Tube Challenge

Tube Stop Baby – Great Portland Street

February 19, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

Just a short trip around from Euston Square (or a short walk up the Euston Road if you’re above ground) you come to Tube Stop Baby’s next station to tick off the list – Great Portland Street.

Above ground the station basically sits in the middle of a roundabout. But a very attractive roundabout if you’re a tube fan like myself. We didn’t manage a visit to the outside part of the station with Tube Stop Baby this time around, but I’m pretty sure we will return at some point. Possibly on a trip to Regents Park or nearby London Zoo.

Great Portland Street station is like its neighbours Euston Square and Baker Street in that it formed part of the very original Metropolitan Railway. The station has undergone quite a few identity changes though. It originally opened as Portland Road (1863), before later becoming Great Portland Street (1917). It hasn’t been the case ever since though. 1923 saw it become Great Portland Street and Regents Park although the Regents Park part was then dropped in 1933 and it went back to being Great Portland Street as we know it today. I had wondered if the Regents Park element of the title was dropped to tie in with the opening of the nearby Bakerloo line station of the same name, but a bit of research suggests that actually opened in 1906. I might need to do a tad more research to understand exactly what went on there.

Down at platform level the station has a really atmospheric feel to it (much like at Baker Street) mainly from the lights hanging from the ceiling. At the western end of the platform you can see daylight. Whilst this might be unexpected to some visitors it comes from the days when steam trains used to run along this part of the underground and they needed somewhere for the steam and smoke to escape.

This challenge so far is really showing me that I want to explore all these stations both above and below ground, but with Tube Stop Baby in a pram for most of the time this is quite a challenge at the moment as the tube network is far from fully accessible. It might just be that separate visits have to be made to each level of the stations for now!

Tube Stop Baby Facts – Great Portland Street

Date of visit: 10 January 2019

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

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 – Euston Square

February 15, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

Euston Square station used to be on my daily commute to university when I was a student in London. At the time it was a very nondescript station that you disappeared down into through a very plain looking entrance on the south side of Euston Road, at the top of Gower Street. Very occasionally a student night out might mean I had to take the equally nondescript entrance on the north side of the road and go through the underpass, but rarely. I never really looked at the station as a destination of any sort, but boy they’ve spruced it up since those days.

Euston Square was given a new entrance in 2006 on the south side of the road as part of the new headquarters of the Wellcome Trust building on the corner of Euston Road and Gower Street. There’s even lift access now to the Westbound platforms.

Euston Square is a bit of a strange station in that it so often gets confused with nearly Euston on the National Rail Mainline. Euston is served by some of the deep level tube lines, but the older cut and cover lines (Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan) are a short walk away at the separate Euston Square station. It’s not a long walk between the two (and the latest version of the tube map actually now shows the connection with a dotted line between them) but I always used to find confused tourists on the platforms trying to work out where their train to Manchester or Birmingham was going from. There has been lots of talk of creating a subway linking the two stations, and it may still happen, but as yet there are no firm plans to do so.

Euston Square was originally opened in 1863 as Gower Street station, which makes sense seeing as it is on the corner of Gower Street, but it was renamed in 1909 to give it the current name.

If you look carefully on the platforms there you will see some slightly different roundels in the tile work. Alongside the station name there are two roundels in solid colours instead of the traditional red and blue.

One is yellow and the other purple, and across the centre they say either Circle Line or Metropolitan Line. These date form 1983, before the time of the Hammersmith & City line, hence the fact that there isn’t a pink version.

I’m told that the only other place on the Underground where you see the name of a line on the bar of a roundel is Holland Park. I’ll have to try to remember to seek it out when we visit there.

Tube Stop Baby Facts – Euston Square

Date of visit: 10 January 2019

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

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 – Southwark

January 31, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

Southwalk was our final stop on a day of exploring some the Jubilee Line extension and for me it was a bit strange being back as I spent a summer working in the area once and getting out there every day for about 8 weeks. This was the first time I’d been back in a while and we used the opportunity to not only see the station, but also some of the area above ground as well.

When the Jubilee Line extension was planned, a station between Waterloo and London Bridge wasn’t included. Southwark station was only added after lobbying from the local council. The station though is actually west of the centre of Southwark which is served instead by London Bridge and Borough underground stations.

As you come out of the station and turn left under the railway line you can see the remains of the old Blackfriars station, which was later renamed Blackfriars Road to distinguish it from the modern day Blackfriars. Blackfriars Road was situated on the South Eastern Railway line between Charing Cross and London Bridge. Only open for five years (from 1864) it was replaced by Waterloo East.

As you walk along Blackfriars Road you can clearly see the old entrance to Blackfriars Station, as was, on the Charing Cross Railway.

Speaking of Waterloo East. On the tube map Southwark is marked as being an interchange station with Waterloo East and passengers can come out of Southwark, following the signs for Waterloo East and find themselves in a small no-mans land between the ticket gates for the Underground and ticket gates to go into Waterloo East. It has a bit of a feel of the area between two hostile countries that can’t quite agree on their border requirements.

Tube Stop Baby Facts – Southwark

Date of visit: 3 January 2019

Underground Line(s): Jubilee

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 – North Greenwich

January 28, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

Our exploring of the Jubilee Line extension continues with the station that was really the whole motivation for the extension – North Greenwich, home of what was formerly known as the Millennium Dome.

