Venture down into Crossrail via its lifts and you'll soon discover that every subterranean level has its own negative number. I was sufficiently intrigued to try to discover what all these negative numbers are, and then to try to shuffle them into some kind of order.
Perhaps the easiest place to make sense of the negative is at Canary Wharf where cutaway diagrams have been provided with every level numbered.
The station was created within a former dock so is essentially a series of long thin layers. The Roof Garden on top is Level One, the platforms at the bottom are Level Minus Five and various shops, spaces and services are stacked inbetween. The cutaway diagram doesn't show Level Minus Five because the public lifts don't go down that far, only to Level Minus Four where the gatelines are. Level Minus Three is best avoided unless you need the toilet or want to get trapped in a catacomb of unnecessary shops.
In case you thought this was too straightforward, it turns out that ground level isn't Level Zero, it's Level Minus One. The Canary Wharf estate was deliberately designed with street level above ground and pedestrian facilities underneath, because that's how they do things in wintry Canada, hence all Crossrail's levels are numbered one lower than you'd expect. Try not to let that confuse you as you exit.
Woolwich station only has street level and platform level so should be a simple numerical set-up. But whereas street level is indeed Level Zero, the lift display confirms that the platforms are somehow on Level Minus Three, suggesting two hidden intermediate levels for staff and/or engineers only.
Woolwich 0 Street level ← entrance/gateline -3 Platform ← trains
The newly-rejigged Whitechapel station has complicated layering threaded through by several lifts. This time the numbering is more grounded, with the sole lift up from street level confirming this to be Level Zero. From the elevated Ticket Hall (Level One) you can then get a lift down to the Underground (Level Minus Two), the long passage above the Overground (Level Minus Three) or the Overground itself (Level Minus Four). Where Level Minus One went I'm not sure.
n.b. this means the hilarious Whitechapel anecdote about 'the Underground going over the Overground' now has an associated mathematical expression, namely -2 > -4
To reach Crossrail you need the entirely separate lift bypassing the escalators from Level Minus Three to Level Minus Seven. Access is also possible at Level Minus Four, although you have to be careful not to get into the Emergency Lift opposite which for some reason is welcomingly unlocked. I had to help a lost pensioner out of it yesterday... but I digress.
Whitechapel 1 Ticket hall → gateline 0 Street level → entrance -2 District and H&C lines -3 concourse above the Overground -4 Overground -7Platform ← trains
The Liverpool Street end of Liverpool Street station is numerically straightforward. The top levels are connected via two incline lifts, then a separate vertical shaft whisks you down seven(!) levels to the end of the purple platform. Simple.
Liverpool Street 0 Broadgate → entrance
-1 Ticket hall → gateline -2 Mezzanine -9Platform ← trains
The Moorgate end is messier thanks to multiple sprawling connections. The lift down from the new ticket hall has buttons labelled -1 and -1M, the former for the Underground and the latter for everything else. Minus One M is an alphanumeric peculiarity leading to an exclusive mezzanine passage overlooking the main escalator.
This connects to a lift down to Level Minus Eight and Level Minus Nine (flashing past Minus Four and Minus Six along the way, which have no button access but are 'link passages' according to the electronic display). Minus Eight turns out to be the Northern line corridor, after which you have to ascend to Minus Seven, and Minus Nine is for the Crossrail platform. Minus Nine's sticker has fallen off, which isn't helping anybody.
Moorgate 0 Street Level→ entrance/gateline -1 Circle, Metropolitan and H&C lines -1M mezzanine passage -7 Northern line -8 passage to Northern line -9Platform ← trains
The Farringdon end of Farringdon station is really simple thanks to a single all-through lift. Level Zero is the ticket hall, Level Minus One is for Thameslink and Level Minus Six is Crossrail. Technically the Underground is also on Level Minus One but lift users have to go via Level Zero to get there. Although the escalators lead down from the northbound Thameslink platform, for geometric reasons the lift is attached to the southbound platform instead.
Street level at the Barbican end is 'G' rather than '0', for no readily explainable reason. Descent here requires two incline lifts with an intermediate concourse at Level Minus Three. The 'secret' lift to Barbican's Underground platform links Minus Three to Minus One which is entirely numerically consistent. But this lift also includes positive labels for a Bin Room on Level Zero, a Switch Room on Level Minus Five and a Refuge Point on Level Minus Six, and these buttons don't light up so best not drag them into the equation.
Farringdon/Barbican 0/G Street level → entrance -1 Circle, Metropolitan and H&C lines -3 intermediate concourse -6Platform ← trains
Tottenham Court Road has nine different lifts so is a veritable maze of step-free connections. Two of these lifts are at the Dean Street end, one from Level Zero to Level Minus Two and the other from Level Minus Two to Level Minus Four. An exclusive passage with an escalator view connects the two lifts and is quite the experience.
Where things get messy and much less consistent is at the tube station end. Here the ticket hall is Minus One, Crossrail is Minus Four and so is a completely separate interchange level, while the Central and Northern lines are completely separate Minus Fives. Getting from Minus Four (purple) to Minus Five (red) takes at least three lifts so is not recommended. Minus Three exists only as an unlit button in the Dean Street lift.
Tottenham Court Road 0 Street level → Dean St gateline -1 Main ticket hall → main gateline -2 'Mid level' -4Platform/'Interchange level' -5 Central line/Northern line
My head was bursting with inconsistent negatives by this point, and Paddington just made things worse. All its levels are negative, even the one at street level alongside Eastbourne Terrace which inexplicably is Level Minus One. Main access from the mainline station is Level Minus Two, which also doesn't feel right, and then the ticket hall is Level Minus Four.
Switch lifts and the Crossrail platforms become Level Minus Five, then switch again and the start of the Bakerloo line passageway is Level Minus Seven. But the other end of this passageway is somehow Level Minus Three - easily the most inconsistent numbering I discovered on my travels - and if you ascend to the Bakerloo line itself that's another Level Minus Two. Had I been seeking a logical arithmetical system for labelling Crossrail's levels, Paddington rather blew that theory out of the water.
Paddington -1 Eastbourne Terrace -2 mainline entrance/Bakerloo line -3 passage to Bakerloo line -4 ticket hall → gateline -5Platform ← trains -7 passage to Bakerloo line
In summary, the Crossrail platforms are numbered Minus Three at Woolwich, Minus Four at Tottenham Court Road, Minus Five at Canary Wharf and Paddington, Minus Six at Farringdon, Minus Seven at Whitechapel and Minus Nine at Liverpool Street.
