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London Underground Rail Station
Guide
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Aldwych
| Baker St | Bank | Barbican
| Bloomsbury | Camden
| Canary Wharf |
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Aldwych is a rather odd semi-circular street which, together with the Strand, maroons the home of the BBC World Service on an Island in the middle of busy traffic. The Strand runs for about a mile from Trafalgar Square to the east end of Aldwych, where the rather beautiful Royal Courts of Justice are situated. Here it changes it's name and becomes Fleet Street. One of the Kings College campuses is on the south side of the Strand at Aldwych, and their students union bar has one of the best views in London - across and up the Thames to Westminster. |
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Baker Street is the home of Madame Tussauds waxwork museum, and of the London Planetarium. The Metropolitain Line platforms at Baker Street Station have been restored, and give a good idea what this - the oldest of underground railways - would have originally been like. Just north of Baker Street lies Regents Park, probably the prettiest of central London's parks. |
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Bank underground station is named after the Bank of England, which is situated here. The Bank is affectionately also known as the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street. Mots of the other main financial institutions are sited close by. It is only a short walk from here to St Pauls.
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There are two good reasons to visit the Barbican - the Barbican Arts Centre and the Museum of London. There are regularly exhibitions and live music over there. |
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Bloomsbury is the area east of Tottenham Court Road, north of new Oxford Street, west of Southampton Row, and south of Euston Road. This is an area of Georgian squares punctuated by the grand buildings of the university and museums. In summer the squares are filled with students and office workers alike. It the the home of University College London, Birkbeck College, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the London School of Oriental and African Studies, the London School of Slavonic and East European Studies, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and many of the central buildings of the University of London, including Senate House, which was used as "the Ministry" in the film version of George Orwell's "1984". Bloomsbury is also the home of the British Museum, which it's astounding collections of Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Oriental and Western Asian exhibits, in addition to its medieval British collections. The BT Tower is not strictly in Bloomsbury, but it forms a well known landmark for much of the area. It's (no longer) revolving restaurant is unfortunately not open to the public. |
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Camden Town lies about a mile north of Euston Station. It's an odd sort of place - at weekends almost totally dominated by Camden Market and Camden Lock market's. A few years ago, these were excellent value for money. These day's they're less so (such is the price of success), but it may still be possible to find some bargains. Personally I think one of the best reasons to go there is to watch the people - Camden can outwierd New York any day of the week, but at weekends it's no contest! The whole street is filled with young people on fine days, causing plenty of headaches for those foolish enough to want to drive through here. Camden Lock is the prettiest part of the market, being centered around the canal basin. Camden is also home to a great many excellent restaurants which cater mostly to local people - Camden isn't much to look at, so apart from the market at weekends, it doesn't tend to attract tourists. Camden also boast what must be one of the oddest supermarket buildings anywhere in it's Sainsburys. I'm told its design won prizes, but although it makes a great supermarket, it's not the prettiest building from the outside. |
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Canary Wharf is the heart of what used to be London's Docklands. The docks (as in the bits with water in) are still there, but this part of London is no longer used as a freight port. During the boom years of the 1980's the docklands area was given special status to encourage the redevelopment of an area rapidly sliding into decay, and the most visible sign of this redevelopment is Canary Wharf Tower. The Canary Wharf redevelopment was the largest single office development in the world, and the resulting tower is the largest building in Europe. However, with the recession at the end of the 1980s, it's developers went bankrupt, leaving the just finished buildings largely empty, and local services not really up to coping with the large number of people it could potentially hold. Eventually the Jubilee underground line is to be extended here via the south bank of the Thames, but until that happens, only the Docklands Light Railway exists to ferry commuters here, and many of the buildings will remain empty. Come here at the weekend, and wander round - it feels like something out of a science fiction novel - very quiet and rather beautiful in it's own way. At Canary Wharf, the Dockland Light Railway station is a huge and impressive arch between two of the office buildings. When the DLR is running, you can take trains to Tower Gateway or south to Island Gardens, and walk under the Thames to Greenwich. |
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Charing Cross Road must be the home to almost every bookshop in London. In fact there's even a book about one of it's bookshops - 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, which better describes the feeling on some of the smaller shops than any text here could possibly do. It's also the home of Foyles - possibly the largest and worst organised bookshop in the world. If you actually want to find a book, any of the other bookshops is a better bet. Foyles probably have it but whether you can find it is another matter. Charing Cross Road runs northwards from Trafalgar Square to Tottenham Court Road, by way of Leicester Square tube, which isn't actually in Leicester Square.
