73. Bond Street

Monday 22nd December 5.20pm

For once I actually need to be at this station to go somewhere, and hadn't just come through it to ticket it off my list unlike most of the other ones I've visited lately.

It's a dreadful disappointment: Bond Street suggests glamour and expensive shopping, but the entrance is actually through a rather dated shopping centre on Oxford Street. Stations with shops are my least favourite, particularly the hell that is Hammersmith but this comes a close second. It's also been a building site recently because of the Crossrail development, and whatever they've done to it doesn't appear to have made it any nicer, which is a real shame as it could certainly do with it.

Wikipedia entry here.

72. Cannon Street

Thursday 27th November 7.10pm

This was nowhere near where I needed to be but I'm desperate to get through all the zone one stations soon so I made a detour, and was then amazed to find it's not actually where I thought it was and is in fact not in the middle of nowhere but is within site of St Pauls cathedral, and is easily within walking distance of that station, Mansion House and probably Monument too. It's funny how some bits of London are completely over-served with stations. I guess this only exists as there's a mainline rail station on top of it. And because of that it's not really very memorable - just platforms and stairs. There's something a bit seventies about the colour of those tiles though.

Wikipedia entry here.

71. Stepney Green

Wednesday 19th November 7.40pm

The first thing that surprised me when I got off the train was the number of other people who did too. I'd never heard of the area before, let alone the station, and assumed it was vaguely in the middle of nowhere, but of course somewhere with a Tube station is hardly nowhere. The second thing I noticed was that it was a bit run down and the pale yellow tiling on the stairs could do with a good clean. But then I turned a corner and saw a lovely sign:

Wikipedia entry here.

70. Lambeth North

Saturday 18th October 6.50pm

This was another one of those one-stop-from-where-I-needed-to-be stations, which I should probably stop going to in the dark as they're surprisingly hard to find. I was just about to give up hope when I literally realised I was standing outside it - those ox-blood red tiles are less distinctive in the dark, and it there's an underground sign projecting from the building I failed to see it!

It was really quiet so I shared the lift down to the platform with one man and his dog. I'm not joking. Down on the platform it's all tiled, the usual kind of station for it's period, which I feel like I take for granted and should love more as they do what they need to do really simply and practically. It's the kind of place I'd like to be my local station.

Wikipedia entry here.

69. Tower Hill

[Why oh why did I take that picture as portrait when all the others are landscape?? I'll have to go back at some point and have another go at it.]

Saturday 18th October 3.45pm

Not my favourite station this one, and I've been through it an unexpectedly high amount of times in recent years. It's just a bit tricky to get to - if you approach it from the Tower of London you go through an underpass then up a horribly steep flight of stairs, and it you approach it from the top you've go past lots of run down buildings. The station itself looks like it needs a new clean. And why on earth didn't they just call it "Tower of London" when that's exactly where it is??

Wikipedia entry here.

68. Bermondsey

Saturday 18th October 2.45pm

This is another one of those stations that seems too modern for the area it serves - it's not even in the fancy bit of Bermondsey where the White Cube is, just on an ordinary street with lots of housing. It's a deceptive station - you get out of the train and it's got those glass barriers all the way along the platform so it feels quite cramped and dingy, but then you leave the platform and it suddenly gets very light at the bottom of the escalators. They're only average height so you can see how close to the surface the tunnel actually is, and above the escalators is a huge glass roof through which streams loads of light, even on a grey day. It really is quite lovely.

Wikipedia entry here.

67.Aldgate East

Saturday 18th October 2.15pm

I was going to complain that this station appears to be old judging from the signage on the platform but only has modern entrances in two uninspiring glass offices blocks when it turns out it actually has an old above ground building right next door to the Whitechapel gallery, which I probably walked past to get to the new entrances. What a fool.

Anyway, the platform does have old tiling (which according to Wikipedia is actually completely new!) and signage on it which is nice to see, and on some of there pillars there were these smaller versions of the roundel with brass edging which were lovely (and were crying out to be taken home).

Wikipedia entry here.