Tube Challenge

Tube Stop Baby: Upminster Bridge

April 2, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

One more stop out on the District Line from Hornchurch we came to Upminster Bridge. Yet another station where we only got to see the platforms and having done my reading up on the station afterwards I’m really kicking myself that I didn’t do my research beforehand.

Upminster Bridge station it seems is famous for what everyone walks over on their way in and out – a swastika pattern formed in the cream and brown floor tiles in the booking hall. Dated (as you’d expect!) before the Second World War, this was actually a popular decorative design when the Art Deco ticket office was built before its opening in 1934.

Despite not seeing the street level part of the station, which is incidentally is below the platforms which are up on an embankment with stairs between the two, the platforms themselves are with further discussion.

Continuing the Art Deco theme from the ticket hall, the platforms themselves have more than a slight mod towards the design of that era too. Especially with the seating on the platforms.

What I can’t yet get to the bottom of is whether these are original or not. Searching online I keep finding photos of the platforms at Upminster Bridge with different, more modern style, traditional TfL seats on them, but I can’t work out if these were taken away and replaced with the Art Deco style ones, or if they’re just at different ends of the platform and both are there. This really is why I ought to do so much more research before these trips so I can check all the facts out for myself whilst there! If you know any more about this though then please, please leave me a comment down below.

What I am sure about at Upminster Bridge though is the fact that there is a central island platform serving both East and Westbound on the District line, and then the c2c fast tracks run next to the Westbound District line track.

Tube Stop Baby Facts – Upminster Bridge

Date of visit: 29 January 2019

Underground Line(s) – District

Zone: 6

If you want to know more about our Tube Stop Baby Challenge then pop over here and have a read.

Tube Stop Baby: Hornchurch

March 29, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

After visiting Elm Park we decided to continue along the line, away from central London, and made Hornchurch our next stop. This was a station where we didn’t have time to head outside of the station, although in this case I’m not sure there was that much to see out there either.

There is no step-free access at Hornchurch, although I am told that there are a pair of disused lift shafts connecting the platforms and the booking hall.

Down at platform level there are two platforms serving the District line that are positioned either side of the tracks – platform 1 for Westbound and platform 2 for Eastbound. There are also two disused platforms that used to serve the National Rail service through the station. This was withdrawn from Hornchurch in 1962, but the platforms remain physically there and you can see the c2c services passing through the station.

The District Line platforms do at least provide toilets and a waiting room on the Westbound platform, but otherwise there isn’t really much to comment on there. I believe the station was on a list of stations to be renovated by Metronet back before it went into administration in 2007. When responsibility moved back to TfL in 2008 Hornchurch was put into the “limited works” category, meaning that improvements would be made incrementally, following TfL’s need to preserve assets.

Tube Stop Baby Facts – Hornchurch

Date of visit: 29 January 2019

Underground Line(s) – District

Zone: 6

If you want to know more about our Tube Stop Baby Challenge then pop over here and have a read.

Tube Stop Baby: Elm Park

March 27, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

I’m not sure I even knew where Elm Park was until I took a good look at the Eastern end of the District Line on a tube map. Bonn had a job out that side of London and as Tube Stop Baby and I were at a loose end I decided to use it as an opportunity to tick a few more stations off our list. Elm Park jumped out as somewhere to start our adventure for the simple reason that it had step-free access. We manage to lift the pram up most staircases on the tube, but it’s nice not to have to!

I can’t lie about it. Elm Park isn’t exactly the most thrilling station I’ve visited on our tube travels. Opened in 1935 the station is situated between Dagenham East and Hornchurch and is in the London Borough of Havering.

The station has a central island platform, serving one track in each direction. There is then a long slope back up from the platforms to the ticket office (hence the stair-free access), which is on a road bridge over the railway line.

The slope leading down to the District Line platforms.

Outside the station we did spot a sweet addition in the form of The Hobby Shop Special. Looking like it may need a new coat of paint soon, this is the original work of Elm Park Primary School, with additional pictures behind from St Alban’s Catholic Primary School.

And for anyone keeping track of the labyrinths around the tube network, Elm Park hosts number 79, which is very easy to spot as you walk down the slope from the ticket office to the platforms.

Tube Stop Baby Facts – Elm Park

Date of visit: 29 January 2019

Underground Line(s) – District

Zone: 6

If you want to know more about our Tube Stop Baby Challenge then pop over here and have a read.

Tube Stop Baby: Kensington (Olympia)

March 17, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

Did you know that if you want to do the challenge of visiting all 270 London Underground stations in the shortest time possible, there are only certain days of the year that it is technically possible? This is all due to the slight anomaly that is Kensington (Olympia).

Situated at the end of a tiny little branch on the District line that goes up from Earls Court, Kensington (Olympia) station is situated right next to the Olympia exhibition centre. This is in fact the reason that Tube Stop Baby got to visit the station so early on in the challenge – I was going to Olympia for the Toy Fair as part of my work over on Penny Plays.

These days Kensington (Olympia) is only served by District line trains at the weekend, or when there are certain events on at neighbouring Olympia – the Great British Beer Festival being one of the most noteworthy reasons! This makes it the least served station on the whole of the London Underground. I could probably waffle on here about exactly when it is served, and why, but there’s a tube expert (and former world record holder) who can do that far better than I can!