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Once the home of the the famous flower market (but alas no more), Covent Garden still boasts a market every day except Sunday. A wide range of goods are on sale, from cloths to clocks to crockery, providing the ideal place to hunt for unusal gifts for others or oneself. In the area are a large number of interesting places: the London Transport Museum being just one. There are an immense number of restaurants in this area, many of them highly priced, but extremely good. Covent Garden is home to Thank God It's Friday and Maxwells, both restaurants which have a couple of branches around London. These are both good places to go to get a vast range of cocktails (if you can afford them). Other restaurants of note: Boulevard Brasserie: |
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Downing Street is a rather unimpressive little side street off Whitehall. It used to be even less impressive, and you could actually walk along it, until Margaret Thatcher, fearful of terrorist actions, had huge iron gates added to keep the proletariat out. Number 10 Downing Street is the official residence of the Prime Minister, and it is here that much of the inner circle of the Cabinet meet to decide teh fate of those staring through the gates outside. Number 11 Downing Street is the official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, though usually it isn't quite so much in the news as it's neighbour, except on budget day when the Chancellor emerges carryng the traditional battered red attache case containing the bad news. |
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One of the best names in London. Elephant and Castle is actually a large busy roundabout and a large pink shopping centre. No elephants or castles in sight (other than the pub of the same name). One version of the origin of the name is that it comes from: "Infanta of Castille", a Spanish Princess Royal who was sent over to marry a prince or king, and presumably arrived from Dover via the Old Kent Road, stopped to freshen up in South London before making a triumphant entry into the city. This is garbage, if colourful garbage. I believe that some guild of master craftsmen had as their crest an elephant with a castle. I think it was the locksmiths and they used the elephant and castle to represent the strength of their products. There was probably a Locksmiths Arms pub ( or possibly a guild hq ) with a large flashy sign of an E&C round here. This explanation is the one favoured in a History of place names I have. Believe which you like. The Infanta is the local favourite, but has no historic support: the guild sign should be checkable. - Lesley McFadyen Sad really - real elephants and castles would have been much more fun. The London College of Printing and South Bank University are situated here. South Bank University also has a site at nearby Vauxhall. |
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Embankment underground station is beside Charing Cross station, which has recently been rebuilt, and the impressive high arched roof of the offices built over the tracks now dominates the the Embankment. A footbridge alongside the railway tracks of Hungerford Bridge here will take you across to the South Bank arts complex, including the Royal Festival Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the National Theatre. Further East along the Embankment, past Waterloo bridge, which probably has the best views of the river, you get to Temple Tube station. Between here and the Strand lies one of the campuses of Kings College.
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Euston Station serves the West Midlands, the West Coast of England, and West Scotland, in addition to local services to the north west of London. British Rail enquiries is on 0171 928 5100.
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Fenchurch Street station serves Basildon, Tilbury, Southend and Shoeburyness. It has a reputation of being the worst rail line in the South East. |
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Fleet St runs runs from Aldwych towards St Pauls Cathedral. It is famous for it's newpapers, but unfortunately they're not published here anymore, having departed for places such as Wapping where they can do the same job with less people and less rent, and thus make more money.
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Greenwich is famous for four things, though three of them are intimately related: Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the Greenwich Meridian, The Royal Greenwich Observatory, and the Royal Naval College. You can discover all about the first two by visting the the Royal Greenwich Observatory, up on the hill above the Naval College. Although observations no longer take place here (the active observatory has long since departed), the place is a fascinating museum of astronomy and the history of measuring time. Here you can stand with one foot in the Eastern Hemisphere and the other in the Western Hemisphere. (of course you can do this elsewhere too, but here it seems most significant!) There is a foot tunnel under the Thames, but which you can walk to the Isle of Dogs and Island Gardens DLR station (but check first to ensure that the trains are running). From here you can take the light railway to Canary Wharf, Tower Gateway or Stratford.
