Favourite bits of the Underground?

Going through your old photos - can only mean it’s half term! 🤪

One of my favourite places is Mill Hill East - you always feel that you are on some country branch line, and looking beyond the buffers imagining trains going beyond to Edgware.

My favourite bit of the Underground, you say...?

I thought it was going in his kitchen! 😂

Blake Hall really was a unique part of the Underground. There really was nothing there to see or do. Apart from, as you did, wait for the next train!
I suppose some of the former outposts of the Met such as the Brill branch would have been similar, but what dId it for Blake Hall was the fact that it was served by tube stock.

Its uniqueness stems from it being a largely pointless commuter station within living memory for many. Its early life with freight and milk trains to local farms gave its existence merit but later? Not really. 'A Non-Stop On The Way To Somewhere' would not only describe Blake Hall's uniqueness in its latter days but would also make a very good title for a song/book/film/Broadway play. 

Barons Court is a lovely and very distinctive District Railway station - the green tiling in the booking hall, the general station building, more...

re: seats bearing railway company initials (as per the GWR image at the start of this page) some stations on the Upminster route have seats with something similar, albeit for the LT&SR - London Tilbury and Southend Railway.

re: Blake Hall, before it closed I went there one evening (with some friends) to see the annual August meteorites (sorry I don't know their name, but hopefully someone who knows about astronomy will know this). The bridge over the railway was a good location, as it was elevated and reasonably dark. In addition to passing trains (which helped us keep track of passing time) we also saw quite a few meteorites / shooting stars. I will admit however that we went by car, as the station was closed.

As for a 'favourite' part of the UndergrounD, I am sorry but I do not have one of these.

How can one compare a ride through the Essex countryside with the four track Dist/Picc in west London or the Metroland services? Then there are the architecturally significant stations - and the less significant minimalist "what that is an Underground station???" such as West Harrow, West Finchley, Ickenham.... and oh and lets not forget the delightful shameful 'el cheapo' RSJ's with peeling white paint and car porch lights at Hillingdon! (The part of the station under the overall roof is quite nice, for a modern minimalist building, but...)

edit to add, a day or so later.... the photograph below taken at Hillingdon shows what I mean! 

My understanding is that Barkingside was built in such an ornate way because it was near Dr Barnados childrens home and it was hoped that our Monarch would visit.


etched glass windows - these were filmed many years ago (in the 35mm film era) at Buckhurst Hill, I think they were replaced with plain glass when the station was refurbished but similar still exist at Barkingside and Newbury Park (plus perhaps others)


original Great Eastern Railway (GER) seating at Newbury Park - from what I recall, this is all thats left here but some other stations may still have some too, the platform canopies are supported on metalwork that still has GER scroll work

also perhaps of interest...


closed ticket office sales windows at Barons Court, also showing some of the distinctive ornate green tiling


West Brompton - with the top of the station name board angled to match the stairs and the very old font - just look at that letter W !


Alas, now lost to history - the Underground above / the Overground below, at Whitechapel

So many amazing places on the UndergrounD it’s hard to pick a favourite. But I think for me it has to be the east end of the Central Line as well. First time going on a train, standard stock, then working on that line as a guard. Used to enjoy working the Epping Ongar shuttle, my regular motorman used to give me the handle, loved every minute of it.

Anything left by Leslie Green, Harry Bell Measures & Henry Wharton Ford.

Stations that seem to have no intrinsic purpose to the unknowing heathens--Morningside Crescent,Goodge Street,Stamford Brook & co.

Looking out for the sites of abandoned stations on journeys.

Pigeons.

My favourite 'bit' of the underground is a rather Minkowskian interpretation: Ealing Broadway Central line in the late 1950's when every single underground trip was a major treat.

Sitting in a train, waiting to depart, and listening to what I assume where the compressors, and the sounds, sights, and smells (hot paxolin, anyone?) of the subsequent journey were pure magic to a four->six year old.

For me it must be Uxbridge. I can still remember, 70 years ago, when quite small how entrancing it was compared to our local station at Ruislip Manor. Different sorts of trains arriving and leaving from different platforms, the towering ceiling (as it seemed to a small boy), the stained glass windows and the fact that you could leave by two different exits and see two different sets of buses all left an indelible mark on my small mind. Probably that's what led to a lifelong interest in London Transport.
For those interested in Underground architecture generally, can I particularly recommend 'Underground Heritage' (Badsey-Ellis) and also 'London Underground Stations'(Durnin), both published by Capital Transport.

I love North Ealing station. It’s like going back in time. I can imagine a B stock train for Uxbridge trundling though.

Yes, a real railway station where the station master lives upstairs - not what most people would expect a rapid transit urban railway station to look like!

For me it's the stretch between Kings X and Moorgate. In and out of tunnels/bridges and buried in deep cuttings. Memories of when I was very small and being taken to see grandma at Farringdon. The mystery of the other tracks appearing at Kings X and running alongside and crossing under the Circle Line tracks. Wonderful half-scary stuff to a Pinner kid.