A thread for mumsnet nerds to talk about the history of the London Underground (aka what's your favourite tube station)

[GetOrfMoiIand]

I spent a happy hour looking at this site www.abandonedstations.org.uk/

The history of the tube is fascinating, and I love travelling on it, it is so atmospheric (apart from when I am commuting within London and then I hate it with a vengeance like any normal person reserving special ire for the wanking Circle line).

Some stations feel really evocative - for instance Lambeth North looks as if it hasn't changed since the second world war.

Don't forget the now-defunct Necropolis train from Waterloo down to the Brookwood cemetery in Surrey; a train line just for the dead...

Ah yes Becky - there's a good novel about that by Andrew Martin.

I've seen maps on older trains which show it as a complete circle. Have you seen the YouTube video of the people who had a dinner party on a circle line train, complete with champagne and trestle tables (for what is a dinner party without a trestle table)?

Oh the Necropolis. What a wonderfully named line. Truly the last journey...

...and presumably no return tickets.

Here's my personal favourite station exterior at chalk farm

I really like the story of those fake house fronts. I just read Ben Aaronovitch's Whispers Underground, and because it's fiction assumed he made up all the stuff about the Met Line being built and fake house fronts. Clearly he did his research properly. Sorry Ben!

Yy, remember there definitely was a Necropolis Railway, thought to Kensall Green cemetary. It was something like half the height of a normal tube line, as corpses don't need to stand up .

.....and no need for "quiet" carriages

My favourite station exterior St James Park <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?start=90&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=653&tbm=isch&tbnid=2_8EchdRQMeJGM:&imgrefurl=www.flickr.com/photos/24772733%40N05/2557344424/&docid=DVWuzSTkK2GtHM&imgurl=farm3.staticflickr.com/2384/2557344424_4e68d759ea_z.jpg&w=640&h=637&ei=8zARUKyNI6qx0QWNo4CIAw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=229&sig=102107407687793110004&page=5&tbnh=148&tbnw=159&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:20,s:90,i:69&tx=22&ty=63" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">looks splendidly Gotham City-esque

I always loved Baron's Court because you could come in from Heathrow and stay on the same platform to change line.

info on the necropolis line. Love the badge!

tread barons court is a beauty from the outside too!

I loved St John's Wood station on the Jubilee Line as a child. Very atmospheric, they had wooden escalators and all the old brass fittings on them, including the brass lamps, and when you stand at the entrance to the station while a train is coming in or out of the station far below, you used to get a massive gust of wind in your face. Great fun as a child. My gran used to complain bitterly as it messed up her hair .

Haven't been there for years so I don't know if they've got rid of all the beautiful original features.

Loving that Necropolis Railway badge!

Love this thread. Used to live/work in London and have long been fascinated by history of the tube.

Didn't know Aldwych had closed! It was the station after High Holborn on the Piccadilly Line and basically ran from High Holborn to (surprise!) Aldwych (which sits at the City end of The Strand).

I love a good geek thread, and I've always had a thing about maps and the history of cartography. There was a fab programme on (?) BBC4 a while back about the history of the tube map. I think Nicholas Crane presented it. I was gripped.

Funnily enough the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title was the ghost stations. I'd love to do a tour. DH was on about riding the full length of all the tube lines in 24 hours but apparently you can't do it any more.

Anyone for a game of Mornington Crescent?

St John's Wood.

That's hoe I remember it anyway. Beautiful

Must dig out my book on Underground London. I've clearly misremembered all the info in the Necropolis Railway, and it's a shame as it looks fascinating.

Museum of London has old tube maps that chart rise and fall of tube stations.

For a period of my life I lived in rubbish flats in great locations across SW1 and SW7 and I used to walk to my job in a big department store in SW1 passing the abandoned brompton road and chelsea stations - beautiful Victorian stations.

GetOrf sorry you can't open it, I can so hope my ps isn't full of crap now. Anyone have contacts to arrange a visit? I would love to go especially Down Street

I love the history of the tube map as well, ans Harry Beck's design.

It is quite strange to see the tube laid out geographically (it is in the link on the second post on this thread).

Eric Gill created the typeface for the tube map I think - I was reading about it the other day

Wow this thread is taking me everywhere today... Googling, streetview, wiki pages....

And looked at brookwood cemetery and fancy a visit now!

Anyone looked at this - London Transport Museum...

You will all like this webpage then

www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2011/10/26/the-northern-line-tunnel-that-was-bombed-and-flooded-in-1940-and-is-still-sealed-shut/

twelveleggedwalk

I was a local for many years, so it could just be urban legend. Still I think my brother who worked there told me too.

Yes, the Bethnal Green tube disaster was an awful waste of lives. Even more awful that the reasons behind it were kept quiet for so many years, until very recently in fact.