Now I’m old enough to have first moved to London before the Millennium Dome was open and it’s fair to say that at the time no one quite knew what to make of it. Yes, everyone wanted to celebrate the millennium, but no one was entirely convinced that the Dome would be finished in time, or that people would want to go and visit it.

I’m probably one of the few people who did make the trek to North Greenwich in the year 2000 and it was for the sole purpose of visiting the Dome. I came away feeling a bit meh, but having enjoyed the Blackadder screening in the building outside, which many people had described as a highlight of the trip. Looking back, it wasn’t really that bad at all, and I do seem to recall being quite impressed at the time by the huge human body that you got to walk through in one exhibit.

Nowadays, the Millennium Dome has been re-branded as the O2 and it’s a fantastic leisure venue with cinemas and restaurants alongside the major entertainment venue. I’ve been there on another occasion for a blogging conference, and we’ve also taken the older kids there when we took them for a ride on the Emirates Airline over the Thames (a trip I’m sure we’ll take Tube Stop Baby on one day too).

North Greenwich may be known now for the Dome, but the idea of an underground station in the area was first proposed way back in 1973, as part of what was then called the Fleet Line. The station would have been on part of the line from Charing Cross to Beckon via Fenchurch Street. The line got approval, but no funds, so North Greenwich station didn’t actually happen until the Jubilee Line extension got the go-ahead in the 90s with the route south of the river to Stratford in the East. The track layout at North Greenwich has been designed so that a future extension branch to Thamesmead is possible, but at present there are no actual plans to do so.

Knowing what there was to see and do, we took a trip above ground at North Greenwich. We may well return on a day that a bit warmer, and when the whole place isn’t swarming with people there for Disney on Ice! Until then though there’s the rest of the tube map to explore.

Tube Stop Baby Facts – North Greenwich

Date of visit: 3 January 2019

Underground Line(s): Jubilee

Zone: 2 and 3

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

Tube Stop Baby – Canada Water

January 24, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

Another stop along the Jubilee line extension, and another station that is this year celebrating its 20th birthday. Canada Water.

Canada Water is a station that I’ve actually wanted to visit since I first moved to London back in 1999, but not for the Jubilee Line running through it. Today Canada Water provides an interchange with London Overground at the station, but back when the station opened in 1999 it was an interchange with the East London Line. The East London Line was opened in 1869 and used the old Thames Tunnel (originally for horse drawn carriages) to take tube trains under the River Thames.

Before the line closed for refurbishment in late 2007 (after which it became part of London Overground) it used to use the same A class rolling stock as the Metropolitan Line. For years I’d lived on the Met line, and the carriages used to have line diagrams in for both lines as the rolling stock was shared between the two. I’d often sat on my daily commute into London and wondered what the East London line was like and planned to go and explore it one day. But sadly never made it.

Our visit to Canada Water with Tube Stop Baby just took in the Jubilee Line platforms. Here they share a large island platform meaning that as you come in you can see the other direction track across the platform. I’m told that this design (which also happens at Canary Wharf) was done so that in peak times both platforms (East and West-bound) can be used for trains going in the same direction to help share the load.

One random fact about Canada Water is that it once had the station name changed for a day. To coincide with the 2015 London Marathon, TfL took on its first external sponsorship of a station and all the roundels and other signs at the station were changed so that they read Buxton Water, as part of a sponsorship deal with Nestle. If you want to see more about what was done then I’ve found this video online that explains all.

As a modern station Canada Water is full accessible so if London Overground becomes part of our challenge (as I’m beginning to think that it might) then I’m pretty sure we’ll be back.

Tube Stop Baby Facts – Canada Water

Date of visit: 3 January 2019

Underground Line(s): Jubilee

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 – Bermondsey

January 23, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

So, Bermondsey. Stop number 4 on our trip around the underground, but not the most thrilling of the ones we’ve been to so far (at the time of writing we’re up to 14 stations).

Despite Bermondsey offering step free access we didn’t actually venture any further than the eastbound platform when we visited the station as part of our trip along the Jubilee Line extension. The simple reason being that we didn’t really have any idea what we might find above ground if we had decided to venture outside the station. A pathetic excuse really, but the truth all the same. One day we may return and see just what there is on the other side of the ticket barriers.

Bermondsey will be celebrating its 20th birthday this year (2019) as the station was opened as part of the extension to North Greenwich (and beyond) for the Millennium Dome. More on that when we visit North Greenwich itself.

I read that the rest of the station is quite impressive due to the futuristic design that was used on much of this part of the Jubilee line. Certainly the grey and metallic look on the platforms, combined with the platform edge doors, give it a feel a million miles away from some of the older tube stations that I am more familiar with.

I remember when the extension was opened and there was lots of talk about ow platform edge doors were the future and that one day they would be installed across the whole tube network. I have to admit that I’ve not read up on the subject recently, but it certainly seems that 20 years on they’ve not retro-fitted any to any other station on the underground network.

Tube Stop Baby Facts – Bermondsey

Date of visit: 3 January 2019

Underground Line(s): Jubilee

Zone: 2

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