Sun, Jul 18, 2021
Tim and Siddy explore the Holborn-to-Aldwych branch of the Piccadilly Line, closed in 1994, and Tim talks to Martin Keegan, the driver of the very last passenger train to call at Aldwych. Chris Nix, assistant director of the London Transport Museum, shows Tim some of the artwork and posters used by London Transport. Siddy looks at the old tiles and posters in disused parts of Holloway Road station; at the LT Museum, David Leboff shows her and Tim the remnants of the experimental spiral escalator which used to be installed in a lift shaft at the station.
Sun, Jul 25, 2021
Tim and Siddy explore the site of North End station (aka Bull and Bush) on the Northern Line in Hampstead. The platforms were built in the early 1900s but the surface-level buildings were never built and the station was abandoned because the planned housing development which would have used the station was thwarted by conservationists. It was planned that the subterranean parts of the station, in the deepest part of the London Underground system, would be used for controlling floodgates on the Underground during the Cold War period of the 1950s. In the London Transport Museum, transport historian David Bownes tells Tim about the American influence on the Underground and Chris Nix shows him some of the blueprints for early trains, signalling and stations. Siddy looks at the history of the District line along the north embankment of the Thames, and examines Embankment station (previously called Charing Cross). Actor Oswald Laurence had recorded the iconic "Mind the Gap" announcement for the tube. In 2012 this was replaced by a more modern female version of the announcement, but Laurence's widow was instrumental in having his recording reinstated, only on the northbound Northern Line platform at Embankment station, so she could continue to hear his voice. Back at the Transport Museum, a TfL engineer describes in more detail the Cold War floodgates that would have been controlled from North End station in the event of a bomb landing in the Thames.
Sun, Aug 1, 2021
Tim looks at passimeters - small ticket kiosks - at the London Transport Museum. He then looks at evolution of Piccadilly Circus station, helped by historian Antony Badsley-Ellis who describes the major reconstruction and expansion work of the entrance hall which took there in the 1920s, without closing the road junction above or the underground station below. Chris Nix shows Tim the art-deco ceremonial lamp which was presented to the Mayor of Westminster when he opened the new station in 1928. Siddy shows Tim the disused foot tunnels of the original 1906 station which were reopened as an air-raid shelter during WWII. Tim shows Siddy the station's unique World Time Clock which displays the time at all points around the globe. Tim talks to Darren Burrows who worked at Piccadilly Circus for 20 years, as station supervisor, duty manager and area manager. Typography expert Mark Ovenden describes to Tim the iconic Johnston typeface which was introduced in 1916 for all station signs and posters. Siddy explores the remains of the disused high-level station at Highgate which served the branch (now the Parkland Walk) from Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace that closed in the 1950s. Malcolm Payne, principal engineer for TfL, describes his work on the "green corridors", preserving the disused tunnels of Highgate High Level which have now been colonised by bats, and also talks about other wildlife such as red kites and stags that has been seen on overground parts of the London Underground system.