There is one thing about London’s underground system that is really irritating - you sometimes have to walk for ages through a network of tunnel walkways to get from platform to platform if changing from one tube line to another. There is one particular tunnel-walkway at Green Park - which connects the Piccadilly Line and the Jubilee Line. It’s a VERY long, dreary tunnel - which takes around 4 minutes to walk - at a brisk pace. And that’s only if you don’t stuck behind some slow-coach who isn’t walking as fast as you in the narrow sections of the walkway.
Some time ago I took a video of the Route 79 tribe walking down the tunnel from the Piccadilly platform towards the Jubilee platform - and I have tried to liven up the walk with some really infectious bhangra music as the audio dub. The track is one of the most recent hits by Juggy D - called “Sohniye” - and is really popular in the UK Asian bhangra/pop scene at the moment. (And if for a moment you think that this is music from India - think again! This is “British bhangra” - i.e. homegrown - from the heart of Southall in West London!)
I’ve edited the video down to just over 2 minutes - and kept the file size down to around 5.5 Megabytes by encoding it at 320 x 240 pixels and around 300kbps data rate . It should only take a few mins to download if you are on broadband cable or ADSL. It’s a Windows Media Video (WMV) file which should work fine in versions of Windows Media Player greater than version 7.
to download the video file - save to a folder of your choice.
And then double-click on it to play when downloaded.
(Ignore the error - the comment will still be added - I just haven’t got round to fixing the problem yet)
I know this tunnel very well. I used to live near Swiss Cottage and work in Gloucester Road and the tunnel always was the “wake-up-and-excersise” point in between phases of hibernation in the oxygen depleted carriages of the Piccadilly and Jubilee line.
I remember worse times though, where the tunnel was closed for refurbishment and changing at Green Park meant to take an escalator all the way up and then another escalator again all the way down.
A sweet detail in that tunnel is that the colour of the mixed in tiles changes as you walk from one end to another. On the Jubilee side the mainly white wall has a few only grey squares mixed in. Then walking further through, a few dark blue squares appear. The blue get’s stronger, while the grey disappears, so that when arriving on the Picadilly side there are only blue squares left. The dark blue and grey are obviously the colours of the respective lines on the tube map. Imagine a tunnel like this between Circle and Northern line ;-).
Posted by: Snappy on August 30, 2004 02:39 PMVery well presented Jag.. enjoyed it!
Posted by: Chakra on August 31, 2004 09:52 AMLove your blog! What a neat idea. And thanks for showing us the unseen London :)
Posted by: Rash on August 31, 2004 10:03 AMI don’t think I’ve walked through that particular one. I don’t live in London and don’t have to put up with the underground passageways on a more or less daily basis, so I still enjoy them.
My personal favourites are the maze that connects all the bits of Bank and Monument stations - especially the one down to the Waterloo & City line at Bank.
Posted by: Stefan on August 31, 2004 05:41 PMThe song added a nice soothing tough to the journey through the maze. It nice to see how you come up with the ideas to portray a simple day to day activity in such a lovely manner.
Posted by: Jayjit on August 31, 2004 07:44 PMThat’s one stop I remember to avoid. You might as well walk overground, it’s that far between platforms.
Posted by: Stu on August 31, 2004 11:47 PMMarcus: Amazing - you know I never noticed the colour transition of the tiles in that tunnel - even though I have walked that tunnel so many times! Yes - I can only imagine what the yellow and black transition might be like! :-)
Cheers Chakra!
Rash: Thanks you for your comment!
Stefan: I think I know which one you mean at Bank/Monument - that is a particulary long walk too!
Jayjit: Glad you liked it!
Stu: I agree - but I think you have no choice at Green park - there is no station entrance nearer to the platforms. I think you mean go all the way up the escalators and come all the way down again?
Posted by: Jag on September 4, 2004 02:01 PMOh yeah, I hate that tunnel too! Luckily the walk is a lot shorter when switching between the Victoria and Jubilee lines but I usually find myself needing the Picadilly Line :(
Posted by: Sophie on September 9, 2004 01:41 PMSophie: yes - I know exactly what you mean!
Posted by: Jag on September 11, 2004 05:34 PM