24. Knightsbridge

Friday 27th December 7.30pm

This has had an expensive looking make-over to match its surroundings - it's right outside Harvey Nichols and is opposite One Hyde Park, where an apartment was priced at £100+million (but which apparently sold for £40million). I don't suppose anyone living there is going to be using the Tube though are they? The tiling on the platforms has been covered up with metal cladding which makes it look more like a Jubilee line station (the fanciest and newest line), but without the wide platforms and all the modern conveniences that brings. And is it just me or does that roundel look like it's made of plastic?

Wikipedia entry here.

23. South Kensington

Friday 27th December 12.15pm

Or 'South Ken' as I heard someone heading to the Albert Hall refer to it as, in a way that was best described as 'annoying'. This isn't a part of London I go to very often as it's simultaneously too posh (all those fancy shops) and too dull (all those fancy shops, all those museums). And it's also quite poorly served by the Tube.

It's actually quite a small station and seems remarkably unchanged since it was built, which is surprising considering how busy it is now. The best thing about it is the long subway that goes from it to the museums, which stops you getting wet and is decorated in the same tiles as the Tube station.

Wikipedia entry here.

22. Shepherd's Bush Market

Friday 20th December 9.15pm

Quite how Shepherd's Bush ended up being served by three Tube stations so close together is something of a mystery as surely even the area's biggest fan would admit that it's nothing special. This station is named after what must have been the area's biggest attraction but it didn't actually get that name until 2008 when the huge Westfield shopping centre opened and they realised that two Tube stations and an Overground station all sharing the same name might be confusing.

It's basically identical to Goldhawk Road station, which is no surprise as they're at opposite ends of the market: two above ground, elevated platforms and a small ticket office at street level. I guess these kind of stations were intended to be the starting point for journeys not destinations so they saved the glamour and the style for the bigger stations in the centre of London, but somehow they ended up winning as this line now uses the most up-to-date trains, with walk-through carriages and tons more room that the old trains.

Wikipedia entry here.

21.Goldhawk Road

Friday 20th December 6.15pm.

There's not really much need to use this station - there are two others at different corners of Shepherd's Bush Green, both situated much nearer places you'd want to go, so I was partly just here to tick it off the list but mostly because of music. There's a song on the last Pet Shop Boys album called Love is a Bourgeois Construct which is mad but which included my favourite lyric of the year: "I've been hanging round with various riff-raff, somewhere on the Goldhawk Road" - so how could I not visit?

The station itself is about as unremarkable as they come, although it seems to be typical for this part of the line. The trains run above ground, elevated above the city around it. The platforms are open air and then you walk down some stairs to a small ticket office at ground level and then you're out in the street - it couldn't be any more functional if it tried!

Wikipedia entry here.

20. Holborn

Sunday 24th November 4.45pm.

I figured that a Sunday afternoon in the weeks before Christmas was exactly the kind of peak time Transport for London suggest you avoid using Covent Garden station so despite being on the Plaza I opted to walk to Holborn instead. It's only two stops from King's Cross, neither of them very long, and on another day I might have been tempted just to walk the whole way instead.

The outside is one of those grand but quite restrained entrances, but inside is the usual rabbit warren of tunnels and stairs to get you down to platform level, with so many twists and turns it's hard to know quite where you've ended up. But the platforms for the Piccadilly line at least have been smartened up with metal cladding on the walls instead of tiling, with pictures inspired by the British Museum (which is very nearby), including wrestling naked Greeks which I stupidly forgot to take a picture of.

Wikipedia entry here.

19. Blackfriars

Saturday 23rd November 2013. 11.30am.

Stupidly it's not a station I even knew existed, despite walking past the new entrance on the south bank of the Thames a few times in recent years. I thought it was an Overground station, and a mainline station, because so much attention has been given to the bridge with its roof of solar panels.

But it turns out it's a Tube station too, albeit one that had been shut for three years, which is clearly the amount of time it takes me to forget things. It's actually quite useful for that poorly served bit of south London near Tate Britain if you're feeling too lazy to walk so I expect our paths will cross again, and I'd definitely like to use the entrance south of the river as well just to see how that works.

Like all new Tube buildings it's light and airy, with wide platforms and corridors, tons of public space in neutral colours, and a big glass building when you get to street level. It'll be interesting to see how history looks on these kind of designs once they start to age a little.

Wikipedia entry here.

18. Green Park

Wednesday 19th June 11.30am

This is more of a useful change than a destination as it's served by the complimentary colours of the Jubilee, Victoria and Piccadilly lines. As for a destination, it really only serves Green Park, although it is next to the Ritz but I don't suppose people going to stay there arrive by Tube do they? Inside it's a bit of a maze, which is what you'd expect when three different lines were built at three different times, but outside it has a rather lovely entrance from the Park.

Wikipedia entry here.

17. Embankment

Thursday 19th June 10.45am.