It does pose a whole tonne of questions about just how long London Underground might keep serving Kensington (Olympia) or whether they might just leave it to the National Rail services that run to the other platforms there.

It’s a bit of a sad decline really for a station that in the early 1970s was planned to be the main London terminus for Channel Tunnel trains! Over the years services have run from there to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The station was served by milk trains and was also part of the Government’s Cold War plans in case of a need to relocate Government away from London. When Eurostar used to run into Waterloo, their trains used to pass through Kensington (Olympia) on their way to the North Pole depot and the station even had basic back up immigration facilities in case of an incoming train having to be diverted away from Waterloo for some reason. Up until 1981 the station was even a terminal for Motorail trains. These moved to Paddington, Euston and Kings Cross before being finally being withdrawn in Summer 2005. There’s still a small reminder of Kensington (Olympia)’s role in this part of British Rail history though as what was the terminal is now a car park and named “Olympia Motorail Car Park P4”.

For the sake of completeness I should note that we arrived and departed Kensington (Olympia) on London Overground seeing as the District line wasn’t running that day!

Tube Stop Baby Facts – Kensington (Olympia)

Date of visit: 22 January 2019

Underground Line(s) – District

Zone: 2

If you want to know more about our Tube Stop Baby Challenge then pop over here and have a read.

Tube Stop Baby: Paddington (Circle and Hammersmith & City)

March 17, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

Paddington is another station where there are technically two different stations – in this case located in different parts of the mainline station. Our first visit took us to the section that serves the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines, but there is a separate section serving the District, Circle and Bakerloo lines. You may well get a bit confused seeing the Circle line serving both Paddington underground stations, but this is only the case since the circle line stopped being an actual circle! Confused yet? You’re not the only one!

The station was originally called Paddington Bishop’s Road and was the termini of the original Metropolitan Railway. Its name changed to just Paddington in the 1930s.

Originally the station was just served by what became known as the Hammersmith and City line, but that changed to be the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines in 2009 when the Circle line was changed to include the branch between Edgware Road and Hammersmith. It was rebuilt in 2012 – 2013 so that it could accommodate longer trains and a new entrance into Paddington Basin was also added.

This Paddington Tube station may be a little further away from the main station concourse than the other one is, but if you’re going there and have not previously admired the splendour of this London terminus of the Great Western Railway then you really must. Designed by Brunel it really is a spectacular example of engineering grandeur.

And whilst you’re hanging around Paddington there’s a certain little bear that you really must go and say hello to.

We’ll back another day to venture into this part of Paddington – a whole separate world as far as a London Underground statism count is concerned!

Tube Stop Baby Facts – Paddington (Circle and Hammersmith & City)

Date of visit: 10 January 2019

Underground Line(s) – Circle and Hammersmith & City

Zone: 1

If you want to know more about our Tube Stop Baby Challenge then pop over here and have a read.

Tube Stop Baby – Edgware Road (Circle, District and Hammersmith & City)

March 7, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

Edgware Road is a station that catches people out in Zone 1. Mainly because there are actually two completely separate stations with exactly the same name!

In this particular visit with Tube Stop Baby we went to the original Edgware Road station that is on the Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines and that formed part of the original Metropolitan Railway. Confusingly, about 150m away, on the opposite side of the Marylebone Road, is a separate Edgware Road station serving the Bakerloo line. There have been various campaigns to change the name of the Bakerloo line station to avoid confusion, but nothing has ever come from these proposals.

Edgware Road (the one we visited here!) is a busy station with four platforms serving the three lines that it is on – Circle, Hammersmith & City and District. It used to be that it was the northern terminus of the District line and Circle and Hammersmith and City line trains would both pass through before diverging as they headed towards Paddington. All that changed though in December 2009 when the circle line stopped being a circle!

In 2009 the Circle line was extended to include the section from Edgware Road to Hammersmith, where just the Hammersmith & City line had served before. This means that trains now start at Hammersmith, go up to Edgware Road, pass through the station heading East towards Kings Cross and then continue around the old circle line loop before terminating when they reach Edgware Road for the second time. And then they do the whole thing in reverse!

It’s as confusing as anything, especially when you try to explain to a tourist that doesn’t speak good English that the circle line is no longer a circle, but the whole thing was done to try to regulate the service more. Never mind anyone that is confused in the process!

Also worth a look whilst you’re visiting Edgware Road is the cladding on the London Underground building next door. Called Wrapper it was commissioned as part of Art on the Underground and certainly brightens up the previously grey view as you was for a train.

Our visit to Edgware Road was only brief with us only staying long enough for a couple of photographs on the platforms. When I was a student in London this was my local station for a year and I remember it fondly. Situated in a cutting rather than a tunnel it always felt a bit like you were tucked away down there and coming out onto the street always felt so in credibly busy and a big contrast to being down at platform level. A second visit to the main part of the station is very likely to happen.

Tube Stop Baby Facts – Edgware Road (Circle, District and Hammersmith & City)

Date of visit: 10 January 2019

Underground Line(s) – Circle, Hammersmith & City and District

Zone: 1

If you want to know more about our Tube Stop Baby Challenge then pop over here and have a read.