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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/gallery/2019/sep/09/london-abandoned-underground-tube-in-pictures
The above link is to a Guardian photo gallery about abandoned tube stations. Many of them are taken at Aldwych, which, when I last lived in London was only used during rush hour, but was far from abandoned. I hope this doesn't mean that I'm old. Hmmph.
We moved to London as a family when I was 6. My first school was a former POW camp -- yes, you read that correctly -- at Eastcote, and I took the DoD bus to school. We lived on the edge of Edgeware, nearer to the Stanmore stop on what was then the Bakerloo line and is now the tail end of the Jubilee line. I remember riding the Victoria line when it first opened.
(I just found a map with disused stations. Imagine my shock in finding that not only Aldwych, but Holborn (Piccadilly line), Brompton Road, and Highgate are abandoned stations. I used Holborn and Highgate regularly when I lived in London.)
All of this links to my favorite book by Neil Gaiman. Many of my friends look askance when I say that I prefer Neverwhere to the other books of his I've read, but that's because I know those old stations and as a child saw the tube as cool. It was how we went in to the city for plays (we drove to church for some reason, but we usually took the tube to the theater.). There are the occasional dark cars on a train, and, unlike the dark cars we occasionally get in DC, you can't see inside them. It makes perfect sense that it's the Earl's Court.
But most of all, I remember a day when I was in college where I was on the Central line for some reason. It wasn't a line I usually used. Somewhere between Tottenham Court Road and Holborn we stopped in a tunnel and there, lit like it was still in use was a derelict station for the British Museum. There were empty display cases and torn or worn posters on the wall. For just a moment, I felt like I could get off at the stop and walk into the 1930s -- a moment of everyday magic.
The above link is to a Guardian photo gallery about abandoned tube stations. Many of them are taken at Aldwych, which, when I last lived in London was only used during rush hour, but was far from abandoned. I hope this doesn't mean that I'm old. Hmmph.
We moved to London as a family when I was 6. My first school was a former POW camp -- yes, you read that correctly -- at Eastcote, and I took the DoD bus to school. We lived on the edge of Edgeware, nearer to the Stanmore stop on what was then the Bakerloo line and is now the tail end of the Jubilee line. I remember riding the Victoria line when it first opened.
(I just found a map with disused stations. Imagine my shock in finding that not only Aldwych, but Holborn (Piccadilly line), Brompton Road, and Highgate are abandoned stations. I used Holborn and Highgate regularly when I lived in London.)
All of this links to my favorite book by Neil Gaiman. Many of my friends look askance when I say that I prefer Neverwhere to the other books of his I've read, but that's because I know those old stations and as a child saw the tube as cool. It was how we went in to the city for plays (we drove to church for some reason, but we usually took the tube to the theater.). There are the occasional dark cars on a train, and, unlike the dark cars we occasionally get in DC, you can't see inside them. It makes perfect sense that it's the Earl's Court.
But most of all, I remember a day when I was in college where I was on the Central line for some reason. It wasn't a line I usually used. Somewhere between Tottenham Court Road and Holborn we stopped in a tunnel and there, lit like it was still in use was a derelict station for the British Museum. There were empty display cases and torn or worn posters on the wall. For just a moment, I felt like I could get off at the stop and walk into the 1930s -- a moment of everyday magic.
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