I like the way people don't know your name, you can listen to music and ignore everyone, you can make up stories in your head about the lives of the person sat opposite you and then forget about them when they leave the train, and you can flirt shamelessly with anyone who takes your fancy then get out at the next station, safe in the knowledge you will probably never see them again.
It is great to be a nameless face in a sea of people.
Everyone is a freak on the tube, you can't escape from the fact that someone is judging you without you knowing it. Especially if you trip when you board the train.
The tube is warm when it's freezing outside. There's always something to read, whether it's a poster, a copy of Metro or London Lite, or whether you peer over the shoulder of the person in front of you and read their divorce papers.
Everyone told me I'd eventually grow to loathe the tube, and join the ranks of disgruntled commuters sullenly making their way to and from work day in day out, but after a year of living here I can safely say I still like it.
More than all of this though, I love the fact that when on a train you could well be passing loads of disused GHOST stations.
Woo-ooo-oo...
In fact, this prospect fills me with glee. At the height of my infatuation with the underground, I once printed out a map which showed the positions of all disused stations on the network, and set about trying to locate them. I managed to see about 5 of them as we sped past on crowded trains, with my face pressed up to the window and my hands shielding my eyes from the light.
Who couldn't be intrigued by the fact that somewhere underground there are still old Bovril posters from the war? Some stations which were closed in the 30s remain the way they did when they were open, except that they are probably coated in about an inch of soot and dust and are, of course, submerged in total darkness. It's like another world down there, and I want to explore it. Unfortunately, TFL no longer allows guided tours of the closed stations. However, you can still see remnants of some from above ground. (If you are as sad as me.)
Also, I would like to point out that this does in no way make me a trainspotter. I only enjoy the stations, not the trains themselves. Although, I did think the old trains in the TFL Museum were pretty cool.
3 comments:
Your finds sound rather interesting. If you're as courageous as you seem to act sometimes you'd find a way to investigate! If not, let me? :)
Xxx DM
In the original Superman movie, I liked Lex Luther's luxurious lair, in his special secret subway stop, in Metropolis City or whatever.
If I were a famous baddie, I'd use one of them there Ghost stations to do something similar in the London Underground. Except I'd go for carpets upstairs & a dark wood effect laminate for the lobby & staircase.
You would like the book by Geoff Ryman....253. I think there is a web site, hold on ....ryman DASH novel DOT com. I did some paintings of a tube journey a few years back...I will show you some time . xxx
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