joalhe1997-blog

[joalhe1997-blog]

The Edgware Roads

Not a long one today.

My first journey was on the Bakerloo line between Marylebone and Edgware Road (Bakerloo) (26/270 and 20/63 in Zone 1).

From there, I then made the short walk to Edgware Road (Circle, District and Hammersmith & City) (27/270 and 21/63 in Zone 1) where I then got the Circle line to Baker Street where throughout the rest of the journey, I only alighted/entered at stations I’ve already visited.

And before you ask, yes they have the same name but they are classed as two different stations!

The title was pretty self explanatory but it now means I am exactly 10% of the way through all the stations and exactly 1/3 of the way through Zone 1, so I’m getting somewhere!

[joalhe1997-blog]

It’s a slow process...

Into March we go - 20/270 before today’s (or yesterday’s given I’m writing this after midnight) excursion and I’m starting to doubt that I will complete this… Always much harder when you don’t actually live in London to be fair!

I made sure that I got into London early enough to give myself a bit of time to discover more stations. After getting a cup of coffee from Marylebone, I decided to meander down Marylebone Road and eventually after passing Baker Street and Regent’s Park, reached Great Portland Street (21/270).

I do rather like the old station platforms with the bricks.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t really pay attention to which line I got from there, I think it was the Metropolitan. This then took me one stop along to Euston Square (22/270).

I then made the very short walk from there to Warren Street (23/270).

I then took the Victoria line one stop along to Oxford Circus (24/270).

This was a station I was expecting to do much earlier but never got round to. 

I got out and walked east down Oxford Street, where suddenly I realised that caffeine and I aren’t as friendly as we used to be. I had to pull into a well known burger franchise and although I was planning to eat anyway, had to pay for food before I could use their facilities…

A few minutes later, I left and headed right over the road to Tottenham Court Road (25/270).

I thought I had more time than I actually did so at that point made a little detour on the Central line towards Bank, hoping that by switching between there and Monument, I might encounter a ticket barrier, having never used the link before (very much out of hope than being expectant). Alas I was wrong and so, in a bit of a panic, headed back on the District line from Monument to Embankment and lazily (well, more because I have a better idea of where I’m going from there and thought I’d probably encounter fewer street crossings) got the Bakerloo line back up to Charing Cross where I disembarked.

I was back at the London Coliseum for the English National Opera’s performance of The Winter’s Tale - a world premiere of a piece by Ryan Wigglesworth. It was enjoyable but probably not one I’d hurry back to see.

Homeward bound and with my tally now up to 25/270, I’m still yet to hit the 10% mark at 9.26%, but I am close. I think I’ve decided that at a minimum I’d like to complete Zone 1 (so far 19/63 - 30.16%) by the end of the year. Although I also am aware that I have completed 9/15 - 60% of the Victoria line. Until a week or so, ciao!

[joalhe1997-blog]

Opera Part 2 - A Victorias Day

Urgh, even I think that pun was horrific. But anyway, today was my second consecutive night at the opera. More on that in a bit but first, trains!

Usual start, got the train into Marylebone nice and early, caught up with a friend who happened to be getting the same train as me, before walking to Baker Street to take on the next part of my challenge.

Given that I got into Marylebone at 16:20 and my show was at 19:30, I had a bit of time to binge on stations, but not masses. So I first headed up (after changing at King’s Cross St Pancras) to Seven Sisters (12/270), where I had previously been foiled. This time I made sure I went through the barrier, did a mini-tour and returned to the station.

Yes, I realise I already have a picture from the previous time but this one actually counts! I then thought that while I was up in that direction, I might as well tackle the rest of the Victoria line stations in that direction. So I first headed to the end of the line to Walthamstow Central (13/270).

Then down to Blackhorse Road (14/270).

Onto Tottenham Hale (15/270).

I then skipped Seven Sisters and went straight onto Finsbury Park (16/270).

Before finally ending my Victoria line trip at Highbury & Islington (17/270).

It was at this point I was contemplating food and I kept fluctuating between what I fancied to eat. I also noticed that next to the Victoria line platform at Highbury & Islington, there were National Rail signs. So after I’d been out and back into the station, I had a little peek around the station. What I liked most was the old Network SouthEast signage on the platform (which to make some of you feel old, existed and then stopped existing long before I was even conceived).

