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...