about this blog

There are quite a few blogs about the London Underground - first and foremost Annie Mole’s Going Underground’s Blog, and Diamond Geezer writes extensively about all things tube too. This blog is specifically inspired by tube completists London Photo Project and Ian Jones’s recently completed To The End Of The Line. I thought covering all the stations was a great idea, and resolved to make a similar trip. How to make mine sufficiently different, though?

The London Underground is an amazing resource for London. Historians already marvel at the way the spread of the tube encouraged and enabled the outward growth of the city. And living in London today would be impossible without it. But beyond the bald facts of its history and geographic reach there lies the personal and experiential history of each of its users. Each of us uses the tube in a different way; as we live longer in London the way we interact with it changes as we move home, form new relationships and find new jobs. I want to use my blog to explore this aspect too.

I will blog and photograph every station separately. Unlike Ian Jones, I won’t work programmatically along each line but will pick stations at random (there may be some programmed stretches, however!), so the whole blog will build up like a jigsaw, a patchwork quilt of my memories and thoughts. Tags and links will tie the lines together; just like on the real tube one will be able to move through randomly.

Just like almost everyone else, I have probably visited only a fraction of the 270-odd stations on the system. So my plan to visit all of them is sheer geekery, and I embrace my inner geek.

Here we go . . .