13. Tottenham Court Road

Saturday 25th May 5.40pm

This is a station they ought to encourage you to avoid as it's currently a building site due to redevelopment as part of the whole Crossrail thing. [One day soon I will get very excited about that but first I've got a Tube network to get round.] It's hard to imagine that this busy end of Oxford Street, which used to be a crossroads and shops, is now a huge building site. Still, I bet the engineering is amazing!

It's another one of those central London stations I'd never use because it's so close to others - it's just a short walk from Leicester Square or Oxford Circus - and of course it's on the Northern Line, which is confusing with its different branches, which from this station doesn't stop at King's Cross. But it needed ticking off the list, and I had time before my train so why not?

It's a bit crowded and dated - the top of the escalators are surrounded by mosaic arches which looks cramped and overpowering and in need of a make-over - once it had character but now, in comparison to the anything on the Jubilee line it looks horribly old-fashioned. And down on the platforms it's looking tatty and half-finished, which is what it is really. I even saw a temporary roundel which said TOTTENHAM CT. ROAD, which was so inelegant I winced.

Wikipedia entry here.

12. Covent Garden

Saturday 25th May 2pm

This is the Tube station they don' really want you to use - for years you could only exit it on a Saturday afternoon, and they still suggest you use either Holborn or Leicester Square to avoid the crowds. So I always avoid it, but I wanted to check it off my list so I risked the crowds on a Saturday afternoon and do you know what, they weren't as bad as lots of other stations I've been through.

The main problem is the lack of escalators, meaning you have to queue for the lifts, unless of course you want to tackle the stairs - 193 steps, equivalent to a 15 storey building, which they warn you only to use in case of emergency. Now I'm a gym goer I was tempted to try them but thought better over it. Probably wisely.

There's some lovely tiling on the platforms:

Wikipedia entry here

11. Angel

Saturday 27th April 11.45am

I used this station quite often when I had a friend who worked near it and always loved its big wide platforms and the coolness of the marble - it never seems crowded and there's something quite relaxed about it. And of course it has the longest escalator on the whole underground network, although when you know that fact it's hard not to get on the escalator and feel just a little bit disappointed. But now I rarely have need to use it, only if I'm going to Sadler's Wells, and even then I might be tempted to walk as it's not that far from King's Cross and is a nice walk if the weather is good.

And of course it's got a great name hasn't it?

Wikipedia entry here.

10. Russell Square

Saturday 30th March. 4.45pm

There's no real reason for me to get off at Russell Square - the only thing it's near too is the British Museum, but actually it's close enough to King's Cross to walk - if you come out of the station and walk past the shopping centre you can see St Pancras hotel in the not very far distance. I basically got out here instead of Kings Cross as I had plenty of time and wanted to add another station to my list.

It's one of those rare stations that has no escalators, and as there are 175 stairs (equivalent to 15 flights) only someone who loves stairs or hates lifts would bother to climb them. Instead there's that awkward shuffling for and in the lifts, where nobody knows what to do or say but just stands around looking above each others heads until you reach the ticket office.

Outside it's one of those stations that's clad in those gorgeous ox blood red tiles they used for a while, which makes me wish more buildings were tiled instead of brick. It's also just a two story building with nothing built above it, which is rather overshadowed by the row of Victorian houses beside it.

Wikipedia entry here.

9. Leicester Square

Saturday 30th March, 4.30pm

This is probably the station I get out off most often when I'm in London on my own as it's right in the heart of the theatres, which is invariably where I'm going. It has at least three exits but the one I use most is on Charing Cross road next door to the Wyndhams Theatre, taking a left when I leave and heading towards Trafalgar Square, but only after you've battled your way through the tourists, theatre-goers and free paper distributors who gather round the top of the stairs. It's a good opportunity to scowl at them as you elbow your way through them, feeling like someone who has places to go, someone who knows the city. It's also got a nasty little corridor at the bottom of the escalators down to the Piccadilly line platforms that often gets overcrowded and can feel claustrophobic and potentially unsafe.

I've read enough stuff about the underground now to start spotting the details, and here it is the blue tiling at the top and bottom of the walls - whereas in other stations it would just be a solid colour reflecting the line it serves, here it is perforated like the edge of a film reel, acknowledging the many cinemas in the area. I love that there's still a place in such a huge organisation for such whimsy. (I tried to photograph it by the train had arrived at that point and in my haste it came out blurry.)

Wikipedia entry here.

8. Oxford Circus

Sunday 17th March 6pm

This is the fourth busiest station on the network, which is hardly surprising as it's in the middle of the busiest shopping street in the country. But it's a useful place to change lines, and really you shouldn't be on the Tube if you're afraid of a bit of crowds should you?

Some of the platforms have interesting murals on the walls and yet I managed to pick the one platform that doesn't! Above ground the station is clad in the beautiful ox-blood red tiles they were mad for at one stage but it's hardly the best place to stand back and admire them.

Wikipedia entry here

Update 5/7/2015: here's a landscape picture. That feels better.

7. Charing Cross

Sunday 17th March 10.30am.

Firstly, how wrong are the words "for Trafalgar Square" across that sign?? This kind of location thing is something I don't think I've seen anywhere else, and it doesn't appear on pictures of the Northern line platform at the same station - I wonder what's so special about the Bakerloo line platform that it gets this kind of sign? Having just read a book about design on the Tube it seems to go against their whole way of doing signs, and it's also not really in the spirit of the underground: I always think there's a certain arrogance to the Tube - it expects you to know where you're going, and to know that some of the stations aren't quite where you think they are and you might be better using another one.

Charing Cross is quite an interesting station historically as it was two separate stations that were joined into one, which would explain why at one end there's an entrance on Trafalgar Square and at the other you can get to it from the railway station. And yet somehow I managed to find an exit that was neither, and was somewhere on the Strand and involved a walk to the station.

I wouldn't normally use the station, because coming from King's Cross it involves a change, so it would be easier to get off at Leicester Square and walk, but I was meeting someone at Charing Cross, it was raining and I had the time so I did (and added another station to my list at the same time).

Wikipedia entry here.