Tag: london underground

  • Just over a week ago I published a feature on the new pictures at Oxford Circus tube which featured the history of escalators on London’s underground. One curiosity was the fact all the pictures were in chronological order other than the final three which were set out as 1976, 1950 and 2014 (that’s in the…

  • Work on the down northbound escalators at Oxford Circus is accompanied by a novelty rarely seen at any escalator work on the tube. This is a photomontage of images depicting escalator history and building. While this has been done at one, maybe two, other tube stations, this particular exhibit includes a photograph of London’s only…

  • Sir Roundlington is a name you’ve probably never heard of. He was supposed to be a new TfL mascot, but he didn’t make the cut. Other examples of short-lived mascots include Wilfred the bunny, who failed to make the cut in the 1920s. Sir Roundlington is probably the least well-known, and after being deposed from…

  • ‘The Deep’ apparently was the nickname for the Southwark deep level bomb shelter sited within the City and South London Railway’s former tunnels between Borough and London Bridge. The other end of this section at King William Street too was a bomb shelter however it was totally unconnected to Southwark’s thus the section of the…

  • Historical knowledge of rail vibrations London Underground has known for decades there is a problem with tube trains making noises. There have been complaints since the first trains ran underground in 1863. However that is probably something that was largely accepted in those days (just as there was soot, steam, heavy machinery continuously at work…

  • Briefly, this is an overview of the problems of tube trains running beneath the Barbican Estate in the City of London, and the huge noise nuisance that’s generated as a result. My post looks at the history of the estate’s tunnels’ construction and how things look today. It also looks at the noise blight which…

  • Remember the popular post Central Line: Beyond Caxton Road published more than two years ago? This is a follow up and its based around several old photographs of the area plus some of the latest developments at Westfield. The DIMCO buildings, which some will know were once part of the coal fired power station that…

  • A special post about the 1956 tube stock. Piccadilly Circus station staff sent a tweet (one of their earliest ones) in February of this year asking for information on a picture of a train at the station itself. Its a photograph I have seen before – but not in colour and certainly not at such…

  • Piccadilly Circus tube station, one of the busiest on the tube, certainly in terms of tourism, is also a station where the unusual happens all the time. I have written about the staff once before. They have indeed been doing something very unusual. This is their learning some sign language (BSL), no doubt because its…

  • Runaway tube trains #3

    The third part of the runway tube trains series. Waterloo & City, Island Line and other incidents are featured here. The first two posts covered incidents on the Bakerloo, District/Circle, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines. Waterloo and City Line Even the diminutive Waterloo and City line has had a runaway train episode – of sorts! During…