Category: London Station by Station

Special Post: Baker Street

INTRODUCTION

This post is the fifth in a series I am running on this blog providing a station by station guide to London.

HISTORY, ASTRONOMY AND DETECTIVES

Baker Street was one of the original stations that opened in 1863 as The Metropolitan Railway, the world’s first underground public transport system, on January the 10th 1863. Those platforms, two of 10 at that station (the most on the entire system) to be served by underground trains, are still in service today, and have been restored to look as they would have done when first opened. Ironically, they are no longer served by the Metropolitan line, which uses two terminal and two through platforms just to the north of the originals, its tracks joining those of the Hammersmith and City and Circle lines just east of Baker Street. By way of explanation I turn to Douglas Rose’s London Underground: A Diagrammatic History


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The other two lines that serve this station are the Bakerloo and Jubilee lines. Baker Street is a division point between the old and new Jubilee lines – south of Baker Street is all new track, northwards old, dating from 1939, when it was opened as a branch of the Bakerloo, taking some of the strain of the Metropolitan by taking over services to Stanmore and assuming sole responsibility for intermediate stops between Baker Street and Finchley Road, and also between Finchley Road and Wembley Park. When the Jubilee opened in 1979 it comprised the old Stanmore branch of the Bakerloo and three stations south of Baker Street.

Reverting temporarily to the Metropolitan, those four platforms at Baker Street, from which trains go to a variety of destinations developed from what started as a single track branch going only as far as Swiss Cottage. It grew out of all recognition during the tenure of Edward Watkin, who saw the Metropolitan as a crucial link in his plan for a railway system to link his three favourite cities, London, Paris and Manchester. At one time, as my next picture shows, the Metropolitan went far beyond it’s current reach…

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Baker Street is home to Madame Tussaud’s and the London Planetarium, both of which merit a visit.

Of course, no post about Baker Street would be complete without something about it’s most famous ever resident, Mr Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective.

I am an avid fan of the great detective, having read all the original stories and many modern stories that feature the great detective. As well as owning a respectable collection of my own, I regularly borrow books about this subject from the libraries that I use…

A remarkable recent find.
A remarkable recent find.
The great originals.
The great originals
Some of my modern Holmes stories.
Some of my modern Holmes stories.

To end this post, along with my customary hopes that you have enjoyed it and that you will share it, a couple more maps, first a facsimile of the original Beck map of 1933 and then for comparison a facsimile of the 1926 Underground Map…

When Beck first produced a prototype of this map in 1931 his superiors thought that no-one would like it - but eventually they agreed to a trial of it in 1933, and now every public transport system in the world uses schematic diagrams of this type.
When Beck first produced a prototype of this map in 1931 his superiors thought that no-one would like it – but eventually they agreed to a trial of it in 1933, and now every public transport system in the world uses schematic diagrams of this type.

When Beck first produced a prototype of this map in 1931 his superiors thought that no-one would like it - but eventually they agreed to a trial of it in 1933, and now every public transport system in the world uses schematic diagrams of this type.

Special Post: Russell Square

INTRODUCTION

This is the fourth piece of its kind, providing a deeply personal, station-by-station look at London. The previous three pieces focus on South Kensington, Tooting Bec and Aldwych.

RUSSELL SQUARE

Russell Square is served by the Piccadilly line and was one of the original stations on that line when it was opened in 1906. It is connected to the surface by lifts or stairs according to choice. It is the local station for the British Museum, but although I love that institution this is not the main importance of Russell Square in my life. Russell Square is also the local station for Great Ormond Street Hospital, where i was a patient for a very long time in my childhood. I managed by to be ill in way that they had never encountered before. They eventually worked out what had caused the illness by discarding all the impossibles and accepting that whatever was left (a previously unheard of reaction to a bout of chicken pox) however improbable it might seem had to be the answer. I eventually left the hospital for good 14 months (one sixth of  life to that period) after first being admitted.

