Opposite me, on a nearly-empty Sunday morning service, the diagram. I pondered on those names, letting my mind roam among the memories of the stations, the areas they serve, the associations those names conjured up...
My first forays on the Piccadilly line were as a child in the mid-1960s; I was born with a squint in my left eye and had an operation to straighten my gaze at Moorfields Eye Hospital. I must have visited it twice (at least), taking the Tube from Boston Manor, the nearest station to our house in Hanwell. I still have vivid recollections of the moment the train started going underground, east of Baron's Court. Backs of tall, brick terraced houses overlooking the tracks, still dark with soot, the cables running parallel to the train as it dived into the tunnel,
Looking along the line, from west to east, I know the stretch from Acton Town to Kings Cross St. Pancras very well indeed; I am able to visualise the stations above ground and their immediate vicinities. Leicester Square, across the road the (long-gone) Happy Garden restaurant was a favourite lunchtime venue (for the duck noodle soup) during my days working at Centre Point; Covent Garden - lift-only access to a street teeming with tourists; Green Park station on a sunny day; Hyde Park Corner with its many entrances via subway; Knightsbridge - if the train window aligns itself with a station name-sign, you can see six consecutive consonants (GHTSBR) as you look out of the window; making little sense at first sight; South Kensington - alight here for the museums - and the long pedestrian tunnel linking them.
Yes, all of London's Underground resonates strongly with me, the Piccadilly, District and Central lines most of all as they link the Ealings and Actons (as Sir John Betjeman put it) with the heart of the capital.
West of Acton Town - South Ealing and Boston Manor; my first regular Tube journeys to school - until we moved to posher surroundings, after which Ealing Broadway became the station for my short commute to school, near Acton Town. And Saturdays, on my way to Polish scouts, I'd travel the line east to Hammersmith and track back to Ravenscourt Park on the District Line. Sometimes, I'd find an empty carriage at the end of a unit with the driver's door left unlocked. I'd pull down the handle and let myself in, sitting in the driver's seat as the train sped through Chiswick Park, Turnham Green, Stamford Brook and Ravenscourt Park on the fast line; I'd take care to leave in good time to alight at Hammersmith without getting caught by platform staff.
The Piccadilly line north of Ealing Common - North Ealing, Park Royal and Alperton - I know less well; the Sudburys and beyond not at all. Eastcote and that. Below: Piccadilly line train cuts through suburban parkland, One Tree Hill, just north of Alperton station.
The line to Heathrow I know much better - Osterley, the Hounslows, Hatton Cross and the three Heathrow terminals.
North east of Kings Cross St Pancras is terra incognita (I can honestly say I've never, ever, alighted at Caledonian Road, Holloway Road, Arsenal, Turnpike Lane, Bounds Green or Wood Green); I have explored Southgate and Cockfosters on account of their magnificent station architecture, though the last visit was well over 30 years ago.
Below: former Victoria Line 1967 stock now used for tunnel cleaning, standing at Acton Town; the station is very much as I remember it from my schoolboy days, except for the modern footbridge in the foreground)
This time last year:
S7 extention from airport to Grójec gets go-ahead
[no sign of any work as yet]
This time two years ago:
Metro Wilanowska redevelopment gets under way
This time four years ago:
Local politics, local politician
This time five years ago:
Communication breakdown
This time six years ago:
Getting ready for the opening of Modlin airport
This ten ten years ago:
Maybugs in July - a plague of cockchaffers
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