96. Finsbury Park

Saturday 8th August 11.55am

I did the stations either side of this early in the year but avoided this one as the memory of the Christmas overcrowding fiasco was still fresh in my mind, which left this rather out on a limb so it was nice to have a legitimate reason to be there. It turns out to be one of those stations that's too big to love - as well as the Tube there's the Overground and National rail trains, and there's a bush station nearby as well - you can't serve all those people with any charm, and it doesn't. The front entrance looks modern and impressive so inevitably I left by a side entrance which was less crowded and older.

Wikipedia entry here.

95. Turnpike Lane

Saturday 8th August 11.50am

This is another 1930s station, built, along with the remaining stations to the end of the line, at the time of an extension to the Piccadilly line, and while I can see that the curvier ones are beautiful this big box of a place made me go "wow!". It's a big cube, partly submerged, so the ticket office area is huge and open - the ceiling and most of the walls aren't cluttered with stuff so it's quite plain but all the more impressive for it. I wish I'd taken pictures, but I'm still shy about being the man taking pictures of Tube stations.

There's a pair of short escalators to the platforms which has up-lighters between them, which you occasionally see elsewhere but not often, and at the bottom of the escalators there's two more up-lighters. It's really quite beautiful and I need to go back and take some pictures.

Wikipedia entry here.

94. Wood Green

Saturday 8th August 11.40am

Before I went here I had no idea where Wood Green is - if pushed I might have thought it was at the end of the Central Line in Essex, or confused it with Wood Lane in West London. Turns out it's near Alexandra Palace in that bit of London that I would probably think of as Hertfordshire (but clearly I'd be wrong).

It's one of those 1930s stations that has maintained pretty much all of its original features and character, like this rather beautiful sign on the platform:

And this air vent:

The ticket office is nicely curved as it's on a corner site, and it looks great from the outside too although it's slightly overshadowed by all the other stuff around it now - I imagined it looked quite striking when it was first built. It's a pity it's on a crossroads and is difficult to photograph from the outside.

Wikipedia entry here.