Alternative tube map
p. This is an extremely useful map “showing Tube stations”:http://rodcorp.typepad.com/photos/art2003/tubewalklinesfinallmfaint.html that appear to be far apart on the Tube map, but are actually close enough to enable you to walk between them. This is the reason that I usually carry both a Tube map and a London AtoZ when I travel around London.
p. I don’t go up[1] to London very frequently these days, but when I was growing up in Surrey, going to London for the day was a real treat. Travelling on the train to Victoria station was always exciting (imagine that—getting excited about travelling on the train!), and when I saw the huge towers of Battersea Power Station, I knew that we were nearly there. I also loved the Tube with the ghostly sounds of a busker playing the saxophone somewhere down a tunnel, and that gust of Underground smell that would herald an arriving train. Scent is such a slippery evasive thing for the memory, but I know that if I smelt that smell blindfolded, and with no other sensory cues, I would know exactly where I was.
p. I’ve always enjoyed walking around London too (except Oxford Street—that makes me feel like a salmon battling up a waterfall). I have a number of favourite routes that I take down quiet lanes and past interesting sites, but I pride myself on just being able to strike out in the general direction of my destination and pick my way through the back streets until I get to my goal. Of course, I do carry the AtoZ in case my rather fragile sense of direction gives out on me, or the sun—which I use as a compass in towns—disappears behind thick overcast.
p. [via “BoingBoing”:http://boingboing.net]
fn1. For some reason, London is always ‘up’.
1
After a certain distance travelling north, the 'up to London' rule no longer counts, and we (in Yorkshire) use basic 'north = up' and 'south = down' descriptions. In fact, it wasn't until I was in my teens, watching TV, that I learnt of the rule.
I'm sure I'll always speak of going down to London (unless I'm south of London while speaking), as that's what comes naturally. It would be interesting to know where the borderline area between the two ways of expressing it is located. Perhaps there's a radius from London that extends as far as a horse-drawn carriage in the 19th Century could travel in one day? (Just a pure guess.)----- It gets more complicated in a university, because you can go up to Oxford from London, then go back up to London from Oxford, like one of those MC Escher impossible circular staircases.
by ThoughtBadger @ 08/10/2003 9:10 am • Permalink •
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I find it's often quicker (and certainly more pleasant) from Kings Cross -> Old Street in the rush hour on foot.
A good way to get round is by looking at the bus stop maps. These are usually a large map of central London with a nice "you are here" arrow.
by RobH @ 09/10/2003 2:10 pm • Permalink •
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David: Watford Gap?
ThoughtBadger: I've never got the whole "going up to Oxford" thing, but I love the idea of an Escher-like motorway between the two.
RobH: My Dad used to work in Old Street, so he knows all the short cuts around there.
by bsag @ 09/10/2003 5:10 pm • Permalink •
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