Silver Jubilee:Stratford Opened: Thursday 20th June 1839
Jubilee platforms opened: Friday 14th May 1999
Distance from previous station: 1.5 km
Change here for: Central line, Docklands Light Railway, North London line and One (somebody please sack the incompetent PR gibbon who thought that name up)
Change here soon for:Eurostar services to St Pancras and Paris, via the new Channel TunnelRail Link.
Fact file: Stratford station used to be a bit of a dump. But it was completely rebuilt between 1996 and 1999 and is now a bit of a stunner, although it's still a heck of a long walk out of the station from the Jubilee line platforms. Coming soon, just to the north, Stratford International.
5 things I found outside this station: Meridian Square, a big bus station, a purple steam engine called Robert, scores of people, my local shopping centre.
Nearby:StratfordMarket train depot (formerly a fruit & veg market), the Cultural Quarter (TheatreRoyal + StratfordPicturehouse + Stratford Circus).
Nearby (maybe):OlympicPark2012 Local history:no, no, no - this place has a local future.
Would Jubileevit quiz: Here are clues to the names of 21 Jubilee line stations. How many can you identify? (Answers in the comments box)
1) chalet 12) how Hilda Ogden asked husband for seconds
2) Route 007 13) environmentally-friendly recreation area
3) artillery fire 14) uses leg joint to injure Leslie Grantham
4) occident pig 15) where the Heinz Beans factory is
5) royal funeral 16) Tower or Millennium, for example
6) royal funeral 17) main entrance to York cathedral
7) Lake Superior 18) Barbie and Sindy go climbing
8) murder, arson 19) Warwickshire theatreland
9) Belgian battlefield 20) stick a road in the oven
10) Hammers' cuddly bear 21) Arctic gullible sorceress
11) mooring for yellow birds
Silver Jubilee:West Ham Opened: Monday 16th October 1854
Jubilee platforms opened: Friday 14th May 1999
Distance from previous station: 1.6 km
Platform: exit to the right of the train
Change here for: District, Hammersmith & City, c2c and North London lines
Fact file: West Ham station is 1½ miles from West Ham football ground, which must fool a lot of away supporters. You want Upton Park instead, you do. (bad luck lads)
5 things I found outside this station:Ibstock bricks and small glass squares, Costcutter Express, a mini-roundabout, Memorial Avenue, a chippy under new management (shame, because the old management served right tasty cod)
Nearby (eastward): the East LondonRugby Club, a few houses.
Nearby (westward): no houses, Bow Back Rivers, light industrial sprawl, Olympic Park 2012, the site of the old Big Brother House (go look at my exclusive photos again).
Local history: In the 1850s West Ham was the eighth largest town in the country. Keir Hardie became the first ever Labour MP when he was elected to represent West Ham in 1892. A local timeline here.
Meet the Big Brother 5 twelve (let the freakshow begin)
Marco(law student, 21, self-confessed drama queen) keywords: camp, squeaky, vodka, over-excited. Most likely to say "Oh my god, oh my god!" (last 3) Ahmed(voluntary lawyer, 44, self-confessed homophobe) keywords: multi-lingual, arrogant, bolshy, asylum-seeker. Most likely to say "I want people to hate me" (evicted: week 1) Jason(air steward, 30, self-confessed shagger) keywords: muscles, meathead, cocksure, vain. Most likely to say "do you like my leopardskin thong?" (evicted: week 3) Daniel(hairdresser, 30, self-confessed babe/bloke-magnet) keywords: tall, secretive, fedora, metrosexual. Most likely to say "I am an enigma" (evicted: week 7) Stuart(psychology student, 20, self-confessed genius) overconfident, immodest, bandana, smug. Most likely to say "I got 4 As at A level I did" (evicted: week 6) Victor(gap year student, 23, self confessed alpha male) keywords: dominant, outspoken, well-endowed, arrogant. Most likely to say "I fear no man" (evicted: week 9)
Vanessa(blonde, 26, self-confessed centre of jealousy) keywords: sporty, sleeptalker, strong-willed, South African archery champion. Most likely to say "I won't be walked over" (evicted: week 8) Emma(legal administrator, 20, self-confessed dippy lass) keywords: common as muck, partygirl, talkative, naive. Most likely to say (whilst standing in the lounge) "Wow is this the house?" (last 3) Kitten(activist, 24, self-confessed radical feminist lesbian) keywords: strident, political, argumentative, principled. Most likely to say nothing, but hold up two fingers instead (evicted: week 4) Michelle(mortgage advisor, 23, self-confessed sex addict) keywords: wannabe, mucky, vegetarian, slag. Most likely to say "Have I appeared on the front of the Sun yet?" (evicted: week 2) Shell(art student, 22, self confessed shepherdess) keywords: nice, cultured, outdoors, innocent. Most likely to say "Have any of you read Dostoevsky?" (potential winner) Nadia(bank clerk 27, self-confessed virgin) keywords: double-breasted, feisty, plastic, gravelly. Most likely to say (eventually) "18 months ago I used to be a bloke" (evicted: week 5)
Silver Jubilee:Canning Town Opened: Monday 14th June 1847
Jubilee platforms opened: Friday 14th May 1999
Distance from previous station: 1.7 km (beneath the River Thames yet again)
Platform: exit to the right of the train
You are now entering: the London Borough of Newham
Change here for: Docklands Light Railway and North London line
Fact file: This is a double decker station, with the DLR platforms directly above the Jubilee line platforms. The eastbound DLR runs directly above the westbound Jubilee, but in the same actual direction.
5 things I found outside this station: a big flyover on the A13, an MFI superstore, a teeming bus station, Purvi newsagents, a large stone memorial commemorating the nearby Thames Ironworks (HMS Warrior was built here in 1860)
Nearby:Bow Creek, Leamouth, Trinity Buoy Wharf (London's only lighthouse)
Local history:RonanPoint was once a typical new 1960s tower block, at least until Mrs Ivy Hodge woke early one morning in 1968 to make herself a cup of tea. She struck a match to light the gas on the cooker in her kitchen, and the resulting explosion caused all 23 floors in one corner of the block to collapse. Amazingly only five people died (not including Ivy) but Britain's high-rise tower block dream died with them.
Local blog:Random Acts of Reality
Watch the opening seconds of EastEnders very very closely and you'll see that the camera pans out from an epicentre in the middle of the River Thames, just off the North Greenwich peninsula. When the programme started in 1985 the opening credits depicted a densely-packed industrial wasteland here, with a dark grey cloud positioned carefully over the tip of the peninsula. In 1999 the credits were updated to show a very different picture, with much of the surrounding industry erased and a vast new Dome shining out from the centre of that camera shot. For one millennial year the people came, in their not-quite-enough millions, and the peninsula buzzed with life. Well, some life. And then the nation went away disillusioned and left North Greenwich alone, a major transport hub surrounded by nobody. The station was designed to cope with up to twenty-two thousand passengers an hour but now serves less than half that a day. A great futureis promised, but it hasn't arrived yet.
Walk out of North Greenwich station today and what will you see? There's the big Dome standing folorn and empty, its twelve yellow spikes thrusting defiantly into the sky. Through the long blue perimeter fence you might spot Group 4 security workers patrolling the vast arena like ghosts. It's still possible to walk right up to the rows of over-optimistic admission booths, all 48 of them, lined up waiting for the crowds that never came. A trickling stream of lost buses passes through the curved bus station, detouring to ferry the grateful of south-east London back to their distant homes. To the south of the Dome lies a vast open space where, one day, something more than car parks and fountains will be built. And further away still is the Millennium Village - yuppie heaven so they'd have you believe, but still absolutely nowhere near critical mass. The whole redevelopment is as bleak and deserted as the industrial landscape it replaced.
Should you have half an hour to spare you can take a lovely lonely walk around the Dome. Turn right out of the station, skulk past a wall of blue portakabins and breathe in the stunning view of Canary Wharf from across the river. Further round you cross the meridian line, etched in stone, beside a disused pavilion still home to the model remains of a multimedia exhibition. A carpet of replanted wild flowers lies cut off inside the Dome perimeter, whilst nearby riverside reedbeds sway freely in the breeze. Tiny planes fly low overhead on their way to land at tiny City Airport, and an enormous yellow sign warns shipping that the Thames Barrier lies just round the corner. You pass a legacy of underappreciated artwork spaced along the riverbank, from a vertically-sliced boat (now covered in seagulls) to Anthony Gormley's towering QuantumCloud. Nobody lands at the Queen Elizabeth Pier any more, if indeed they ever did, and gardeners have long abandoned the shrubberies alongside the deserted car parks. The odd cyclist may speed past on some long ride to nowhere, but otherwise this walk is a solitary pilgrimage to misplaced ambition. I loved it.
Looking back from the smug safety of the future it's clear that the Dome should never have been built. The British public were never going to be enthralled by a worthy exhibition of social issues, hurriedly assembled to meet an immovable deadline. But I'm glad we tried. We may have wasted millions on the millennium, but one day this area will be reborn and it'll all be because one year ended in three zeroes. Until then the Dome will continue to stand alone and abandoned in the middle of nothing. Nothing but the EastEnders map, that is.
Silver Jubilee:North Greenwich Opened: Friday 14th May 1999
Distance from previous station: 1.7 km (beneath the River Thames again)
Platform (eastbound): exit to the left of the train
Platform (westbound): exit to the right of the train
You are now entering: the London Borough of Greenwich, zone 3
Fact file:NorthGreenwichstation is even bigger than Canary Wharf station, but serves a local population of virtually zero. The station contains over 150000 tonnes of reinforced concrete and is sort of purple-themed. There are three platforms here rather than the usual two, just in case anyone ever wants to build a new branch line out to Beckton and the Royal Docks.
5 things I found outside this station: a carelessly-discarded Dome, WH Smiths, a bus station in the middle of nowhere, a 1000-space car park, Group 4 security.
Nearby:MillenniumDome, Millennium Way, MillenniumVillage, Millennium Quay, Millennium Sainsburys, big fat Millennium zero.
Nearby, but a 5 minutes detour by road: the Blackwall tunnel Not nearby enough: Greenwich, civilisation.
Local history: It's hard to believe today but until the mid 19th century this was all farmland. The South Metropolitan Gas Works were built here in 1889, once the largest gasworks in Europe (they closed in 1985 but the giant gasholder still serves south-east London). The government chose to site the Millennium Dome here rather than in Birmingham because planned transport links were so good. The Dome opened on 31st December 1999, was universally slated by the press, failed to reach over-ambitious visitor targets and closed a year later having tainted the career of every politician who'd ever been involved with it. I quite liked it. Nobody comes to see the Dome any more, they come to catch buses to Charlton and Bexley. How are the mighty fallen.
Local blog:Casino Avenue (well, local-ish)
Cheap plug 1: My Dome of Doom interactive adventure.
Cheap plug 2: lots more photos on my photo blog today.
5 completely unfounded rumours • The tabloid press will moan endlessly that the latest series is deadly dull, but still continue to waste endless column inches scrutinising the housemates' private lives, especially those with large breasts.
• The Big Brother sofa lifestyle range will be launched by Linda Barker at IKEA over the bank holiday weekend.
• In an attempt to liven up proceedings, this year's secret room will contain three American prison guards and a digital camera.
• Two housemates will have sex within the first week, only to discover afterwards that they're both undercover journalists.
• By Christmas we'll have forgotten every last one of the D-list non-entities, just like we have with whoever it was won last year.
12 completely unconfirmed housemates • Katriona: An unassuming girly girl who loves ponies, but who is also secretly a psychotic sleepwalking murderess.
• Baz: Tedious bigoted argumentative loudmouth, of the kind everyone shares an office with but nobody wants to see on the telly.
• Liz: Septuagenarian monarch seeking to connect with one's subjects.
• Chris & Pat: A married couple, and therefore the least likely of any of the contestants to engage in shagging.
• Tanya: Fresh from Larkhill Prison, TV's favourite footballer's wife continues her tour of primetime ratings hits.
• Biffa: (in broad Brummie accent) "I hate these bloody lentils, I need my fags, is there any cider left?"
• Dermot: Big Brother's Little Brother will be presented from inside the house this year.
• Fran: Dull non-entity, but has a birthday in week 3 so that's an excuse for the producers to throw a booze-soaked party.
• Billy-no-mates: Fat miserable sod, physically incapable of completing any of the tasks, but never evicted by the public due to his inestimable comedy value.
• Lug: Shaven-headed witch who insists on walking around in the nude and sacrificing the chickens.
• Tony: Prime Minister in a desperate bid for the youth vote in the run up to the June 10th elections, after which he'll escape over the walls never to be heard from again.
Silver Jubilee:Canary Wharf Opened: Friday 17th September 1999
Distance from previous station: 2.4 km (beneath the River Thames)
Platform: exit to the right of the train
You are now entering: the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Change here for:Docklands Light Railway (quite a walk, though)
Photo shows: the new eastern entrance to the station, opened last month (and still fairly quiet).
Fact file: Canary Wharf tube station is an award-winning architectural masterpiece designed by Sir Norman Foster, buried within the former West India Dock. The station is so big that the whole of the largest nearby skyscraper could fit inside lengthways with room to spare. Nothing quite prepares you for your first descent down the bank of escalators into the vast subterranean space.
5 things I found outside this station: Docklands, One Canada Square (Britain's tallest building), a sculpted head lying on its side, JubileePlace shopping centre beneath Jubilee Park, four clocks on poles.
