gate development which features a mixture of shops and residential properties. An artist's impression of the proposed station building at Addison Road, Kensington Olympia (final plans have it as Kensington (Olympia), and the main entrance is now on the other side).
The station was opened on 1868 by the Metropolitan Board of Works as "Fulwell". The name was changed to "Kensington" on 1 October 1872. [. Wikipedia claims that its years of operation equal that of. The tornado had a maximum wind speed of between 100-110 mph and formed in the vicinity of Manor House station (which was also struck by the tornado). The tornado went from Manor House, east along Chamberlayne Road and then towards Kensal Green station where it lifted.
Kentish Town
I don’t know why, but I always feel like tube stations are a good place to write. It’s like some weird fiction that you’ve stumbled into with all the facts of this world, but the details blurred and slightly different somehow. They make a handy escape from the busy London streets outside and into a dark, wonderfully quiet respite from the hordes of people going about their lives. Sometimes I find myself thinking too much in them though.
Like right now. There are clear advantages to living in the middle of nowhere when you can go for hours without seeing another human being, just walking on fields and through empty woodland. But then there is no stimulation at times, no memories, no old friends or acquaintances. Just. A few years ago, I was walking from Kentish Town Station along Southampton Road when I walked past a set of stairs that appeared to be going nowhere.
Turned out the staircase led to some disused tunnels, which in turn led to this area which is somewhere under Kentish Town High Street. It's been in use for several years ("smack labs"), although I found it first and so have never caught anyone there. Not that it was open to begin with, it's off a residential road and I only found it by getting lost one night. There seem to be several small black holes scattered throughout North London.
I remember being taken aback when I discovered that there used to be a tube station between Kentish Town and Camden Town, deep underground beneath an existing road; complete with platforms, lifts and a long escalator disappearing into the dark. I would love to have seen the plans they had drawn up for its re-opening. Back then in 1963, you could have travelled from South Kentish Town on the Northern Line to Muswell Hill on the Piccadilly line.
Kilburn
So called after the station in London, Kilburn today is a busy and lively neighborhood with its fair share of bars and clubs. But it’s the "station" that really sets this place apart from other neighborhoods in DC. And while at first glance the neighborhood might appear to be nothing more than your average, run of the mill suburb of Washington DC, there’s actually much more to it. Particularly if you look beyond some of the ugly architecture (think: tan strip malls & massive 7-11s on every corner) that plague most American suburbs.
In fact there are over a dozen amazing restaurants in the neighborhood that I recommend checking out. The platforms were cut back during electrification in 1914, there was a royal visit in 1935, and Luftwaffe bombs damaged the station during the Blitz in 1941. In fact a bomb from September 1940 almost completely destroyed the westbound platform and required it to be rebuilt using the same white tiling as before. It's also sobering to note that, on one occasion an electric wire brushed against the roof of an arriving train and killed the driver.
The worst incident at Kilburn occurred during the morning rush hour on 10 May 1950 when a tunnel collapsed under the running line, killing 90 people. At night Kilburn station can be particularly dangerous and quite frankly terrifying. Okay so there is no one there and I am alone, but my brother has claimed several times to see the ghost of a boy in a cap on the Circle line platform. A girl I knew used to travel this route while she worked nights at a local bar and she would sometimes see an eerie woman with a shopping trolley sitting on the platform.
Today Kilburn is known for the wide range of cultures that call it home and the thriving independent retail scene. The area has a real international feel to it, probably because of its station. It’s hard to find authentic Mexican burritos this far north on the underground line. That would have been an interesting journey to say the least. I live in much the same way. Kentish Town at heart is another swathe of urban living, like so many other areas, that was once home to working classes, and now has become gentrified.
Kings Cross St. Pancras
The shortest lift shaft on Underground is at both ends of the system. The first one is a vertical lift from platform 2 to hall 1 at St. Pancras, however this is normally used for service staff. Pleasure-seekers are a little more restricted to head up the lift shaft at Kings Cross and exit onto street level! I'd love to do it, but with a scaredy-cat like me at the helm I don't think it'll be happening any time soon.
The station opened as the last part of the initial section of the NB&R, from Farringdon to Holborn Viaduct on 22 January 1874. On that date trains of the Metropolitan Inner Circle service began running over the line via Greyfriars to the City of London. Between 1914 and 1916, as part of works to widen the station, a new set of lifts was installed in the Downs Link with additional entrances and exits. It's not really a secret but it's amazing that only 2 DLR cars can fit in this lift shaft.
The whole area was so tight it was known as 'The Mouse's Back'. Also, the old British Rail stations in Wood Lane and Euston were both used briefly as the Underground's surface headquarters from 1902 until they were decommissioned in around 1913. The shortest lift shaft on the network is in Kings Cross St. Pancras tube station. At 2. 3 metres long, it’s just 80 centimetres shorter than the second-shortest lift shaft at Woodford (2.
Kingsbury
Kingsbury is a London Underground station on the Jubilee line in Zone 4. The station opened on July 5, 1932. The Metropolitan Railway built the railway, but had to stop work on the extension of its Stanmore branch after only a few miles due to financial difficulties caused by the collapse of the timber trade in 1917. The surface building is concealed by a blue tiled cube which was designed by architect Charles Holden. The vast majority of Kingsbury residents, myself included, were not particularly happy when this happened.
We felt that moving to the Bakerloo Line would make trips to Piccadilly Circus and the central areas of London quicker and easier (it actually did, but only marginally). However, most of us have now reconciled ourselves to our fate. West Brompton is a London Underground station in the area of West Brompton approximately 3 minutes walk from the main shopping area of Fulham Road and is located in a cutting between two roads, North End Road and Salusbury Road.
The station lies in Travelcard Zone 2. Kingsbury is a fascinating area. A series of underground tunnels, the tube station is at the heart of this small London neighbourhood. There are many places in our capital that might be easy to pass by, but this place and its history is well worth a visit. Bedford Park station is located in London and was originally on the Metropolitan Line, before being transferred to the Bakerloo Line, and finally landing on the Jubilee Line.
Knightsbridge
We had the pleasure of being at Agent October recently and were told how Knightsbridge used to be the worst traffic in London. Everyone who shopped there would clog up the already horrendous congestion which costs big money for businesses. The solution they came up with was an underground passage just for Harrods’ customers; all beautifully finished with stone and wood panels, etc. Curiously enough, when we took the lift to Harrods, it came out right next to our event.
Without traffic lights, Harrods would have been gridlocked. It’s builders established one of the first ever traffic calming systems to direct and regulate vehicle movement. There’s a variety of systems in use – chicanes, mini-roundabouts or islands in the road. Now every road builder builds these in. London’s Knightsbridge was at a traffic standstill one day, so Harrods went ahead and created its own exit. Now, this might not sound like such a big deal — until you consider that it was just for Harrods.
The multi-billion dollar project to create a new underground connection between the West End and Knightsbridge has been hailed as a major step towards relieving congestion in the West End. Due to the huge amounts of traffic (the store receives 90,000 visitors a day) and the stores popularity, in 1986 they had to build an exit that opened directly into Harrods itself. Was originally on the Metropolitan Line, before being transferred to the Bakerloo Line, and finally landing on the Jubilee Line.