Much of London's definition comes from its tube stations.
Tell a friend that you will meet them at Tottenham Court Road at 8 p.m.
tonight, and it will go without saying that you mean the tube station, as
opposed to the road. Even though the letters that came through the post box at
home when I was growing up had Kingsbury written within the address, we had
always considered that we had lived in Colindale, simply because the station
was only a 10 min walk away from our front door, as opposed to Kingsbury's 15
min walk. This is illustrative of how whole swathes of London are defined by
the London Underground system
. Speak to someone in Pentonville, and more often
than not they will tell you that they live in Angel or Caledonian Road. If
someone says they live in Brent Cross, Marble Arch or St Paul's, you will think
of the tube stations, as opposed to a shopping centre, the monument or a
cathedral. Many parts of London are defined by the fact that they are not on
the tube network.
I once met an American woman, when I was about 19 years old,
who had lived in London for approximately one year while studying. When she
asked where I was going out that night, and when I replied
"Cricklewood", she said "why don't you go out in London
instead?"
Upon telling her Cricklewood was in London, she said
"Really? What line is it on?" Informing her that Cricklewood was one
of the few places in London that was not on the tube network, she excitedly
said "Oh wow, can I come along, I would like to see what that area is
like!" Muswell Hill and Primrose Hill will usually have "the
village-y feel" that many other parts of London do not have as a direct
result of them not having a tube station. To not be on the tube system, is to
be cut off from other parts of London, for good or for bad.
I did not actually ever go on the London Underground until I
was 15 years old, which considering that that was in 1998, looking back was
quite surprising. Even though I lived in north-west London, I never really had
a need to. I lived walking distance away from my school, and if any visits were
paid to relatives who lived in London, then my father would drive. However, my
love of London grew tenfold upon discovering the endless possibilities that
life would throw my way, facilitated entirely by the London Underground. When I
was looking for a property recently, South London was discounted, upon the fact
that there was no tube stations there.
Of course, the train networks run
regularly. But it is just not the same. The beauty of the London Underground
system is exactly how integrated into our life it is. There is no need to plan
in advance, since the trains are so regular, and it seems to bend its services
around your life. Remember this the next time you are downing the last half of
your pint in one gulp in order to catch the 9:11pm from Herne Hill to Victoria
Station, to avoid a 30 min wait for the next train. And this goes without
saying for most Londoners. If you grew up in London, then much of your life is
based around its arteries. When I was 16, one of my cousins from Ireland came
over to London.
Having spent his entire life on the farm, we decided to take
him on the tube into central London. Upon walking down the steps into the
station, he excitedly said to us "Wow, would you look at that, just as we
are coming into the station, the train is coming along the tracks - what are
the chances of that!!" It was only when we told him that the trains
usually come every 3 mins, so in fact the chance of there being the train
waiting for us when we got down to the station was approximately 1 in 6 that he
said "but surely they cannot be that many people that you need 20 trains
an hour?".
When we got on, at Colindale, onto an empty train, his theory
seem to be proved right. However, it was only when he was gasping for air at
Euston, a few stops away from our final destination of Tottenham Court Road,
that he understood exactly how much of the demand that the London Underground
has created.
I still remember my 1st time going on the London
Underground. I had an appointment at the Eastman Orthodontics Hospital in
King's Cross, and I was as nervous about going on a train as I was as going to
the dentists. For some reason I had always assumed that it would take a couple
of hours to get into central London. Being a huge fan of the Britpop bands of
the era, Blur, Oasis etc I had read in numerous magazines about Camden Town
being the epicentre of everything that was great and, more importantly, cool,
about music. However it was only when I was pulling into Golders Green that it
suddenly dawned on me - Camden Town was only 7 stops away from Colindale. The
night before I have calculated that it would take about 90 min to complete the
journey. But here I was, 3 stops in and only 8 mins into my journey, and by my
calculations that would mean that Camden Town would only be approximately 17-20
mins from Colindale. Now, I had barely met anyone in Colindale who had even
heard of Blur and Oasis outside of a few close school friends,(bearing in mind
these were the 2 biggest bands within this scene that dominated my life) and I put
this down to the fact that Colindale was one part of the world, and Camden Town
was, geographically as well as culturally, a world away. As I was approaching
Chalk Farm, sense prevailed. There are probably 2 different Camden Town's!!
There was this Camden Town, which I was approaching, which was probably the
Camden Town that looks much like Colindale, with a Londis shop being something
that someone would go out of their way to visit, and not a semblance of a
guitar or record shop in sight; and then there was the other Camden Town, the
one that was the Mecca for my greatest love. That was it! That can be the only
explanation.