And whilst there may be no useful reason to know this, nor to try to unravel the numbering of all the other levels, it was unexpectedly interesting exploring all the hidden backways of the Crossrail system. I discovered passages I didn't know existed, pressed buttons I probably shouldn't have been allowed to press, discovered some lifts are busy and others hardly used, and developed a fresh respect for everyone who has to use these occasionally tortuous routes around our stations. If you're able-bodied enough to be able to use the escalators instead, look at all the negative kerfuffle you're avoiding.
✉ I hadn't planned to go round the Ashmolean, I thought I'd seen it all before, but when I arrived at the station the rain was relentless and Britain's oldest museum was the nearest significant free hideaway. So in I went, and the more I walked around the more I realised that last time I must have rushed it. The Queen opened a huge extension in 2009 and the end result is like walking round a modern cross between the British Museum and the V&A. This time I had a lot more time to read the labels on the archaeological treasures because it's quieter midweek, and it turned out I knew less about Middle Eastern history than I thought, and I hadn't realised the upper floors went on quite so far beyond certain doors and staircases, and I'd totally missed the sinuous trail of modern art which links the two upper halves together, and the temporary exhibitions are of course by definition temporary. Best of all it filled almost two hours and by the time I emerged the sun had come out.
✉ I went back to my old college because it's always good to look around and pretend you're 19 again. Unfortunately it was closed because of exams, so instead I did something I never did 38 years ago and stepped across the threshold of the college across the road. We all tended to keep ourselves to ourselves in those days. The porter was very friendly because they let paying tourists inside now, and he even waived the admission charge after I dug to the back of my wallet and found a card that proved I used to study here. This other college was architecturally impressive with cobbles and golden stone and several interlinked quadrangles and absolutely pristine lawns. It was older than mine so those living in college got to enjoy accommodation in heritage rooms of the type you might see in a period drama, whereas I'd only hung out in a modern annexe with thick concrete walls. Several students emerged from stairwells with books under their arms, studiously ignoring the old bloke on the cobbles, while members of college staff stood up ladders fixing broken roof tiles. And the chapel fair took my breath away, being far larger and far more ornate than I'd ever expected whereas ours had been pretty standard and not especially churchy despite its age. I'm still glad I went to my college not this one, although it would clearly have been a somewhat different experience - a tad more Brideshead - and I'm pleased I've finally seen what I missed out on.
✉ London might have a ULEZ but Oxford has a ZEZ, a Zero Emission Zone. It's not huge, only ten central streets at present and generally avoidable, and was introduced as recently as four months ago. Only zero emission vehicles pay nothing, hence the name, with daily charges rising to £10 for the most polluting vehicles. But if this pilot is successful a much larger zone will be introduced next year covering most of the city centre (so generally unavoidable), then in 2025 the top fee goes up to £20. It's brutal if you're a car owner, which is of course the idea and very much par for the course in the choked city that introduced the UK's first Park and Ride in 1973.
✉ Something else I never did in the 1980s was cross the Cherwell meadows, because why would I walk beyond lectures when it was a long enough walk back to college anyway? But this time I traversed the University Parks, with which I was equally unfamiliar, and there was the limpid river winding placidly beneath the trees. An arched footbridge led to a lone footpath on the far side between meadows alive with buttercups, so quite delightful, except they were all for private grazing so all I could do was look. Eventually I reached some far-flung sports grounds, which must've added a proper hike either side of rugby practice, and beyond that the inner suburb of New Marston. By now I was wondering why the hell I'd never been out here before. I put it down to a) never buying a proper map of Oxford when I was a student, b) the 1980s being pre-internet so lots went undiscovered, c) having sufficient things to do elsewhere. Perhaps it was the better outcome to have left it until later. On the walk back I nodded at a few horses, passed a large number of bikes and I think I trespassed through St Catz.
✉ Yes I dropped into the Pitt Rivers, because you should always reacquaint yourself with the shrunken heads, tribal tattoos and totem pole whenever you're in town. Since I was last here they've come to terms with owning numerous culturally suspect items displayed unsympathetically so have added prominent display boards dissecting radicalised hierarchies, derogatory interpretation and colonial toponyms, and it turns out the shrunken heads have been hived off into storage. There's also a temporary exhibition on the ground floor celebrating queer identity with a strong trans slant, which kids on a school trip were exploring with as much interest as the weaponry upstairs, so if your opinions are still mired in the 20th century perhaps give the place a miss.
✉ It's exam season in Oxford so not only did I pass several candidates in subfusc returning to their colleges for lunch, I also spotted multiple damp floury patches marking the aftermath of celebrations. The authorities have always frowned on squirty revelry and their latest puritan wheeze is a campaign urging students to 'celebrate sustainably'. This reminds students that "even biodegradable materials have a negative impact on the environment" and "money wasted on food and other materials could be donated to food banks", and I trust these killjoys are being summarily ignored.
✉ Beside the Sheldonian is a building I'd never explored before, the History of Science Museum. It's free, so it gets a lot of visitors, but it's also a bit odd. Essentially it's a repository of old scientific instruments like astrolabes, sundials and armillary spheres, dozens of them, plus motley displays on DNA, penicillin and sanitation. Technically it's spread over three floors but one of those is mostly shop and a lot of it is stairs. It's interesting, a bit unfocused, somewhat dated and felt like it was attempting to bat above its weight. And if you were the jolly volunteer who approached me on the top floor and attempted to gain my interest with a flawed question about Enid Blyton, perhaps drop that one.
✉ The Tutankhamun centenary exhibition at the Bodleian, by contrast, is very good.
I dropped by the Mall before the Platinum Jubilee Pageant.
I wasn't sure I'd get in. I'd seen the protective ring around the area earlier in the week and I knew Buckingham Palace was pretty much sealed off. The security presence in Trafalgar Square was also phenomenal, with fluorescent-jacketed hirelings easily outnumbering the morning crowd. No direct access to the Mall was possible beneath Admiralty Arch but a sidestreet offered a narrow two-way filter so in I wandered, three hours early. No I did not want a flag, thanks, neither a free one emblazoned with the name of a magazine nor a Union Jack emblazoned with the Queen's face flogged by a geezery stallholder.
