80.Regent's Park

Saturday 14th February 6.40pm

I don't think I really even knew this station existed, for several reasons really: it's on the Bakerloo line, which I've never really got to grips with; it has no surface buildings so if I'd walked past I'd have assumed it was something to do with Great Portland Street station which is just up the road; and anyway, if I wanted to go to Regent's Park I'd walk from King's Cross. But no, there it is.

It's one of those stations with the name spelt out in tiles on the wall, which always looks great, although clearly they were put up before the apostrophe was invented:

Wikipedia entry here.

79. Kew Gardens

Saturday 14th February 5.00pm

This is one of those stations that seems to exist to serve just one purpose (unless of course you live there). I've only been to Kew Gardens once, and so I remembered the station and I especially remembered that the area outside it is ridiculously twee, with those ridiculous shops that sell lovely gorgeous but completely pointless things. It must be the only underground station with a garden centre outside it. It's also an Overground station, which causes me no end of confusion, despite them being completely different services.

Wikipedia entry here.

78. Royal Oak

Saturday 14th February 10.00am

This was another one of those one-stop-from-where-I-needed-to-be stations, and as I had time to kill and because it was a sunny day -which is why the top half of the sign is in the shade - I decided to take a detour.

There's not much to it - just an island platform with wooden stairs to a small ticket office, which was unmanned and so underused on a Saturday morning that the barriers were open. It's built onto a bridge and as you come out there's a big barrier stopping you wandering into the traffic, but also stopping you getting a good look at the station itself.

Disappointingly it's not named after a great big tree that was cut down to make way for the railway, but after a pub.

Wikipedia entry here.

77. Caledonian Road

Saturday 17th January 5.05pm

I had absolutely no reason to be here but I had 55 minutes to spare before my train home and knew I could tick this off my list in 25 minutes. I'd been intrigued by a glimpse of some tiling I got when I went through this station the previous weekend:

It's not in keeping with the station's other tiling and I'm guessing from that green colour that it's a 70s/80s addition. It's right next to the lifts and I wonder if it's a local landmark, but as I left the station I couldn't see anything like it. They probably knocked it down to build flats.

Here's the name on the wall in tiling, which I love:

And because I was standing outside the station for a bit waiting to cross the road I took a picture of the front:

Wikipedia entry here.

76. Elephant & Castle

Saturday 10th January 1.30pm

I'd been meaning to tackle this for a couple of months but was glad I saved it until the daylight as it's another one of those stations with loads of exits, which just comes out onto a roundabout with no visible landmarks. Despite having a map I wasn't confident I was going the right way until I came across a signpost. I didn't even get to come out through the old bit of the building (or even see it), so I feel like I had a disappointing experience of this station.

Wikipedia entry here.

75. Arsenal

Saturday 10th January 11.20am

I had absolutely no reason to be in this station, but over the Christmas holidays I'd been talking to friends about it and it sounded so interesting I wanted it to be one of the next ones I ticked off my list. I've got a 1958 Tube map on which it is referred to as Arsenal (Highbury Hill) but it actually began life as Gillespie Road and that name is still on the tiling on the walls:

I really like the front of the station too, with the huge roundel:

They should do that more often, and I think one of the modern or refurbished stations has got something similar on the glass front but I cant remember which one it is now.

It's got a long ramp down to the platforms rather than stairs, and because it's busiest when there's football on, when the majority of people will go the same way at the same time, the corridor is divided with metal railings that almost look like a cage to separate football supporters from other travellers. What a really interesting station.

Wikipedia entry here.

74. Manor House

Saturday 10th January 11am

I didn't even know this existed until I was looking for a station near enough to Arsenal to walk from, and didn't fancy Finsbury Park after all the rail chaos they've had there lately. Turns out it's at the other end of Finsbury Park, so I had a nice walk.

It does have a surface building but it seems to be built under a crossroads so it's got lots of exits and I came out of it from a subway rather than the building itself, so I've no idea if that was interesting or not. I find those multi-exit stations a bit baffling because although each exit is always labelled with a road or a local landmark it does rather rely on you knowing where you're going, or knowing north from south, and there are never any maps handy near the exits.

Wikipedia entry here.