However, upon pulling into Camden town station, I instantly
sensed that this might actually be THE Camden Town. A man and woman, maybe in
their early 30s, and with matching brightly coloured Mohican hair stepped onto
the tube, craning their necks to duck down so that their hair would not get
caught on the door. The man was wearing a Sex Pistols T-shirt, and had a bolt
through his nose. The woman was wearing a Ramones T-shirt, and had
approximately 10 to 15 safety pins in each ear. There is no way that either of
them would have been seen dead in Colindale. But here I was, 20 min away, and a
world away, thanks to the Tube. That day, after going to the orthodontist, I
decided to take a trip down to Central London. It is no underestimation to say
that finding out that I lived within 40 min, door-to-door, of a road in central
London that had approximately 10 guitar shops within 30 seconds walking
distance was one of the most exciting moments of my life.
On 7th July, 2005, I, like most Londoners, was horrified by
the terrorist attacks that took place on the London Underground system. The
fact that the London Underground was chosen was, in some sort of sick way, a
testament to the regard that even terrorists would hold the London Underground
in. Nothing can be more iconic, be held as close to people's hearts and to
strike fear into the entire spectrum of London's residents, then to choose it's
beloved transport system as the target of an attack. At the time I was just
setting up my recording and rehearsal studio complex, Bally Studios, in
Tottenham Hale. My blood ran cold when I remembered a phone conversation I have
had a few weeks earlier.
"Mr Mulvihill, we are going to need you to come down to
the Moorgate office of the Princes trust on 7th July, at 9 a.m., to go through
the meeting with the mentors, to help with any questions that you have. Is that
okay?"
"7th July? Is that the soonest that you can do?"
"Well, we have either 7th July or 14th July, so if you
want to get it out the way as soon as possible then I would recommend the 7th
July"
"Someone I was speaking to said that you also had 30th
June, the week before, can I not come down then? I am desperate to start the
business as soon as possible "
"No, I am afraid not, as all the places for that day
have been taken. I can always let you know though if anyone cancels? Is July
7th good for you then?"
"Yeah, go on then, I will see then!" With that I
put the phone down, and it was 10 mins later I received a phone call, from the
Princes trust, informing me that somebody had cancelled their session on 30th
June, and would I like to take it from them? I gratefully accepted the
unexpected vacancy, and was glad to have sped up the process by a week.
However, maybe as a result of only discovering the London Underground later in
life, I took the train from Tottenham Hale to Liverpool Street, and from there
instead of going west to Moorgate, I accidentally went east to Aldgate.
Checking back over my ticket a few days later showed that I had got the train
from Liverpool Street to Aldgate at 8:48am, and the revelation in the news that
one of the bombs have gone off between Liverpool Street and Aldgate at 8:50am
terrified me.
It terrified me for a few hours, but then afterwards I just got
on with it, much like the rest of London. Bearing in mind that when the London
Underground was being built in the 1860s and when machines that dug the hard
clay earth away to allow the tracks to be laid broke down, workmen simply ran
to a nearby shop and grabbed metal buckets and used these to scrape away the
soil instead; it shows how the network's history is book-ended by a make do and
try-to-make-the-best-of-the-situation attitude.
However, even this did not stop me travelling on the
Underground, and I can honestly say that in the many years since those events,
the thoughts of anything else similar happening have rarely crossed my mind, if
ever. The London Underground is tough, and resilient. It has survived through 2
world wars, acts of terrorism, economic crisis and come out stronger than ever.
The service is better than it has ever been and passenger numbers are
officially at all-time highs. It's only weaknesses seem to stem from its
unprecedented success. While transport for London have the headache of trying
to accommodate Crossrail, and redevelop Tottenham Court Road station, both of
which are universally seen as essential to solve the problems of overcrowding,
we must never forget that the only reason that these problems have come up in
the first place is because of the unprecedented success of the London
Underground. Not even the most insanely optimistic person could have imagined
in 1900, when Tottenham Court Road station opened to the public, that just over
100 years later, nearly 40,000,000 people per year would be using the station,
and this was a number also reflected that many people go out of their way to
avoid the station due to it is overcrowded nature. Tottenham Court Road is a
shining example of exactly how the very point that people make to supposedly
show the weakness of the system, in fact only backs up its unrivalled success.
Where else in life can a service be labelled a failure because too many people
want to use it?
There is no doubt though that in order to satisfy the demand
that has arisen for the London Underground that expansion work needs to take
place. Much as the London Olympics was deemed a massive success, helped in no
small part by the staggering number of people who relied on the system, in
order for the city to grow, so too must the network. The fact that successive
governments have supported each other proves that even politicians, who are
known to want to prevent throwing good money after bad, can agree on its
virtues. As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the London Underground, we as
Londoners have a lot to thank it for. And though we might grumble about the
price, complain about its lack of 24 hour use, and bemoan the overcrowded
trains we so often squeeze onto, the fact that today we are investing billions
of pounds into continuing and expanding the fine work that was started 150
years ago, with trains that are better than they ever were, and passenger
numbers that are consistently growing, simply proves how right they got it, by
starting the network, back in 9th January 1963.
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