The red tarmac of The Mall was mostly clear, other than further security, a few trucks and a couple of pedestrian crossovers. It was immediately important to pick sides, with St James's Park the wiser choice because there'd be space to roam once the two mile procession kicked off. A few keen royalists must have camped out overnight, ever since they flushed out the concertgoers, which afforded them prime position behind two rows of metal barriers. Others had arrived first thing complete with M&S picnics, paper crowns and flags to drape over the backs of their garden chairs. Only a few had turned up in co-ordinated red, white and blue, with most dressed practically in whatever jacket would best fend off the chill and any potential rain.
It was still much much too early, indeed those already here faced a longer wait than the marathon pageant would eventually last. But latecomers' chance of a view was already relegated to standing behind someone, more likely several someones, and hoping no Home Counties interlopers slunk in front of them before kickoff. Later it'd be possible to wave at Johnny Ball, Basil Brush and Valerie Singleton passing by on the upper deck of seven brightly decorated buses, but they were still parked in a nostalgia corral on Horseguards, and for now even the big screen across the road was blank. So little was happening that when a truck drove past loaded with portaloos it earned a rapturous round of applause.
Behind the frontline, in St James's Park, was all the infrastructure required to service a crowd of thousands isolated in the centre of a jubilee circuit. Here were a First Aid hub, a lost child tent, sufficient rows of toilets and a small number of safe unspicy food options (including the all-encompassing 'Fish - Sausage - Burger'). The crew in the souvenir cabin were reduced to checking their phones in the absence of any takers for the £10 official programme. A sliver of Buckingham Palace was visible above the back of the nearest grandstand. I also spotted the BBC's temporary lakeside studio ringed with purple light, though not Kirsty Young, and a number of meandering foreign tourists trying to work out where best to stop.
The best place appeared to be Birdcage Walk because most people hadn't spotted it was part of the parade route so tiptop vantage points remained available. I stood with my back to a Spanish-speaking TV news crew and watched the mounted guards at Wellington Barracks lining up for the off. Police officers with chunky rifles wandered up and down just in case something that never happened happened, and their colleagues wandered past dropping off sandwiches and a choice of crisps from a big cardboard box. Also passing were a crowd of participants in bikegear, parkas and assorted period garb who I assumed I'd see later in the parade, and so it proved. I also spotted most of the carnival segment checking in at the QE2 Conference Centre as I departed, feathers aflutter.
Sunday was also the day of the Big Jubilee Lunch in communities across the country. Not my community, because once again I'd made the elementary mistake of living on a main road where trestle tables weren't an option. But over the last week I have spotted numerous streets across the capital draped in bunting in readiness, the highest concentration in East Sheen whose grid of railwayside cottages seemed ideally suited to celebratory closure. Had I popped down to Kings Road yesterday afternoon (and been mistaken for a local) I might have enjoyed a bake sale, face painting, crown making and the opportunity to Pin The Tail On The Corgi.
Where I actually ended up was Paddington Recreation Ground, entirely unintentionally, and stumbled upon two clusters of tents in the middle of the park. One had a dozen rows of tables outside, at which well-wrapped citizens were eating vegetarian meals packed in brown paper bags (option 1 lentil dal, option 2 loaded mac and cheese, option 3 quinoa, broccoli and spiced cauliflower) while being entertained by a string quartet. The other tent offered activities children might be interested in, assuming retro treats like hoopla, plate-spinning and bowling can still hold the attention in this digital age. This is well-organised and cosy, I thought, but why is a TV crew packing its gear away?
It turned out I'd stumbled upon one of the handful of Big Lunches attended by members of the royal family, in this case Beatrice and Eugenie, and the attendees were all volunteers and community groups who'd helped out in Westminster during the pandemic. I think I just missed the two princesses, their plate-spinning and posy-collecting duties complete, or maybe they were still sat at one of the tables having a nice chat with the family of someone who spent 2020 delivering food parcels. It's not the royal/Paddington mash-up most will remember the jubilee for, but this platinum party hasn't just been about what happened at the palace.
I don't know about you but I've ridden it every day it's been open.
Paddington
If you need to transfer from Purple Downstairs to Purple Upstairs, it's really clear which way to go until you reach the mainline station and then you're thrown in with all the other passengers. It doesn't help that platform 11 isn't in the same place as platforms 12 and 14, and once you get that far it's not easy to tell which train's leaving next and whether it's skipping any stations. Obviously there's no urgency to improve signage because this set-up is only temporary until the autumn, but if they can put sticky tape on the floor leading to Taxis, the Heathrow Express and the Hammersmith & City, an extra purple stripe wouldn't go amiss.
»»» The on-board display sometimes tells you what time it is, which is nice. But the message says "The current time is..." and it could just say "The time is..." because the word "current" is entirely superfluous. It must be the current time because there'd be no point telling us what the time used to be or was going to be. Even if you're a temporal pedant the use of the present tense in "The time is..." would be perfectly sufficient, but instead someone's insisted on an extra pointless word.
Bond Street
The one station that would actually have been geographically useful on Jubilee Weekend is still nowhere near ready. An Elizabethan opportunity wasted.
»»» At Underground stations there are usually roundels on the platforms AND on the walls beside the track to help you work out which station you've arrived at. On Crossrail they're only on the platforms because the lineside walls are blank, making it just a bit harder to know where you are. And in associated news...
Crossrail platforms are mostly advert-free but electronic display panels have been sited between certain sets of doors in the platform-edge wall. If you're sitting aboard the train these line up almost precisely with the windows as the train glides to a halt, especially alongside the nice forward-facing seats where the panel almost perfectly blocks the view. Expect to spend a minute staring at the back of a featureless advertising panel rather than being able to see what the name of the station is.
Tottenham Court Road
I really am going to write a post called The Evil Arrows of Tottenham Court Road. It's so easy to get to the escalators before the sheep.
»»» Yesterday morning the entire 'Next Train' system along the central section went down, so the displays above the doors were blank and staff had to make announcements based on expected times of arrival. Embarrassingly, just before each train arrived an automated announcement said "The train now approaching Platform A does not stop here", when obviously it did. And worse it continued "Please stand well clear of the edge of Platform A", when there was an ACTUAL GLASS WALL between the platform and the train and it was perfectly safe to stand as close as you liked.
