Wond'ring Aloud: Tracking the Tube: Victoria Line 1: Brixton to King's Cross

Weather: Warm, Overcast, Humid
Distance Walked: 15.40 km
Distance By Tube: 9.85 km
Stations Visited: 10
Fantastic Place: GPO Tower

Another strange year, but things seem to be getting back into some sort of order. As before, working five and sometimes six days a week mean that I have less time for walking. Especially during the spring and summer where the garden takes priority.

I briefly considered trying to do the whole line in one go but soon realised that this wasn't going to work with me being out of practise so instead a walk from Brixton to King's Cross was planned.

Brixton was sunny, busy and buzzing. We tend to visit Brixton before catching a bus to the Dulwich Picture Gallery so the streets around the station are familiar. I've also been reading a book on the old river Effra that was converted into a sewer in the 18th and 19th century but still runs beneath the main Brixton road.

This part of London south of the river is one of 'my London' areas. I spent a lot of time working out of an office in Vauxhall and occasionally I would pop down to Stockwell to use the post office as that was the nearest to the office. There are some nice streets and houses in this area especially Lansdowne Circus with a nice green space and attractive mid-19th century houses.

One of the highlights of this walk is the number of examples of great 20th century architecture. The first of these is the Stockwell Bus Garage which when it was built in the 1950s was the largest unsupported roof span in Europe.

Vauxhall cross and the area around it has changed a lot since when I worked here some five or six years ago. Long gone are the Cap Gemini offices, replaced by tower blocks and building sites. The area is now close to the American embassy and the Northern Line Extension stations down to Nine Elms and Battersea.

The bus station here is under threat which is a shame as it is an example of early 21st century design that has some merit.

Continuing across the Thames via Vauxhall Bridge, a route I used to take when visiting one of the clients I worked for while at Vauxhall and also when the tubes were playing up!

The area around Pimlico is also well known from visits to Tate Britain and it has an underpass with some good painted tile murals depicting art from the gallery. Victoria and the streets around the station were busy, almost as busy as normal and with the sun shining Westminster Cathedral looked very attractive in all it's stripy glory. The crowds were also present around Buck House taking photos and I couldn't help but join them!

Green Park was a breath of fresh air, the shaded walks offering some respite from the hot polluted air of this part of central London before tackling the area around the Royal Academy and the posh shopping streets of Bond Street and the less posh streets around Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street.

Continuing north it took me a little while to find the foot of the Post Office Tower, the close you get the harder it is to spot the tower (which for a long time was left off maps as a security measure) in the canyons of ugly mid century office blocks and shops. Eventually I found it in a narrow street and was surprised that such a narrow foundation could support the tall tower.

On the way to King's Cross I walked through the back streets away from the throngs along Euston Road and passed the Welcome Collection where they had a display of poems on the subject of COVID and the lock-down.