I had a meeting in London today so I got the train there and had to use the Underground to reach my destination.
I know a lot of people have very strong feelings about the London Underground but I honestly love it. Whenever I say that I get hit by a barrage of “You wouldn’t say that if you had to use it everyday” and I admit that may well be so, but as it is I consider it a major bonus if a day involves using it.
I love the map, the complexity of the design but at the same time is so simple to navigate around. I love the font of the station signs which, I have been reliably informed, is Gill Sans. I love the logo, instantly recognisable to people from all over the world.
I love and am totally in awe of the very concept of it; travelling underneath a bustling city, trains leaving most stations every few minutes. It’s a finely tuned transport network that runs, for the most part, like clockwork. Speaking as somebody who lives in Norfolk, where often arranging transport somewhere has to be treated like a military operation, I struggle to comprehend that people complain about odd little interruptions to the service.
When I was a kid my dad would often take me down to London. It was our ‘thing’, just him and me. Whatever we used to do we would always travel on the Underground. A lot of this was during the threat of IRA bombs and I remember often sitting on a tube stopped between stations while a bomb scare was checked out, people around me grumbling because of the delay. I would just sit there, happy because it meant I would be down there longer.