Underground

Tube Stop Baby: Chalfont and Latimer

June 3, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

Chalfont and Latimer just sounds posh as far as tube station names go. Posh and mysterious. That’s certainly what I always thought when I saw it on the list of stops when I was travelling on the Metropolitan Line in some of the lower numbered zones.

The station is actually located in Little Chalfont, and served “the Chalfonts” (that’s Chalfont St Peter, Chalfont St Giles and Little Chalfont) as well as the village of Latimer. Just the idea of a tube station serving a village still seems a bit weird to me. And a million miles from London!

Just like Chorleywood one station before it, Chalfont and Latimer is served by both the Metropolitan Line and Chiltern Railways. One different between the two stations though is that it is the station where Met Line services split to either go to Chesham or Amersham. There are a total of three platforms at the station, but only two of them are generally used.

As is the case at Chorleywood, Chalfont and Latimer was served by steam services up until the electrification off the line north of Rickmansworth in 1960.

If, like me, you’re a bit of a geek for anything vintage and technical then you might be interested to know that whilst at Chalfont and Latimer it is worth looking out for the K8 phone kiosk that sits on one of the platforms.

Housing London Underground telephony, it is painted a nice maroon colour to fit in with the colour scheme at the station. These 1960s phone boxes where obviously more commonly seen in the standard red livery on Britain’s streets, but nowadays they are somewhat rarer. I’m told there are a few more to look out for on the Underground so I will try my best to capture them too. If you want to know a bit more about the K8 Kiosk though this page gives you a good overview of the design that went into them and efforts to preserve them today.

Tube Stop Baby Facts – Chalfont and Latimer

Date of visit: 16 March 2019

Underground Line(s): Metropolitan

Zone: 8

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

Tube Stop Baby – Waterloo

January 10, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

Waterloo is the first of our tube stops that we technically have “done”, but have in reality no way “done”.

Let me explain what I mean. Tube baby has been to Waterloo. We arrived there on foot after a walk along the South Bank and we even stopped for a coffee and sandwich (and her some milk) at the Costa on the concourse. But, at the same time I feel like we haven’t even really scratched the surface at Waterloo, and we really need to go back there and do the station justice.

I know we are visiting tube stations here, but in the cases where the tube stop is at a mainline station I don’t really think you can ignore the mainline station. Especially when, as is the case with Waterloo, you’re talking about the busiest national rail station in the UK.

Our visit just involved a trip down to the Jubilee Line where we then took the line east, along which I still refer to as the Jubilee Line Extension, in the direction of Stratford. Before heading underground we did take a quick look at the work being done where the old Eurostar platform were there, but at that stage we were all hungry and it was only a very quick look over the barriers.

I’d really like to go back and look properly. Try to understand what has been done, compared to what was there when I last took the Eurostar from there to Paris. Look at some of the history of the station and the old architecture that has been incorporated into the current station design and layout.

Waterloo actually has the Bakerloo and Northern lines running through its underground station, in addition to the Jubilee. There’s also a certain tube line that terminates there that I want to travel along. The only one I haven’t yet been on. The Waterloo and City Line. For that reason alone there will be a return trip to Waterloo as part of this challenge.

Tube Stop Baby Facts – Waterloo

Date of visit: 3 January 2019

Underground Line(s): Bakerloo, Jubilee, Northern and Waterloo and City

Zone: 1

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

Introducing Tube Stop Baby

January 1, 2019 by Penny 2 Comments

Sometimes you have a crazy idea, convince yourself it’s genius, then the next day realise that it’s actually a bit too bonkers, even for you. That’s pretty much what happened with my Tube Stop Baby plan. But, without the last stage. The Tube Stop Baby challenge is on!

Inspired by the likes of Geoff and Vicki from All the Stations, and also Louise from Little Heart Big Love (who, with her husband and daughter Jessica visited all the gold postboxes that were painted to celebrate the London 2012 Gold Medal winners), we decided that Little Miss D needed a challenge of her own. And seeing as she’s my and Bonn’s daughter it had to be a train related one. All the National Rail stations seemed a bit much for a baby, but the London Underground should be a bit more manageable. Living not that far from London we’re often there – either for work or pleasure – so taking LMD with us isn’t exactly difficult.

So, that’s exactly what we’re planning. For her to visit all the stations on the London Underground – and hopefully be the youngest person to do so. Not that I’ve researched if there is any such record, but then again we’re just doing this for fun, so it doesn’t really matter.

Looking at the tube map, we might even extend it to include all the stations on TfL Rail (if you know what that is!) and London Overground too. Maybe even the tram and the Emirates Air Line if we find the time.

We’ll document it all here on Penny Travels, and have also set up up her own Instagram account too (Tube Stop Baby if you’re interested in following).

It’s all a bit crazy, but after the year we’ve just had that seems somewhat appropriate for us and her. Hope you’ll join us for the journey!