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Hampstead Heath is duly famous, and is one of the largest pieces of inner city partland of any capital in the world (indeed London boasts a larger percentage of parkland than any other capital). It covers an area of several square miles, between Kenwood, next to Highgate village, the Vale of health, from the White Stone Pond down to the edge of primrose hill, and across to the north west as far as Golders Hill park, in Golders Green. This is chalk based, hilly landscape, partly wooded and partly heathland (hence its name), which has remained unchanged apart from excess visitors, since Stone Age times (an early stone hearth was unearthed only a few years ago). Kenwood features the Iveigh bequest, a superb mansion, full of a small collection of rather fine paintings including a Vellasquez. Further down the hill, towards South end green, lies Keats House, where the poet resided for some years. Hampstead is the residence of choice for a number of famous radicals and liberals, as well as a large smattering of artists, writers and actors (many of the pubs are their haunts). At the time of writing, the Labour MP for the area is the actress, Glenda Jackson. There are over 300 restaurants in Hampstead, although it must be said that many are quite expensive, and not many are that good. |
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Islington is an old area of london, situated between the City, Hackney, and Camden to the South, East and West, and Holloway and Tottenham to the North. Islington is a funny old mixture. Upper Street runs from the Angel, to Highbury Corner (football fans will know well), past a number of Pubs, Restaurants, Theatres and Antique shops, many in the same building at once! The Kings Head is a famous place for theatre, pub meals and so on. The Slug and Lettuce is a standard meeting place before goign to see films at the Screen on the Green. The Red Lion is another Theatre pub of note. Islington Town hall is a rather fine example of some sort of architecture, as is the Baptist Chapel, where occasional Jazz concerts have been held. Once, Islington housed one of the great homes of British Rock, the Hope & Anchor, alas no more. The likes of Siouxie & the Banshees, the Eurythmics, Elvis Costello and so on all made some of their earliest appearances here (along with Dingwalls and the Roundhouse in Camden town, one of the victims of property wars in the 80s). Islington has some very 'rough' areas, particularly up the Essex Road, but is rapidly becoming gentrified. Whether this is a good or a bad thing, can only be answered by the visitor, or the occasional writer in residence such as Douglas Adams. Islington & Camden have had their share of problems, and the antics of their largely left wing local governments have led to the monicker, "Peoples' Republic Of...". In fact, both these areas have not only very high unemployment, but some of the best inner city state schools in England. |
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Kentish Town lies between Highgate to the North, Camden Town to the South, Holloway to the East, and Hampstead to the West. The name "Kentish Town" derives from the old English word Ken, meaning River Bed, and the word Ditch. The river Fleet, which rises in Highgate words and flows through Ken Wood, used to run down the main street through the center of Kentish Town, and on down to the Thames, near Fleet Street and the Strand (a strand is a beach). Kentish town is very old. It used to be nearer Saint Pancras, but was very marshy then, and mainly inhabited by vagrants who would rob travellers on their way in and out of London. In those days, around the 14th century, it lay a long way outside the original city, on the roads to the North East. Then it moved to the North of Camden town, and started to grow to be the busy residential and shopping area it is now. At its northmost tip, it reaches the edge of Parliament Hill Fields, which stretch down from Parliament HIll to the highgate ponds. There is an apocryphal story that Parliament HIll was so named after the event when Guy Fawkes, and his fellow Catholic consipritos arranged to meet there to wath the Houses of Parliament blow up in their vain attempt to change the course of English History. Historians actually now believe that Guy Fawkes and his fellows were framed, since the price of gunpoweder in those days was so high that it is extremely unlikely that nay conspiracy could have affored more than a very small barrel's worth! Kentish town is populated by a large number of immigrant families from Greek Cyprus and Ireland. This has led it and its neighbour Camden to have a lot of good Greek Restaurents, and Irish Pubs. Kentish Town is well served by buses 134 and 137, Tube, Northern line, and overland train (the North London Line stops at two stations). It also has two public swimming baths, the indoor Kentish Town Baths (a victorian bathhouse where you can still get your washing done) anmd the 1930s outdoor Lido, on the edge of the Heath. An interesting place to go for a meal is the Algerian restaurent, Le Petit Prince, which is a traditional Cous-cous restaurent. It is probably the smallest restaurent in London, too. Other attractions are the Forum on the Kentish Town Road, a long standing famour venue for good music (jazz & rock), and the Fiddler's Elbow, an Irish pub on the Prince of Wales road, that has friday and saturday 'Secions'. Kentish Town is also used a Car Park by the 300,000 or so visitors to Camden Lock each weekend in summer. |