Nearby: a forest of skyscrapers, over-priced flats, far too many posh shops and bars, new Billingsgate Market, the Museum In Docklands.
Local history:Canary Wharf used to be an insignificant cargo warehouse beside the West India Docks (opened 1802), and was so named because many of its imports came from the Canary Isles. West India Dock finally closed in 1980, the year in which the London Docklands Development Corporation was set up. The docks were filled in and major reconstruction began, with the huge tower at One Canada Square completed in 1990 (my television reception has never recovered). Without Canary Wharf the Jubilee line extension would never have been built. Tens of thousands of people now live and work in Docklands, rather more yuppie financial types than the swarthy dockers of old. Full history here.
Future: More and more skyscrapers are planned (maybe too many if you ask me). See what Canary Wharf might look like in the future here.
I decided to kick my inertia last night and went out to see a film. A year and two days is quite long enough to spend out of the cinema (although for the last couple of months I suspect I was only hanging on to reach the year milestone out of sheer spite). There was one particular film I wanted to see, except it's not released officially until the day after tomorrow. So instead I went for the local option, a delightful vignette about Chelsea and Millwall football supporters. To add extra realism I went to a screening at the UCI Cinema in Surrey Quays, just a bottle's throw from the New Den. That could have been half the cast I saw drinking outside the redbrick boozer by the station, it was hard to tell.
The Football Factory is a charming tale about a group of good mates with a soccer fixation. They drink together, go on coach trips to far flung stadia together and enjoy nothing better than a little light boxing in the street. No nasty knitted scarves for these gentlemen, they wear only the finest Pringle and Burberry, often liberally splattered with haemoglobin. Their drink of choice is lager, and lots of it, but they down a lot of coke too. Admittedly their language is rather colourful, but nothing worse than you'd hear in the first minute of Four Weddings And A Funeral. All in all these fine friends love life, almost as much as they like kicking it out of other people.
We follow Tom, a fug about to turn firty, who finks filosofically about the frill of freatening behaviour but is forever in the fick of any frottling and frashing. He works down the florists with a racist psychopath, is touchingly devoted to his right-on grandad, and is having premonitions that the gang's young apprentice is about to meet his match. Which, in this case, is a third round cup tie. Appropriately the film's exactly 90 minutes long, and mixes in just enough humour with the bleak unforgiving violence and pathos. Some wooden acting in parts, but any film that plays the Jam's Going Underground over the closing credits can't be all bad (even if the usherette waiting to collect the litter was glaring at me to leave by the end). Home win, 2-0.
Silver Jubilee:Canada Water Opened: Thursday 19th August 1999
Jubilee platforms opened: Friday 17th September 1999 (1 month later)
Distance from previous station: 1.1 km
Platform: exit to the right of the train
Change here for: East London Line
Fact file: There didn't used to be a station here on the EastLondonline before the Jubilee line came along. Rotherhithe station is only 300m away.
5 things I found outside this station: a big round glass drum, a bus station, large tracts of open space awaiting redevelopment, Surrey Quays Shopping Centre, Canada Water (complete with bird raft and wind turbine).
Nearby:Harmsworth Quays (where the Daily Mail and Evening Standard are printed), Rotherhithe (which is actually rather lovely, down by the river at least), the entrance to the Rotherhithe Tunnel, the cinema I went to last night, Millwall FC.
Local history: The Surrey Docks on the Rotherhithe Peninsula closed in 1969. During the subsequent redevelopment almost all of the docks were filled in, but one section of the old Canada Dock remains and this is Canada Water. Locals continue to campaign to make their voices heard as redevelopment continues.
inertia, n. inertness: the inherent property of matter by which it continues, unless constrained, in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line.
I suffer from inertia. It's not terminal or anything, but it affects every aspect of my life. Given the chance I tend to carry on doing the things I've always done, and not veering off the straight and narrow. My life rolls forward uniformly in a straight line without deflection. I am inertial.
I'm happy in my job and am not actively seeking a new one. I like my flat and I'm not looking to move on. I really ought to sort out my endowment mortgage but I can't quite be bothered. I feel no urge to spend my weekends at the garden centre, the department store or the furniture warehouse. I could repaint my bathroom but what's the point? My mobile's more than two years old and I'm not interested in a hi-tech replacement. I wait for my phone to ring rather than taking the initiative and ringing other people. I've not changed one of the 39 tracks on my portable mp3 player since last summer. I sidestep the question 'where are you going on holiday this summer?' at work because I'll probably stay in London. I've not been to the cinema for over a year. I've only had one evening out so far this month, which is a bit rubbish given that there have been 4 weekends in May already. I wake up, go to work and come home, repeatedly. I am, essentially, inert.
I am a snooker ball rolling slowly across the pool table of life (ok, I know I'm mixing my metaphors here, but bear with me). There are very few other balls around on my table for me to bounce off (hmm, maybe this is rather more like billiards). I know a few talented snooker players who used to deflect me on a regular basis (they'd ring me up right on cue and invite me out somewhere) but recently they've been too busy playing doubles instead (my table has been cleared). I expect I'll carry on travelling in my straight line for a very long time, until eventually I rebound off an unexpected cushion into the outfield or some deep dark pocket opens up ahead for me to tumble into (I'd better take a rest there before you start to baulk).
But let's view this another way. Most people strive throughout their lives to reach a state of inertia. They'd love to lead a steady and secure existence, heading forward on a well-defined path. They'd rather not ricochet round the green baize of life, being hit randomly by black after red after blue. Most people long for the safe, the predictable and the uneventful, because the alternative is stress, struggle and uncertainty. I think, all things considered, I rather like having inertia. But then I would say that wouldn't I?
Silver Jubilee:Bermondsey Opened: Friday 24th September 1999
Distance from previous station: 1.9 km
Platform: exit to the right of the train
You are now entering: zone 2
Fact file: Bermondsey station is "a synthesis of heroic engineering structures animated by light, topped off by a sleek, transparent box at ground level." Further gushing architectural drivel here.
5 things I found outside this station:Jamaica Road, an electronic display welcoming you to Bermondsey station, two cashpoints, Feltor Carrington estate agents, densely-packed council blocks.
Nearby: more densely-packed council blocks, Southwark Park, the Pool of London, King's Stairs Gardens (Edward III had a house here).
Not quite nearby: Bermondsey
Local history:Peter Tatchell infamously lost the Bermondsey by-election in 1983, which is the only reason Simon Hughes still has a career. Jade from Big Brother grew up here, giving the lie to estate agents' claims that Bermondsey is now somehow trendy. More about local redevelopment here, local history here, and local historians here.
Bloggeration: I've been using the new redesigned Blogger interface for a fortnight now. I've been very patient, I've tried hard to learn how everything works and I'm impressed with some bits, but I'm afraid there are still ten changes I avidly dislike. Are you listening Evan?
1) I can't edit and see what I'm editing at the same time. This is particularly annoying if I change something and want to look back and see what I've changed it from, because I can't.
2) I can save a draft post or I can publish a post, but I can't just post a post any more and publish it later. If I want to edit lots of posts, I have to wait for ages while they each publish separately.
3) After I've published a post, Blogger takes me to a useless 'just published' page. If I want to go back and edit my post it takes two further mouse clicks via the index, whereas it used to take none.
4) All 'previews' appear in grey text rather than black text, which is no use if I'm trying to write in a mixture of black and grey (as I have been all month) because I can't see which is which.
5) It's all too easy to press the wrong button and accidentally lose the entire post I've just been writing, especially if I've been using the 'preview' function and haven't saved it yet.
6) It's particularly easy to lose an entire post if I accidentally click on the blue strip across the top of the edit page, because this takes me back to the pointless 'Dashboard' feature.
7) The precise time of a post is no longer displayed on my blog index page. I can change the time if I want, but the default is now the time I start writing a post, not the time I publish it.
8) I can't search for an old post by date any more because the old 'calendar' function has been disabled. Instead I have to remember a word from the post I'm looking for and search for that.
9) Blogger's new low-fi comment system takes two clicks to access, plus the comment doesn't appear on the other person's blog immediately so I can't see what I just wrote in context.
10) If I do add a comment to a Blogger blog, the link from my comment goes to my profile page not to my blog. Except I don't want a godforsaken twee profile page, so it links nowhere.
Silver Jubilee:London Bridge Opened: Sunday 25th February 1900
Jubilee line platforms opened: Thursday 7th October 1999
Distance from previous station: 1.3 km
Platform: exit to the right of the train
Change here for: Northern line and mainline services
Fact file: There are now two exits from this station, the original beneath the mainline station and a new exit onto Borough High Street. More photos here.
5 things I found outside this station:London Bridge, the London Dungeon, Borough Market (selling posh organic food for Observer readers), Southwark Cathedral, Guy's Hospital Nearby:The Clink (a notorious medieval prison), the Golden Hinde (a reconstruction of Drake's famous galleon), the Greater London Assembly and, one day soon-ish probably, the 1016ft high London Bridge Tower (controversial pointy skyscraper).
Local history: The Romans built the first London Bridge across the Thames in AD43. The first stone bridge appeared in 1176, famously lined by rickety buildings and traitors' heads on spikes. A new bridge followed in 1831, only to be shipped to Lake Havasu in Arizona in the 1960s and replaced by a desperately dull concrete span.
Local blog:Miss Elaine Neous
(...and Moscow too, except they haven't got a hope). These are the five cities still in the race for the 2012 Olympic Games, each eagerly seeking fame, glory and crippling long-term debt. I'm delighted to see that the industrial wasteland just up the road from my house is still on the final shortlist for this glittering prize. But the grey-suited men of the International Olympic Committee have held a mirror up to London's Olympic submission and haven't been quite as impressed as I might have hoped. They liked our airports, our hotels and our eco-friendly sustainable Olympic village. They weren't so impressed by public opinion, air pollution or our lack of experience in organising anything similar recently. But there's one common factor that all commentators believe is London's Achilles heel, and that's transport.
London thought it was being very clever sticking the majority of Olympic sports within a small area of EastLondon but the rest at world famous locations around the capital. Wimbledon, Wembley and Horseguards Parade to name but a few - surely these landmark sites were vote winners? Well no, because the IOC scrutineers spotted just how long it will take athletes to travel from the Olympic village to such far-flung outposts, and they're not taken in.
But hang on gentlemen! London's transport may not be perfect but it's by no means obsolete. Millions of us manage to travel around the capital each day without resorting to horse-drawn vehicles or steam locomotives. These ancient Victorian tube lines of ours are just an indication that we invented them first. And let's not forget that the 2012 Olympics will be happening in August when the Underground is half empty anyway. All those poor tennis players who need to get to Wimbledon, they can ride there from Bromley-by-Bow via the District line like the rest of us. As for the world's finest footballers, there's a five year-old engineering marvel called the Jubilee line that can take them from Stratford to Wembley direct. Admittedly it'll be harder to extend the new East London line as far as Weymouth, but surely international yachtsmen are more likely sail there than to hop onto public transport. So, spoilt ungrateful executives of the IOC, step out of your chauffeur-driven limousines and try joining the rest of us in second class for a change. I'll save you all a seat on the DLR in eight years' time, OK?
Silver Jubilee:Southwark Opened: Saturday 20th November 1999
Distance from previous station: 450m
Platform: exit to the right of the train
You are now entering: the London Borough of Southwark Change here for: mainline services from Waterloo East
Photo shows: the vast mid-level concourse, one wall of which is covered by blue glass triangles. Wow, go see.
Fact file: Three separate escalators lead down to the platforms from the big blue cavern, each burrowing down between separate arches of the Victorian viaduct above.
5 things I found outside this station: a circular entrance lobby lit by a central glass drum, Waterloo East station (via dedicated exit), Blackfriars Road, a building site dominated by a towering blue crane (any buyers for a new glassy office building?), The Ring public house
Nearby: not a lot
Not quite nearby enough:Tate Modern, Oxo Tower, Globe Theatre.
Local history: Southwark has long been the dark side of London, with the southern banks of the Thames home to brothels, bear-baiting and some bloke called William Shakespeare.
BowRoadupdate: Meanwhile, over at Bow Road on the District line, my local station upgrade continues apace. No less than three new blue walls have been constructed in the last fortnight. There's one at the top of the stairs down to the eastbound platform, another in the corner of the ticket hall and a third around the scaffolding on the pavement in front of the station. Add those to the five existing blue walls along the platforms and one more on the pavement, and some kind of blue wall event horizon seems to have been reached. Perhaps some renovation work is going on behind those blue walls, it's still impossible to tell. Or maybe we've just become some new art installation, displaying an array of modern safety signage on clean blue surfaces, juxtaposed against late Victorian brickwork. Keep an eye on this comments box for further developments.
Silver Jubilee:Waterloo Opened: Saturday 10th March 1906
Jubilee line platforms opened: Saturday 20th November 1999
Distance from previous station: 1.0 km (beneath River Thames)
Platform: exit to the right of the train
You are now entering: the London Borough of Lambeth
Change here for: Bakerloo, Northern and Waterloo & City lines, and mainline services
Photo shows: the two very long moving walkways that link the Jubilee line to all other connecting services.
Fact file: Waterloo station has 23 escalators, more than any other underground station. The Jubilee platforms are 30m below ground.