There are three things I remember about this period. First of all, as a day patient in the last few months of my time at the hospital, it was during this period that I properly discovered London Underground, and began to develop an enduring interest in public transport. Secondly, it was as a patient at the hospital that I discovered my affinity for numbers, courtesy of the ward tutor, Don. Thirdly, I remember regular trips to nearby Corams Fields to get out in the open air.

Special Post: Aldwych

An account of the now closed Aldwych branch of the Piccadilly line.

INTRODUCTION

This is the third post in a series I have recently started on this blog, covering London station by station. the first one on South Kensington fared well, but the real encouragement came from the second on Tooting Bec, which I had not had any expectations for, but which attracted several likes (more than the place itself ever has then!). Therefore I am making my most ambitious effort of the series so far…

ALDWYCH: A STORY OF FAILURE

Aldwych, on a side branch of the Piccadilly line, south from Holborn, opened in 1907 and closed in 1994. By the end of its life this single track single stop branch had become very run down indeed (I travelled it not long before it closed). The problem was that the station did not serve anywhere the could not be reached conveniently from other stations, and since it ran as a shuttle service between Holborn and Aldwych (although there was a track link to the northbound Piccadilly to Cockfosters).

In the terms set for themselves by the people who made the decision to close this branch for good it had to be done. My argument is that those terms were wrong, viewing it only in terms of what was already there.

Although not especially useful itself, Aldwych could have been made to serve as a starting point because it was very well positioned for an extension into the poorly served areas of South East London and West Kent. This is the failure I refer to in my title: a failure of imagination, a failure to see potential.

Rather than swing the axe, Aldwych could have been changed from being a largely functionless endpoint to being the start point for new development.

Since it does not feature on current London Underground maps, having been closed since 1994, I take the opportunity to share Douglas Rose’s London Underground: A Diagrammatic History, with a shot focussing close in on the Aldwych branch…

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The full map, spread out.
The full map, spread out.
The key area.
The key area.

I hope you have enjoyed this post, and I ecnourage you to share it widely.

Special Post: Tooting Bec

Yesterday I put up a post about South Kensington, as possible start to a series about London, each post focussing on a particular station. Today I am going from a very well known destination (South Kensington) to a (justifiably) obscure one, Tootinbg Bec.

The station is served only by the Northern Line, was opened in 1926, and has two surface buildings, both faced with Portland stone, which face each other diagonally across a busy intersection. It is a ‘heritage station’ (just below being actually listed). It features in this blog only because it was the nearest London Underground station to the house in which I grew up. There were three railway stations at a similar distance from the hosue (Streatham, Streatham Common and Tooting)

At this distance in time my memories are restricted to the children’s bookshop (Bookspread) that was in between the station and our house, and the commons (Tooting Bec and Tooting Graveney commons) which were also on the route between the station and my house.

Special Post: South Kensington

EXPLANATION

This is a whimsy on my part. While I was out walking this morning I had an idea come to me about London, specifically as a public transport user covering London on a station-by-station basis (for those not terribly familiar with me, I grew up in London), and the one the came into my mind, partly because one of fellow bloggers is visiting London and will almost certainly be making use of this station was South Kensington. If it works well I will try to come up with others.

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South Kensington is served by the District, Circle and Piccadilly lines, the first two since 1868 and the third since 1906. As a destination it means one thing to me: museums. I cannot really say much about the Victoria and Albert, but the others, namely The Natural History Museum and the Science Museum are both old favourites of mine (there used to be a Geological Museum as well, but that has long since been amalgamated with the Natural History). Either would merit a visit, or if you are up for really giving the brain some exercise, you could do one in the morning, have lunch (a picnic in Hyde Park if the weather permits) and then do the second in the afternoon.

There is an underground passageway from the main station concourse to the museums, with clearly marked exits for each museum, or you can do the walk at surface level, passing some decorative wrought ironwork as you leave the station.

To complete the post I have two pictures of recent London Underground maps (actually the same map, but the second picture zeroes in on the central area)…

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