Happy
Birthday Tube!
150 today, whereas my youngest is 6 on
the same day. Coincidence? Yes.
Nonetheless and on this happy day a
number of facts about the tube that may have escaped your attention. I love
this sort of thing. It’s difficult to be further from London than where I am
and still remain on this side of the border. But if my feet are stuck in
Cumbria, and if my heart remains in Salisbury, then my soul is and always will
be in Lambeth.
Half a million mice can be found on
the UnderGround. They counted them with tiny pencils. The mice serve a useful
function for the mosquitoes upon which they feed, the mossies now an entirely
unique species.
The rotundas (fortifications) for
the old deep level shelters can still be seen about the Claphams, and
especially Belsize Park. South Clapham (which used to be ridiculously easy to
break into for a wander about) was used for the arrivals on the Windrush whose
nearest Labour Exchange was Brixton, and because of which is where many settled
enriching the area ever since.
The longest escalator can be found
at the Angel upon which late at night rather underfed fiends are said to rise
from the abyss; on Saturday, going to Slimelight.
Aldgate East was built upon a plague pit. Just
outside the city so people didn’t have too far to stagger.
In 1926 suicide pits were installed
on the lines. Fifty poor souls chose this method to shuffle off each year,
usually at 11am.
Smoking was still permitted until
1987 in the wake of the King’s Cross fire. I still remember not only being able
to puff away on the platforms, but also in certain carriages. Mind you twenty
minutes on the tube equates to smoking a fag anyway due to the quality of the
air, so breathe deep.
Covent Garden is supposedly haunted
by William Ferris late from 1897. Keeping up with the times he is said to now
be a very shouty busker that chases tourists around the Punch & Judy.
The River Westbourne is carried over
the platform at Sloane Square in an iron pipe, still there and readily spotted.
Brigadier Lethridge-Stewert was
first encountered in the tube, back in 1968 and the Web of Fear. He was then
but a colonel.
Hobb’s End, the fictional station
used in Quatermas (and other) stories is actually part of the miniature line
used by London UnderGround for staff training. I can’t discover if it actually
features a pit. It ought to. Hobb’s End was also the name of the village where
faced with Bok the Brigadier later ordered ‘chap with wings, five rounds rapid’.
Mind the gap!
No comments:
Post a Comment