Farringdon
The platforms are so long that if you sit in the rear carriage, it takes over 20 seconds between the train starting to accelerate and finally entering the tunnel at the far end.
»»» Further unnecessary messages: "This station is now served by the Elizabeth line"
Yes I know, I'm on the Elizabeth line platforms. I couldn't possibly be down here if it wasn't open, I've either made a deliberate choice to come down here or I've just arrived on one of the Elizabeth line trains. Admittedly there is a case for playing this message elsewhere in the station, somewhere upstairs, but for goodness' sake switch it off down here.
Liverpool Street
It's worth remembering that however many times something's been explained to the public, many of them still won't have noticed. Down on the eastbound platform an elderly couple approached a member of staff and asked "So how do we get to Stratford?" He explained that they needed to go up to the mainline station and their response was "Oh so they haven't linked it up yet?", because they hadn't twigged. Full marks to the member of staff for their clarity and patience, and wider ignorance means they're going to be doing a lot more of this.
»»» The stations are so large that they really don't feel busy at all. Maybe they're genuinely not.
Whitechapel
Every five minutes a few poor unfortunates alight at the non-escalator end of the platform, and after they've hiked off it goes back to being deathly quiet, with just a very bored member of staff sitting on the far benches by the emergency stairs and contemplating her life choices.
»»» Further unnecessary messages: "Customers should take extra care on the wet floors"
The floors are not wet, we're several metres underground, the rain cannot get in. Indeed nobody on this platform has been outside in the last three minutes, plus it's not actually raining and it hasn't rained in the last couple of hours. Sure the forecast is for showers but for goodness sake don't just play these messages for the sake of it.
Canary Wharf
The entire intermediate level at Canary Wharf feels like a wasted opportunity - no art, no 'wow', not even a tawdry coffee kiosk, just a drab expanse to be walked across. Admittedly you don't normally see roundels somewhere that's not a platform, but Tottenham Court Road has those too so it's not unique.
»»» I caught the Jubilee line afterwards and it was still absolutely packed.
Custom House
I went back to see if they've fixed the validator-free interchange problem and seemingly not. They're still broadcasting a message that says "To continue your journey on the Elizabeth line make sure you touch out at the main entrance of the DLR station", but they're playing it on the Crossrail platform and by the time you get there it's too late. When I initially arrived on the DLR platform, nothing at all. At the top of the escalators, nothing at all (not even the sign that was there last week). When I walked through the barriers, nothing at all (the member of staff standing alongside didn't blink, even as the display flashed up ENTER because I hadn't officially exited). It would help if the signs on the DLR platform directed passengers via the correct choice of exit - that's stairs rather than escalators - but the exit signs are electronic arrows and they're all switched off so they're no help either. Eleven days on and no solutions.
»»» Today's the only Sunday you can ride the central section for months to come, so best make the most of it.
Hurrah, it's that time of year again when TfL silently updates its spreadsheet of annual passenger entry/exit totals at every tube station.
As usual passenger numbers are surveyed for a typical week in autumn then multiplied up to a full year. Autumn 2020 coincided with lockdown so the resultant figures were both low and entirely atypical. These figures are for autumn 2021 when travel had opened up again but ridership still hadn't recovered. Passengers numbers on the tube were only about 25% of what they were during 'normality' in 2019, so the new data is again quite unrepresentative. However Anorak Corner is all about putting stations in order and I'm pleased to say that overall rankings for 2021 are quite similar to 2019, suggesting an underlying semblance of reality.
London's ten busiest tube stations (2021)(with changes since 2019) 1) King's Cross St Pancras (23.5m) 2) Victoria (20.8m) 3) ↑1 Oxford Circus (20.4m) 4) ↑1 London Bridge (19.1m) 5) ↓2 Waterloo (18.5m) 6) ↑1 Stratford (18.4m) 7) ↓1 Liverpool Street (16.2m) 8) ↑1 Paddington (12.9m) 9) ↑7 Leicester Square (11.0m) 10) Canary Wharf (10.7m)
After the blip of 2020 when Stratford topped the list, this is very much back to normal. King's Cross returns to the top spot where it was before the pandemic, Oxford Circus is the busiest tube-only station and three other rail termini complete the rest of the Top 5. Stratford is still the busiest tube station outside zone 1 (and that's just counting the Central and Jubilee lines, not the DLR, Overground or various rail services). Leicester Square is the only new entry in the Top 10 - it's never been this high before.
The next 10: Euston, Tottenham Court Road, Bank/Monument, Bond Street, Green Park, Piccadilly Circus, Finsbury Park, Vauxhall, Brixton, North Greenwich
London's ten busiest tube stations outside Zone 2 (2021) 1) Barking (5.6m) 2) ↑3 Wembley Park (5.0m) 3) ↓1 Walthamstow Central (4.8m) 4) ↓1 Seven Sisters (4.5m) 5) ↑4 Tottenham Hale (4.4m) 6) ↑4 Wimbledon (4.2m) 7) Ealing Broadway (4.2m) 8) ↓2 Tooting Broadway (4.2m) 9) ↓5 East Ham (3.6m) 10) ↑1 Wood Green (3.4m)
Out in the suburbs it's generally tube stations with rail connections that do particularly well. Wembley Park is the highest placed exception, leapfrogging into second place past a few of the more usual contenders. Northeast London has a particularly strong showing. If the list were to continue then Harrow-on-the-Hill (3m) would be the highest performing station in Zone 5 and Uxbridge (2m) the busiest in Zone 6.
London's ten busiest tube stations that are only on one line
Canary Wharf, Vauxhall, Brixton, North Greenwich, Camden Town, Old Street, Covent Garden, Walthamstow Central, Shepherd's Bush, Knightsbridge
Tube stations that retained over 30% of their usual passengers in 2021
Kew Gardens, West Ham, Buckhurst Hill, Wimbledon, Clapham North, Wembley Park, Leicester Square, West Brompton, Mill Hill East, Tottenham Hale, Gloucester Road, Canning Town, Chorleywood, Blackhorse Road, Barking
Tube stations that retained less than 20% of their usual passengers in 2021
St James's Park, Bank/Monument, Chancery Lane, Cannon Street, Mansion House, Richmond, Goodge Street, Farringdon, Russell Square, Blackfriars, Barbican, Moorgate, Regent's Park, East Acton, Great Portland Street, St Paul's, Roding Valley
This is still my favourite list of the year...
