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.

You mean you arent old enough to have never travelled on wooden escalators? They were commonplace in the 1990s.

You young uns have never lived. Wooden escalators were an engineeriial and carpeteerial masterpiece.

I didn't know that Brunel's dad was an engineering genius as well!

I love the holes in the wall and the uplighters in Westminster station. It is really impressive.

The new Blackfriars looks good as well - only from the train though as have not got off there.

GetOrf those wooden escalators probably were from the 1890s!

Very tragic ending to them though, as I'm sure you remember

As for Angel, the weird thing about them is that massive long corridor in the middle. So you come down one huge long escalator, then trek a mile and a half, then go down another long one. Bonkers. Should have a nice lift, like what we have at Belsize!

Saw a tourist taking a picture of an escalator at London Bridge not long ago. Was a bit , but then realised that actually, it was a really long escalator and quite probably the longest he had ever been on and maybe worth a picture.

I remember the wooden escalators. Can't remember which stations had them [geek fail] but I remember them.

I have also been on the Moscow underground - it is(was?) very glamorous, some of the stations have(had?) all white marble and chandeliers and so on! Beautiful. I was told that it was designed by British engineers, and they learnt from the mistakes of the London underground and did a better job in Moscow - but I don't know if that's actually true or not. It was certainly much more airy, less dingy, and a lot nicer than London Underground (I was there in 1992, so a lot could have happened in the intervening 20y!)

There's a map shop in a town near me and I'm not allowed to go in. I might buy lots of stuff I can't afford... :(

Actually while googling Angel I discovered City Road, which used to be between Old Street and Angel. I've gone past that building on my bike a few times and wondered what it was, because it's very thin and looks like it's been chopped in half. Wonder how you can go about seeing abandoned tube stations, LU would probably make a killing considering how many of us are fascinated by them! suspect the insurance costs would completely wipe out any profits though.

I just assumed that they ripped all the wooden escalators out after Kings Cross.

I first went on the tube in 1995 (I know). First journey = Barking to Holborn

That would be "engineering and carpentry".

My favourite is Stockwell, merely because the northern line and the victoria line platforms are next to each other, going in the same direction. So say you're changing from Northern line heading north onto Victoria heading north, you just walk across the platform not bleeding well traipse around for five hours (I'm looking at you, Bank, recently refurbished by morons Kings Cross and Green Park).

The Moscow metro stations are awesome - really really beautiful, with bronze sculptures, marble, chandeliers (in some, not all). Only problem is (when you're on the train) they only have the name of the station once, so if you miss it when arriving at the station, you're a bit screwed. NY subway stations are grim, but the trains are air conditioned (mostly) and incredible. And I like the whole local/express service thing. London should try that. Paris metro smells like pee

I think all these chaps break in the disused stations don't they?

My dd has a friend who is intrigued by old closed down industrial buildings - he has a portfolio of excellent photos, and he generally just clambers over walls.

MoreBeta - I'm afraid that your sense of time might have been mislaid again. I have a feeling that all the wooden escalators were taken out after the King's Cross fire and that was in 1989 or 1988, Certainly when I was at primary school.

The new Blackfriars is OK, but is nothing special really. Just quite clean. Could have been more interesting or more decorative.

I did look askance at engineeriial and carpeteerial but I thought you were just being a bit avant garde.

abs Mile End is just like Stockwell - the district and central lines are next to each other going the same way, so to change line you just get off the train, and walk 4 feet. It's brilliant. They should all be like that (would be impossible but still).

Paris metro trains have got wheels with tyres on.

I love tube as well.

And I LOVE the DLR. It makes me happy, because it looks all futuristic and has nice names like Mudchute, Island Gardens and Pudding Mill Lane.

lula the LT museum does birthday parties and quiz nights?! With prizes?!?! [books 40th birthday party]

on a different but similar note, I've always loved the discreet doors in big railway hotels that lead from the platform directly into the lobby of the hotel, so you could swish straight in, followed by a team of porters struggling under the weight of your hatboxes. There's still a door from the main concourse at Victoria station into the lounge area of whatever that Thistle (?) hotel next door is.

Something about architectural details leaving a trace of a more glamorous age give me a real geeky glow.

Abs and GetOrf Euston (Bank branch) is another; Victoria and Northern (Bank branch) side by usefully side.

Sorry I haven't read the whole thread as I'm far too busy reading the boring convos one but I did watch something a while back that was bloody fascinating . It was about the haunted stations & I found the experiences people had while in the disused stations stations really chilling.

I may have to buy that book that was on the link as its captured my imagination.

Anyway, as you were :)

And on the dlr you can pretend to ne the driver!

[Total saddo face]

Thumb my partner went to Moscow recently and he said the underground was still v nice. I was jealous.

He said the best one was Dostoyevskaya, it has scenes from Dostoevsky in it like the murder from Crime and Punishment. Apparently lots of people complained cos it made them depressed.

I love the geekiness of knowing where to change lines. Like Jubliee to Bakerloo, always always at Baker Street. Never, ever at Waterloo.

The Jubilee line is silver on the map because it was originally to be called the Fleet line (it crossed the old Fleet riverbed at some point) and they did silver as in 'fleet of ships'. Fact.

St Johns Wood tube still had wooden escalators in 2007 (last time I went there) so MoreBeta is right - the change to metal escalators happened quite gradually on the stations out of Zone 1, I think. Also I think certain stations are listed, St Johns Wood included, so probably very difficult to change escalators without jumping through administrative hoops, despite the danger.

Yes I watched that haunted stations thing.

Lots of interviews with cheeky chappys about their spooky experiences. They said that in certain areas of the tube there is a low radio frequency (or something) and that causes people to feel a sense of menace, discomfort and unease.

Lots of lovely footage of spooky tunnels. It was beautifully filmed.

and Oxford Circus has the northbound Bakerloo line platform right next to the northbound Victoria line, which makes the South London/Paddington journey a particularly satisfying one - change at Stockwell across the platform, then across the platform again at Oxford Circus.