5 things I found outside this station: Waterloo mainline station, Waterloo Eurostar station, a giant illuminated elephant's head at the top of an escalator, an IMAX cinema, homeless people.
Nearby:The South Bank = Saatchi Gallery + London Aquarium + London Eye + Jubilee Gardens + Royal Festival Hall + Queen Elizabeth Hall + Hayward Gallery + Golden Jubilee Bridges + National Film Theatre + National Theatre Local history:Waterloomainline station (opened 1848) was named after nearby WaterlooBridge (opened by Prince George 18th June 1817), originally due to be called Strand Bridge but renamed to commemorate the Battle ofWaterloo (18th June 1815).
When the Jubilee line was opened 25 years ago, it was always intended that it would be extended further. The line was meant to head east from Charing Cross to an enlarged station at Aldwych, then on to new stations at Ludgate Circus and Fenchurch Street (still the only mainline London terminal with no tube connection). From here the railway would have headed down to New Cross and Lewisham, or eastwards through the decaying London Docks to Silvertown and Thamesmead, or both. (Look, maps) But the money ran out before any of that could happen, and it took the promise of hard cash from the developers of Canary Wharf to kickstart the extension plans again. In 1990 new plans were put forward to extend the Jubilee line from Green Park to Stratford, severing the ten-year-old connection to Charing Cross. The chosen route linked central London to Docklands by heading south of the Thames into areas previously poorly served by underground services. (Look, moremaps. Look, a seriously in-depth history of the whole story)
Construction of the Jubilee line extension began in 1993. The extension was 10 miles long, serving eleven stations (three of them completely new). It would cost more than £3 billion to build and was a bold step into the future. All stations would be fully accessible with lifts to street level. All stations would have platform-edge doors (they improve airflow as well as safety). All stations would be enormous enough to cope with increased passenger traffic over the next five decades. And, most importantly of all as it turned out, all stations would be designed independently by different architects. And wow aren't they fantastic? It's almost worth taking a trip down the line stopping off at every station just to admire the stunningly impressive use of concrete. Which is what I'll be doing on here each day for the rest of the month. Prepare to stand in awe.
Jubilee line extension opening (1999) Friday 14th May: North Greenwich to Stratford opened (by John Prescott)
Friday 17th September: Bermondsey to North Greenwich opened
Friday 24th September: Waterloo to Bermondsey opened (but not Southwark or London Bridge)
Thursday 7th October: London Bridge opened
Saturday 20th November: Green Park to Waterloo (but not Westminster) plus Southwark opened, Charing Cross closed
Wednesday 22nd December: Westminster opened, just in time before...
Friday 31st December: Millennium Dome opened. If nothing else, it got the Jubilee line extension built.
Silver Jubilee:Westminster Opened: Thursday 24th December 1868
Jubilee line platforms opened: Tuesday 22nd December 1999 (the newest platforms on the Underground network)
Distance from previous station: 1.3 km
Platform (eastbound): exit to the left of the train
Platform (westbound): exit to the right of the train
Change here for: District and Circle lines
Station originally called: Westminster Bridge
Fact file: Rebuilding Westminster station to accommodate the Jubilee line was an engineering nightmare, restricted by the close proximity of the Houses of Parliament and the River Thames. Great care had to be taken to prevent Big Ben from toppling (the solution involved meticulous injections of liquid cement and 'compensation grouting'). The District line platforms had to be lowered by half a metre, beneath those went the eastbound Jubilee tunnel, and beneath that the westbound tunnel. A deep narrow cavern was excavated 32 metres downwards beneath Portcullis House, filled with interlocking escalators, concrete struts and concourses. It's quite magnificent, like a giant grey game of snakes and ladders.
This is my station: I descend three levels down from the District line into the bowels of the earth every morning, but ascend back only two levels in the evening. And yes, I never fail to be impressed by the stunning architecture as I pass through.
5 things I found outside this station:Big Ben (OK, St Stephen's Tower), the Houses of Parliament, Portcullis House, the River Thames, tight security.
Nearby:Westminster Abbey, Westminster Hall, Whitehall, the Cenotaph, democracy (apparently).
Local history: No no no, national history.
my diary, day 10000: Tuesday 18th May 2004 (age 39, London, 310 words) "Bloody hell, I've made it to ten thousand days of writing a diary, + there's not one day missing." (yes, I know I already told you that, but I needed to tell my diary too) "Storm up escalators at Green Park but get overtaken near top." (I'd never have written that normally, I was just performing for a slightly wider-than-usual audience)<delete morning of work stuff>(I have five full days of identical meetings this week, and it's getting repetitive) "Lunch is served, exactly the same selection of sandwiches as yesterday." (our catering contractors have the cheek to call a bowl of plain ready salted crisps a 'potato chip medley') "Discuss football play-offs with visitors." (I reckon I fooled them all into thinking I knew exactly what I was talking about)<delete longer-than-usual afternoon of work stuff>(sometimes when you get out of an all-day meeting, there's still a day's work to do) "Eventually escape just before 8 after 11½ hours." (sigh, but at least the tube was empty) "Home for pie and TV." (I preferred Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares to Bad Girls) "London through to 2012 Olympic shortlist." (suddenly I have this nagging suspicion that our 'obsolete' rail network is going to lose it) "10000 may be dead impressive, but alas today's been typically dull." (and therefore perfectly typical)
my diary, day 9000: Wednesday 22nd August 2001 (age 36, Ipswich, 223 words) "Today I'm packing." (you nearly missed my entire spell living in East Anglia, because here I am preparing to move all my worldly goods down to London four days later) "Time to fill 8 more binbags... well done!" (I'm an abject hoarder, so this pre-move clear-out was an unexpected success) "Hmmm, 4 boxes of Record Mirrors, complete set 1984-91, but not looked at in 10 years. Go on, chuck 'em, bar a small sample. Sigh, after all that effort in collecting and moving them." (the abject hoarder in me still can't believe I ever threw this complete set of back issues away. I could have flogged them all instead if only I'd thought of it. But hey, life's too short) "Later <insert Blue Witch> rings about <insert details of egg-related project> and <insert name of breakfast television programme>." (don't worry, my lips are sealed) "London? It'll be fine." (and so it was)
my diary, day 8000: Thursday 26th November 1998 (age 33, Bedford, 612 words) <delete work stuff>(got up, went to work all day, came home) "Ipswich interview letter has arrived in the post, interviews next week!" (we've hit a major turning point in my life today, though I didn't know I was going to get the job at the time) "Ring <insert name of my ex> who suddenly realises I might be serious about moving in. Am I sure I want to go ahead?" (I was, but I've never considered doing that again with anyone else since) "Next call from <insert name of brother> saying <insert name of brother's wife> had her 20 week scan today, the baby's ok and it's a boy. Would I like to be godfather?" (too right I would, and <insert name-to-be of embryo> is now a right little character) "Rang <insert name of my ex> again later, just back from meal out with workmate." (or, far more likely as it turned out, just back from shagging someone else. But I didn't realise that at the time)
my diary, day 7000: Friday 1st March 1996 (age 30, Bedford, 669 words) "I fell asleep for the last 10 minutes of leap day and woke up 30 seconds into March." (Newsnight Late Review must have been boring that week)<delete work stuff>(trust me, you're not missing any interesting work stuff here) "After work, straight out to Sainsburys in the drizzle." (that was the limit of my Friday night social life in those days, but that's Bedford for you) "TV: TFI Friday, A Song for Europe (8 songs whittled down to 4), Brookside (Mike & Lindsey arrested in Thailand for drug smuggling), The Fast Show, Red Dwarf, Fist Of Fun, Reeves & Mortimer." (blimey, an absolutely classic comedy line-up) "Zzzz at midnight." (you're probably asleep by now too, aren't you?)
my diary, day 6000: Saturday 5th June 1993 (age 28, Bedford, 801 words) Today is cousin <insert name of cousin>'s wedding, so I've got to get back to Watford. (that's much better, we've actually hit an interesting day for once) "Bung suit in bag and head to station. <delete dull details of journey>. Hi to Mum, who insists on re-ironing my shirt." (hi to my Mum again. This'll be the first time she's read my diary, I trust. Hope it goes down well) "<insert name of cousin> is on crutches because he broke his leg recently (weddings are supposed to be memorable, aren't they?) "Hey it's <insert name of last surviving grandmother> smiling in a borrowed wheelchair." (she wouldn't make my brother's wedding three months later, and died within the year, sniff) "Groan, we're on video. Amazing how cameras and videos take over." (nobody arranges weddings any more, they stage them) "Out of church, cue photos, confetti and more photos. <insert name of brother> suddenly discovers there's no film in his camera - he's gutted." (maybe just as well, I was never convinced that cream suit suited me) "Oh great, it's prawns." (the wedding reception staple, followed inexorably by chicken) "Try to stay awake until the speeches, but <insert name of groom> does very well. Very." (a real rarity that, the wedding speech that's memorable for all the right reasons) "After the reception hang around waiting for the evening to start. Sit in the corner of the garden playing blow football with aphids." (please don't complain to the RSPCA, they'd have died anyway) "Oh god, it's a band not a disco. The ballroom clears." (when will people learn? It's not a proper wedding without Oops Upside Your Head) "Over comes <insert name of overly keen Auntie> and demands that me and <insert name of equally jaded female cousin> dance. With menaces." (so we did, sort of, very eventually, then went back and sat and watched from a safe distance for the rest of the evening)(family weddings, don't you just love them?)
my diary, day 5000: Sunday 9th September 1990 (age 25, Windsor, 480 words) "The day dawns with me thankfully still asleep." (my flatmates had got home late and loud the previous night) "Went down the road for my Sunday Correspondent." (only lasted a year, that paper) "Read paper while my steak+kidney defrosts." (Sundays can be a real challenge to fill when you're a diarist. Often you're forced to chronicle the criminally mundane) "<insert name of landlady> rang during the Top 40 saying please can she have my rent in cash from now on please." (first hint that she was in serious financial trouble, and I was asked to move out a few months later) "Shame that The Joker beat Groove Is In The Heart to number 1." (the only time two records tied for the number 1 position, but Steve Miller nudged Deee-Lite out on some archane technicality)
my diary, day 4000: Monday 14th December 1987 (age 22, Windsor, 696 words) <delete work stuff>(sorry, we've hit another desperately dull day here. How did I ever write nigh 700 words about such banalities?) "At lunch an expedition into Windsor town centre. First stop ye olde watchmaker, I don't like paying £2.50 just to get my battery changed." (they're a complete con aren't they, watch batteries?) "Second stop Top Print, the printing of the annual Christmas card is imminent." (I've been making my own Christmas cards for the last 20 years, even though it would be so much easier to buy 40 folded cardboard robins instead)<delete more work stuff>(three-quarters of today's diary is work-related) "Brookside: Growler brings home his school report." (what is it with Phil Redmond and crap nicknames?)
my diary, day 3000: Tuesday 19th March 1985 (age 20, just back from uni, 302 words) "My Giro account's down to £125, and they haven't taken the hideously huge electricity bill out yet." (that's Girobank, not dole payments, ok? And nowadays I doubt there are any student accounts even as much as £125 in credit) "Along comes the new chart: Dead Or Alive slump to 6 making way for the two Phils." (that's Collins and Bailey, and how disappointing to swap a perfect Number 1 for that dirge) "Nigel Lawson's 2nd budget presents compulsory non-employment for under 18s, petrol up 4p (now over £2), road tax ↑10 to £100. Pah!" (I wasn't impressed, but petrol was still less than 50p a litre in those days) "TV: Whistle Test, James Burke in 'The Day The Universe Changed' and Brookside (Heather buys a new car)." (sorry that was dull, but you narrowly missed all the juicy university stuff from the end of term a couple of days earlier)
my diary, day 2000: Wednesday 23rd June 1982 (age 17, Watford, 266 words) "Back to school." (having done the second of my maths A-Level papers the previous day) "It's still all wet + cloudy + nasty + horrible + not like summer at all." (when in doubt, fill space by writing about the weather) "Geography: <insert name of teacher> accidentally read out some of the questions from our exam next week." (it was only a school exam but, looking back, I wonder how 'accidental' that was) "There is no Games so home I go." (you can't begin to imagine how pleased I was that my afternoon of school sport was cancelled) "Steve Wright manages to be very funny as usual." (look, we all grow up, let me off) "TV: totally repeats or the World Cup." (I bet I went and listened to Kid Jensen on Radio 1 instead)
my diary, day 1000: Thursday 27th September 1979 (age 14, Watford, 62 words) "Geography: Rivers + estuaries. Collect books in." (to think, they say schooldays are the best days of your life) "Latin: Sit down for unseen test. Fire drill. <insert name of teacher> angry." (yes, we did Latin at my school, and what a useful O-Level it's been. And yes, we did all stand out on the playing field during the fire drill swapping answers) "French: <insert name of ancient teacher who also taught my Dad> is angry about shouting, makes us stay in." (kids eh?) "Cross Country: time 31 min 39 sec." (trust me, that sounds much better than saying 'came last again') "Citizen Smith on TV, they hijack a lift." (it's true apparently, down at Tooting Town Hall in an episode called 'Only Fools and Horses')
my diary, day 1: Saturday 1st January 1977 (age 11, Watford, 35 words) "Up at 12 for 1977." (look, I was obsessively numerate even in the very first line) "Went to St Albans to sing Evensong." (yes I was a right little cherub in those days, with a singing voice as fine then as it is average now) "I was in Group B." (I hadn't quite got the hang of writing interesting stuff yet, had I?) "<insert name of choirmaster> drove us home but went mad at the Noke." (by which I mean he filled up with petrol beside a well known hotel outside St Albans, then drove out of the garage the wrong way down a dual carriageway. I told my Mum this later, and rarely she has been more mortified) "Choir party. Got given two uninteresting Tempo pens." (selfish ungrateful brat)
I wonder how many of you have ever kept a diary. A secret place to write down your thoughts and inner musings or just somewhere to record what you did each day. You probably started on 1st January, tried really hard for a week, got a bit bored, missed a day out, then gave up before February started. Or maybe you lasted a bit longer. If you're the sort of person who can write a daily blog, you're probably the sort of person who can keep a diary.