As a station this is easily overlooked as it's just a single storey building in the shadow of the huge Charing Cross station, but that's silly because it's actually much better connected, serving four lines instead of the two you can get from Charing Cross. And it's smaller and easier to navigate than Charing Cross as it only has two exits from the escalators whereas Charing Cross has more than you can fathom. So how come I never use it and mostly just walk through the ticket office on the way to the bridge over the Thames?

Wikipedia entry here.

16. Lancaster Gate

Tuesday 18th June 1pm.

There's not much to say about this station really. It's small and doesn't connect with anything so it's only useful if you want to go to Hyde Park (which I did) or if you're staying in one of the hotels in the area. But it does mean that on a weekday it's really quiet so there's nobody getting in the way when you're trying to take a picture of the station's name. It's one of those stations with lifts although there are only 70-odd steps to the street so it would hardly be a nightmare if you had to climb them (I didn't). And it's one of those old stations with a tiny ticket office, and just three exit barriers onto the street.

Wikipedia entry here.

15. Liverpool Street

Thursday 30th May 1.10pm

Way back in the days of slam-door trains and every seat having a table - the 80s, surprisingly - trains from my part of Norfolk used to arrive in London at Liverpool Street. So for a few years, while friends were at college in London, this station would be the one we'd would end up running through in an attempt to catch a train we had no chance of catching. It was also the place where we would dodge fares, although I have no idea how and to be honest the idea makes me shudder with shame! But then the trains switched to King's Cross and I rarely find myself in Liverpool Street any more.

While the train station has been updated with marble and space the Tube station hasn't really and is as pokey and crowded as you'd expect from somewhere serving four different Tube lines. More excitingly I made my journey on one of the new Hammersmith & City trains (I'm resisting the urge to use the phrase "rolling stock" as it's beyond trainspottery) - they're far more spacious than the old trains and instead of having doors at either end of the carriage which you can't actually use they're open to the next carriage so you can see all the way down the train if it gets on a straight bit - this is beyond exciting! (The trains are like this in the Barcelona metro, so we're finally catching up.) They've done something clever inside the carriage so there's a lovely big gap between the seat and I think they're air-conditioned too! Disappointingly the only thing they don't do is tell you which side of the train the doors will open on, which they do on the older Victoria line trains, and which is really useful, although I'm note entirely sure why.

Wikipedia entry here.

14. Euston

Saturday 25th May 5.50pm

Another station I wouldn't normally use as it's a short walk down Euston Road to King's Cross. I've only used the mainline station it's attached to a couple of times to go to Manchester, but it does get a mention in The Smith's song London.

It's a charmless station, which is a shame as the area around it is rather nice, and it's really well connected. And I don't like to join in with the rather predictable bashing of anything on the Northern Line, which actually isn't that bad, just fractured and unloved.

Wikipedia entry here.

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.

6. Waterloo

Sunday 11th February 5pm

The busiest Tube station on the network, attached to one of the unloveliest railway stations imaginable. Perhaps it was more glamorous when Eurostar stopped there but now it's untidy and unloveable. So although it's right behind the National Theatre and all that other stuff on the Southbank I usually find it easy to cross the river and travel from somewhere else.

The problem with the Tube station is that is has a confusing amount of exits, and it doesn't matter which one you pick it's always the wrong one, which I guess is what happens when you try and squeeze too many lines into one station. The Jubilee line section of it is of course magnificent - big and concretey, like the space-age future we were promised but never got. Pop fact: the ABBA song of the same name - key lyric, "I was defeated/you won the war" - is not actually about a commuter trying and failing to get out of the station.

Wikipedia entry here.

5. Southwark

Sunday 10th February 1pm

I don't think I'd ever heard of Southwark until I saw a play called Southwark Fair and realised it's where Tate Modern is. It's not really where the Tube station is though - it's so close to Waterloo there are exits to it from within the station.

It's only a small station but it's a beauty - it's part of the Jubilee line so has than modern metal and concrete look that the whole line has - but instead of being cavernous it's compact and stylish, particularly the big blue wall that greets you when you get to the top of the escalator and head towards the ticket office.

Wikipedia entry here.

4. London Bridge

Sunday 10th February 11.30am

For a long time I didn't even realise London Bridge existed and think I was like the mythic American who mistook it for Tower Bridge. It was only when I went to Brighton by train a couple of years ago that I went through the station for the first time and thought it was too busy and a bit of a dump. That, it turns out, is because it's the sixth busiest Tube station on the network, and because it's been undergoing endless reworking to prepare it for the extra passengers who will use it now the area has been regenerated by the arrival of The Shard (apparently you can get into the Shard directly from the station, but it's not obvious how).

I was being harsh calling it a dump though as half of it is on the Jubilee line, which is spacious, modern and a little bit sexy. Less so the bit that's on the Northern line.

Wikipedia entry here.

3. Piccadilly Circus

Saturday 1st February 11am

Despite giving its name to probably my favourite line it's not one of my favourite stations. I guess that's because above ground Piccadilly Circus is ridiculously busy and it's easier to get out at the previous stop - Leicester Square - and walk. But I'd arranged to meet a friend at the statue of Eros (although it's actually his twin brother Anteros) so I found myself there.

