Today we're at High Barnet which is we're starting our journey to travel the entire length of the Northern Line
where I'm going to show you some of the secrets and things you may have missed whilst on your travels
The Northern Line evolved from the City & South London Railway built in 1890
Which was the world's first deep level tube railway. Over time it grew, expanded ...
and merged with other lines to become what we know today Is the Northern Line, with 50 stations.
36 of which, are underground
The most for any individual line, on the network
Our first port of call was to look at something familiar to millions ... the tube map.
We're at Finchley Central, where there's a little tribute which I really love ...
To Henry Beck, or Harry Beck, as he's, err ... sometimes known
The designer of what is the modern day tube map, and here they've got one of his original 1930's maps
... slightly faded in the sun, as it would have been!
On the single track branch line up to Mill HIll East, the line passes over the Dollis Brook viaduct
The highest point a tube train travels, on the underground
At East Finchley, look up to spot Eric Auminer's famous archer ...
shooting its arrow, into the start of the tunnel, that goes 17 miles all the way to Morden
... as the tube goes underground for the first time
Now we're pulling into Highgate, and there's actually a couple of things to show you here
It was first planned the trains on this section would have eight carriages on them
but modern Northern Line trains only have six carriages on them
so Highgate has got this rather strange oddity on the platform
in that there's this rather large gap at the end where the train should be, but it's not
Don't ever stand there!
I took a ride up Highgate's 'Secret' exit-only escalator
And and the top if you look right out of the window ...
... you can see down onto the abandoned platforms of a railway line that was going to be built here ...
... but was never finished
Camden Town is a really congested station that needs upgrading, but at the southern end of all platforms
There's the original interchange corridors, going under the trains right now
Which brings you out to a secret back passage of corridors, where you can change .. where there are less people
* THIS TRAIN TERMINATES AT EDGWARE *
Now it's a well known fact that Hampstead is the deepest station below ground level ...
but it also has the largest number of emergency stairs
but did you know that the station, was once called Heath Street
And onto Belsize Park where I went to confirm that somebody, hasn't counted the number of stairs properly.
(OUT OF BREATH) It's hard work!
There's a hundred and eighty nine ...
... and the sign clearly says there's two hundred and nineteen
We're at Angel station, and as that train leaves there ...
... come back about thirty years, and imagine another train pulling in here
The reason why Angel has such a wide platform, is that this used to be a very thin, narrow platform
... and this space here used to be where the running rails were, for the other track
Clapham Common, and here - Clapham North are the only stations left physically underground which have narrow island platforms
Heading south on line, we took a ride on the only place on the underground where you can leave one station ...
.. and arrive, back at the same station
We're at Kennington Station, where .. southbound trains that are coming from the Charing Cross Branch
... terminate. But what the don't tell you, is that there's a loop of track that they go around
Terminating trains merely go round the loop, which takes a couple of minutes
and re-enter service on the northbound Charing Cross branch
Which means that shortly after we left Kennington ... we're arriving, back at Kennington
... having successfully ridden, the whole Kennington loop!
We're at Embankment ... there's a curved platform here
and you're just about to hear the original announcement ... [MIND THE GAP]
of 'Mind The Gap', which was kindly reinstated by London Underground at his widows request
... who likes hearing his voice there
Other things to look out for include this chess-board like floor pattern at Brent Cross
The last surviving roundel at South Wimbledon station that still mentions Merton
And this giant roundel in the brickwork at East Finchley station
Our journey was coming to an end, and even though we couldn't find the elusive 'Charing Plus' station ...
that the train indicators seemed to tell you about
we did make our way down to the southern most station on the tube network
We're at Morden ... last stop ...
And we're in search of some wildlife
So we're looking for a creature, it's high in the roof, you can see up there it's an owl
It's plastic .. it's fake .. it's here to try and keep the pigeons at bay
Doesn't always work!
I'm at Morden, end of the line .. got to turn around, and get the train home