I started writing a diary on January 1st 1977. It was a Puffin Club diary I'd got for Christmas, only three inches by four, with a red cover and a tiny biro stuffed down the spine. I duly filled in the Personal Particulars at the front and started to chronicle my life. I wrote in code so that nobody else in my family would be able to read what I'd written (well not easily anyway, I hope). There were only ten short lines to fill in each day so I recorded a few edited highlights and little more. Many of my early comments are now too cryptic for me to unravel, but it's fascinating to look back to my first year at secondary school, to remember what my life used to be like and to watch myself developing.
I started writing a diary on January 1st 1977, and I carried on. It survived into February 1977 without me slipping up, I logged religiously through the summer and my next Puffin diary arrived the following Christmas. I moved up to a small Letts in 1980, then a bigger volume in 1981 so I could write about things in a little more detail rather than just listing them. It still wasn't an enormous diary so most of my university days aren't recorded in quite as much detail as I might like. I upsized again in 1986, reaching a point where I probably spent far too long writing about unnecessary minutiae just to fill the space. Odd how you only really have time to write a regular diary when your life isn't quite full enough to be worth regularly writing about.
I started writing a diary on January 1st 1977, and I never stopped. I still write my diary every night before I go to bed (you can tell I'm single can't you?), except if I'm knackered or busy when I write it up the following day. I've never missed a day out either. There's not one gap, not one day's memories blanked, not one day where I thought "Ah stuff it, I can't be bothered to write about today." Which is bloody impressive actually. I can look back at any day in the last 27½ years and see what I was doing, what I was thinking, and probably what I had for lunch. It's more factual than emotional, more descriptive than confessional, but that's just a reflection of my personality. And it's all for personal consumption only. I have no eye on publication or posterity, so there are a few frank and honest chunks I hope nobody else ever reads.
I started writing a diary on January 1st 1977, and today is the 10000th day I shall write an entry. Ten thousand entries, that's a hell of a lot of writing. By my calculations that's about five million words, which is six times as long as the Bible (and to me at least six hundred times as interesting). It's taken approximately six months to write too, which is a bit scary. And I guess it's been good practice for daily blogging, even if a blog presents a different, less personal, more guarded face to the world.
To celebrate my "ten-thousand days" milestone, I thought I'd share some choice extracts from my diary with you. Just a few snapshots you understand, edited highlights for a wider-than-intended audience. Plus I'll chuck in a running commentary to explain a little of what was going on at the time. You can read Day 1, Day 1000 and Day 2000 today, and every thousandth day thereafter over the next couple of days. Samuel Pepys it ain't.
A comprehensive history of Charing Cross underground station
It's surprisingly complicated this, so do follow closely. There are four separate station locations round Charing Cross, which I'll label ♥(down by the river), ♣(outside the mainline station), ♠(beneath Trafalgar Square) and ♦(up Aldwych). If you click here and scroll down to 'Bakerloo line' you can follow all this on a map. For a detailed underground plan of Charing Cross station today, click here. For further explanation of the whole renaming mess, click here. And if you can't cope with what follows don't worry, because I promise I'm taking a three-day break from the Jubilee line tomorrow.
1870: A District line station opens on the Embankment to the south of Charing Cross mainline station, and is named Charing Cross♥. 1906: A Bakerloo line station opens beneath Charing Cross♥ District line station, but is called Embankment♥ instead. Another Bakerloo line station opens 350 metres northwest at Trafalgar Square♠. 1907: The Northern line opens, terminating just north of the mainline station at a station called Charing Cross♣. Meanwhile the Piccadilly line opens a branch from Holborn to Strand♦. 1914: The Northern line is extended 250 metres southwards from Charing Cross♣ to join the Bakerloo line at Embankment♥ station, which is renamed Charing Cross (Embankment)♥. Meanwhile Charing Cross♣ is renamed Charing Cross (Strand)♣. 1915:Charing Cross (Embankment) is renamed Charing Cross♥, and Charing Cross (Strand) is renamed Strand♣. Meanwhile the old Strand station is renamed Aldwych♦. (deep breath, here comes the Jubilee line) 1973:Strand♣ station on the Northern line is closed to prepare for the arrival of the new Fleet Jubilee line. 1974:Charing Cross♥ station is renamed Charing Cross Embankment♥. 1976:Charing Cross Embankment♥ is renamed Embankment♥ (and so it remains). 1979: The Jubilee line opens. It terminates at a newly-enlarged Charing Cross♠♣ station, linking the old Bakerloo♠ and Northern♣ line stations. The Bakerloo line platforms are renamed Charing Cross (for Trafalgar Square)♠. The Jubilee line tunnels continue almost as far as Aldwych♦, because this is expected to be the next station when the line is extended further... 1994: ...but no, Aldwych♦ station is closed instead (read about the now-disused station here and here). 1999: The Jubilee line extension from Green Park to Stratford is opened, and the 20 year-old tunnels from Green Park to Charing Cross♠♣ are closed (see photos here). 2004:Charing Cross♠♣ station still feels like two stations joined by a very long subway, so if you want to save yourself a long walk you should change between the Bakerloo♠ and Northern♣ lines at Embankment♥ instead.
Silver Jubilee:Charing Cross Opened: Saturday 10th March 1906
Jubilee line platforms opened: Tuesday 1st May 1979
Jubilee line platforms closed: Friday 19th November 1999
Distance from previous station: 1.1 km
Change here for: Bakerloo and Northern lines
Station originally called: This is complicated, see above.
Fact file: London's most recently abandoned tube station. This photo shows the wall built five years ago at the bottom of the main escalators to block off the Jubilee platforms from the rest of the station.
12 things I found outside this station: Charing Cross mainline station, an Eleanor Cross, the Strand, a vast shabby white-tiled 70s subway, TrafalgarSquare, not many pigeons, Sir Henry Havelock on a plinth, St Martin-in-the-Fields church, the South African embassy, a group of scary Morris dancers, a memorial to Oscar Wilde, the point from which all 'distances from London' are measured.
Nearby:Nelson's Column, the National Gallery, Admiralty Arch, The Mall, Whitehall, Embankment station.
Local history: King Edward I erected a monument here in 1293 to mark the last resting place of his wife's funeral cortege. Cromwell pulled down the original Eleanor Cross in 1647, so the present stone spire in the station forecourt is a Victorian replacement. Of Edward's 12 original crosses along the route from Lincoln to London, only those at Geddington, Hardingstone and WalthamCross survive.
1 [→] Bright Eyes (Art Garfunkel): The best selling single of 1979, and probably the only number one ever written about rabbits. This song may have sounded cute and fluffy, but it was in fact as dark and downbeat as the Watership Down cartoon it accompanied. "Is it a kind of dream, floating out on the tide? Following the river of death downstream?" 2 [→] Pop Muzik (M): It doesn't get more seminal than this. Robin Scott's tiMeless Magnificent Masterpiece was a nugget of purest pop. On a related theme, may I recommend the fine New York London Paris Munich blog, where everybody talks about pop muzik. "Radio, video. Boogie with a suitcase. You're livin' in a disco. Forget about the rat race." 3 [→] Hooray Hooray It's A Holi-Holiday (Boney M): The last of 9 consecutive top ten hits for a group who would have stormed Eurovision if only they'd ever entered. You'll be humming this tune all day now, sorry. "There's a place I know where we should go - heydiheydihoh. Won't you take me there your lady fair - heydiheydihoh." 4 [→] Does Your Mother Know (Abba): And now the real Euro supergroup, back when Sweden ruled the airwaves. This was the band's first hit to feature Benny and Björn on vocals, both here showing commendable emotional restraint. "You're so hot, teasing me. So you're blue but I can't take a chance on a chick like you. That's something I couldn't do." 5 [↑1] Reunited (Peaches& Herb): If you're going to do a ballad, do it like this. Westlife, listen and learn. Nowadays the band's name would be better suited to a range of organic shampoos. "There's one perfect fit. And, sugar, this one is it. We both are so excited 'cause we're reunited, hey hey." 6 [↑3] Knock On Wood (Amii Stewart): A belting disco stormer from the east coast diva, rightly selling 8 million copies worldwide. You can hear the drumbeats even now, can't you? "'Cause your love is better than any love I know. It's like thunder and lightning, the way you love me is frightening." 7 [↑13] Dance Away (RoxyMusic): The classic classy comeback single from the King of Smooth, Bryan Ferry. He'll be 60 next year, you know. Anybody feeling old yet? "Until tonight and you pass by, hand in hand with another guy. You´re dressed to kill and guess who´s dying?." 8 [↑13] Parisienne Walkways (Gary Moore): One of those tracks that everyone who learnt to play guitar in the 70s learnt to play. Gary's bluesy strumming was backed here by a handful of lyrics from Phil Lynott. I remember Paris in '49. The Champs Elysées, Saint Michel and old Beaujolais wine." 9 [↑2] One Way Ticket (Eruption): A cover version of a Neil Sedaka B side from the same producer who brought us Boney M. Eruption's only other hit was another cover, the much more memorable 'I Can't Stand The Rain'. "Choo choo train a-trackin’ down the track. Gotta travel on, ain’t never comin’ back. Ooh ooh, got a one way ticket to the blues." 10 [new entry] Sunday Girl (Blondie): The fourth track to be lifted from the 'Parallel Lines' album, back when four releases really wasn't the done thing, and straight into the top ten too, which was quite an achievement in those days. Debbie Harry sang the final verse and chorus in French, and a million teenage boys melted. "I know a girl from a lonely street. Cold as ice cream, but still as sweet. Dry your eyes, Sunday girl."
Silver Jubilee:Green Park Opened: Saturday 15th December 1906
Jubilee line platforms opened: Tuesday 1st May 1979
Distance from previous station: 1.5 km
Platform: exit to the right of the train
Change here for: Piccadilly and Victoria lines (actually, don't change here for the Piccadilly line because you have to walk for ages down a really long passage)
Station originally called: Dover Street
Fact file: All the tiling on the platforms is orange, not Green. For a stunningly detailed description of the station, try here (a great site for partially-sighted travellers).
This is my station: I commute to Green Park station every morning, and I have this station sussed. I was the first person up the Jubilee line escalators on four days out of five last week. Hundreds of commuters behind me, and no running thankyou. I am the Green Park champion, I am.
5 things I find outside this station: the grinning lady who blocks the station exit trying to hand out free magazines, Piccadilly, the smiley bloke who sells me my Evening Standard, the Benjy's where I often buy lunch, a surprisingly high proportion of posh men wearing bow ties and dinner jackets.
Nearby:Green Park, my office, the Ritz, Langan's Brasserie, Buckingham Palace.
Local history: I'll save that, if you don't mind, for later in the year...