I had been aware of this line as it’s on old tube maps as part of the old Northern line branch between Finsbury Park and Moorgate, but for some reason, I thought that line had just disappeared when it was no longer part of the Underground. I obviously haven’t been paying attention to the London rail maps to realise it’s now part of Great Northern. 

Anyway, I decided to explore it and hopped on the next train to Moorgate, passing through Essex Road and Old Street. I had got off at Old Street to try and get that station ticked off but as I got out of the station, there were queues of people going back well outside the station. Instead I walked onto Moorgate (18/270) (so I might as well have got off at Moorgate!).

I then took the Northern line down to Bank, where I changed onto the Central line (I didn’t pass the barrier this time so this didn’t count) and headed west to Holborn (19/270).

I thought there was somewhere convenient to eat outside. There wasn’t. I had to walk all the way to Trafalgar Square to find one more convenient, especially as I was starting to be pushed for time.

The show was Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto. To make a long story short, it’s about an overprotective father whose daughter gets kidnapped, after she’s fallen in love with the Duke. Rigoletto then orders for the Duke to be killed, only for one of the murderers to fall in love with the Duke and finds someone else to kill... Who happens to be Rigoletto’s daughter, disguised so that she can save the Duke. Odd plot, but a great production and brilliant theatre. And an even better view than last night in the stalls for just £30!

Afterwards, I headed down to Charing Cross (20/270).

Easy journey on the Bakerloo line back up to Marylebone, for which I finally now have a picture, having missed the opportunity the previous few times:

It was a very rowdy train back. There were some rather drunk people next to me who were 1) trying to get me drunk and 2) had started play-fighting to the point where they’d ripped the seat covers off and were hitting each other with them. I don’t know what happened to them as they headed to Aylesbury but I’m pretty sure they weren’t allowed into the club they were planning to go to.

So that now makes a decent total of 20/270 stations visited. Only 7.4% through but on the plus side, all the Victoria line stations north of zone 1 are now done and I’ve now done half of them overall. Next planned trip isn’t for a month though. I might just have to encourage myself to make another trip soon...

[joalhe1997-blog]

Opera Part 1

This has been only my fourth trip to London and three of those have been with others who take no interest in trains, other than to get them from A to B. I’m struggling to see myself completing this challenge, not going to lie...

I’m from a family of very frequent theatre-goers. We tend to spend many a weekend driving up the Stratford-upon-Avon. I’ve already done the National Theatre this year, but London has plethora of choices for theatres and genres. Today (and I’d imagine many other times this year), was a day for the opera. My parents had already chosen today to go and see Matilda The Musical at the Cambridge Theatre, so I thought I’d help them out with train fares by travelling with them on a Group Save ticket, saving them a third on their fare (I have a 16-25 Railcard so it would have made no difference to me.

So we set out from home and arrived into Marylebone as per usual, walked to Baker Street before getting the Circle line to King’s Cross St Pancras (8/270). 

Unfortunately, when with others, I tend to rush and so my camera work can be a bit shoddy (to be polite about it). 

We’d decided to kill a bit of time before our shows so headed to the British Library, where there were some fascinating bits of writing and illustration (which included some written music from composers such as Mozart, Tallis and Elgar just to name a few). We then decided our best bet would be to walk to Euston (9/270) station, where we first got a bite to eat at the Sainsbury’s Local there.

Following that, we queued downstairs (I’d forgotten that it can get a little busy at rush hour, especially with escalator works) before getting the Northern line, heading southwards into the West End, where we disembarked at Leicester Square (10/270).

There, my parents and I headed our separate ways as they headed north and I headed south towards the London Coliseum, home of the English National Opera. As an under 30, I can get special “Access All Arias” (musical pun) tickets: £10 in the Upper Circle, £20 in the Dress Circle and £30 in the Stalls. For whatever reason, I chose the Dress Circle for this production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance. 

It was a brilliant view, especially for £20! It was a really fun production, full of upbeat music, comical lines and rather inept pirates and police forces! A brilliant romp overall.

Two hours and fifteen minutes later, I walked myself up to the Cambridge Theatre and waited for my parents for a good 20 minutes, with the rickshaws outside the theatre playing music from Matilda. We walked down Shaftesbury Avenue, past many theatres showing productions such as Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Les Misérables and The Book of Mormon - all shows I’d love to watch, but alas I am restricted by the lack of money - before we entered a rather crowded Piccadilly Circus (11/270). 

It was pretty difficult to manage to take a picture saying this was where I was, but I just about managed it before the train doors closed.

Again, in both photos, I was rather rushed so the quality is rather poor. Sorry about that.

