Roundels not on the London Underground

The collection of Tube roundels not in their normal home continues to grow, as you've been kindly spotting them on your travels both in the UK and abroad.

Starting in Manchester and spotted by Richard & John


"It's the Grand Central complex in Stockport, Greater Manchester. It's a grotty, whiffy sort of low-intensity leisure & business area, and is supposed to be due for demolition so they can replace it with something even worse, but we love the roundel. The top semicircle has a representation of the railway viaduct over the River Mersey, and underneath is a bowling ball and wavy lines for the bowling alley and HIDEOUS swimming pool."

Then on their travels further afield:


Richard writes "This one's in Mallorca, about one-third of the way between Palma and Soller, on the railway. I haven't a clue what goes on in there, our train didn't stop there, but it was great to be surprised by a roundel while abroad!"

One much closer to home from Mark: "This one must have been around for a while 'cos I passed it yesterday but being without camera found it on Google StreetView. It says 'Finchley & Totteridge'."



Moving further afield Anno Superstar spotted the roundel in a record shop in Stockholm

Finally, thanks to Rebecca Caroe for spotting this in Dunedin New Zealand


Many thanks to all for being so observant and if you have any pictures of roundels seen in odd places outside of the London Underground, please send them my way and I'll blog the best. Until next time the full collection of Tube roundels outside their home is here.

Grey hair is a sign of greatness on the Tube

Occasionally I'm greeted by proverbs of the day at my London Underground station. I'm assuming the person who wrote this one has more than a few grey hairs himself.


Little piece of advice too - check your spelling before putting up messages about being wise. Otherwise nice thoughts and I'm sure it will keep those of us with grey hair happy.

Tube Photo of the Week - Angel Tube Cat

Not only is this a lovely shot of a cat outside a London Underground station, it's also a lovely story. I'll let the photographer, Stuff n Nonsense, explain:


The Big Issue Cat by Stuff n Nonsense
"There's a Big Issue seller who has a pitch in the afternoons outside Angel Tube station.

A while ago, he found a stray cat with a badly bust up leg, so being a kindly soul, he took the cat along to an animal shelter to get it sorted out. He wasn't expecting them to tell him when the cat was healed, he was to take the cat back with him - but that's what they said and that's what happened.

The cat became incredibly attatched to its rescuer and would try to follow the man whenever he went out. Realising that cats do what they want, the man gave up trying to get the cat to stay home and allowed it to come with him and these days the cat will be sat outside the station as the man sells copies of the magazine, calmly guarding the takings and posing for photos.

I don't think you could meet a more calm tempered cat if you tried."

He or she is certainly the closest I've seen to a contender for Japan's station master cat, who's also happy to pose for photos & brings in huge revenue for the station.

Great spot by Stuff n Nonsense and thanks to him for finding out & sharing the backstory.

Update - The cat's called Bob and Alexey Kovalev interviewed his owner outside Angel Tube in the video below, where you can see Bob posing happily for pictures and learn what happens when he wants a loo break!



Update 4th August 2011 - Bob has a Book Deal

Super hero uses elbows to cool Tube

Following on from last week's announcement that the budget to cool Tube carriages on the London Underground has been slashed by £10m, a drinks company, have decided to make a stunt around this by creating FanMan.

Photo: David Parry

It might look like FanMan is about elbow the woman in the face, but apparently he has cooling equipment in his sleeves.

Apparently the Emmi FanMan, is a six-foot fan-wielding super-hero, using "state of the art technology to blast those around him with a refreshing jet of cool air" . Look out for him on the Tube in the next few days.

Emmi FanMan said "I’m just someone who wanted to make a difference. In a world where heat exhaustion, dehydration and profuse sweating are rife I knew I couldn’t just stand by and watch any longer. Commuting is an exhausting business but coupled with the crippling heat of a packed tube carriage it becomes unbearable. I’m there for people in their time of need."

FanMan’s helpers will also be handing out cold Emmi Caffe Latte at several Tube station entrances.

Let's hope they focus on the Piccadilly, Northern, Central, Bakerloo and Waterloo and City lines, as these lines are marked as high risk on a LU "Passenger heat strain" map. They're the lines that are the highest risk to people should they become stuck on a stalled train.

Daily Mail as Tube Map

Ever wondered what subjects for Daily Mail articles would look like as a London Underground map? Probably not, but the guys from PokeHQ have and it makes for a fun read. Follow the link here for map in full and names of the lines, such as PC Gone Mad, Medical Scares and Arch Enemies.


They said: "Speculation that The Daily Mail's success was down to a top secret formula started in the late eighties, but it was dismissed as Fleet Street legend along with the real parentage of the Hitchens brothers and that thing Una Stubbs is into. Though such explicit mapping of the newspaper’s friends and enemies have set tongues wagging, the main surprise seems to have been the bizarre use of the underground system. Reports that The Daily Star’s secret formula is based on the number 10 bus route remain unconfirmed."

Hat tip to the ever wonderful b3ta for finding this.

Tour of abandoned Tube Station

Wonderful footage in this short film by the BBC where the London Underground's David Leboff, shows us St Mary's Tube station in East London. The station was closed in 1938 and used as an air raid shelter in the 2nd World War, and rarely visited since.


The film is part of the Radio 4 London season and featured in The London Nobody Knows programme. It's going to fuel the interest of anyone fascinated by abandoned Tube stations. This is a hot topic at the moment as Ajit Chambers continues in his quest or re-opening disused Tube stations.

Star Wars Subway Car

So people on the Tube ignore herds of cows in suits, guys dancing to Michael Jackson and other stunts that we've seen on the London Underground over the years. How would they react to seeing Darth Vader? The crazy team who bought No Pants/Trousers Subway Day to the world, Improv Everywhere, decided to re-enact the first Princess Leia / Darth Vader scene from Star Wars in a New York City subway car.


Like them, I was amazed at how many people got out their camera phones and actually paid attention to this.

They said "One thing we learned is that almost every human will immediately take out their camera when they see Darth Vader. We've done lots of crazy missions on the subway over the years, but I have never seen so many people taking photographs of our performance. How can you not take a photo of Darth Vader? It's impossible to resist!"

Hat tip to @manima for spotting this. Will someone in London put ImprovEverywhere's thesis to the test? Can we rely on Tube commuters to studiously ignore Darth & Co?