(while I'm doing a whole month about 25 years ago, I thought I'd better do this...)
the Top 25 of 25 years ago(Tuesday 15th May 1979)
11 [↓4] Banana Splits (Dickies): Yes, really. A brash punk cover of the surreal kids TV theme, featuring Chuck Wagon on bass. "Four banana three banana two banana one, all bananas playing in the bright warm sun. Flipping like a pancake popping like a cork, Fleagle Bingo Drooper and Snork." 12 [↑6] Roxanne (Police): Ex-teacher Gordon's very first hit explored prostitution, and is ten times better than any of the tantric new age crap he comes out with these days. "You don't have to put on the red light. Those days are over." 13 [↓3] The Logical Song (Supertramp): Is it just me, or were lyrics deeper in those days? And tunes catchier? "I know it sounds absurd, but please tell me who I am." 14 [↓6] Goodnight Tonight (Wings): Wings' last big hit before Sir Paul went solo. OK, I take it all back about lyrics being better in those days. "Don't say it. Don't say it. Say anything but don't say goodnight tonight." 15 [↓10] Some Girls (Racey): Some songs do, but some songs don't. Lyrical argument now completely destroyed, sorry. "I find your company to be, something completely new to me. Now that I know you socially, obviously I'll fall heavily." 16 [↓3] Love You Inside Out (Bee Gees): Reached number one in America, but we were less enamoured with this Brothers Gibb plodder. "You're the reason for my laughter and my sorrow. Blow out the candle I will burn again tomorrow." 17 [↑7] Jimmy Jimmy (Undertones): Fab Feargal's first top twenty hit, on lime green vinyl. The B side was 'Mars Bar', a tribute to the band's favourite chocolate. "Now little Jimmy's gone, he disappeared one day. But no one saw the ambulance, that took little Jim away." 18 [↓6] Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground) (Jacksons): An all-time classic floor filler, in just the same way that nothing in this week's chart is. "Let's dance, let's shout. Shake your body down to the ground." 19 [↓4] Boys Keep Swinging (David Bowie): Mr Bowie lists all the benefits of having a Y chromosome, and even girls couldn't resist singing along. Perfect. "When you're a boy you can wear a uniform. When you're a boy other boys check you out. You get a girl. These are your favourite things when you're a boy." 20 [↓3] I Don't Wanna Lose You (Kandidate): Slow male harmony ballad, of the kind I detest with all my breath. "Cos your love has done so much for me. My love for you keeps going on and on." 21 [↓2] Haven't Stopped Dancing Yet (Gonzalez): Another all-time classic floor filler, although it only reached number 15. Pat and Mick's criminal cover version assaulted the top ten ten years later. "I haven't stopped dancing yet since we met on our first date. I haven't stopped loving less." 22 [↓8] Hallelujah (Milk and Honey): Israel's second Eurovision winner (one year after their first), and bland has rarely been catchier. That's Israel, the well known European country. "With a simple word, a single word, we bless the sky, the tree, the bird. And we fill our heart with joy." 23 [↑2] Nice Legs Shame About The Face (Monks): A sexist novelty hit from Hudson Ford, formerly of the Strawbs. Drunken blokes still use this insult as their own, and probably still think it's funny. "So I had a drink with my friends up at the bar. I asked them what they thought of her, they fell about the place." 24 [↑6] Boogie Wonderland (Earth Wind and Fire): We're at the height of disco here, and it shows. "Midnight creeps so slowly into hearts of men who need more than they get. I find romance when I start to dance." 25 [↑9] The Number One Song In Heaven (Sparks): The legendary Mael Brothers were trying to emulate Donna Summer's I Feel Love, but they only made the number fourteen song in Britain. "If you should die before you wake. If you should die while crossing the street. The song that you'll hear, I guarantee." (and, peaking this week way down at number 42, an obscure track called "Are You Ready For Love?" by Elton John)
Silver Jubilee:Bond Street Opened: Monday 24th September 1900 Jubilee line platforms opened: Tuesday 1st May 1979 Distance from previous station: 1.7 km Platform: exit to the right of the train Change here for: Central line You'd be quicker changing here: From here to Stratford by Jubilee line takes 30 minutes. From here to Stratford by Central line takes 20 minutes. Fact file: There is no nearby road called Bond Street - instead this station is named after New Bond Street and Old Bond Street. Click to view a 3D subterranean artist's impression of the rebuilt Bond Street station (back in the mid 70s when the Jubilee line was due to be called the Fleet line). 5 things I found outside the station: bustling Oxford Street, the West One shopping centre, bureaux de change, loads of people, this view. Nearby: Selfridges, the site of my great grandfather's tailor's shop in South Molton Street, the American Embassy (now hiding behind grim concrete barriers). Local history: Bond Street is named after Sir Thomas Bond, a wily 17th century property speculator and close friend of King Charles II. Bond laid out the fine streets round these parts, and would no doubt be delighted that the street named after him is now synonymous with rich snobs luxury. Full history here.
1. Did you unexpectedly meet anyone famous this week? Yes.
2. Go on then, who? On Monday I walked past Servalan outside the Windmill Theatre in Soho. And I thought no, pull yourself together man, that wasn't really Servalan. That was Jacqueline Pearce the talented actress best known for her role as the evil intergalactic dominatrix Servalan in the late 70s BBC sci-fi series Blake's 7. And then I thought, no, stuff it, that wasServalan. She still has the same cropped haircut she had 25 years ago only with a quiff at the front, and she still swishes along in a confident all-powerful way, but she's smaller in real life than I expected, and blimey isn't she looking good for 60, and she smiles a lot, and why is she carrying that large bunch of flowers? And then I thought, wowServalan. And then I carried on shopping.
2. Anyone else? Yes. On Tuesday I walked past oh-what's-her-name I-recognise-her-from-somewhere in Shepherd Market off Piccadilly. Odd how you know you know someone even though you're not quite sure you know who she is. But I checked later (hurrah for the internet) and it was Hester from Fresh Fields. You know, the talented actress Julia McKenzie who played cheery unassuming Hester Fields in the cosy mid 80s ITV sitcom Fresh Fields. Only by the time I realised who she was she was long gone.
4. Anyone else? No.
5. Sorry, I appear to have run out of questions. I noticed. That must be because the Friday Five website finally shut down last week after 2½ years providing us with inspirational bloggable questions every week. Suddenly no more. How will we find something original to write about on Fridays now? (but wow, Servalan, really)
Silver Jubilee:Baker Street Opened: Saturday 10th January 1863
Distance from previous station: 2.1 km
Platform (northbound): exit to the left of the train
Platform (southbound): exit to the right of the train
You are now entering: zone 1
Change here for: Bakerloo line (a very easy same-level interchange), Metropolitan line, Circle line, Hammersmith & City line.
You'd be quicker changing here: From here to West Ham by Jubilee line takes 29 minutes. From here to West Ham by Hammersmith & City line takes 27 minutes.
Fact file: Baker Street is one of only seven underground stations on the world's first underground line between Paddington and Farringdon. The Bakerloo line deep-level station opened here in 1906, and the line out to Stanmore in 1939. More photos here.
5 things I found outside the station: hundreds of tourists buying tacky souvenirs and pizzas, long queues for sightseeing buses, a statue of Sherlock Holmes, Transport for London's Lost Property Office (it's amazing what people lose), the big green copper dome of the London Planetarium (opened 1958).
Nearby (1):Madame Tussaud's waxworks dates back to 1835, when French sculptress Marie Tussaud opened her famous collection in Baker Street. I went to nursery school in her old studios, you know, up Watford way. Nowadays Ms Tussaud's legacy is an overpriced tourist trap complete with mild fright and Kylie's arse.
Nearby (2): Sherlock Holmes never lived at 221B Baker Street, mainly because he didn't exist and neither did the address. If he had, a shabby Abbey National now lies on the site, a feeble window display the only target for snapping cameras.
I spent last night viewing a colourful display of pop culture. No, not the Eurovisionsemi-final, but the Roy Lichtenstein exhibition at the Hayward Gallery on London's South Bank. The exhibition closes on Sunday so I made the most of midweek late opening by heading down to the concrete artspace by the Thames for a good gawp at the famed spotty canvases.
You probably know some of Roy Lichtenstein's work, even if you don't know the name. Sixties pop art classics, cartoon-like with bold colours and strong lines, shaded by innumerable tiny red dots. Roy's reproductive style dawned in 1961 with a couple of Mickey Mouse drawings and suddenly, whaam, his graphic paintings were the talk of the American arterati. First blonde heroines, everyday kitchenware and mirrors, then brushstrokes, headless self portraits and Chinese landscapes - all were rendered in his unique yet strangely familiar format. It's all very Roy.
I was surprised to discover that many of his paintings started out as someone else's drawings or images. Roy paints art about art. When it looks like he's painted a living room, what he's usually painted instead is a representation of a picture of a living room he found in the Yellow Pages. And his most famous painting, that Whaam! fighter aeroplane shot, is lifted directly from a single frame in an All American Heroes comic book. Saw that last night too, it's an all-encompassing exhibition.
As well as the art, I enjoyed observing the people who'd come along to see it. The Hayward was definitely the destination of choice for vaguely intellectual couples in need of something to fill that difficult midweek pre-pizzeria slot. Then there were media-savvy creative types in just-casual-enough garb, art snobs lowering their expectations for a brief hour and the odd unwilling kid cursed by free admission. And I also enjoyed listening in to loud couples broadcasting their considered opinions of the paintings to one another ("ah, this must herald his stripy period" "close up the dots make my eyes go all funny" "that banana is so quintessential isn't it?"). Glad I went to take a look. Do go if you can, you have four days left until the exhibition goes pop.
Silver Jubilee:St John's Wood Opened: Monday 20th November 1939
Distance from previous station: 900m
Platform: exit to the right of the train
You are now entering: the London Borough of Westminster
Fact file: St John's Wood is the only station on the Underground network that shares no letters with the word 'mackerel'. The station was nearly called Acacia Road but the name was changed just before opening (which is just as well otherwise there'd be no mackerel-free tube stations).
5 things I found outside the station: a circular ticket hall with high glass windows, seven floors of flats built above the station, a shrubbery complete with palm trees, the Abbey Road Café (it's tiny, but it has an informative website), hordes of Inter-Railers clutching Multimap printouts trying to work out where 'that' recording studo is.
Nearby (1):Abbey Road recording studios, opened by Sir Edward Elgar in 1931 but more famously home to the Beatles between 1962 and 1970. You can take a virtual visit here and watch that legendary zebra crossing on webcam here. Groups of young tourists still hang around outside wielding digital cameras, or crouching on the pavement writing messages on the walls in black marker pen.
Nearby (2):Lord's Cricket Ground, home to the Marylebone Cricket Club, the Ashes and some would argue of cricket itself. The ground takes up a large slice of northwest London, the new Media Centre looming over the area like an alien spaceship. You can visit the Lord's Museum, drink in the Lord'sTavern, shop in the Lord's shop, or just stay away and watch football instead.
Local history: St John's Wood was one of the first London suburbs, built in Victorian times to encourage the upper middle classes to move out of central London to the more rural outskirts. Well, they were rural at the time. Semi-detached villas and rows of apartment blocks line the leafy avenues, and almost every building has three to five storeys. NW8 still feels rather upmarket, but I suspect most addresses in the area start with the word 'Flat'.
I've been out taking a lot of photographs lately, mostly obscure shots of bits of remote Underground stations. I had been expecting funny looks from the general public while I was out snapping but no, it seems I'm not alone (taking photos that is - I've not yet seen anyone else with a chronic Jubilee line fixation). Everybody's a photographer these days, pointing a lens at anything that moves and plenty of things that don't. We can take photos anywhere any time, and blimey we do. Look, a building (click). Look, a cloud (click click). Look, my dog (click click click click). Look, my new Jubilee line photo blog (click).
Taking photographs used to be slow and expensive. You bought a film, you attempted to load it into a clunky black plastic camera, you took the camera out with you sometimes, and you shot Christmas, birthdays and holidays. You took one photograph of everything, not several, because you were restrained by a limit of 36 exposures. You took photographs only of special things, because developing photographs onto paper cost money. And you had to wait to see how your photos turned out, assuming that the nice lady down at Boots didn't scratch or lose your negatives in the process. No longer. We now have handy digital cameras in various shades of silver and flash mobile phones with surreptitious shutters. Point, click, instant feedback. If a shot comes out wrong, take it again. And again and again and again because there are no longer any costs involved in developing. Just pick your favourite one from fifty when you get home.
And what do we do with all these additional photos? Some get printed, although quite frankly it's a lot of hassle and most people don't bother. Some get emailed to friends and family, a delightful way to share treasured memories across the miles. Some appear on websites, slowing download time to a crawl often for little eventual payback. But most just lie unseen clogging up our hard drive (I've got 1500 on mine, and that's just from the last six months), awaiting deletion or obsolescence. Who can say if even a fraction of the photos we take today will still exist in 20 years time, as technology continues to outpace storage. Pixels are so much harder to access than photographic paper, long term at least.
But negative-free photography has proved a real positive, especially now that nobody else need ever see the photos we take. The nice lady developing your photos in Boots is out of the equation, and we can snap whatever we like without fear of embarrassment. "Madge, it's that nutter who took 36 photos of the same concrete wall." "I've stuck 'advice' stickers on all your photos, dear, because they're all blurred." "You realise that what you were doing to that sheep is technically illegal." We are our own censor now. No problem, unless any of our more risqué personal photos should slip out into an electronic media minefield, providing damning pictorial evidence of something we'd rather everyone else didn't see. Maybe there is a case for bringing back the nice lady from Boots after all, just so that none of us get too snap happy without thinking about what we're actually recording. "Sorry love, but I've had to refer your Iraqi prisoner shots to the UN Court of Human Rights, and next time try to get the genitals in focus."
Silver Jubilee:Swiss Cottage Opened: Monday 20th November 1939
Distance from previous station: 600m
Photo shows: the elegant 30s escalator, complete with uplighters.
Platform: exit to the right of the train
Fact file: This station replaced the original Swiss Cottage station on the Metropolitan line, opened in 1868. The old station and what's left of the old platform are still visible on the journey between Finchley Road and Baker Street. Two other Metropolitan stations closed on the same day in 1939 - Marlborough Road and Lords. You want disused stations, you want this website. Or this one.
5 things I found outside the station: five station exits via subways, a dead busy road junction on the Finchley Road, Ye Olde Swiss Cottage (it's a chalet-style pub, built in 1840 beside the old Junction Road tollgate, now complete with exhaust fume soaked beer garden), Fujifilm House, an old Odeon cinema
Nearby: 'Louis of Hampstead' Hungarian confectioners, lots more shops, South Hampstead station, where the Saatchi Gallery used to be.
