It's a cold December day, so cold in fact I've had to put my big coat on , but I can reveal two things ...
that one, we're at Hammersmith, and two ... it's time for Secrets of the Hammersmith & City Line
So we're at Hammersmith, where there are as you should know, two stations
across the road there ... is the District and Piccadilly Lines, and just here is the terminus
of the Hammersmith & City, and now the Circle LIne
But did you know this? What i'm stand on right here, this grill
is covering up an old entrance to a subway
there are steps down here, an old passageway which is presumeably
now flooded, or ... cluttered up with old coke cans
Went under the road, and used to link the two stations together
I don't know why they closed it, that would be really handy to have today
Now prior to 1990, the H&C didn't exist - it was part of the Metropolitan Line
but it's this western end between here and Paddington that we'll be mainly concentrating on
and even before we get on a train, there's something cool to see
I love the bench! ... GWR.
And at the northern end of the platforms, there are clues of another, old Hammersmith station
We've walked up these steps, and there are these seemingly, strangely placed footbridge
which just goes between the two platforms
But really what used to happen, is there used to be a station out here called Hammersmith Grove Road
And this was the linking footbridge, that went through that door and out to the other station
And don't forget also, it's only a couple of shillings to go to the nearby Hammersmith Palais!
Now the history of train services in the Hammersmith and Shepherd's Bush area
are quite complicated, so we've made this animated diagram
to help explain it to you, just click on the link ...
and you'll get another little bonus minutes worth of video .. aren't we nice?
And if you were paying attention there, you would have noticed that there was an OLD Wood Lane station
which is not the same, as the modern day one
And welcome to Wood Lane, the newest and most recently build station on the whole of the tube network
and this station, is a clear sign of things to come
TfL recently announced that they intend to close all ticket offices on the tube network
and here at Wood Lane, as it's a new station ... there is no ticket office
just ticket machines!
There's also this lovely preserved mosaic, from the original Wood Lane station
Now we did struggle when trying to find an interesting fact about Westbourne Park
apart from the fact that the 1986 video to Boris Gardener's "I want to wake up with you" was filmed here
But there is also this ... those doors over there
is a secret side entrance, and they get opened once a year, during the Notting Hill Carnival
and all the people come in and out of that entrance, rather than .. the little tiny staircase
So we're at Royal Oak station which is right alongside the mainline trains, out of Paddington
going down .. into the West Country
As this train leaves, watch it ... it dips down into a tunnel
a pass-under, which they built specifically many years ago
because when Royal Oak was first built, Underground trains
were on the same level, and they had to cross over in front of the mainlines trains
imagine that happening today, every 2 miuntes for a tube train, madness!
But instead ... there's a little tunnel
Paddington Station .. ahh, from the smell of - well, the grime of the tube
to the smell of water, how could you not love this
it's the only tube station where literally, ten yards
at the entrance ... you come from a train line
To the canal
And I like canal boats almost as much as I like tube trains, maybe there's a video series in there somewhere
and onto what I think, is the oldest walkable part of the Underground
these stairs here, which look like they go nowhere
These are the stairs up to what used to be the original entrance and exit to Baker Street
and here ... is the oldest corridor on the whole of the Underground
One hundred and fifty years ago this was used to cross from the eastbound to the westbound platform, nowadays ...
It's all empty .. and ECHOEY!
Now next, we skipped a whole bunch of stations on purpose because we'll do those when we do the Circle Line video
so here at Aldgate East is where we do the
"Things you walk past everyday", and never notice moment on the video
You think it's just got a very plain, boring, yellow tiled wall
Look more closely ... and you'll see something amazing
There's a number of tiles here designed by a man called Harold Stabler
who worked on the remodelling of the station in the 1930's
You can find similar tiles at Swiss Cottage and Bethnal Green stations too
Probably my favourite one, the one of 55 Broadway - the tube headquarters
There was just enough time to note that the four colours on the new seat moquette
matched the four colours, of the lines that the S-Stock trains are being rolled out to
Then we had a quick look at this old lovely light box
at Whitechapel station
and the Crossrail works too
and then it was time, to head back
So I hope we've shown you some things that you would have otherwise missed
on the Hammersmith & City Line
and having been to the City, we've turned out ... we're going back to Hammersmith
Where as always, I'm getting the train home