Tube Map Challenge

048/270: #Oval – The Cricket

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The outside of Oval has suffered from yet another uninspiring millennial refresh, so let’s instead dwell on what’s going on on the inside – which is a lot. This is another “garden” station with pleasing pot plants lining the perimetre walls of the ticket hall – perhaps the staff on this part of the Northern Line are all trying to out do their green-fingered neighbours. Other features include posters of Frank Pick, a mini library and it’s also been suggested that Oval was one of the original stations to post a “thought of the day” on their service update boards.

Yes. There’s certainly a lot going on…

Image copyright A Carter – CallingAllStations.co.uk

047/270: #Stockwell – The Memorial

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Stockwell was extensively rebuilt in the early 1970’s for the advent of the Victoria Line. The original City & South London Railway surface level building was replaced with an uninspiring box structure, though the flats above the station were added at a much later date. Nevertheless it’s a clean and well-kept station with a spacious ticket hall. A shrine to the late Jean Charles de Menezes, shot here by police in 2005, was made into a permanent mosaic mural on the outside wall of the station in 2010.

Opposite the station sits another deep level shelter entrance. This one has been turned into a colourful War Memorial and was decorated by students at a local school.

Image copyright A Carter – CallingAllStations.co.uk

046/270: #Brixton – The Tribute

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It’s going to be hard to come to Brixton and not in some way feature the David Bowie mural on the wall opposite the station.

An imposing roundel looks down on a hive of activity. Steel Drummers are knocking out the hits of Abba underneath a market stall as people rush by. Brixton is alive and well and it’s thriving.

Across the street there is a moment of calm. Passers by pause to stand a while, take photos, or read the eulogies scrawled on the wall. Fresh flowers are still being lain in some quantity over a year after the stars departure. Even the nearby billboards have been graffitied so that their subjects sport Aladdin Sane lightning bolts.

Brixton is proud of its humble yet foremost resident and isn’t going to let you forget that in a hurry. Sleep well Star Man.

Image copyright A Carter – CallingAllStations.co.uk

045/270: #ClaphamNorth – The Garden

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Separating the Northern Line stations on the Morden branch, and finding something unique to say about each one, can be quite challenging. So far we’ve gotten away with not talking about the architecture on this branch – and we’ll continue to save that for a later today. At platform level the station is a near identical copy of Clapham South (044) and at street level, a remodelled Holden is, on this occasion, nothing to write home about. Thankfully Clapham North‘s saving unique grace is its ticket hall, which has been turned into an oasis of greenery and plants. Here we see a Mark Wallinger Labyrinth hiding amongst the shrubbery.

Image copyright A Carter – CallingAllStations.co.uk

044/270: #ClaphamCommon – The Takeover

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In 2016, Clapham Common was the sight of possibly the greatest ever poster-ad campaign London has ever seen. CATS (Citizens Advertising Takeover Service) was a crowd funding project with the sole purpose of buying out advertising space and replacing it with pictures of cats. If you’ve forgotten how awesome this was, then you can relive Calling All Station’s visit here.

Why did they pick Clapham Common? Partly because it’s quite a trendy area and plastering the walls with cats would no doubt gather social media attention; but mostly because this is a fairly compact station and any cat-based-poster funds would stretch a lot further.

So compact in fact that both north and southbound platforms are housed in one tunnel.

Image copyright A Carter – CallingAllStations.co.uk