180. Stonebridge Park

Friday 31st January 5.00pm

This has got the tiniest station building you could imagine, nestling beside the road with covered walkways to the platforms at higher level. The platforms are long, serving the Overground and national rail as well, with modern waiting rooms. But the platforms feel exposed, looking out over the surrounding areas, and I guess if it was light and you knew where to look you'd probably get a good view of Wembley stadium.

Wikipedia entry here.

179. Wembley Central

Friday 31st January 4.30pm

There are three stations serving Wembley and although it's a long time since I've been to the Arena (and I've never been to the stadium) I don't think this is one I've ever used. I may be confused as it seems to have been redeveloped and you come out of the front of the station into the middle of a sort of plaza with shops, restaurants and hotels all very nearby. It's all very modern, and busy which I guess is partly due to the station also serving the Overground and mainline train services. But it's not very memorable.

Wikipedia entry here.

178. Colindale

Wednesday 29th January 4.55pm

This sounds like it might be in Metroland but it's actually nearly at the end of the Northern Line, which somehow feels different - not so planned and speculative. The outside of it looks like it's been modernised recently, possibly in keeping with all the flats that are going up around it, which was a surprise as the walk to it is through the usual suburban streets with gardens concreted over to make room for cars and houses extended until bursting point. It doesn't seem like the kind of place that would have flats.

There's a very small ticket office with a newsagents in it then stairs down to the platform. All very familiar and practical. Nothing to suggest it was badly bombed in the war. Maybe that's something people don't like to be reminded of on their way to work.

Wikipedia entry here.

177. Burnt Oak

Wednesday January 29th 4.30pm

A fairly standard north London suburban station: island platform between the lines, stairs to the tickets hall. The ticket hall doesn't straddle the lines but is instead at right angles to the platform, which messed with my sense of direction when I left and sent me off in completely the wrong direction (as usual).

The ticket hall is a cube with some windows in the roof and a few panels of nice tiles, which might be grand if it was fancied up a bit. It was also too busy to stop in and take pictures of tiles without feeling like a madman.

Wikipedia entry here.

173. Hendon Central

Monday 3rd June 4.05pm

This is one of those stations that's in a row of shops and has flats on top, overlooking a roundabout, which is probably brilliant if you live there as everything is nearby and connected. But it doesn't make for a good picture. The booking office is actually quite plain, just painted white and not remotely decorating, so its Grade II listing can't be for that.

The platforms are lower than the station but are above ground, which is confusing as Hampstead, just a couple of stops further along is the deepest tube on the underground. But I guess that's how hills work. It was sheltered but sunny when I was there, and I quite like the wooden frame around the station name on the roundel (it looks like something my Dad might have made) although there wasn't much space to photograph it.

Wikipedia entry here.

166. Kingsbury

Thursday 18th January 1.20pm

I approached this one on foot and nearly missed it as I'd convinced myself it would be on the right-hand side of the road and it wasn't. This wasn't some map-reading stupidity - I just felt that's where it ought to be. Instead it's on the other side of the road in a row of shops, and you'd easily miss it anyway.

Wikipedia entry here.

165. Queensbury

Thursday 18th January 1.00pm

For a suburban station you have to walk along quite a long corridor to get from the platform to the actual station building, or perhaps it just felt it as I was sharing the corridor with someone having a tedious conversation on their mobile. The station itself has toilets, which is something you almost never see although I didn't venture in.

Outside there's a roundabout with a roundel in it:

Although there's a footpath on the roundabout I'm not sure how you'd get to it as it's a roundabout and the inner lane is also a taxi rank. It's interesting to see they've put solar panels on it.

Wikipedia entry here.

164. Wembley Park

Thursday 18th January 12.55pm

This is the nearest station to Wembley Stadium but also to Wembley Arena, which means I must have been through it on my way to gigs at the latter but I not really sure I remember it as it is. At some point this century it's had improvements to help cope with the huge amount of people going to the new stadium,hence the fancy new front:

That lettering on the top looks like something they do on the Overground and really should have been blue so it stands out more. And those steps are a bit of a hazard. I can see how they're needed to get lots of people in and out quickly but they're steep and if someone fell it would be like dominoes. On the other hand they'd be great for a line of dancing girls to high-kick their way down.

