The Anonymous Widower

Green Lanes Ventilation Station

The picture shows the ventilation station on the Piccadilly line between Manor House and Turnpike Lane stations.

Green Lanes Ventilation Station

Green Lanes Ventilation Station

Note that it actually looks like a station, although its purpose is only ventilation. According to Wikipedia, it was intended to be a station.

It was also planned to build a station between Manor House and Turnpike Lane at the junction of Green Lanes and St Ann’s Road in Harringay, but this was stopped by Frank Pick, who felt that the bus and tram service at this point was adequate. However, a ‘Ventilation station’, in similar architectural style to tube stations of the time was provided at the site, and is visible today.

But all we have today is the ventilation station!

Frank Pick’s assertion about the buses and trams probably doesn’t hold today, as although the 29s and 141s are fairly numerous, they can get crowded.

The gaps between stations is long too and there is a plan to move Manor House station to the Victoria line and build a new station underneath Harringay Green Lanes station. I doubt it will happen in the near future. If ever!

January 11, 2013 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , | 6 Comments

Moorgate Gets Ready To Welcome Steam Trains

On Sunday, London s celebrating one hundred and fifty years of the Underground.

Moorgate Gets Ready To Welcome Steam Trains

Moorgate Gets Ready To Welcome Steam Trains

A steam train will run through to Moorgate from Kensington Olympia.

January 11, 2013 Posted by | Transport/Travel | | Leave a comment

Irene’s Law – Estimating Tube Journey Times

I may have talked of this before.

If you want to get an estimate of how long a journey will take on the London Underground, you count the number of stations and multiply by two, before adding five for every interchange.

That is then an estimate in minutes as to how long a journey will take.

My mother and I used to do quite a few long journeys on the Tube and it may have been something that she developed to keep me interested in the journey.  We certainly always played lots of mental arithmetic games all the time. But then she’d been a comptometer operator at Reeve’s in Dalston and that was a job all about memory and mental and manual dexterity.

Incidentally, with the introduction of the Harry Beck map for the Tube, the counting became a lot easier, so was this law something that evolved as people learned to use the new map?

Incidentally, most of our journeys were up and down the Piccadilly line, where because it is long with lots of stations, the rule will work pretty well.

The rule seems to work for the DLR and the Overground too!

January 11, 2013 Posted by | Transport/Travel | | 13 Comments

Wish Me Luck!

I’m leaving soon to go to Charlton to see Ipswich play.

How I’ll get there I’m not sure of at present, as ASLEF are having their usual Christmas party, a day late.

I think if London had a referendum on driverless trains, there’d only be one result.

December 26, 2012 Posted by | Sport, Transport/Travel | , , , | 3 Comments

What A Load Of Old Rubbish!

This sculpture is by Canning Town station.

What A Load Of Old Rubbish!

What A Load Of Old Rubbish!

But it does have a rather unusual charm.

December 23, 2012 Posted by | Transport/Travel, World | , , | Leave a comment

Canning Town Has A Flying Rat Problem

I photographed this mess at Canning Town station.

Canning Town Has A Flying Rat Problem

Canning Town Has A Flying Rat Problem

They need to get the eagle out to deal with the flying rats. A wash and brush-up would be helpful too!

December 23, 2012 Posted by | Health, Transport/Travel | , , | Leave a comment

Sex On The Underground

What would Mary Whitehouse have thought about these two posters at Angel station?

On the other hand, who’s to know what Mr. and Mrs. Whitehouse got up to in the privacy of their own home.

I’m a bit surprised that the web site sexytimesRus.com is using that URL. Perhaps, they are expecting to be sued, so they get a lot of free publicity.

December 23, 2012 Posted by | Transport/Travel, World | , , , | Leave a comment

Avoiding The Rain

I went to the football at Ipswich yesterday and the rain was so bad, I didn’t feel like walking to the bus stop to get a 141 bus to Liverpool Street station.

So I walked to the closest stop and got a 56 bus to the Angel. It wasn’t any better there.

A Very Wet Angel

A Very Wet Angel

But at least I got there in the dry and was able to walk into the Underground, to get a train to Liverpool Street with one change at Moorgate station.  Normally, I’d have walked from Moorgate, but it was just that wet.

Coming back, the weather was just as bad, so I used an unusual route to keep dry.  I took a Metropolitan line train to Barbican station and caught another 56 back to my house.

At least the rain seemed to have abated slightly in Ipswich, but the game wasn’t a good one. There were so many mistakes and I suspect precise control was difficult. So many simple passes were missed by both sides.  Perhaps football yesterday was summed up by the result at Peterborough, where the home side beat Bolton by five goals to four.

December 23, 2012 Posted by | Sport, Transport/Travel | , , , , , | Leave a comment

How To Rip Off Amazon?

With all the fuss about the tax Amazon doesn’t pay I like this advert.

How To Rip Off Amazon?

How To Rip Off Amazon?

It’s boldly displayed in Angel station.

Rekindle is defined in a dictionary as to arouse or cause to be aroused again.

December 7, 2012 Posted by | Transport/Travel, World | , , , , | Leave a comment

What Goes On Near Here?

This tiling is at Oval station on the Underground.

What Goes On Near Here?

What Goes On Near Here?

We need more art on the Underground and generally in public!

 

 

December 7, 2012 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , | 4 Comments