Local blogs:Swish Cottage (ah, those were the days) and Rogue Semiotics.
bought me an album yesterday, it's the latest from the mighty Streets got the last freebie baseball cap in the shop too didn't I? result
green bus shelter on the cover, is that Mikey? I am not convinced
always hard to pull off album number two, think he's done it tho, yes oh yay
eleven tracks that tell a tale of cash, narcotics, despair and love lost
minor details elevated high, for there is poetry in the mundane
track 1, the brassy intro could be classical, isn't, your card has been retained
meets a girl in two, it's an ode to simple Simone, piano riff's well simple too
three's a crowd down the bookies, slip into drum'n'bass Madness, you bet
takes a nightclub trip in four, it's blinding, thanks I'll have another one
the girlfriend means an end to pubbing, all of five spent sofa-bound, chill in
battle of the sixes, MC Simone versus kicked-out Mikey, calm down, get out
single's at seven, I think it is really fit, but my gosh don't it just know it
sounds like we're going nowhere m8, trapped in loops, think my mobile just died
two raps run parallel in nine, now Simone go get your coat, relentless beats
dry your eyes, one stand-out ballad to tug your heart, top ten for sure I say
eleven ends on a downer... no wait, rewind, there's a set back and that's grand
so there it is, a concept album for the new urban slacker, bit of a result
reckon it'll take another listen or three to embed the lot in my skull, but hey
it's a winner, it's a soundtrack to one lost summer, nice one geezer
Silver Jubilee:Finchley Road Opened: Friday 13th June 1879
Distance from previous station: 600m
Platform: exit to the left of the train
Change here for: Metropolitan line
You'd be quicker changing here: From here to Baker Street by Jubilee line takes 7 minutes. From here to Baker Street (non-stop) by Metropolitan line takes 6 minutes. And it's a dead easy cross-platform change too.
Fact file: It's here that the underground section of the Jubilee line begins, through tunnels opened in 1939. Finchley Road station is four miles from Finchley.
5 things I found outside the station: the 02 shopping centre (a very modern mall complete with fishtanks and jungle-themed escalators), George's Shoe Repairs, the A41, Waitrose, a mysterious old wooden door labelled 'Meakers'.
Nearby: West Hampstead station is less than half a mile away to the west, through Sainsbury's car park. Swiss Cottage station is less than half a mile away to the southeast, at the other end of a busy shopping street.
Local history: Sigmund Freud lived just round the corner in Maresfield Gardens. He moved here from Germany in 1938 to escape the Nazis but died a year later. His house is still open as a museum, and there's a statue to Freud nearby.
OK, I was going to write about something else this morning, and then I woke up and discovered that Blogger has metamorphosed overnight while I was asleep. You won't have noticed from reading this page, but all those of us who write Blogger blogs now have a 'new look, new features, new templates' style of input page. It's certainly different. It's going to take some getting used to. And I hate it. This is probably a natural reaction to change, like when Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen reveals the outcome of a Changing Rooms makeover to a couple of startled homeowners, and I'll probably learn to live with it eventually. But sorry, I'm sitting here over breakfast on day 1 and I hate it. And here's why.
• It's dumbed down. I think all the old features are still there, and probably lots more too, but you get less of them on screen at the same time. Now it's one window, one thing, whereas before you could do nigh everything from the same blog-entry page.
• It's based on the lo-fi version of old Blogger. That's the version that users of non-standard browsers like Safari were forced to use (and I had to use while I was using a Mac in the US last month), rather than the all-singing all-dancing multitasking version the rest of us have been enjoying.
• It's designed for a different screen size to mine. This means that all the crucial windows for typing text into are the wrong size - in my case much too small, filling only half a screen. I've only written 18 lines of text so far but I've just reached the bottom of the entry window, and now my first lines are scrolling off the top out of sight. Sigh.
• I can't redraft a blog post and see what the old post looked like any more. So I can't see what all the code I'm using is supposed to look like, and make changes as appropriate. Only one or the other on screen at the same time. I think this is the innovation I hate the most.
• It's trying to be Moveable Type. It's trying very very hard indeed, almost to the point of plagiarism. Moveable Type is swish and clever and feature-packed I know, because I've used it before, but I don't like it. I got to play with MT for three weeks while I was babysitting Blue WitchDown Under, after which I told myself I'd never move over to MT myself because it was all too bitty. And now an MT clone has taken me over instead.
• Bloody American dates. The 'edit posts' page we Bloggers get to use lists everything by American date. Today is not 5/10/2004, it's 10/5/2004. It used to say "May 10 2004", which I could happily cope with.
• We now have the option to link to individual posts, rather than just jump to one post somewhere in a weekly/monthly archive. Just like MT. Trouble is, I don't like linking to just one post. I want my visitors to arrive and see the whole page, not just one small out-of-context segment. I bet very few blog visitors ever bother to click on 'Main' to view the whole page anyway. So, not for me.
• Blogger now has inbuilt comments. Excellent. Except that you have to turn on the 'link to individual posts' option before you can use them. So I don't think I'll be bothering. Haloscan, I'm sticking with you.
I think I need to come back after work and play with NewBlogger some more. I may discover lots of lovely new features, and that I don't hate it quite so much as I think I do at the moment. But, so long as I remain trapped typing withn this tiny window surrounded by white space, I'm going to take some persuading.
Silver Jubilee:West Hampstead Opened: Monday 30th June 1879
Distance from previous station: 1.1 km
Platform: exit to the right of the train
You are now entering: the London Borough of Camden
Fact file: There are three different West Hampstead stations, all along the same road within 200 yards of each other. There's a Jubilee line station, a North London line station and a Thameslink station. There are plans to build a single interchange here, linking also to Chiltern Railways trains. If this ever happens you'll be able to change here for Birmingham, Bedford, Brighton and Bermondsey, but local residents have mixed views You'd be quicker changing here: From here to Stratford by Jubilee line takes 40 minutes. From here to Stratford by North London line takes 35 minutes.
5 things I found outside the station: long queues for tickets, Mr Gingham's sandwich bar (sliced egg, £1.30), The Flower Gallery, the smell of bacon, a big green Camden 'Trade Waste' bin.
Nearby:real Hampstead, none of this 'West' wannabe status.
Local history:Here's a history of Hampstead, very little of which happened in West Hampstead.
Local blogs: The arty Rodcorp, the erudite Mo Morgan and the very honest Honestly I'm Sober.
Last week I posted a week's worth of TV highlights, and joy, I remembered to watch them all as a result. This week I thought I'd do the same with the best radio programmes of the next seven days. After all, it is the medium for which the Radio Times was invented. Even better, if I forget to listen to any of these the BBC's wonderful 'Listen again' feature will probably let me catch up in my own time. Digital life, don't you just love it?
Urban Music Festival (Sunday, Radio 1 and 1Xtra, sort of afternoon-ish): But only in case they broadcast The Streets live set. I can't tell you how proud I am to see Mikey at Earl's Court bigging it up with Prince C. No, really, I can't.
On One Lost Hair (Monday 3:45pm, Radio 4): That's an anagram of 'Horatio Nelson', you know. The presenter buys one of Nelson's hairs on the internet, then sets it adrift down the Thames in a bottle. Honest.
Routemasters (Tuesday 9:30am, Radio 4): Nothing to do with big red buses, but the first in a five part series about street furniture. Later there's roundabouts, white lines, green men and speed bumps, but we kick off with a history of the Britishroad sign. Radio 4 is sometimes unexpectedly brilliant, isn't it?
Beat The Kids (Wednesday 11pm, Radio 4): Comedy panel games, there's a rich genre that wouldn't exist without Radio 4 either. In this variation on a theme, Graeme Garden invites his four guests to slip into role and argue their way through various family dilemmas. I shall LOL, no doubt.
The Molesworth Report - How To Be Topp (Thursday 11:30am, Radio 4): I missed the 1950s, chiz*, but I fondly remember Molesworth - the 'curse of st custard's'. His guide to skool life was full of swots, snekes and oiks, and brilliantly illustrated by Ronald Searle. See what all the fuss was about here, or just tune in to this reminiscing documentary. (*a chiz is a swiz or swindle as any fule kno)
I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again (Friday 7:30pm, Radio 7): Old Radio 4 programmes never die, they just get shuffled off onto Radio 7. The digital speech archive today hosts this comedy quiz classic from December 1973. And ooh, the 'Listen again' station also has its own 'Listen again' feature. Look, there's Radio Active on Monday, and Knowing Me Knowing You on Wednesday, and...
Kevin Greening (Saturady 7pm, XFM): Possibly the best DJ in the history of the world is sadly relegated to this two-hour weekend 'best of' slot. Which is exactly what Radio 1 did to the poor bloke too. Genius, though.
Silver Jubilee:Kilburn Opened: Monday 24th November 1879
Distance from previous station: 1.2 km
Platform: exit to the right of the train
Station originally called: Kilburn & Brondesbury
Fact file: Kilburn station lies at one end of that 147 ft long blue steel bridge you can see in the photo, from which there are fine views across to Hampstead Heath and the BT Tower. The view is better from Metropolitan line trains than Jubilee line trains because they're taller.
5 things I found outside the station: a double viaduct painted blue, Shoot Up Hill (actually the A5 Watling Street), an old postbox, Kilburn Flowers, a dry cleaners that sells records.
Nearby: my great grandfather's grave (still lost somewhere in PaddingtonCemetery), the Tricycle Theatre, a legendary Ian Duryband.
Local history: Kilburn grew up around a 12th century nunnery, built where Watling Street crossed the Kelbourne brook. Foyles bookshop started in Kilburn, moving to Charing Cross Road in 1926. The GaumontStateCinema opened in 1937, then the largest cinema in the UK, and still contains the largest original Wurlitzer in full working order in Britain today.
Local blogs: Here's a trio of darned good ones. Sashinka, Blogjam and, unexpectedly, this one (which I'll return to in three stations time).
Dates for your diary Monday 10th May: Release of the already-acclaimed second album by The Streets, A Grand Don't Come For Free. Hard earned cash at the ready.
Friday 14th May: The fifth anniversary of the Jubilee line extension (well, just the Stratford to North Greenwich bit to start with).
Saturday 15th May:Eurovision, it divides the nation. It's a fab/crap evening of top/camp pop/pap. Addicts, get your fix here. Rest of you, I suggest you go out for the evening.
Tuesday 18th May: It's my ten thousandth. I'll tell you what later.
Friday 4th June: The new Harry Potter film emerges, blinking, into the daylight. But how long until book six?
Saturday 5th June: In four weeks time they erase the Routemaster from the number 8 bus route. When I wake up on 5th June there'll be soulless non-icons parked up outside my house instead of lovely red purring wheelchair-unfriendly double deckers. Last chance to ride, last chance to see. Catch one while you can.
Tuesday 8th June: It's one month until the next transit of Venus. This extraordinarily rare astronomical phenomenon happens only twice every 122 years, and the last transit was way back in 1882. More details here and here, and on this page next month.
BowRoadupdate: I know it's not on the Jubilee line, but I need to keep you up-to-date with the latest renovation news from my local station. It's two months since the first blue wall appeared on the platform at Bow Road, followed by another and another and another and another. Until finally, yesterday, the last remaining short section of platform got blue-walled, the bit to the east of the steps on the eastbound platform. The station is fully prepared for work at last. I look forward, some day, to being able to tell you that one of the blue walls has come down and there's a sparkling rejuvenated architectural jewel revealed behind. But I have my doubts. Keep up to date in this comments box, just in case.
Silver Jubilee:Willesden Green Opened: Monday 24th November 1879
Distance from previous station: 1.2 km
You are now entering: zone 2
Platform: exit to the right of the train
5 things I found outside the station: a yellow plastic box full of grit, Camerons Stiff estate agents (giggle), 10 piles of free magazines (mostly expat related), Dynamic dry cleaners, lots of laminated Wanted For Murder police posters.
Nearby: Cricklewood
Local history: Willesden has, over its 1000-year history, been known as Wellesdone, Willesdone, Willesdune and Wilsdon. The modern spelling is that chosen by the London & Birmingham Railway in the 1840s. Nothing really interesting seems to have happened round here, ever, but some of the less interesting stuff is here. The local history society meets regularly, so there must be something to talk about. Ray Davies of the Kinks liked the place enough to write a song about it.
Local blog:The Willesden Herald
Colour by numbers: Here are the names of 21 colours as you would type them in a mobile phone text message. For example, 733 = red. Can you identify the complete spectrum? (Answers in the comments box)
Silver Jubilee:Dollis Hill Opened: Friday 1st October 1909
Distance from previous station: 850m
Platform: exit to the right of the train
Fact file: There's no station building as such, just a ticket hall under the platform with two subways leading off in opposite directions beneath the tracks. A bronze plaque at the top of the station steps commemorates 'Timothy Desmond, employed at Dollis Hill 1965-1995.' What a life.
5 things I found outside the station: a 'Dollis Hill' mural, belisha beacons, a big tube sign on a brick column, wide avenues of suburban semis, a parade of shops.
Nearby: more endless suburban semis, Dollis Hill House (home to Lord and Lady Aberdeen in the 1880s and 90s), Gladstone Park (a pleasantly contoured woodland vista).
Local history: Victorian PM William Gladstone was a regular visitor at Dollis Hill House, so they named the new park after him. Mark Twain stayed here throughout the summer of 1900, saying "Dollis Hill comes nearer to being a paradise than any other home I ever occupied." Until 1982 all the UK's coin-operated telephones were made in Dollis Hill. More local history here.
Local underground secrets: In the late 1930s the Government built a huge underground bunker in Dollis Hill. It was codenamed 'Paddock', a two-level concrete citadel planned as a standby to the Cabinet War Rooms in Whitehall. The War Cabinet met here only twice because Churchill hated the place (and because Hitler never invaded). A housing association now owns the site, and opens the bunker to the public on only two days a year (bugger, one of them was yesterday). Read more about the fascinating secret life of Paddock here, here, here, here, here and here.
