52. Gloucester Road

Friday 11th September 6.30pm.

My first Tube picture with an actual train in it, thanks to the island platform arrangement rather than separate platforms in separate tunnels.

This is probably a more interesting station than you realise as you walk through it, especially as you leave the building which is dwarfed somewhat by an ugly arcade with a Waitrose in it.

Wikipedia entry here

51. Mornington Crescent

Saturday 6th September 6.15pm

This station is most famous for the fact that it was closed for years. I remember staying with a friend who was house-sitting in Camden in the 90s and having to walk past it to the busier Camden Town tube as it was shut and nobody seemed to know if it would ever open again. It's also the name of some game on radio 4 but I've never heard of it as those comedy things often aren't as funny as I'd hope.

The station itself is fairly classic: tiled platform, oxblood red tiled building above ground. It does have lifts instead of stairs (the cause of the endless closure) and as I waited for one I enjoyed eavesdropping on two women, one of whom was talking about someone she'd been dating for two months before the whole thing fizzled out. It's actually a very civilised way of arriving in Camden as it's on a quiet street and there's a nice walk up Camden High Street before it gets really busier, and surely anywhere is preferable to the horror of Camden Town tube?

Wikipedia entry here.

50. Bayswater

Saturday 6th September 6pm

I had no reason to be at this station other than to tick it off my list - I walked from Paddington to get there! I assumed it would be in a residential area, not really being familiar with Bayswater, but it's on a street full of shops and restaurants and as soon as I turned onto it I remembered I'd been there before.

The station building is one of those single storey ones that they probably hoped someone would build offices on top of but it never happened. Down on the platform it's more of that lovely brickwork that this part of the line is made up of and at the end of platform it's open so you can see how it was made and also just how close to the surface it is, which is rather beautiful.

Wikipedia entry here.

49. Paddington

Saturday 6th September 10.45am

This is my second go at this station - the last time I was there they were building on the platforms or something and it was too crowded to stop and take a picture, and of course if there's no picture it doesn't count. I recently saw a show at the Edinburgh Fringe by the man who currently holds the world record for getting round the whole Tube network in the quickest time and he seemed to suggest that Paddington was two separate stations, which confuses me as it's only shown as one on the map and all the lines seem interconnected even if there are a confusing amounts of entrances, including one outside the station on the other side of the road. But it's the same at King's Cross and that only counts as one. So I might be back here from another line, or I might not, who knows!

It is a bit of charmless maze of tunnels which is a pity as the mainline station above it has got quite a lot of character if you look hard enough, I have a fondness for it which it probably doesn't deserve as I associate it with a friend from Wales, and also Paddington Bear (yes I know that's the mainline station but they are inextricably linked).

Wikipedia entry here.

48. Marylebone

Saturday 6th September 10.30am

This is one of those stations that I forget exists and would find hard to place on a map, if pushed probably thinking it was a bit further round near Shepherd's Bush. I've never been as it's not near anywhere I've needed to go and the mainline station it's attached to doesn't go places I would need to go either. Like most of the Tube stations attached to mainline stations it's a bit of a horror, with too many people millinground not knowing where to go, but thankfully as it only serves one line it's easy to get round. It's probably a lot more interesting and historic than you get a sense of when you're in it.

Wikipedia entry here.

47. Baker Street

Saturday 6th September 10.10am

I have bad memories of this station from my early twenties, changing here from a Tube from Wembley and trying to find the platform to get back to King's Cross after gigs in Wembley Arena. The layout of the station doesn't help - too many lines on too many levels, and I just remember frantically running through it and crossing my fingers I was about to jump on the right train. Thankfully yesterday I wasn't changing so a repeat of that was avoided, although it does seem overly complicated to get out of.

I was on another of those lovely old brick platforms that really do give you a sense of how the Tube looked when it was first built, but it does mean I didn't get to take a picture of the tiles with the head of Sherlock Holmes on them that some of the other platforms have. But I did hum Gerry Rafferty's song of the same name to myself, even though it's about the street more than the station.

Wikipedia entry here.

46. Great Portland Street

Saturday 6th September 10.00am

Another station on that section of Euston Road near to Euston station which has more stations than is strictly necessary. I have a fondness for this one as I once went on a date in Regents Park and we bought a picnic from the Pret a Manger that is part of the station, but until yesterday I'd never been in it. It's a nice building - what's that shape called when it's a square with a semi-circle on either end? Well it's that, on a roundabout in a load of traffic, and although the shops that form part of the building are nothing glamorous I still rather like it.

Down on the platform it's all brick and arches, like the other stations on this section of the Tube, which makes me think it's one of those cut-and-cover ones from before they invented methods of tunnelling. I like the fact that the roundel I took a picture of was a bit dirty and not all new and shiny.

Wikipedia entry here.