Wikipedia entry here.

163. Preston Road

Thursday 18th January 12.30pm

This is one of those stations that I'd never heard of before and if you'd told me the name I'd have guessed it was some little stop on a branch line in the middle of suburbia, which I suppose it is only it happens to be on the Tube. Who even knew there was an area of London called Preston? (Although it is basically Wembley.) It's one of those stations that you don't quite notice in a row of shops, which seems practical and appropriate.

Wikipedia entry here.

146. Newbury Park

Saturday 22nd October 8.30am

This station has got a grade II listed bus shelter in front of it - a concrete arch with a copper roof which looks amazing in pictures. But the reality doesn't have dramatic lighting or filters, and is filled with people hanging around waiting for buses. It's also a bit smaller than the pictures suggest, so try as I might I couldn't even get a rubbish picture of it. Instead I got a picture of a big roundel on a pole outside the station:

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.

128. Osterley

Tuesday 23rd August 1.25pm

I don't know if the blue bit across the middle of the roundel is wider than usual, or if the number of letters just makes it look like that, but there's something big and bold about that.

The station itself was once modern but now looks run down as you'd expect from something right next door to the A4. There's a tower which probably serves no purposes - there doesn't seem to be a lift - with an odd thing on top of it, but it didn't wow me enough to take a picture of it.

Wikipedia entry here.

125. Bounds Green

Saturday 21st May 6.15pm

This is one of those stations that's built into a row of shops and on a corner, so you don't notice it until you're right on top of it, and then forget to step back and take a look at what it looks like on the outside.

It's got a nice pair of escalators in a curved tunnel going down to the platforms, and as it was really quiet, and I was confused about which platform I wanted, I managed to take a picture of it:

Wikipedia entry here.

124. Arnos Grove

Saturday 21st May 5.50pm

I like that picture because it's not often I've taken one with a train in it, let alone one that's moving.

I knew of the area this station is in as it gets a mention in a song by Saint Etienne, which makes me think it has a faded glamour about it but the reality is a residential area on the North Circular of which the Tube station is a high point. It's on the extension to the Picadilly line, which is where things got architecturally more interesting as they were less constricted by space than in the centre of the city, so the above ground part of this station is a huge, beautiful cylinder, although the pictures hardly do it justice:

Wikipedia entry here.

122. Finchley Central

Saturday 2nd April 4.50pm

At this point I began to realise that there's a lot of Finchley and it's all quite similar, although I'm sure the locals wouldn't thank me for saying so.

Wikipedia entry here.

121. West Finchley

Saturday 2nd April 4.45pm

This is very similar to the last station although it seems to have a slightly more modern, smaller, station building. It also has a footbridge over the tracks and when I crossed it there were two trains in the station so I stopped to take a picture:

Which of course means I missed my train, but amazingly, considering this feels like the middle of nowhere, another train arrived two minutes later.

Wikipedia entry here.

120. Woodside Park

Saturday 2nd April 4.25pm

Now I'm getting to the bits of the underground that hardly seem like underground at all as I get towards the edge of the map. This station started like as a train station before it was brought into the network. With its above ground platforms and platform canopies edged with white board it doesn't look that dissimilar to the rail station at home. And out of the station itself it's very residential - you could be anywhere.

Oh and according to Wikipedia it's alphabetically last on the list of Tube stations. I've never thought to look at a list like that - I must find one.

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.

79. Kew Gardens

Saturday 14th February 5.00pm

This is one of those stations that seems to exist to serve just one purpose (unless of course you live there). I've only been to Kew Gardens once, and so I remembered the station and I especially remembered that the area outside it is ridiculously twee, with those ridiculous shops that sell lovely gorgeous but completely pointless things. It must be the only underground station with a garden centre outside it. It's also an Overground station, which causes me no end of confusion, despite them being completely different services.

Wikipedia entry here.