It's exactly fifty years since Roger Bannister ran the world's first four minute mile. If anybody cares. Like so many anniversaries recently, this one feels like it's been overexposed well before the correct date arrives. Roger's had an autobiography out for the last six weeks (£7.99 from all good bookshops), all the newspapers have been printing extracts, and the BBC screened a full documentary on the experience a whole fortnight in advance. Even Norris McWhirter, who played a crucial part in the tale, managed to die just early enough to shift the first commemoration of the anniversary a couple of weeks too early. Me, I've been good and waited until the exact date. If anyone still cares.
It's exactly fifty years since Roger Bannister ran the world's first four minute mile. The four minute barrier had seemed impenetrable, but in 1954 a 25 year-old medical student had other ideas. Roger trained every lunchtime throughout the winter, egged on by his good mate Norris. He hoped that nobody else would sneak in and beat four minutes before he was ready and they didn't, not quite. Come May 6th, the first AAA race of the season, and the mile record still stood a fraction of a second over the magic time. It could be beaten.
It's exactly fifty years since Roger Bannister ran the world's first four minute mile. He did this at the Iffley Road Sports Centre in Oxford (I took some university exams there 20 years ago, but my results were rather less world-shattering). That May day dawned grey, damp and windy (sounds familiar) but conditions had eased enough by early evening for an attempt on the record to look possible. Two pacemakers led for the first three laps (bit of a cheat that, some have said), then Roger powered round the final bend to hit the tape in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. Everybody cheered, everybody cared.
It's exactly fifty years since Roger Bannister ran the world's first four minute mile. It's a very symbolic record, an echo of the last triumphs of empire back when Britons were still good at something. It's a very smashed record, because if Bannister had been racing against the current mile record holder he'd have come in over 100 yards behind. It's a very imperial record, because these days most athletics races are run over metres instead. And it's also a very superficial record, because 'one mile' is an arbitrary human invention, as indeed are 'four minutes'.
It's exactly fifty orbits round the Sun since Roger Bannister became the first recorded human male to run 5280 times as far as the length of King Edward I's foot in less than one three hundred and sixtieth of the time the Earth takes to rotate once on its axis. It's nothing special. But bloody well done Sir.
Silver Jubilee:Neasden Opened: Monday 2nd August 1880
Distance from previous station: 2.3 km
You are now entering: zone 3
Platform: exit to the right of the train
Station originally called: Kingsbury & Neasden
Fact file (1): Three railway lines (Jubilee, Metropolitan and Chiltern) run through Neasden (and the next four stations too), but only the Jubilee line trains stop.
Fact file (2): Just north of Neasden station lies Neasden Railway Depot, a vast shed with space to store 37 trains overnight. The Jubilee line Control Room is located in Neasden (take a tour here), and they have a Jubilee train simulator too (here).
5 things I found outside the station: a pelican crossing, two giant billboards, Falcon Park RNIB centre, Adrian's Newsagent (a tiny kiosk), a pedestrian sign pointing towards 'Neasden Temple & Superstore' (I hope that's two different places).
Nearby (1):ShriSwaminarayanMandir, the huge Hindu temple off the North Circular Road. Devoted pilgrims come from miles around to pay their respects. Now that Wembley Stadium's been pulled down, this exotic landmark has the only towers and pinnacles on the local skyline.
Nearby (2):IKEA, the huge Swedish temple off the North Circular Road. Devoted shoppers come from miles around to buy their cheap household goods. Now that Wembley isn't the shopping mecca it used to be, this big blue warehouse is the only retail magnet in the local area.
Everywhere: The North Circular Road came to Neasden in the 1930s. It cuts through the area like an open concrete wound. Dual carriageways, underpasses and roundabouts are everywhere, clogged by traffic and making pedestrian life a daily challenge.
Local history:Neasden means 'nose-shaped hill' in Anglo-Saxon. In the 1850s the local population was only 110, but soon rocketed to become a dead ordinary London suburb (as mocked by Private Eye, published nearby). Twiggy grew up on the St Raphael's Estate and the area was also home to MariWilson, Neasden's Queen of Soul. Local history is chronicled at the Grange Museum, an unlikely building quarantined in the middle of a busy roundabout.
Anglo-Saxon times: 'Wembalea' means 'Wemba's forest clearing'.
16th century: Wembley is a small village on a hill, owned by the Page family.
1870: The Pages hire landscape architect Humphrey Repton to create Wembley Park.
1880: The Metropolitan railway passes through Wembley, without stopping.
1890: Wembley Park is sold to the Managing Director of the Metropolitan Railway, Edward Watkin. He plans to build a 1150ft tower on the site in an attempt to rival the success of the recently-opened Eiffel Tower in Paris.
1894: Wembley Park station opens, serving Wembley Park Leisure Grounds. Attractions include a large funfair, football pitches and an artificial lake.
1896: The first stage of Watkin's Tower is completed and opened to the public The tower's foundations shift under the weight of the iron structure above, and construction stops at 200ft.
1902: Watkin's Folly (as it's now known) is closed to the public and later demolished (1907), although Wembley remains a popular recreational destination.
1920: Wembley is selected as the site of the British Empire Exhibition, with a new stadium to be built on the site of Watkin's Folly.
1923: The Empire Stadium is opened by King George V and hosts its first FA Cup Final(Bolton 2, West Ham 0) 1924: Wembley Stadium is the centrepiece of the British Empire Exhibition, a post-war celebration of all things imperial.
1925: The Empire exhibition closes, having lost a lot of money. Almost all of the buildings are demolished, except for the stadium.
1948: Wembley Stadium hosts the 14th Olympic Games. Olympic Way is built to link the stadium with the station.
1966: Wembley hosts the World Cup Final. They think it's all over, it is now.
1985: The Live Aid concert held at Wembley raises millions for the starving of Africa.
1996: Wembley is the preferred location for a new National Stadium. Maybe (1997). Definitely (1998). Probably not (1999). Delayed indefinitely (2000). Looking grim (2001). Go ahead (2002).
2000: Final Cup Final at old Wembley won by Chelsea. Final match at old Wembley won by Germany.
2003: The famous twin towers are demolished.
2004: I stop by at the building site to view the latest Wembley folly. The new stadium is going up very slowly, with the new arch still barely evident. This could be a new shopping mall under construction for all any visitor could deduce. Ten lofty cranes stand guard over the growing arena like giant grey flamingos. A couple of skateboarders enjoy the desolate freedom of one of the car parks. Heavenly Hotdogs and Frank's Frankfurters are boarded up, awaiting redevelopment. For a few brief years, Wembley is enjoying complete anonymity.
2006: The new (incredibly expensive) Wembley Stadium is due to open. Keep an eye on current progress here. I'll believe it when I see it.
Silver Jubilee:Wembley Park Opened: Saturday 12th May 1894
Distance from previous station: 2.8 km
Platform: exit to the left of the train
Change here for: Metropolitan line
You'd be quicker changing here: From here to Finchley Road by Jubilee line takes 12 minutes. From here to Finchley Road by Metropolitan line takes 8 minutes.
Photo shows: The northern end of Olympic Way, built to funnel sports fans under the bridge and up the wide staircase into Wembley Park station.
5 things I found outside the station: a pelican crossing, that huge extra entrance/exit for use on days when there's a big event nearby, the College of Northwest London, Olympic Way, a big sign pointing towards 'Stadium tours' (unlikely at present).
Nearby:Wembley Stadium (see above), a giant light industrial estate and retail park, Wembley Arena, a few crumbling remains of the British Empire Exhibition, the river Brent (I have never, ever, walked through so many flies).
The future: Wembley Park station currently looks like this. There are plans to redevelop it to look like this.
I would just like to remember some words of St. Francis of Assisi which I think were really just particularly apt 25yearsago.
Where there is discord, may we bring warships.
Where there is error, may we add poll tax.
Where there is doubt, may we force privatisation.
And where there is despair, may we double unemployment.
I watched BBC Parliament's rerun of the 1979 election night programming yesterday (not all 15 hours of it, you understand, although it was raining out so I was tempted). This was a fascinating window into a Britain long past (who were these important people called 'trade union leaders'?). A Britain where men in nylon suits had scary flyaway hairstyles, where female MPs were still complimented on their looks and where the computer analysing the results took up an entire wall of the TV studio. Tentative predictions of a Conservative victory were made as the first results came in, with East London leading the national charge rightward. This was history not so much in the making as in the dawning. Robert McKenzie enthused with the aid of his swingometer, Angela Rippon read the news like a schoolmistress, Ian McCaskill warned of a chilly night ahead and Richard Stilgoe sang witty ditties over breakfast. I watched as Jeremy Thorpe disappeared into disgrace, the declining National Front lost their deposits, and a fresh young MP called Jack Straw merited a five second mention as his result flashed by. The coverage dragged on past lunchtime and there were prescient glimpses of a blue-rinsed future during the endless political interviews. At 3pm Robin Day could finally confirm that Britain had its first woman Prime Minister, and our lives would never be the same again. A blue day.
Silver Jubilee:Kingsbury Opened: Saturday 10th December 1932
Distance from previous station: 1.3 km
Platform: exit to the left of the train
Fact file: The station was designed by C W Clark (as were the previous three, and as was the station in Croxley where I grew up). Standing on the tree-lined platform amidst the birdsong you'd think you were in the middle of the countryside, not in the middle of built-up London with a busy high street outside.
5 things I found outside the station: A sign saying 'humps for 350 yards', a lot of local shops, a machine selling parking tickets, Jyoti Jewellers, a yellow box junction.
Local history: Jag posted a whole history of Kingsbury last year, go read.
Local history (abridged): The area has a history stretching back over 1000 years, recorded as Kynes byrig in 1046 when the local manor was granted to Westminster Abbey by Edward the Confessor. Kingsbury grew hugely in the 1920s and 1930s thanks to the aircraft industry, the British Empire exhibition and the coming of the railway. John Logie Baird carried out the first combined sight and sound television transmission in 1930, live from from the stable block at Kingsbury Manor.
Local blog: Jag's ever-excellent Route 79.
You can't have failed to notice that Europe enlarged on Saturday. Ten new countries signed up to become part of the EU, opening borders to trade, culture and migration. Especially migration, if you've been listening to varioussections of the media over the last few months. Endless scare stories, a lot of mischievous headlines, a few political editors trying to influence government policy and a prime minister seemingly willing to let them. I've been out over the weekend trying to spot the differences that a newly extended Europe has made. I can now confidently report back that, whatever you may have read in the papers, none of the following have actually happened.
1) It's impossible to force open your front door now that hordes of Latvians are sleeping on the pavement outside. And they snore, all of them. 2) There's a tented village of Slovakians living on that small patch of wasteland behind your local shops. And they've attached long cables to the local electricity supply to power their homegrown beetroot distilleries. 3) Don't let your children out of your sight, else Polish gypsies will undoubtedly kidnap them and take them away to start a new life in a distant circus. 4) The council has forcibly evicted your neighbour and filled his house with five families of wailing Cypriots, all of whom play loud folktunes on an accordion throughout the night as they sing ballads about their long lost homeland. 5) Whole communities of Czech citizens are being drafted into the country before the EU referendum next year on the condition that they all vote 'Yes'. 6) There are huge long queues of Hungarians waiting in line for benefit payments outside your local Post Office. 7) Coachloads of Lithuanians are flooding through Dover to avail themselves of expensive plastic surgery on the NHS. 8) When you go back to work tomorrow you'll find that you've been made redundant in favour of three Estonians on 10% of your wages. 9) Terrorists are now able to sneak explosives across the unguarded borders of Slovenia, drive to the UK unchallenged and blow up your front garden, should they so choose. 10) EU bureaucrats plan to force the introduction of a Maltese family in Coronation Street, to ban Cornish pasties in favour of parsnip-based alternatives and to make viewing of the Eurovision Song Contest complusory.
For a more balanced view of life behind the former Iron Curtain, may I highly recommend this recently published travel guide to the forgotten country of Molvania. (Review here)
Silver Jubilee:Queensbury Opened: Sunday 16th December 1934
Distance from previous station: 1.7 km
You are now entering: the London borough of Brent, zone 4
Platform: exit to the left of the train
Photo shows: Queensbury Circus, a giant green roundabout outside the station. Enjoy a 360º view here, courtesy of Jag.
Fact file: The name Queensbury was chosen as the result of a competition organised by a local estate agent, the winning name blatantly echoing the nearby village of Kingsbury. Thus the local area was named after the station rather than the station being named after the local area. Queensbury opened two years later than its neighbouring stations, once a few houses had actually been built here.
5 things I found outside the station: Queensbury Circus, Hunter & Hunter estate agents, some bicycles chained to the railings, Joe's Bake & Bite, three levels of flats built above the station entrance.
Local history: The de HavillandAircraft Company was based nearby at Stag Lane Airfield. The first Gypsy Moth biplane first flew from here in 1925, with Tiger Moths following soon afterwards. The grass landing strip closed in 1934, with production moved to larger facilities in Hatfield, after which Stag Lane concentrated on engine production.
The only magazine I buy regularly is the Radio Times, because nothing else lists what's on TV in such detail. I flick it through it every Tuesday, spotting lots of programmes I reckon I really mustn't miss. And then I miss them, because it's all too easy to forget they were on up to ten days later. So this week I thought I'd post my list of highlights for the forthcoming week as an extra reminder. (And, if I remember to watch, I'll pop back here and give each programme a one sentence review afterwards.)