London's 10 least busy tube stations (2021) 1) Kensington (Olympia) (28000) 2) Roding Valley (88000) 3) Chigwell (109000) 4) Grange Hill (132000) 5) North Ealing (213000) 6) Theydon Bois (257000) 7) Moor Park (262000) 8) ↑1 Upminster Bridge (278500) 9) ↑2 Croxley (279000) 10) ↓2 Ruislip Gardens (284000)
Discounting Heathrow T4, the least used station on the Underground remains poor old Kensington (Olympia), because that's what weekend-only trains (and a tiny handful of weekday-ers) does for you. It has a pitiful total... less than a third of the passengers at the second least used station, which continues to be Roding Valley. The Essex end of the Central line has a very strong showing including all three stops on the Hainault shuttle, as per usual. Passenger numbers may have tumbled here, as everywhere else, but a lesser used station will always be a lesser used station.
The next ten least busy stations: Ickenham, Chesham, Fairlop, West Harrow, Barkingside, South Kenton, West Finchley, West Acton, West Ruislip, Chalfont & Latimer
The least busy tube station in each zone (2021) zone 1) Regent's Park (743000) zone 2) Kensington (Olympia) (28000) zone 3) North Ealing (213000) zone 4) Roding Valley (88000) zone 5) Ruislip Gardens (284000) zone 6) Theydon Bois (257000) zone 7) Moor Park (262000) zone 8) Chalfont & Latimer (430000) zone 9) Chesham (297000)
And while we're here...
DLR Top 5: Canning Town (8m), Bank, Stratford, Woolwich Arsenal, Canary Wharf DLR Bottom 5: Beckton Park (171000), Pudding Mill Lane, Abbey Road, Poplar, Royal Albert
Overground Top 5: Canada Water (7m), Highbury & Islington, Stratford, Clapham Junction, Whitechapel Overground Bottom 5: Emerson Park (104000), South Kenton, Upminster, North Wembley, Cheshunt
TfL Rail Top 5: Stratford (8m), Liverpool Street, Paddington, Romford, Ilford TfL Rail Bottom 5: Iver (107000), Taplow, Acton Main Line, Heathrow Terminal 5, Langley
Trams Top 5: East Croydon (3m), Wimbledon, West Croydon, George Street, Church Street Trams Bottom 5: Avenue Road (46000), Coombe Lane, Birkbeck, Beddington Lane, Harrington Road
Next year should see the figures properly back to normal, whatever the new normal turns out to be, and will also include data for the Crossrail stations that opened last week. The battle to be London's busiest purple station is already underway.
The first royal jubilee was for King George III in 1809, officially to celebrate the start of his 50th year as monarch so technically a 49th anniversary. The first two-day jubilee was for Queen Victoria in 1887, and was celebrated with a banquet, a service of Thanksgiving and a carriage procession through the City. The first jubilee bank holiday was in 1897, Queen Victoria's diamond year, which was also the first jubilee with beacons and the award of city status.
George V was the first monarch to officially celebrate a silver jubilee, the first to give a jubilee broadcast and the first to wave from the balcony of Buckingham Palace. His granddaughter is the first to celebrate four jubilees, including the first to incorporate a world tour, the first with a guitar solo from the roof, the first with a river pageant and the first with its own special trifle.
We've perhaps got a bit blasé about jubilees given there have been three this century. But we've only had these jubilees thanks to the quirk of being ruled by a long-lived monarch whose father died when she was young, and after this weekend we should expect never to see another.
Our best chance of enjoying another jubilee is if the Queen is still on the throne in five years' time. She'd be 101, still six months younger than her mother was when she died, so genetics suggest we're in with a chance. But jubilees are usually announced two years in advance, so it'd be a brave minister who in 2025 announced an extra bank holiday in June 2027 to celebrate her 75th. Also it's not clear what kind of jubilee it would be, given that 'diamond' always used to mean a 75th anniversary until Queen Victoria reappropriated the title for her 60th, and platinum is usually the top of the precious metal hierarchy.
If Elizabeth II doesn't reach another jubilee then Charles is incredibly unlikely to deliver one either. His silver jubilee requires a reign of 25 years so can't take place before 2047, and by that time he'd be 98, i.e. older than his mum is now. Again it's not impossible because his father reached 99, but a bookmaker would offer minimal odds on this ever happening.
Prince William therefore offers the best chance of a silver jubilee, but not for some time yet. He's going to be 40 later this month so should have plenty of life left, potentially enough time to fit in a 25 year reign. But that reign can't start until we've had two state funerals, abdication crises notwithstanding, by which time William could be well into his 50s, even 60s. If Prince Charles reigns until the second half of the 2030s then William's silver jubilee can't be until the 2060s, and that's a very long time to wait for a bonus bank holiday.
Who's to say where society, the monarchy or even civilisation are going to be in years to come, making all this speculation mostly worthless. But as things stand any future silver jubilees are destined to be celebrated by very old kings and any golden jubilees are entirely off the table. Alas arithmetic dictates that a silver jubilee can only ever follow 25 years of jubileelessness, and royal age gaps suggest we're in for a much longer wait than that.
Best make the most of what's left of this jubilee, because it's very probably your last.
I remember the Silver Jubilee, I was 12. It was a really big event at the time possibly because the 1970s were devoid of much else to celebrate. We didn't have a street party because we lived on a main road and we'd have been run over, so sadly I never got the full-on Jubilee experience with bunting, sandwiches and fizzy pop. I do remember watching a lot of events on television, including a royal walkabout, big crowds outside Buckingham Palace and a special episode of The Goodies on BBC2. The night before I remember being very upset when the wind blew the wrong way and ruined the fireworks in Windsor Great Park, because everyone's hard work creating a crown effect had been for nothing. I also remember eating a heck of a lot of Lyons Maid Jubilee ice lollies because inside the wrapper was a card depicting a member of the royal family who'd reigned for 25 years and there were 15 to collect. I still have them but I never got them all. Simpler days.