From the colours, you’ll probably guess that we took the Bakerloo line, which we took all the way up to Marylebone before taking a rather ketchup-splattered train. You think I’m joking? Take a look at this!

That takes quite something. What you can’t see is that it travelled as far as the right-hand window. Otherwise it was a fairly uneventful journey back home. My map now looks like this (ignoring Seven Sisters in the top right - see the previous post):

So that now makes 11/270 (4.07%) so still a very long way to go. Still, there’s a reason why this post is labelled “Part 1.″ Stay tuned folks...

[joalhe1997-blog]

Wandering to the Lane

For all you sport fans out there, you may know that there were quite a few FA Cup matches taking place this weekend (and at the time of writing, there are four matches still to be played). One of those matches was Tottenham Hotspur of the Premier League (the top tier of English football) taking on my local team Wycombe Wanderers of League Two (the fourth tier of English football). Wait, where are you going? Come back, there are trains, I promise!

So once again, as I nearly always do (barring the rare occasion where I know I’ll need to leave London later than midnight - possibly more about that later in the year), I stood at the platform of Wendover, this time with my brother, Rowan. We boarded what started out as a fairly empty train soon filled with the men, women and children of Buckinghamshire at Great Missenden and Amersham (not so much at Chalfont & Latimer), all clad with light and dark blue scarves and quartered shirts of light and dark blue. Here is my example:

What a top! But the passenger numbers still increased as we went on and due to engineering works between Harrow-on-the-Hill and Aldgate on the Metropolitan line, by Harrow-on-the-Hill the train was crammed, despite being 5 cars (the maximum on the line is 6 cars) and despite extra services being run between Harrow-on-the-Hill and Marylebone by Chiltern Railways. 

Eventually, we arrived at Marylebone and once again found myself walking to Baker Street in order to catch either a Circle line or Hammersmith & City line train (the works didn’t affect these lines between Baker Street and Aldgate/Aldgate East). I think the Circle and Hammersmith & City line platform at Baker Street will probably be one of my favourite platforms on the Underground:

I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily the prettiest and certainly isn’t bright and cheery. I guess it’s the history and the Victorian-ness of it, knowing that once upon a time, steam trains would pass through here, without it looking all that different to how it does now.

As it happened, it was a Hammersmith & City line train as we made our way through several stations before finally arriving at Liverpool Street. Upon crossing the ticket barrier on our way up to the mainline platforms, this became station 7/270.

Rowan and I had arrived at Liverpool Street at about 12:45, lunchtime in my eyes. So we grabbed a pasty at the pasty store as I looked out for a train to White Hart Lane. I had my eye on a 13:00 London Overground service which at 12:59 still had no platform number whilst also saying it was “due 13:03.″ So we waited, whilst another service to White Hart Lane flashed up on platform 4. Eventually the 13:00 service disappeared without a platform number appearing, leading me to believe it had been cancelled. So we got on the next train, which was a very irregular service by Greater Anglia to Cheshunt via Seven Sisters. They were running this service due to the fact that the route via Tottenham Hale was shut for more engineering works (what a weekend to plan all these works!). It wasn’t as busy as I was expecting and by the train departed at 13:12, there were only really about 10 people on our carriage. The train made a couple of stops at Hackney Downs and Seven Sisters before arriving at White Hart Lane.

Now, the 270 stations don’t cover the London Overground, DLR, tram etc. These can be done optionally but due to the fact I’m poor and probably won’t be spending many days just to go to London to specifically ride trains (my ideal day), I won’t be counting these. 

Anyway, onto the rest of the day, where I bought my matchday programme and a half-and-half scarf before heading into the ground and taking my seat in the upper tier of the South Stand.

What you may notice is the lack of seating in the far corner. This is due to Tottenham building a new ground just metres from White Hart Lane (in fact you can see the cranes where the new stadium will be built). If we were to beat Tottenham or they weren’t to play another home match in the competition, this could be the last ever FA Cup match at White Hart Lane. Although the new stadium won’t be ready until the 2018/19 season, Tottenham are looking to use Wembley as their home stadium for the duration of the 2017/18 season.

