Tracking the Tube: Northern Line 03: Euston to East Finchley

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Weather: Sunshine and scattered heavy showers, cool.
Distance Walked: 13.12km 
Distance By Tube: 7.62
Stations Visited: 8
Fantastic Place: Temple of Bastet Greater London House

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Not the best weather for walking, a mixture of relatively mild sunshine and blue skies suddenly changing to heavy grey cloud with penetrating drizzle. So I was both too warm from wearing a coat but it the rain was too frequent to take it off.

Just 8 stations on this leg

The walk started off at possibly my least favourite terminus, Euston. The current station is a rather unappealing blocky structure while round the corner the original tube station in the traditional ox-blood red tiles stands rather forlorn and decrepit.

The Original Euston Tube Station

Just past the station there is a small open space which looks at first like a small public garden, or a space that had been cleared after WW2 bomb damage but in fact turns out to be the grace yard for the church of St James Piccadilly. There is one grave in particular that shows several generations of the Christie family that all seemed to have died in interesting ways such as a fever caught in Port Royal or in Persia by Russian troops.

Walking north in bright winter sunshine under a dome of blue sky the walk improved with one of the most fabulous art-Deco buildings in London. The Carreras Cigarette Factory, now named Greater London House, was inspired by an Egyptian temple to the goddess Bastet. As someone who is owned by three cats I could not fail to be enchanted by this and it was good to see that it has been well maintained.

Greater London House

Bastet

 The next station on the route is Mornington Crescent made famous as a complicated game in the long running BBC Radio 4 comedy show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. Like many of the stations on this part of the walk the station displays the ox-blood tile frontage with large arched windows designed by Leslie Green.

Moving on I reached Camden Town station just as the rain was settling in for much of the rest of the walk so I didn't detour via the famous Camden Market. Instead I continued heading north towards Kentish Town. In between Camden Town and Kentish town there is a very distinctively styles building - the former site of South Kentish Town.

Ghost Station - South Kentish Town

 I have visited this part of London quite frequently but only a small part of it, the road between the station and the Forum. Many a cold winter's night I have spent queueing outside here to get close to the front to watch bands, in particular, Marillion.

Doesn't seem the same without a queue

The next station, Tuffnell Park is currently closed, for refurbishment which is an ongoing business on the underground network. Many of the lifts, escalators and pumps (many of the stations are below the water table) are old and there is an ongoing program of replacement and repair going on.

The road from Tufnell Park climbs steadily and steeply, just as the sun came out again making me quite warm in my nicely moist coat! The area between Camden and Archway has lots of nice looking coffee shops but they were filled with rather hip looking gents (beards, those strange earlobe plug things and tattoos) who were probably web designers, advertising executives and other such b-ark type occupations (yes I wish I was as hip as them!) into which circles I wouldn't have fitted in.

Archway station was invisible behind hoardings where a new tower block is being built so I can't tell you what it looks like. As I was waiting at the crossing a horse drawn hearse went by.

The on and off rain stopped for a bit as I joined the disused railway line (and the Capital Ring) for a time as it soars above back gardens (lots of very nice conservatories and dining room extensions on the backs of some of the houses). The ground was heavy black sticky mud and I had to keep dodging cyclists and dog walkers (one of which had eight dogs of various sizes (all muddy) before emerging at Highgate station. Before the station there are some old tunnels occupied now by several types of bat according to a helpful information panel. The rain started up again as I walked to East Finchley and the end of this leg, familiar territory as this was again part of the Capital Ring route I walked several years ago.

Next month I hope to complete this side of the northern end of the Northern Line with the spur to Mill Hill East and the terminus at High Barnet, two places I have never been before.

Camden Town Graffiti

Tracking The Tube: District Line: 02: Edgeware Road to Wimbledon

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Weather: Nice and sunny but with a bit of a lazy wind
Distance Walked: 20.8
Distance By Tube: 15.09
Stations Visited:15
Fantastic Place: West Brompton Cemetery

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15 Tube Stations on the leg of the walk

For the second leg of my District Line walk I skipped a bit eastward so I could do the other north-south branch from Edgeware Road to Wimbledon, fifteen stations including a detour to take in Kensington Olympia on it's seldom used branch line from Earl's Court.

There are two Edgeware Road stations, this is the more attractive of the two and has what appears to be the standard, for this part of the line, pale cream glazed brickwork frontage. Interestingly this station was originally part of the Metropolitan railway but now serves the District, Circle and Hammersmith & City lines. Just outside the station was the first of two interesting pieces of public sculpture I was to see on this section of the line.

 The stretch down to Paddington Station passes through the sprawling buildings of one of London's teaching hospitals, St Mary's, very useful if you are playing a game of Pointless in your head trying to find words beginning with a vowel and ending with 'ology'.

Another sculpture outside of the hospital of a cyclist checking his shoe. Odd.