Election Replay 1979 (Monday 9am-midnight, BBC Parliament): Normally I'd never watch BBC Parliament, but on Bank Holiday Monday they're screening one of the longest horror movies of recent times. It's exactly 25 years since the 1979 General Election, and the BBC are rescreening their entire election night results programme, all 15 hours of it. I'm looking forward to seeing all the old 70s graphics and watching Robert McKenzie playing with his swingometer again, even if I have to watch Margaret Thatcher's victory from behind the sofa. Details here, including 20 minutes of online highlights. (Review tomorrow)
London: the Greatest City (Monday 4:05pm, C4): Expect a very different level of computer graphics here, with a two hour reconstruction of the capital's history from the Roman invasion to the modern City. Could be good, or could just be a lot of actors wandering around trying to look ancient. (A glossy history of London in eight bite-sized chunks, overdoing plague, fire and gin whilst totally ignoring most of what made the city great)
That Was The Week We Watched (Tuesday 10pm, BBC2): I missed this series about old telly over Christmas week because I was off being sociable, but BW rated it highly so I'm looking forward to the repeats. Journey back into the Radio Times of 10th-16th November 1973 - Black Beauty, the first ever Last of the Summer Wine, and Princess Anne's (first) wedding. (Ahh, and Mr Benn, power cuts, Pan's People, Hilda Ogden, Yoffi on Fingerbobs and the Wombles. Marvellous)
In Search of Genius (Wednesday 9pm, BBC2): I've always rated Tony Buzan, ever since I was little and got one of his books on mind-mapping out of the library. But hmmm, here he is in his own reality show trying to boost the intelligence of six Berkshire school underachievers. And his own book sales, I suspect. (Well, surprise surprise, the kids got a lot better after six months of concentrated adult intervention, but there still wasn't a new genius amongst them by the end)
Dispatches: Keep Them Out (Thursday 9pm, C4): I'm sure the residents of Lee-on-the-Solent thought Channel 4 were making a documentary about the opening of a new centre for asylum seekers. I suspect they've made a documentary exposing the campaigners as ignorant bigots instead. (Blimey, exceptionally ignorant bigots of the scariest kind)
Yes Minister (Thursday 10pm, BBC2): Out of the vaults comes the very first episode of this classic Westminster comedy. Still outvotes most current sitcoms by a large majority. (Still topical even 24 years later)
London (Friday 9pm, BBC2): You wait years for a programme about the history of London, and then two come along in the same week. This is the real thing, based on Peter Ackroyd's marvellous London - the Biography. Tonight 'Fire', from Boudicca to the Blitz (via 1666, of course). No doubt this'll be a lavish masterpiece. See you at the Baftas next year. (Capital addict walks the streets, chased by a speeded-up camera, with an eye for the unusually historic. It'll sell brilliantly on DVD at Christmas)
Monkey Dust night (Saturday 9pm, BBC3): The entire second series of this (very) dark cartoon sketch show. Must stick a 3-hour video in and record the lot - it'll save buying the DVD when they release it later.
Silver Jubilee:Canons Park Opened: Saturday 10th December 1932
Distance from previous station: 1.4 km (and the journey sounds like this - possibly my anorakiest link ever)
Platform: exit to the left of the train
Fact file: The station was originally called Canons Park (Edgware), but the name has never included an apostrophe. I doubt that Lynne Truss lives around here.
5 things I found outside the station: a very short green cycle path, Canons Park Motors (operating from three arches underneath the station), Eddy's kebab shop, Hearts & Flowers florists, the number 79 bus.
Nearby: nondescript suburbia, Canons Park (an impressively green open space, frequented by joggers, dogwalkers and bluebells) and the DVLA offices from which NW London car registrations LK-LT are issued.
Local history: The area gets its name because six acres of land here were given to the canons of St Bartholemew's Priory, Smithfield, in 1331. The Duke of Chandos built a posh mansion here in the 17th century and called it Canons. The estate was sold off for housing development in the late 1920s, as was most of the rest of the surrounding area. Sorry, Canons Park's not the thrillingest of places.
It's exactly 25 years today since London Underground's Jubilee Line opened, on Tuesday 1st May 1979. Prince Charles made the very first journey, the day before, travelling one stop from Green Park to Charing Cross then riding a special train all the way back up the line to Stanmore. To celebrate the silver jubilee of the silver-coloured Jubilee line, diamond geezer will be taking a virtual journey along the line over the next month, station by station from Stanmore to Stratford, starting tomorrow.
The Jubilee line runs through some of London's oldest tube stations, but also through the newest. The line developed in a number of stages, first as part of the Metropolitan railway, then as part of the Bakerloo line, then as what was due to be called the Fleet line, and finally along the Jubilee line extension through Docklands. The Jubilee line follows a single path with no branches or junctions, although it's a very wiggly and indirect route. This is also the only London Underground line to link with every other. Let me run through the line's history with you (and if you need a map to follow, try here):
1868: The Metropolitan & St John's Wood Railway opens between Baker Street and Swiss Cottage, five years after the opening of London's very first Underground railway. 1879: The line is extended to West Hampstead and, the following year, as far as Harrow. 1880s onwards: The Metropolitan Railway purchases lots of land for housing alongside the line - Metroland is born. 1932: The branch line from Wembley Park to Stanmore is opened. 1939: The Stanmore branch, and all local services between Wembley Park and Baker Street, are transferred from the Metropolitan line to the Bakerloo line. Trains run through new tunnels between Finchley Road and Baker Street, and on to Elephant & Castle. 1940s to 1960s: There are several plans for a new NW-SE tube line to relieve congestion on the Bakerloo line. None proceed. 1971: Royal Assent is finally given to construction of the Fleet line from Baker Street to Lewisham. 1972: Work begins building new tunnels from Baker Street to Bond Street, Green Park and Charing Cross. But no further. 1977: The new Conservative administration at the GLC decrees that the Fleet line will be renamed the Jubilee line, in honour of the Queen's silver jubilee. May 1st 1979: The Jubilee line opens, taking over the Bakerloo line tracks between Stanmore and Baker Street, then running on through new tunnels to Charing Cross. 1999 The Jubilee line is extended from Green Park to Stratford, including some award-winning civil engineering and station architecture.
So, come take a ride with me down the silver Jubilee line. It only takes an hour to travel the whole line from end to end, a total of 24 miles. The route passes from leafy suburbia to West End bustle, from the seat of government to the heart of Docklands, and from the 1948 Olympic Stadium to (possibly) the site for 2012. Climb aboard one of those tiny tube trains with the special whining engine, mind the huge doors along the platform edge, and let's be off. The next station is.... Stanmore.
Silver Jubilee:Stanmore Opened: Saturday 10th December 1932
Location: London Borough of Harrow, zone 5
Photo shows: Stanmore station, the end of the line.
Branch history: The 2½ mile Stanmore branch was opened by the Metropolitan Railway in December 1932, but became the property of the newly created London Passenger Transport Board a few months after opening. The branch transferred from the Metropolitan line to the Bakerloo line in 1939, then transferred again to the Jubilee line on 1st May 1979(exactly 25 years ago today).
Fact file: There are 10 sidings right beside the station. There are tubs of heather and (now dead) daffodils on the platform. Stanmore is the only station on the 'old' part of the Jubilee line with step-free access to both platforms.
5 things I found outside the station: a small green stall selling flowers, some slatted wooden benches, a pedestrian crossing, a big tube sign on a blue pillar, the Green Belt (the line stops right on the edge of London - a few hundred metres further on and you're in the countryside),
Nearby: suburbia, the Broadway (Stanmore's main shopping street), Madison's Deli (selling hot salt beef), a sizeable Jewish population, the footbridge over the line from which I took yesterday's first photo.
Local history: Stanmore takes its name from 'Stony mere' and was the site of the ancient Roman settlement of Sullmoniacae. Julius Caesar may have fought against the local Celts right here during his second invasion of Britain in 54 BC, or maybe not. Local legend has it that the final Roman battle against Boudicca took place on Stanmore Common. Loads of local history here.
Silver Jubilee month terminates here.
Silver Jubilee: Stratford
Opened: Thursday 20th June 1839
Opened: Monday 16th October 1854
Meet the Big Brother 5 twelve (let the freakshow begin)
Opened: Monday 14th June 1847
Watch the opening seconds of EastEnders very very closely and you'll see that the camera pans out from an epicentre in the middle of the River Thames, just off the North Greenwich peninsula. When the programme started in 1985 the opening credits depicted a densely-packed industrial wasteland here, with a dark grey cloud positioned carefully over the tip of the peninsula. In 1999 the credits were updated to show a very different picture, with much of the surrounding industry erased and a vast new Dome shining out from the centre of that camera shot. For one millennial year the people came, in their not-quite-enough millions, and the peninsula buzzed with life. Well, some life. And then the nation went away disillusioned and left North Greenwich alone, a major transport hub surrounded by nobody. The station was designed to cope with up to twenty-two thousand passengers an hour but now serves less than half that a day. A great future is promised, but it hasn't arrived yet.
Walk out of North Greenwich station today and what will you see? There's the big Dome standing folorn and empty, its twelve yellow spikes thrusting defiantly into the sky. Through the long blue perimeter fence you might spot Group 4 security workers patrolling the vast arena like ghosts. It's still possible to walk right up to the rows of over-optimistic admission booths, all 48 of them, lined up waiting for the crowds that never came. A trickling stream of lost buses passes through the curved bus station, detouring to ferry the grateful of south-east London back to their distant homes. To the south of the Dome lies a vast open space where, one day, something more than car parks and fountains will be built. And further away still is the Millennium Village - yuppie heaven so they'd have you believe, but still absolutely nowhere near critical mass. The whole redevelopment is as bleak and deserted as the industrial landscape it replaced.
Should you have half an hour to spare you can take a lovely lonely walk around the Dome. Turn right out of the station, skulk past a wall of blue portakabins and breathe in the stunning view of Canary Wharf from across the river. Further round you cross the meridian line, etched in stone, beside a disused pavilion still home to the model remains of a multimedia exhibition. A carpet of replanted wild flowers lies cut off inside the Dome perimeter, whilst nearby riverside reedbeds sway freely in the breeze. Tiny planes fly low overhead on their way to land at tiny City Airport, and an enormous yellow sign warns shipping that the Thames Barrier lies just round the corner. You pass a legacy of underappreciated artwork spaced along the riverbank, from a vertically-sliced boat (now covered in seagulls) to Anthony Gormley's towering Quantum Cloud. Nobody lands at the Queen Elizabeth Pier any more, if indeed they ever did, and gardeners have long abandoned the shrubberies alongside the deserted car parks. The odd cyclist may speed past on some long ride to nowhere, but otherwise this walk is a solitary pilgrimage to misplaced ambition. I loved it.
Opened: Friday 14th May 1999
Opened: Friday 17th September 1999
Opened: Thursday 19th August 1999
Opened: Friday 24th September 1999
Opened: Sunday 25th February 1900
New York London Paris Madrid...
Opened: Saturday 20th November 1999
Bow Road update: Meanwhile, over at Bow Road on the District line, my local station upgrade continues apace. No less than three new blue walls have been constructed in the last fortnight. There's one at the top of the stairs down to the eastbound platform, another in the corner of the ticket hall and a third around the scaffolding on the pavement in front of the station. Add those to the five existing blue walls along the platforms and one more on the pavement, and some kind of blue wall event horizon seems to have been reached. Perhaps some renovation work is going on behind those blue walls, it's still impossible to tell. Or maybe we've just become some new art installation, displaying an array of modern safety signage on clean blue surfaces, juxtaposed against late Victorian brickwork. Keep an eye on this comments box for further developments.
Opened: Saturday 10th March 1906
Opened: Thursday 24th December 1868
my diary, day 10000: Tuesday 18th May 2004 (age 39, London, 310 words)
Opened: Saturday 10th March 1906
Opened: Saturday 15th December 1906
Opened: Monday 24th September 1900
Opened: Saturday 10th January 1863
Opened: Monday 20th November 1939
Opened: Monday 20th November 1939
Opened: Friday 13th June 1879
Opened: Monday 30th June 1879
Opened: Monday 24th November 1879
Opened: Monday 24th November 1879
Colour by numbers: Here are the names of 21 colours as you would type them in a mobile phone text message. For example, 733 = red. Can you identify the complete spectrum? (Answers in the comments box)
Opened: Friday 1st October 1909
Opened: Monday 2nd August 1880
A brief (clickable) history of Wembley Stadium
Opened: Saturday 12th May 1894
Opened: Saturday 10th December 1932
Opened: Sunday 16th December 1934
Opened: Saturday 10th December 1932
1868: The Metropolitan & St John's Wood Railway opens between Baker Street and Swiss Cottage, five years after the opening of London's very first Underground railway.
So, come take a ride with me down the silver Jubilee line. It only takes an hour to travel the whole line from end to end, a total of 24 miles. The route passes from leafy suburbia to West End bustle, from the seat of government to the heart of Docklands, and from the 1948 Olympic Stadium to (possibly) the site for 2012. Climb aboard one of those tiny tube trains with the special whining engine, mind the huge doors along the platform edge, and let's be off. The next station is.... Stanmore.
Opened: Saturday 10th December 1932