Anyway, enough about stadia and facts surrounding and onto the match. It very nearly was the perfect start for Wycombe as their captain Paul Hayes headed against the crossbar in the first minute. However despite pressure at both ends, it was the Chairboys (Wycombe’s nickname due to the history of chair-making in High Wycombe) who took a surprise lead thanks to Hayes’ volley. And the lead was doubled after Sam Wood was brought down in the penalty spot - the follwing penalty was converted by Hayes. Wycombe kept a 2-0 lead at the half time whistle but conceded two early goals in the 2nd half, first from Son Heung-min and then from the penalty spot by Vincent Janssen to make it 2-2. There was then late ecstasy as substitute Garry Thompson then headed in to give Wycombe a 3-2 lead in the 83rd minute. But a mistake from Wycombe’s goalkeeper Jamal Blackman ensured England international Dele Alli slotted home from close-range to take it 3-3. Could Wycombe hang on to enforce a replay in High Wycombe? Sadly not. After 6 minutes of added time (due to an injury to Tottenham’s Kieran Trippier which forced him off the field after Tottenham had made their three substitutions - meaning that Tottenham finished the game with 10 men), Son once again snuck through and broke Wycombe players and fans’ hearts in the 97th minute. 

Dejectedly, we walked back to White Hart Lane station where in typical British fashion, we queued to get into the station for at least 10-15 minutes. Eventually we made it onto the platform where a London Overground train was pulling up. I had a cunning plan to add another station to my “done” list; to cut off two sides of a triangle, we disembarked at Seven Sisters and made our way to the Victoria line platform. 

Upon writing this, I was confident that this station had been done that I’d already crossed it off my tube map as a done station. However upon writing the above paragraph, it slowly dawned on me that I never actually crossed a ticket barrier at Seven Sisters, despite going from Overground to Underground, meaning I can’t count this as a station done, only as an interchange. I’m now rather frustrated so will have to now redo this in my own time if I get another opportunity. I took a picture anyway to prove I’ve been here:

Finally we took the Victoria line down to King’s Cross St. Pancras before changing onto the Hammersmith & City line, returning to Baker Street, walking back to Marylebone and returning to Wendover. A doubly frustrating day, due to both the football and the station incident. I’m now 2.59% of the way through the challenge. This is my new tube map (still very bare):

You can just about see Seven Sisters in the top right corner crossed off. I have discounted this and as stated earlier, will try to make up for this in my own time…

[joalhe1997-blog]

Travelling the Globe

How does one travel the Globe on the Tube? All will be revealed shortly... (And for the record, it didn’t involve any travel to any airports, ferry ports etc. via London.)

So once again, I found myself at platform 1 at Wendover station, caramel latte in hand as I boarded the 11:56 to London Marylebone, with everything running smoothly, bar a little wait at the Mainline junction at Neasden.

One of the advantages of Marylebone station is its proximity to Baker Street station; it’s only a short 5 minute walk (at most) down Melcombe Street, eventually coming to the entrance on Baker Street itself (arguably most famous as the street of Sherlock Holmes’ residence). Where I can only take the Bakerloo line from Marylebone (whose great idea was that, to give a mainline terminus the one line?), I have a plethora of choices from Baker Street (to be precise: Bakerloo, Circle, Hammersmith & City, Jubilee and Metropolitan lines). So as I crossed the ticket gate and descended on the escalator, I mentally crossed off Baker Street from my tube map, having stupidly left it at home. 

Those eagle-eyed followers and those in the know will recognise this as the Jubilee platform of Baker Street. So where could I possibly be headed that would involve the Globe and the Jubilee line? Maybe the next clue might help...

By the way, I haven’t attempted this maze so you’re free to give it a go. Having searched “maze London Underground” on Google, I realised there are very many variations of this maze at different stations so this is very cryptic. Whilst I couldn’t find a result for this exact station on Google, I promise you it was definitely there! So, did anyone get it?

Yes, I finished up at Southwark station, reaching station number 4/270. I’m sure a lot of you have now figured out my enigma so I’ll put your mind at rest if you haven’t: Shakespeare’s Globe. 

I’ll be honest, this wasn’t part of their main season and so wasn’t in the main theatre (it would be far too cold for that!). Instead this was in their smaller, indoor space, the Sam Wanamaker Theatre (named after the man who is claimed to be most responsible for the rebuilding of the main theatre, which was finished four years after his death in 1993). The play was called All The Angels, a semi-historical play about the creation of Handel’s most famous work: The Messiah. As a classical singer myself, I found it a very fun play, with some good performances and very insightful about how life can just change so easily. This was what the staging looked like (from rather high up):

But all good things must come to an end and so I had to make my way back. In order to be able to cross more stations off the map, I took a small detour past the Tate Modern, over Blackfriars Bridge and along Victoria Embankment, where I managed to capture a glorious sunset over the Thames:

The camera (and my photography skills) do this no justice but I felt I had to capture this. So onward I then ambled to Temple station, making that station number 5.