Through the seemingly endless streets of Bayswater lined with stylish mansion flats and squares filled with spring bulbs and early cherry blossom in shades of pink and white and on the corner of one of these streets, the rather fine bust of George Kastrioti-Skandburg.

Bayswater station followed soon after and I was soon in little Athens with a domed Greek Orthadox cathedral and lots of Greek grocery shops.

After Notting Hill Gate station my path took me along Kensington Palace Gardens, part of the Crown Estate, and signs told me in no uncertain terms not to take any photos. Again this was useful practice for Pointless as I tried to guess the embassy from the flag flying outside. Some were simple, Japan, Finland, Russia, others less so, Nepal for example. Israel's was probably the easiest to identify as it was the only one with two Met police officers armed with semi-automatic weapons standing outside.

I moved swiftly on...

High Street Kensington was busy as lunchtime was approaching and there were plenty of interesting buildings in the Art Deco style to admire as I headed back west towards Kensington Olympia. The most striking building was probably Barkers.

The old Commonwealth Institute is being knocked down / refurbished to become part of the design museum. It was one of the first museums I went to when I moved to London, an interesting building but prone to leaks if I recall correctly. 

Kensington Olympia doesn't have a proper sign so I included in the montage the sign that gives it's original name Kensington Addison Road instead.

Heading south east the streets are busier and everything appears a little more shabbier as I arrived at Earl's Court. This was where I saw my first gig, Pink Floyd performing "The Wall." Now the whole exhibition centre is being knocked down to provide non-affordable housing. Shame, many great memories have seeped into the concrete walls of that edifice.

West Brompton is the next station, from the top floors of the nearby Empress State Building (a former client was based there for  time) you have a great view down onto the pitch of Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea Football Club.

The next stretch takes you through the slightly wild and overgrown West Brompton Cemetery. Lots of  family tombs, vaults and mini-mausoleums line the main route including the grave of Emmeline  Pankhurst. Some of the tombs would make great entrances for a Dungeons and Dragons game!

After leaving the cemetery you walk round the perimeter of the football ground which sprawls around a bit. The outside of the complex itself is rather an ugly monstrosity at ground level and looks better from above.

The original Fulham Broadway station was a grand brown stone building but this is now closed and the station is buried within a steel and glass shopping centre. Ho hum.

Passing over the interestingly named Eel Brook Common open space, past Parson's Green station and then Parson's Green itself I felt a little deja vu as this reminded me of the Turnham Green and Chiswick Park section with small common areas with the tube line running on an embankment close by.

Putney Bridge station followed soon after and then up a flight of steps to a footpath that runs alongside the train tracks across the Thames, the tide was out, with great views down the river.

South of the river the stations change in style, becoming quaint brick built buildings with the logo of the London and South West Railway above the entrance in carved brickwork along with the date of opening (around 1889-1890) the same date as the building of the railway bridge. Past Southfields the route enters Wimbledon Park which I visited on the Capital Ring walk. The pond was full of ducks and swans being fed by young children well wrapped up against the wind that blew unobstructed across the water. But with the sun reflecting off the ripples and the bulbs and blossom on the trees this was a very enjoyable respite from the suburban streets surrounding it.


Somehow the rod climbs steeply from Wimbledon Park station up Arthur Road to the last stop on this leg of the walk Wimbledon Station.

Next I will return to Turnham Green and explore the District Line as it follows the line of the Thames through the city and out the other side into the lesser known, to me anyway, reaches of Dagenham and Upminster.

Tracking the Tube: Metropolitan Line 03: Wembley Park to Rayners Lane

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Weather: Cold and Very Wet
Distance Walked: 8.3km
Distance By Tube: 7.03km
Stations Visited: 6
Fantastic Place: Zoroastrian Centre, Rayners Lane

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Spot the station NOT photographed on this walk!

I've been putting off blogging this walk, which I did way back in Novemeber, because it was one of the least pleasant walks I've ever done. The forecast when I set out from home was for light drizzle but no sooner had I stepped out of the train at Wembley Park it was already raining heavily. It was so heavy that I couldn't see the stadium from the station. Instead of the planned route I decided to take a direct route. This was a sensible choice as my map was soon transformed to mush in my pocket. 

There was very little of interest on the route, damp suburban streets, major junctions and some busy arterial roads, until I reached Harrow where the school buildings could be glimpsed on the hill (Harrow-On-The-Hill station is not actually on the hill).

The sun eventually came out as I approached the end of the walk and revealed the one gem on the walk, the Zoroastrian Centre near Rayners Lane station.

This fantastic Art Deco building was once a cinema and was worth getting soaked for!

I've decided to do the Rayners Lane to Uxbridge branch when I do the Piccadilly Line walk, and head up the other branch towards Watford, Chalfont and Amersham.