143. Canning Town

Wednesday 12th October 12.25pm

I like the way the roundel has been given a mohican to scare away the pigeons. It wasn't just this sign - it was all of them. I've not seen that anywhere else before, and there are plenty of other outdoor stations, so I guess this one is unusually popular with pigeons.

The station is very long and thing, squeezed in beside a main road and under a flyover, it's really just a long glass box. But sadly it's not as glamorous as that sounds.

Wikipedia entry here.

142. West Ham

Wednesday 12th October 12.05pm

It's nice to see some good honest brickwork on a modern station instead of concrete and steel, and it's all the more surprising as this is a Jubilee line station and the whole line is quite literally built of concrete and steel. There's the familiar large open spaces inside the building too, and I was so busy enjoying them that I completely missed the exit.

Wikipedia entry here.

141. Southgate

Saturday 1st October 6.05pm

There are some brilliant pictures of this station lit up at night looking like a spaceship and that's how I wanted to see it, but as my 'rules' more of less dictate me arriving or departing on foot, which would mean stumbling around suburbia in the dark, I've avoided it. I just remember getting lost after leaving Kennington station late one evening and that's enough to put me off.

It looks less impressive in the daylight as it's on a roundabout and therefore surrounded by cars:

It is another lovely circular building though:

And I've not seen anything like this before:

The escalators down to the platform have some lovely up-lighters between them but it was too busy to get a good picture of them.

It was nice to see some old signage on the platform:

Wikipedia entry here.

140. Oakwood

Saturday 1st October 5.40pm

This end of the Piccadilly line has been high on my list to visit as there's some very interesting stations here, and as it's not far from King's Cross (my 'home' station) it really ought not to have taken so long. I got there in the end.

The station building itself is a huge box, although as always they're hard to photograph than books and the internet suggest, partly because I'm focused on my onward journey and forget. So here's a view of the station from the platform:

And here are two views from inside which give a better idea of the scale of it:

I imagine that when there's nobody there and the building is flooded with light that it's really quite beautiful.

It was also my first station in zone 5, which I'll obviously be spending a lot more time in as this challenge continues.

Wikipedia entry here.

139. Fulham Broadway

Saturday 24th September 4.40pm

This is one of my least favourite types of station - you have to go through a shopping centre to get to it! It's been modernised and part of the platform was new concrete into which the roundels were recessed, which I've not seen anywhere else before, but I didn't get a picture of them as that part of the platform was taken up by a man and a woman arguing with policemen.

Wikipedia entry here.

138. West Kensington

Saturday 24th September 4.15pm

Another station build on a bridge that straddles the tracks with stairs down either side. A small and fairly simple station as only one line goes through it. The building itself is one of those nice pale stone - Portland? - ones, although it's hard to get a decent view of it from across a busy road.

Wikipedia entry here.

137. Turnham Green

Saturday 24th September 4.00pm

My first trips to London after leaving school were to visit friends who were at college in West London. We had to pass into this station on our way into the city, and without fail someone would exclaim, "Turnham Green with envy!" We though we were funny. We weren't.

This is one of those stations where the track is elevated so the entrance and ticket office are at ground level and you have to go upstairs to catch the train. It feels the complete wrong way round for the underground but it does mean you get a great view down the tracks and over the green itself.

Wikipedia entry here.