Is it just me that looks at “Temple” as a word and thinks “what a strange looking word”? It certainly looks strange to me looking at the roundel. Only moving to the next station on the District line, I required a change at Embankment - which a) I already have used and b) as it didn’t involve crossing a ticket barrier, wouldn’t have counted anyway. I still took a sneaky picture to make up for the lack of pictures from my last London outing:

Yes, that is a coat I’m wearing. No, I did not take it off when I was on the train. Yes, I am mad (or stupid). Thus came the final leg of today’s adventure, a short trip northbound on the Bakerloo line to Regent’s Park, where I decided to walk the rest of the way on the Marylebone Road to Marylebone station.

Having stayed back to take this picture, I missed the previous lift to the surface and managed to get the next one all to myself (lucky me). The walk from Regent’s Park to Baker Street and then to Marylebone took me about 10-15 minute walk and I certainly felt all the better for it. 

The train I then attempted to catch from Marylebone was the 17:59 train to Aylesbury Vale Parkway. Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, Chiltern Railways could only make the train 2 cars long. This is a popular one for people of my area as it fast tracks all the Underground stations in between, meaning that the first stop after Marylebone is Amersham. And although I tried to get as close to the ticket gate as possible before they announced the platform, I still found myself at the back of the queue for the doors. What’s more is that I’d decided to buy a meal to take away from Burger King and I knew it would be impossible to hold that and stand whilst on the train. I looked over to the adjacent platform and saw that the train from there was the 18:12 to Aylesbury, crucially via Amersham. Although this was a stopping service, I knew I’d get a seat. So I made the decision there and then to abort and sacrifice the speed for a guaranteed seat and table. As the 17:59 rolled out, I knew I’d made the correct move, spotting many passengers on their feet. So that concluded my day in London for today. So my updated map now looks like this:

It’s a start. 6 down, 264 to go, 2.22% of the way there. This could be a long year... However, I know that I should be able to cross off Liverpool Street as I head to White Hart Lane to watch the might Wycombe Wanderers of League Two face Tottenham Hotspur of the Premier League. With the magic of the FA Cup, who knows?

[joalhe1997-blog]

Here is the original challenge issued by Geoff (via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJc9IDT-kqQ)

[joalhe1997-blog]

Let’s start at the very beginning...

So at the beginning of the year, Geoff Marshall of Londonist issued a general challenge to everyone to try and visit all 270 London Underground stations (or as many as possible) in 2017.

For those unaware of the rules, you must not only get on and off the train at a station to have “visited” it, you must also have crossed the ticket barrier (therefore interchanges or even just standing on the platform don’t count).

He also gave us three different ways of completing the challenge:

To fill in every station you know you’ve already visited in your life and go from there.

To start from scratch from the beginning of the year.

To split the year in half; the first half of the year, go about your normal daily routine, without making any special journeys in order to complete the challenge - then once you hit the 1st July, you may then go an make any journeys necessary to complete this.

This indeed is a bit of a challenge for me, due to the fact that I don’t actually live in London. However, given that I only live in Wendover, just beyond what is referred to as “Metroland,” I thought it was certainly within my range. I also know that I’ll be doing a lot of travelling around the country, which will require many interchanges in London (I believe this counts as I will be passing through the Underground barriers to get to the Mainline platforms). 

I have decided to go for challenge number two in this instance. By the time it gets to the second half of the year, I’ll have no idea what I’ll be doing in terms of higher education, whilst my memory doesn’t serve me well enough to remember every single station at which I’ve got on or off in my life. 

Now before I started this blog, I had already made a journey through London, although I didn’t think to take any photographs whilst I was at the stations. Starting at Wendover, I got into Marylebone, which by crossing the Underground ticket barrier started my Tube Challenge. It was a very simple journey as I travelled down the Bakerloo line to Embankment, where I disembarked and exited, thus taking me to station 2 for 2017. These two have been crossed off as shown on the tube map below:

Unfortunately I never made it back by train. I had gone to see Amadeus at the National Theatre, where my mum had driven in directly from work and gave us a lift back. So my Tube Challenge ended there. At least for the time being. I hope to return to London before the month is out, but we’ll have to see where life takes me...