Golden Jubilee, June 2002
I remember the Golden Jubilee, I was 37. I started Bank Holiday Monday by spending four hours on a dancefloor in Islington, because during the intervening 25 years I'd grown up beyond fizzy pop and ice lollies. I stayed out so late I got the tube home, then slept through the rest of the morning and went back into town in the evening to try and spot the jubilee fireworks above the treetops in Green Park. On the second day I caught up on the Party at the Palace on videotape, then went back into town to enjoy walking round all the pedestrianised streets. It was especially crowded near the palace so I didn't last long there. Obviously I walked across the new Golden Jubilee Bridges to the South Bank and back, then I accidentally bumped into my best mate from school outside a pub which proved a bit awkward. At half past six I was in Trafalgar Square watching the flypast which was incredible, especially when Concorde and the Red Arrows flew over, and then I went to the cinema to watch Dog Soldiers.
Diamond Jubilee, June 2012
I remember the Diamond Jubilee, I was 47. You might remember too because I blogged about it at the time. Mainly I remember how difficult it was to get a view of the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant and how when I did find a good spot it rained, and it rained so much I ended up sodden and shivering and went home early because an hour and a half watching small boats passing in a downpour wasn't worth hypothermia. [25 photos]
Platinum Jubilee, June 2022
I am experiencing the Platinum Jubilee, I am 57.
The best thing I did yesterday was go to the Olympic Park and watch the jubilee flypast and it was amazing. The footbridge by the Velodrome aligns perfectly with the Mall so everything flew directly overhead, from the cavalcade of helicopters up front to the low-thrumming Lancaster and the two scarily-close transporters and the Typhoons spelling out 70 (which we got to see two minutes before you did) and finally the Red Arrows swooping in formation just before they turned on their smoke somewhere over Victoria Park. The aerial procession just went on and on and it was brilliant and did I mention it was directly overhead? But the beacons I decided to watch on TV instead, and I see nobody risked fireworks this time, and if the Queen's going to give the Service of Thanksgiving a miss then I probably will too.
Yesterday TfL launched a far-reaching consultation on major changes to dozens of bus routes in Central London. Sixteen bus routes are to be withdrawn. Sixteen! Forty-three other routes are affected, many of them significantly. Forty-three! This is what happens when a pandemic disrupts your existing network and central government takes control of the purse strings.
Some of these changes TfL would have been making anyway to rationalise the service. Others are solely because the Transport Secretary insisted on a 4% cut in bus kilometres in return for funding. They're all in central London, generally zones 1 and 2, and most involve reducing capacity on existing roads deemed 'overbussed' rather than creating new bus-free zones.
Many passengers are going to find themselves needing to change buses to make existing journeys once these changes kick in, which'll be sometime before the end of next year. The Hopper fare gives carte blanche to TfL to break as many links as they like, and blimey they have, even if that introduces an additional time penalty waiting for a so called "high-frequency" bus.
The consultation is enormous, indeed almost unmanageable, and has been broken down into fourteen neighbourhoods across four zones. It took me about four hours to plough through 23 pdfs trying to work out precisely what's going on, and I consider myself an expert on London bus routes so heaven knows how the average punter will cope. With such a massive set of proposals and only six weeks to respond, I'll bet many tweaks will go unnoticed by the vast majority of affected passengers.
Some iconic route numbers are facing extermination... the 4!, the 11!!, the 12!!!, the 16!!!!, the 24!!!!! Several withdrawals have set off a chain of other changes like toppling a line of dominoes. Certain areas, for example the Isle of Dogs, are facing their second major reorganisation in less than a decade. It's going to entirely redraw the Central London bus map, not that there is a Central London bus map but blimey passengers are really going to need one after this.
It's sad to see the network being dismantled in this way, mainly at the behest of government, but it's also pointless to shuffle empty seats across the centre of town if money could be more usefully spent elsewhere. And whilst withdrawing 16 routes might sound apocalyptic, all it ultimately means for most of us is learning to make journeys on differently-numbered routes... and waiting around for longer inbetween.
Here are the routes scheduled for withdrawal, and my attempt at a summary of the tweaks and mitigations for each.
4 Archway - BlackfriarsWithdrawn
The northern end of the 4, including the uniquely-served route through Tufnell Park, will be replaced by extending the single decker 236 from Finsbury Park to Archway. The southern end will be covered by diverting route 56 from its current Smithfield terminus to Blackfriars. In random associated butchery the 476 is to be cut back from Euston to Newington Green and the 236 is to be cut back from Hackney Wick to Homerton Hospital.
11 Liverpool Street - FulhamWithdrawn
TfL's premier tourist route is to be replaced by two amended routes. The 26 already passes Liverpool Street but will no longer terminate at Waterloo, it'll divert at Aldwych and follow the 11's existing route to Victoria. This means the 26 (St Paul's, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, etc) becomes the new bus to recommend for sightseeing. Then, in a moment of electric madness, the 507 ex-Red Arrow commuter shuttle is to be extended to Fulham Broadway. Honest, that's genuinely the plan. But to cover the 11 it has to be diverted via Westminster Bridge rather than Lambeth Bridge, so the C10 is being shifted to cover that, and then the 3 is being sent to Victoria rather than Whitehall to plug the final gap. One withdrawal, four repercussions.
12 Oxford Circus - DulwichWithdrawn
Dulwich residents aghast at losing the 12 will need to learn a new number, the 148. This is being extended from Peckham to Dulwich so all they have to do is catch that instead (and change in Lambeth onto the 453 if they want to go any further).
14 Russell Square - Putney HeathWithdrawn
East of Hyde Park Corner TfL would like you to take the existing 19, and they're also tweaking it to run via South Kensington instead of Sloane Square. West of Hyde Park Corner you can already take the 414, an upstart route introduced twenty years ago to shadow the 14, which is being extended from Putney Bridge to Putney Heath to finish the job. It'd be nice to renumber the 414 as the 14 so that an iconic route number could be saved, but this consultation alas has no room for nostalgic niceties.
16 Cricklewood - VictoriaWithdrawn
Several routes shadow the 16 up the Watling Street, notably the 32 and 332, so they're being kept and the 16 is being sacrificed as unnecessary. To cover the 16's southern end the 98 is being switched to terminate at Victoria, and to cover that the 6 is being sent back down Oxford Street as far as Holborn. To complete the switcheroo the 23 will now follow the 6's current route via Piccadilly to Aldwych, and hurrah for that because the remodelled 23's U-shaped route was always bonkers.
