160.Bow Road

Saturday 9th September 6pm

This is a nice little red brick station that's set back from the road so I you can't see it until you're right upon it, which is a bit confusing and was making me start to worry I was lost, especially as I'd just walked under a railway bridge that looked like it was an ideal place for an elevated station, and also a DLR station. The platform is downstairs, half in a tunnel half out.

As I walked her from Bromley-by-Bow I was reminded of the thing about Bow bells and cockneys but apparently that's a different Bow, although this is still proper East End anyway. How confusing.

Wikipedia entry here.

159. Bromley-by-Bow

Saturday 9th September 5.45pm

Another outdoor platform but this one is at ground level. The station building isn't though - it's on the bridge over the tracks, and is currently being refurbished so all you can see of the front is scaffolding, not that you could probably see much anyway as it's right next to a busy main road.

Slightly confused by the name though as I thought Bromley was in Kent.

Wikipedia entry here.

158. Parsons Green

Saturday 9th September 12.05pm

As I approached this it seemed so familiar I thought I'd been there before but I was just confusing it with Turnham Green - similar name, both near a park (green), elevated and with a bridge over the road. But not the same place at all. I like the wooden shelter on the platform.

Wikipedia entry here.

157. Putney Bridge

Saturday 9th September 11.45am

This roundel made me nearly squeal with delight - look at the red edging around the name bar, I've not seen that before! And the gap between the outer black circle and the big red ring. It's painted - enamelled? - onto metal so it's modern rather than vintage, and is therefore an exciting deviation.

As for the station itself, it's one of those elevated ones that there are quite a lot of in West London, which I'm rather fond of although I imagine if it had been wet and cold rather than sunny the exposed platforms would be a bit grim. There's stairs to ground level and a small ticket hall. I didn't pay any attention to the building as I was too busy getting lost.

Wikipedia entry here.

156. Kilburn

Saturday 10th June 10.35am

[How annoying is that sticker on the roundel? I went looking for another one but it looked like someone had been round sticking them to all of them. Hooligans.]

The station after this (Willesden Green) is below street level so you have to climb stairs to get out of it - this is elevated above the street and you climb up to it, and yet the journey between the two doesn't feel like it's going up/down a slope. It also turns out to be very close to Kilburn Park (which I've already been to), on the Bakerloo line - opposite ends of the same street basically - and which of course don't anywhere near each other on the Tube map, which is one of the weaknesses of the map, but it must feel satisfyingly like you know the area when you realise. And it's not Kentish Town, which I insist on muddling it up with.

There are also flower beds on the platform too, which seems ridiculously charming for a huge transport system, and there's a waiting room with a curved glass end to it, very much like West Hampstead which is the next station along.

Wikipedia entry here.

155. Willesden Green

Saturday 10th June 10.10am

This station made me smile as they've got flowerbeds on the platform - this part of the Jubilee line is above ground, and actually used to be a Metropolitan station so it's older. It's also got two types of roundel on the platform, although this one is really badly positioned between the benches:

Apparently there's a very rare clock on the front of the station - I looked at it and wasn't impressed. Oops.

Wikipedia entry here.

154. Blackhorse Road

Saturday 6th May 7.00pm

This is one of those stations on a corner at a junction so you don't see it until you're on top of it, although to be honest the building was nothing special.

The tiling is fairly straightforward:

Wikipedia entry here.

That completes all the station on the Victoria line! I thought it would be the first line I'd complete because it has the least (fewest?) amount of stations on it but it turns out I have no real need to be in east London. I am rather fond of it as a line though, partly because it's a nice blue colour but also because it's has no confusing branches to trick you.