114. Westbourne Park

Saturday 13th February 11.15am

I like the wooden building the roundel is attached to - very simple and straightforward, like the station really. The building itself is a single storey thing on top of a bridge and has nothing remotely fancy about it at all.

Wikipedia entry here.

113. Ladbroke Grove

Saturday 13th February 11.05am

I took an instance dislike to this station when I saw the roundel - it's one of those with a horrid addition to help tourists find their way. You don't see them very often which is probably what makes them so appalling when you do. It just seems to go against all the Tube branding and spoils the look too. I hate it.

On the plus side it's one of those elevated station with open air platforms, with stairs down to a ground level ticket office, which are common in this part of west London and which I think might be my preferred type of station if I had to pick a fantasy local one. The building itself is nothing special at all squeezed in between some shops.

Wikipedia entry here.

112. Tooting Bec

Saturday 12 December 11.45am

Finally a station that is a bit different - this one is on a crossroads so as well as the main station entrance there's one on the opposite site of the road which is basically stairs to a subway and a small newsagents, all housed in a far grander building than you'd expect, with three big glass roundels letting light down the stairs (which stupidly I forgot to photograph).

Wikipedia entry here.

111. Tooting Broadway

Saturday 12th December 11.30am

More nightmarish double-height lettering!

This is very similar to the other stations on this bit of the line as they were all designed by the same man. I can see the benefit of making them all the same - less work, identifiable brand, familiarity makes them easier to navigate - but it also makes them a bit samey and easier to pass through without noticing anything interesting in them. Shame.

Wikipedia entry here.

110. Morden

Friday 11th December 5.35pm

The southern end of the Northern line and also the most southerly station on the Tube network. I kind of feel that in some way that ought to mean the station is more spectacular, but it's just another building in a row of shops. The only weird thing about it is that there are platforms either side of the train so the doors open on both sides at the same time, although quite why I'm not sure. Just because they can I guess.

Wikipedia entry here.

109. South Wimbledon

Friday 11th December 5.30pm

I walked to this in the dark and came at it around a corner so I didn't get to see the impressive front at all. Inside it's very much like most of the other stations along this stretch of the underground: short escalators down to platform level with impressive up-lighters (which one day I'll take a picture of) then either a right of left turn to the north- or south-bound platforms.

I really don't like what they've done with the roundel though - it's not just that it's on two lines so it makes the central bar too wide, they haven't kept the circle the same size so you see less of the central white bit - they've just made it the same as all the other roundels so it's not actually a proper circle! Oh dear, oh dear.

Wikipedia entry here.

108. Colliers Wood

Friday 11th December 5.15pm

That horrid wooden framing around the name really grates on me and yet it keeps turning up in so many different stations south of the river! At some point I'm going to buy some wood and make a copy of it just to prove how home-made it looks!

Elsewhere in the station there's still some old signs:

I'm guessing at some point the colour of the Northern line was brown rather than black, or perhaps they just weren't bothered about these things?

Wikipedia entry here.

108 station means I've now covered 40% of the Tube stations. This is what that looks like on a map coloured in with a cheap highlighting pen:

As with all of these milestones it's simultaneously brilliant but also makes me realise how much is left to do - it's taken three years to get this far, and that's just the easy (central) bits!