A nice little video on The Times website takes us through Westminster tube station and explains some of the engineering wizardry that was needed to create the structure.

Okay, it’s a two minute video so it doesn’t go into nearly enough nerdy detail for me. If you want a more leisurely approach, there are some super pictures on the Metro-bits website.

And there is a marvellous article in the London Review of Books which analyses the architecture of each of the Jubilee Line stations – all built for the Jubilee line extension which was a Millennium project – as well as referring to the myth of Orpheus, Charon the ferryman of the dead, urban regeneration, and the classic Underground work of Pick and Holden (designer of marvellous suburban stations in fine modernist style).

Of course  the best thing you can do is buy a ticket and get on the Jubilee line yourself… maybe that’s a project for me, next time I have a spare day to spend!

Picture credit: Michael Underhill on 

Some

Post from: The London Traveler

You might know where Mornington Crescent is. It’s a tube station on the Northern Line, north of Euston.

The game involves each player naming a tube station, in turn. So it might go like this:

“Euston.”

“Morden.”

“Baron’s Court.”

“Cockfosters.”

“Mornington Crescent.”

And the first player to arrive at Mornington Crescent wins.

Now the confusing thing is the rules. There are all kinds of variants of the game. Trumpington Variations, for example. Or the Tudor Court Rules. Or Reverse Bidding, or the East Anglian variation.

You can object to other players’ tube stations for all kinds of reasons. And you can play various strategies, like the ‘Hamersmith jink’. But the real joke is that the ground rules are never explained, and indeed some people doubt that they exist.  (Which rather reminds me of the British class system…)

The game became so much a part of London culture that when satirist Willie Rushton, an expert player, died, a blue plaque was put up at Mornington Crescent station.

And you can play it with Paris metro stations, for instance. Or even with Moscow metro stations – there are Russian players!

But it’s the London game which is the original – and if you’re ever homesick for London, just listen to the clip of the game on the BBC website.

Photo credit – JB Parker on Flickr

Post from: The London Traveler

But in great British tradition (alas), the night ended in chaos and drunken shenanigans, with fights breaking out on the trains and six stations closed by police.

More detailed coverage from the Independent  if you can stomach it!

Post from: The London Traveler