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Kings Cross Station serves the east coast of England and on up to Edinburgh and eastern Scotland. British Rail enquiries is on 0171 928 5100. |
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Home of Harrods and other expensive shops. |
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This is the heart of London's West End, which means it's usually full of tourists. There are several large cinemas, including the Odeon Leicester Square, which usually shows big films before anywhere else in Britain, though if you can afford to wait a week, they'll be cheaper elsewhere. The best thing about Leicester Square is Haggen Daas - they have a large restaurant here serving nothing but ice cream cocktails. The second best thing about Leicester Square is the Moon Under Water - a large pub on the east side of the square. Probably the worst thing about Leicester Sq is the clock on the Swiss Centre. Probably the second worse this about Leicester Sq is the tourists pronouncing the name "Lie-sess-ter" Square - it's actually pronounced "Lester" Square. |
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Liverpool Street station serves British Rail stations in East Anglia. |
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Marble Arch is the large marble arch that stands in the centre of a roundabout at the end of Oxford Street. Most visitors think it is bigger than it is, but then they've probably seen the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which is. Just over the road (if you don't get flattened by a speeding taxi) is Hyde Park and Speakers Corner, where just about everyone and their dog can get on their soap box and preach. Heckling is a favorite sport, but as most of the speakers aren't really very interesting, you probably won't bother to heckle for long. |
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Marylebone Station serves Aylesbury, High Wycombe and Banbury. British Rail enquiries is on 0171 928 5100. |
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The monument refered to in the name of the tube station is the monument to the great fire of London in 1667. It was built close to the spot in Pudding Land where the fire started by Sir Christopher Wren who also built St Paul's Cathedral nearby. It comprises a tall column topped with a golden flame, and energetic people with a head for heights can climb up inside to the top for a wonderful view of the City of London. |
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Oxford Street is probably the most famous shopping street in London. Most of the year round it's crowded with shoppers, and most of these shoppers don't live in London. Generally Londoners avoid the place like the plague. However, there are rather a lot of clothes shops here, plus some of the biggest music stores in Britain. |
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Paddington Station
serves the South West of England, South Wales, and the home counties
to the west of London. |
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Pimlico is home to the Tate Gallery - London's premier gallery of modern art. |
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A very pleasant place. The view of London from Primrose Hill (just north of the park) is well worth the short climb. London Zoo is situated at the north end of the Park. If you must bring a car, it's possible to park free on the Outer Circle after 11am. |
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A nice royal park close to the Buckingham Palace. |
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St Pancras Station has the largest single span roof of any station in Britain. It serves the East Midlands, Derby, and on up to Sheffield. It is the second terminus for Channel Tunnel trains (after Waterloo). British Rail enquiries is on 0171 928 5100. The giant gothic style St Pancras hotel which fronts the station stood empty for many years, but it is now being refurbished, and should be well worth seeing. |
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When the old St
Pauls Cathedral was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1667, Sir
Christopher Wren was commisioned to built it's replacement. The result
is the second largest dome in the world (after St Peters in Rome). Imagine
how impressive it must have been when the only other tall buildings
around were church spires! |
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The Tower of London was begun in 1078 by William the Conqueror. Successive monarches added towers, walls and a huge moat over the centuries. It was here that traitors were brought to be executed, via the traitors gate by boat from the Thames, before being beheaded. These days it is rare for visitors to be beheaded, and the crown jewels can be seen, along with the Royal Armouries. In summer the queues can be quite long. Next to the Tower of London is Tower Bridge, which is considerably newer, being built in Victorian times. It is also open to the public, and houses a museum of the bridge, along with wonderful views from the overhead walkways and the fine victorian steam engines which until recently were still used to open the bridge to allow ships to pass. This bridge is the unual shape it is, as originally pedestrians has the right to cross the river by the upper walkways when the bridge was open for shipping. |