There are no parts of the station above ground, and below ground it has a round ticket hall which would be lovely if it wasn't build from a pale brown marble that manages to be bland and unpleasant at the same. And there are far too many exits, although I seem to remember that you used to be able to get straight into Tower Records from it without going outside, which sounds too fantastic to actually be true. There is a linear clock that looks interesting but I forgot to look for it.

The station appears in the title of a song by the wonderful Tracey Thorn - making her second appearance on this blog, which goes to show how much London is part of her music - which was inspired by a poem about Grand Central Station in New York:

Wikipedia entry here.

2. Victoria

Saturday 12th January, about 5.30pm

For years I never went near Victoria - I had no need to, because apart from two theatres very near the station there's no other reason to be there. But then I knew people who travelled into London by train from the south and I started going there to meet them.

It's the second busiest Tube station, which shouldn't be a surprise if I think about it, and it is always horribly hectic, which isn't helped by the fact that it seems to have been undergoing changes for as long as anyone can remember - much like the roads above it, which have been dug up and covered in cones forever.

It's a shame the station isn't a bit nicer as I have a fondness for the line it takes its name from - it's short, but surprisingly useful, and the blue colour is my second favourite colour for a Tube line (the darker blue of the Piccadilly line being my favourite). Perhaps when all the upgrade work is finished in 2018 I'll love it more?

Wikipedia entry here

1. King's Cross St. Pancras

Saturday 12th January, 9.45am

The first thing that surprised me when I took this photograph is that the station is now called "King's Cross St. Pancras" and, I assume, has been since Eurostar relocated to the rejuvenated St. Pancras a few years ago. But I'd never noticed and habitually call it just "King's Cross".

This is probably the Tube station I have visited the most as, for the last twenty years or so, all trains from my part of Norfolk have terminated at the railway station above it. It's the third busiest Tube station and serves more lines than any other, which is why for a long time I felt no love for it and needed to take a deep breath before throwing myself down those cramped stairs from the departure hall into it.

But things have changed in recent years as they've upgraded it and there are now big wide corridors to get to the trains and the whole thing feels really light and spacious, at least until you get down to the platforms. It's all very grey and concretey, much like the Jubilee line, but instead of looking dull and sad I think it looks modern and almost chic. And more importantly it just works really well (although getting back to the railway station still manages to confuse me).

I guess I like it because arriving there usually means I have something exciting to look forward to or that I'm heading home after a nice day.

Meanwhile upstairs the railway station has been upgraded too and is stunning! It was also the subject of a song by the Pet Shop Boys:

Tracey Thorn also did a version of it (she wants to make an album with them - someone make this happen then I can die a happy man!). They also used it as a location for their video of Rent, which Derek Jarman directed. (I now that has nothing to do with the Tube, but I do like a tangent!)

Wikipedia entry here.

Introduction

There are 270 stations on the London Underground and this is going to be my attempt at recording how many I visit. You can visit them all in one day, and the current world record for doing that is 16 hours, 29 minutes and 13 seconds, but I'm not going to do that. Instead I just want to add them organically as I travel round London, although I'm sure at some point the middle-aged man in me will want to complete the set and will find an excuse to venture to the furthest ends of the Central line.

For the purpose of this blog "visit" means enter or exit the station from above ground, and arrive or depart from it by Tube. So places where I just wait underground to change lines, or places I just go through don't count.

It was inspired by this week's 150th Anniversary of the opening of the Metropolitan line but is the inevitable outcome of an adult lifetime of loving London, because let's face it nothing that makes you think "London" than the Tube sign does it?

I don't intend this to be factual - that kind of information already exists. Instead this will just be subjective really - just a little bit about what I think of the station, why I was there, and a picture of the station name as proof. Of course I'm sure that along the way I'll inadvertently reveal some stuff about myself, but that's not really what this is about, so it's also an excuse to try writing in a slightly different way.

Anyway, here's some things I like about the Tube:

• The whoosh of air through the platform and station as trains come and go.
• The lovely blue of the Piccadilly line.
• The Oyster card.

Some things about the Tube that puzzle me:

Having been on the subway in New York and Barcelona - he said, showing off - they've got plastic seats and no advertising, yet in London the seats are all padded and there's adverts everywhere. So, two questions: are we so soft that we can't sit on plastic? And is the advertising paying for the trains? If so, how do the others pay for theirs?

But mostly I just love the fact that only a few years after railways were invented someone thought, "wouldn't it be great to put the trains underground?" and lots of people agreed with them and they just made it happen. Those Victorians really were amazing weren't they?

Before we get started here are some things about the Tube you might enjoy:

Wikipedia Underground page

Tube Crush - because every journey deserves one.

London Transport Museum Shop - because nothing makes washing up more fun than a tea towel with a Tube map on it

Ready? Mind the doors, this blog is ready to depart...