24 Hampstead Heath - PimlicoWithdrawn
The 24 is the longest-running unchanged London bus route and will celebrate its 110th birthday this summer, but this counts for nothing in the hard light of post-pandemic reality. Removing it, however, triggers a convoluted chain of alterations that ultimately removes one of my local buses here in Bow. The 88 is to take on board the 24's route north of Trafalgar Square, maintaining all existing links. The 214 is then being drafted in to cover the 88, along what until fairly recently was route C2, and is also being extended to Pimlico to cover the remainder of route 24. But this removes the 214 from its run down the City Road so the 205 is being diverted at St Pancras to head north to Parliament Fields. The 205 is not being replaced along the Euston Road to Paddington, which abruptly breaks a well-used connection, plus the planners have also taken the opportunity to cut back the 205's eastern end from Bow Church to Mile End. It does feel like someone at TfL Towers drew all this in crayon during a cheese dream... or maybe I'm just bitter that the cuts have hit home.
31 White City - Camden TownWithdrawn
West of Belsize Road the 31 is replaced by the 113 which is perversely diverted to White City. East of Belsize Road the 31 is replaced by the 189 which is unceremoniously diverted to Camden Town. Changing between the two halves can be done on Belsize Road itself. An unpalatable but deliberate consequence is that South Hampstead loses two bus routes into the West End.
45 Clapham Park - Elephant & CastleWithdrawn
This is very low-hanging fruit. The 45's southern tip will be covered by starting the 59 from Clapham Park rather than Streatham Hill, and plenty of other buses cover the rest of the route.
72 East Acton - Hammersmith BridgeWithdrawn
The 72 has already been neutered by the closure of Hammersmith Bridge and now it's going entirely. The northern end will be covered by extending the 49 to East Acton, south of White City it'll be covered by extending the 272 to Hammersmith and the last few hundred metres to the bridge are to be covered by the 283. Again one loss but multiple fallout.
74 Putney - Baker StreetWithdrawn
West of South Kensington the 74's clientele will be left to take the 430 instead, whose route will be nudged north to follow Cromwell Road. East of South Kensington they can already take the 414 to Marble Arch (and the final leg to Baker Street is overbussed so is not being replaced).
78 Shoreditch - NunheadWithdrawn
North of Tower Bridge TfL don't think the 78 needs replacing. South of Tower Bridge they're extending the 388 to cover it, but only as far as Peckham leaving the last leg to be covered by the existing P12. Nunhead residents have good reason to be pissed off. The 388 is probably the bus route TfL have tweaked the most over the last decade, and operating it between Stratford and Peckham makes as little sense as most previous incarnations.
242 Aldgate - Homerton HospitalWithdrawn
Similarly the 242 has been on sequential retreat for many years, so killing it off entirely seems a natural consequence. It serves several estates in Clapton whose residents would be bereft without a bus so the 135 is being extended from Old Street to cover that, almost like someone picked a route number out of a tombola.
349 Ponders End - Stamford HillWithdrawn
The 349 was introduced in 2004 to bolster services up the Tottenham High Road, but is now being whipped away leaving the 149, 259 and 279 to take the strain. In mitigation the 259 will be extended north to Ponders End at an increased frequency, and the 279 will be diverted at Seven Sisters to serve Stamford Hill rather than Manor House.
521 Waterloo - London BridgeWithdrawn
The 521 has long existed to speed commuters from south London rail termini into the heart of the City, thereby requiring a very high frequency during the rush hour. But as working patterns change its existence can no longer be justified, plus off-peak it was hardly transporting anyone anyway, so this former Red Arrow is to be withdrawn. For those who still need to head north the 59 is being diverted from Euston to St Paul's and the 133 is being diverted from Liverpool Street to Smithfield, but expect a squish at busy times.
C3 Earl's Court - Clapham JunctionWithdrawn
Chelsea has too many buses, apparently, so the C3 has to die. It's being replaced (in its entirety) by the 27 which, somewhat unexpectedly, will deviate at Kensington and head south via Worlds End and across the river. The 27's absence will be filled by the 328, another route that'll no longer serve Chelsea but will instead continue to Hammersmith, and meanwhile the 49 is being pulled back from Clapham Junction to South Kensington. Why change one route when you can change four?
D7 Mile End - PoplarWithdrawn
The D7's job has always been to sweep round the edge of the Isle of Docks delivering residents to points north. But it's been deemed surplus to requirements so the 277 will instead be extended around the island as far as Poplar covering pretty much the whole route. Also being tweaked is the D3 which becomes a stumpy island-only service as far as Asda, leaving residents of Wapping to rely only on the 100. This is being extended north to Bethnal Green along the D3's former route, but nine bus stops between Wapping and Limehouse will be abandoned so bad luck if you live there.
And it's not just withdrawals, a number of other changes have been thrown into the mix. The 43 will no longer cross the Thames but will be curtailed at Liverpool Street. The 53 is being cut back (again) from Lambeth North back to Elephant & Castle. The 343 is being shortened from Aldgate to Tower Gateway. The 211 will be diverted to Battersea Power Station rather than Waterloo. And in my neck of the woods the D8 is being taken off its loop round Bromley High Street (which'll never see another bus) and southbound passengers will have to use four pedestrian crossings to negotiate the Bow roundabout instead. In normal times this single change would have been worthy of a consultation all of its own. Instead it's going to get swept along with the tide and happen anyway.
Also I haven't even started on the nightbuses. The Central London Bus Review also proposes withdrawal of the N11, N16, N31, N72, N74 and N242, changes to the N15, N26, N27, N98, N133, N148 and N205, plus new routes N32, N135, N414, N430 and N507. How any customer is supposed to provide an informed response to this onslaught of change in six weeks flat is beyond me.
And if you think this is brutal, yesterday the Mayor sent a letter to the Prime Minister warning of worse to come if no agreement can be reached on future funding. He says a policy of 'managed decline' would mean an additional eighty bus routes cut, the equivalent of an 18% overall reduction, plus a 9% reduction in tube services. That's likely sabre-rattling but one thing's for sure, under current governance Londoners are likely to end up paying a lot more for a lot less in future. Having to catch a differently-numbered bus to Hampstead Heath is going to be least of our problems.
Sun 1: I went back to Barking Riverside now its pier is open, and I can confirm a) it's a very long pier b) from tip to riverbank is a 2½ minute walk c) nobody lives within 10 minutes of the boat d) a handful of people are already using it.
