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.