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Trafalgar Square is the obvious focus of London. Nelson's Column stands at its centre commemorating Admiral Lord Nelson's victory in the naval battle at Trafalgar in 1805. At its base stand four majestic Lions - favorites for being climbed all over by hoards of children and adults alike. Trafalgar Square is also famous for it's pigeons - buy a cup of bird seed and you'll soon be covered with them. This is the junction of some of the most famous streets in London - the Strand, the Mall, Whitehall and Charing Cross Road. On the north side of the square stands the National Gallery, and at the north-east corner stands the church of St Martins in the Fields. At Christmas a huge christmas tree stands here - a present from the people of Norway. At New Year this is where people gather most densely to celebrate - though quite why is impossible to say - you can never hear Big Ben chime for the noise of all the people. If you need to catch a night bus home, most of them start or finish here. |
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South Bank University's Faculty of the built environment is situated here. |
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Victoria Station is one of the main stations for the Sussex and the South Coast. Victoria Coach Station is London's main long distance coach station. British Rail enquiries is on 0171 928 5100. |
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Wapping is where News International moved to when they decided it was too expensive to keep printing newspapers in Fleet Street, and the name became associated with the pitched battles between police, sacked printworkers and News International's security staff. However, this was a few years ago now, and the printworkers, sadly defeated, moved on who knows where. News International's print works became known as "Fortress Wapping". The area is a strange mixture of new light industrial, council housing, and along the riverfront, old warehouses converted into expensive flats. |
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Waterloo station serves most of the area to the south of London (along with Victoria and London Bridge). It also is the London terminus for the Channel Tunnel trains. British Rail enquiries is on 0171 928 5100. |
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Big Ben is actually the name of the bell in the clock tower, the Houses of Parliament are more properly called the Palace of Westminster, but other than that, you probably know where I mean. This is the home of parliament in the UK. There are two debating chambers - the House of Commons (elected), and the House of Lords (unelected). Visitors may attend Parliamentary debates held in the afternoons and evenings - queue at St Stephens entrance. Just across the river from the Palace of Westminster is the impressive County Hall - ex-home of the Greater London Council. In the early 1980s when Margarate Thatcher was Prime Minister, she got fed up with London voting for a socialist Greater London Council, so she simply abolished it. The building has stood empty ever since, though recently it has been sold to a Japanese consortium for conversion into a hotel. The Palace of Westminster backs onto Parliament Square, which also holds Westminster Abbey, where British monarchs are crowned, and where many are buried. For an insight into why our governments are as they are see Westminster School, which is in the ground of the Abbey. From Parliament Square, you can walk along Whitehall towards Trafalgar Square. You can also walk from here along the riverfront towards Charing Cross and the City of London. |
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Whitehall is the wide ceremonial avenue leading from Parliament Square the half a mile to Trafalgar Square. It is lined on both sides with Government offices, includng the Treasury, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Home Offices, and about half way along, Banqueting House where Charles I was beheaded in 1649. Towards it's southern end, the Cenotaph stands in the centre of the road - a memorial to fallen soldiers of two world wars and often steeped in wreaths. Leading off Whitehall is Downing Street, where the Prime Minister's official residence is sited. On the west side of Whitehall, about half way along, is Horseguards. Standing outside in all weathers are two mounted soldiers replendant in their traditional dress. |
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Woolwich is only known to most Londoners from the early morning travel bulletins stating that "only one Woolwich ferry is in operation". |
Ground Floor, Edgardo Angara Wing, Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP Bldg.), Jade Street, |
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