On the Tube – London
Tuesday, 6 August 2024I spend a lot of time riding the tube, the London subway system, when I’m in London. I’ve got familiar lines – the Piccadilly Line (I’m not an enthusiast), the District Line (much better), the Victoria Line, the Jubilee Line.
▲ And familiar stations, starting with the Earl’s Court Tube Station on Earls Court Rd – it’s on the District and Piccadilly line and it’s the station I use more than any other whether I’m heading for a night at the theatre or for a flight out of Heathrow Airport. It’s got architectural and historic interest, it opened as a station on the District Railway line in 1871 and in 1911 it was the first tube station to have escalators.
◄ At Gloucester Road, one station along from Earl’s Court, the artist Monster Chetwynd has this exhibition along a disused platform on the District Line. ‘Pond Life: Albertropolis & the Lily’ riffs on the nearby 1851 Great Exhibition in Hyde Park where gardener-turned-architect Joseph Paxton was inspired by waterlilies for his design for the Great Exhibition’s Crystal Palace.
▲ A salamander holds an Amazonian lily pad as a parasol.
▲ There’s lots of architectural interest at tube station entrances, like this statue of King Edward VII at the Tooting Broadway Station. Or the 1970 glass rotunda at the Warwick Rd entrance to the Earl’s Court Station.
▲ There’s plenty of architectural interest inside as well. I like the steampunk retro-futuristic style of the Westminster Tube Station. Although the station originally dates from 1868 the current design is from 1999 when the Jubilee Line was added here. This is where you disembark for the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Abbey or to cross the river past Big Ben to the London Eye ‘observation wheel’. I usually use Westminster Station to change from the District or Circle Line to the Jubilee Line.
◄ ‘An austere combination of concrete and stainless steel, with stacked banks of escalators supported from the cross-bracing structures’ according to Wikipedia.
▲ The Elizabeth Line at Bond St.
Since it opened in 2022 the Elizabeth Line quickly became the busiest railway line in the UK although technically it’s not part of the London Underground network. It runs out to Heathrow Airport – but so does the Piccadilly Line – and even further to Reading. It’s popular and has won architectural awards as well as being so busy.
