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Posted on January 5 2007 by Jag @ 4:30 pm
The London Underground is full of delightful little surprises. This is just one.
The tunnel walkway that connects the Jubilee and Piccadilly Lines at Green Park.
(Taken with my cameraphone underground. Uploaded to Flickr above ground.) The London Underground system is so old, and grows so organically over time, that quite often things aren’t as efficient as they could be. For example, the walkway between the Jubilee Line and Piccadilly Line platforms at Green Park station is a long underground tunnel that takes a good few minutes even walking at a brisk pace. And walking at a brisk pace is what I normally do whenever I have to do this tunnel. So brisk that I never really notice a very clever but quirky little detail about this walkway. We all know that the colour coding used on the tube is excellent, consistent and familiar. For example, that the colour of the Piccadilly Line is dark blue and and the Jubilee Line is grey (or silver), but did you know that as you walk from the Picc platform to the Jub platform through this tunnel at Green Park, the tiny little mosaic tiles on the white walls of this tunnel start off with speckles of dark blue only and then gradually become a mixture of dark blue and grey as you progress through the tunnel, eventually becoming grey only at the Jub Line end? It’s when you discover delightful little things like this that you really appreciate the not-so-obvious designs and patterns that exist in the underground system. (Many thanks to Marcus for pointing this out to me ages ago!)
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Route 79 Reflections on a bus journey home |
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| From London: By a British, European, 2nd-Generation Indian. Probably confused - but proud to be them all! Half of my journey to and from work is a 20-30 minute bus ride: London Bus Route 79 - between Alperton in West London and Kingsbury in North West London. I very frequently get pissed-off and frustrated waiting around in the DARK, WET and COLD - waiting for the 79 to turn up. But I have to be eternally grateful for the quality thinking time I get to myself. | ||
It’s a great blog, can I contact you on your e-mail somehow?
Thanks!
Sylwia
Comment kindly left by Sylwia — January 5, 2007 @ 4:34 pm
Another great observation, I’ve done that walk many a time. And like you say at a fast pace, thanks for the discovery!
Comment kindly left by The Fly — January 5, 2007 @ 11:36 pm
Cheers Richard!
Comment kindly left by Jag — January 7, 2007 @ 7:27 pm
I hav walked through that tunnel thousands of times, but hav never observed that. Thats a good one.
Comment kindly left by Chakra — January 8, 2007 @ 6:29 pm
hai
i have been there in london for 2 years.really nice picture.
Comment kindly left by swapna — January 10, 2007 @ 8:47 pm
One reason to dislike changing at Green Park a bit less I suppose (I tend to look for options that let me avoid changing there if at all possible).
Comment kindly left by stroppycow — January 10, 2007 @ 8:56 pm
Chakra, Happy New Year to you! (And thanks for your txt message!)
Swapna: Thanks!
Strop: I love changing there, even before I “discovered” the mosaic tile colour change. That tunnel provides good exercise!
Comment kindly left by Jag — January 11, 2007 @ 12:04 pm
My friend just turned me on to your blog for the recipes. It is great! I lived in London for a quarter in college…your pictures are wonderful. I’m inspired to do better with my blog. Thanks from Seattle!
Comment kindly left by Dawn — January 11, 2007 @ 7:34 pm
Thank you Dawn!
Comment kindly left by Jag — January 13, 2007 @ 9:08 am
I absolutely HATE this tunnel walkway! It’s a bane for travellers coming off the Picadilly Line from Heathrow and wanting to change into the Jubilee with all their luggage – up and then down two sets of stairs. I now use the way out signs to shorten the change over and get to the Jubilee line with a suitcase in tow over the escalator. I do agree though that generally speaking Londons tube system is quite fantastic and the quirky little things like mosaic tiles changing colour make it interesting to travel on even 5 years on!
Comment kindly left by 30in2005 — January 15, 2007 @ 9:34 am
30in2005 – I never thought of going up to come back down again at that interchange at Green Park. I’ll have to remember that when I got a heavy load.
Comment kindly left by Jag — January 16, 2007 @ 12:27 pm
It took me about 2 months of switching lines at Green Park before I realized that cute design element. I loved it! Even though that tunnel is a PITA to hike through, I liked that they had taken the time to make it aesthetically pleasing at least.
Comment kindly left by Bridget — January 16, 2007 @ 6:54 pm
I agree Bridget re PITA, at least “following” the design takes my mind of the chore now! Cheers!
Comment kindly left by Jag — January 16, 2007 @ 8:15 pm
[...] He said “walking at a brisk pace is what I normally do whenever I have to do this tunnel. So brisk that I never really notice a very clever but quirky little detail about this walkway. [...]
Pingback kindly left by aaknowledge.com » Blog Archive » Not so Green Park — January 23, 2007 @ 8:12 am
Swapna ..Howz life…..itz been long time we have met…
Comment kindly left by Rahul — October 25, 2007 @ 10:34 pm
I don’t do that tunnel.
Instead, JD finds it’s quicker to walk up the escalators towards the EXIT and back down the the Piccadilly Line platform.
But, you have to be sitting in the right Jubilee Line carriage for the EXIT, or you end up running against traffic along that Platform which counters any time gained.
JD
Comment kindly left by James Dean — December 14, 2007 @ 11:47 am
Good tip JD!
Comment kindly left by Jag — December 17, 2007 @ 11:16 pm