Tag: The Piccadilly Line

Special Post: Covent Garden

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest installment in my “Station by Station guide to London’. Previous posts in this series are available on this link.

MUSIC, MAPS, A MARKET AND A MUSEUM

Although Covent Garden is on the original 1906 section of the Piccadilly line it did not open for business until 1907. This may be because with being only about 300 yards from Leciester Square the need for an extra station there was not immediately obvious.

That said, as the title of thsi section implies, Covent Garden is a major destination. Access from the platforms to the street is either via lift or by climbing 200 steps (I generally choose this latter option btw since I am not a big fan of lifts).

The music part of the title refers to the English National Opera, housed in a splendid building in Covent Garden. I have not been there for good while but I remember enjoying a performance of ‘Simon Boccanegra’ there.

Covent Garden Market is well worth a look around. Also, adjoining the market, is the London Transport Museum, a place I have visited several times and which I thoroughly recommend.

Finally, as a map lover, I cannot mention Covent Garden without mentioning Stanfords, THE map shop. On the subject of maps I recommnend to those with an interest in such things the blog mapsworldwide.

Before I finish with a couple of pics, a couple of last comments:

1)I hope that you have enjoyed this post and that you will be encouraged to share it.

2)A reminder that previous posts in that series are can be seen here.

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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: 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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