Mon 2: Eid very rarely coincides with a bank holiday, so it was a joy to see the full length of Whitechapel Road buzzing with men and families in their finest white clothing, some clutching balloons, streaming merrily towards mosque. Tue 3: TfL are still announcing "We strongly recommend you wear a face covering over your nose and mouth" on trains and at stations, which is fair enough because it's only a recommendation. But the announcement continues "Some exemptions apply" which is ridiculous because we've all been exempt for the last ten weeks. And then it goes on "Please be considerate and remember that exemptions may not always be visible or obvious", which is utterly irrelevant given that nobody has to wear anything any more, indeed a complete non-sequitur. Does nobody listen to these announcements before they subject us to them over and over? Wed 4: Remember we had a sweepstake on which day Crossrail would open? Only one person guessed correctly but they didn't leave a name, so there's lack of forethought for you. Thu 5: Managed to squeeze in voting between a day trip to Northants and pizza night at BestMate's, not that it did much good. Fri 6: My oven has finally been fixed and it only took 38 days. The engineer chucked the dead fan into my recycling, but thankfully I noticed before I took the bag out. Then I celebrated with a pie. Sat 7: I was half an hour from home when half the sole on my trainers came unstuck, and I had to flap back home for a new pair (being very very careful on escalators to avoid accidental mutilation). Sun 8: Today's walk I never blogged about: the Silk Stream, the misery of nu-Colindale, a discarded panda in Montrose Playing Fields, Barnet Millennium Walk, a bouncy bridge over the Burnt Oak Brook, Arrandene Open Space, Mill Hill village pond, Ridgeway Views.
Mon 9: Inflationwatch: 500g bag of own-brand pasta - one year ago 53p, six months ago 70p, now 75p. (↑ 41%) Tue 10: Nextdoor are having some building work done so have left their front door open, which proved an interesting lesson in the mutual geometry of our flats, and now I know how close to their hallway I am every time I strip off and have a bath. Wed 11: A special hello to the gentleman on the Central line this morning who was reading my blog on his phone. It's the first time in 20 years I've ever seen my content being consumed in situ! If you were the tall beardy bloke wearing Sony headphones, a black baseball cap and a North Face jacket who alighted at Liverpool Street, that was me squashed into the space beside you thinking "OMG, I thought I recognised that grey background". Thu 12: All the decent songs were in the first Eurovision semi-final because the second was a bit pants. Fri 13: Buses I rode today: 432, 417, 249, G1, 77, 270, 28, 424, C3, 31.
Sat 14: It's 150 years since the first Cup Final, so I was intending to write a post about how the first ever goalscorer lived in Caterham in the big house with the cedar tree out front, but instead Birmingham got in the way, sorry. Sun 15: If you're going to publish an excitable article about a forthcoming lunar eclipse, or 'blood moon' as the clickbaiters will insist on calling it, at least have the honesty to mention that the weather forecast is overcast and nobody will see it. Mon 16: Successfully dodged the TV cameras again. Tue 17: Today's walk I never blogged about: Kew Bridge, Brentford's still-Premiership stadium, Gunnersbury Temple, the North Korean embassy, Fox Lane on Hanger Hill, the best view of Wembley Stadium from Tokyngton footbridge.
Wed 18: Near Woolwich Dockyard station an old lady was taking her tortoise for a walk along the pavement (or at least watching it carefully after it had inched out of her front gate), and I suspected this was a regular occurrence. Thu 19: The Greenway never used to be this busy of an evening. Tonight I was forever dodging cyclists, skaters, dogwalkers, joggers and delivery bikers... and I suspect it's the latter making all the difference. Fri 20: I haven't yet written about today's city trip so technically it's unblogged, but I do intend to write about it eventually so best I don't mention it here. Sat 21: We all have relationships that somehow never happened. One of mine from years ago sparked briefly this afternoon, and then sparked out again. Sun 22: Today's walk I never blogged about: Beam Parklands, the remains of the Romford Canal, a statue of Billy Bragg, a footbridge over the District line, Eastbrookend cafe, multiple angling niches, the Central Park gash.
Mon 23: I picked up a Central London Footways map from Liverpool Street (just launched and available at several London railway stations). It's an excellent resource, depicting carefully-researched quiet walking routes in a legible and appealing manner, and a definite improvement on the original iteration. Grab yours while free stocks last. Tue 24: The really important Crossrail question turns out to be 'What's my nearest station?', so with the aid of a stopwatch I've confirmed that Canary Wharf and Whitechapel are both 16 minutes away. That's front door to platform and assumes perfect onward connections, which hardly ever happens, and is frankly a bit of a letdown considering how fast the rest of the journey now is. Wed 25: Damn you Wordle. I've got every single word correct since December but today you decided my current streak was only two rather than the 148 it ought to be, and it's going to take another five months to overcome that evil blip. Thu 26: Had to change buses in Chichester, but only briefly so all I saw was roadworks, a spire and the Shippams clock. Fri 27: I watched the red carpet outside the Abba Arena being rolled up, and boggled slightly that the entire group were standing on it last night in advance of tonight's public opening. Sat 28: I accidentally stumbled into crowds of Wigan and Huddersfield supporters pouring towards White Hart Lane for the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final, hunting for food and/or beer before kick-off and bedecked in an assortment of up-to-date and out-of-date jerseys. The stadium may be enormous but it did seem ridiculous dragging everyone 200 miles south to an area with no local interest in the game.
Sun 29: Ride London, the day-long festival of cycling, has shifted its road circuit from Surrey to Essex this year with the result that a massive number of local roads were closed. These included chunks of the A11, A12 and A13, indeed the entire Bow roundabout, and completely buggered most Lower Lea Valley bus services. The cyclists seemed to be having a great time, be they lycra speedsters already at Mile 95 or puffy stragglers only at Mile 9, but that bus diversion via the Olympic Park is 35 minutes I will never get back. Mon 30: I rode Crossrail for free from Heathrow Terminals 2&3 to Heathrow Terminal 5, and it was slow, empty and architecturally depressing. Tue 31: In advance of four days of Platinum shenanigans, Buckingham Palace has already disappeared behind a screen of barriers and a massive media village at the foot of Green Park. The Mall looks great with all its flags, and Saturday's big stage is set up and ready beneath the Victoria Memorial, but you have to feel for the tourists who jetted in for the jubilee and can't get anywhere close.
