- And we're rolling, focus.
Hi, it's Tuesday evening, it's the 10th of September.
Daylight is still with us,
just about another 45 minutes, an hour's time.
I don't know why I'm angling the camera like this
'cause I'm trying to hide the fact that this is there.
This is Sudbury Town tube station
because I would've put it in the thumbnail
and I probably would have put a very obvious title
to the video saying my favourite tube station.
But yes, finally, something I've wanted to do for years.
And I've been chatting to the press office
to get permission to come down
and bring a guest with me
to just walk around and have a look at the wonder
that is my favourite tube station, Sudbury Town.
[*train noise*]
Gonna come inside. It does feel like I should
introduce my special guest straight away, who is,
(mimicking fan fare) - Hello.
- Like a bad penny.
I always make that joke.
It's a good, like a good penny.
- Yeah.
- Like a Luke penny.
- A Luke penny,
I don't know what that is. - I don't know what that is.
- Are you taking photos?
- Yes.
- So Mr. Tube Luke Mapper is here.
Luke Mapper.
- Tube Mapper is easiest.
- Let's call you Luke Mapper.
- Luke Mapper is far too,
mapping all the Lukes around London, no,
I think that's too difficult.
- So I'm doing a little bit of video.
You're gonna take some glorious photos.
- Yes.
- That'll be lovely.
- Yes, a collaboration as such.
- A collab.
The first, most obvious thing
that you must note about Sudbury Town
is the slightly different font on the roundels.
I'm gonna blatantly cheat and just read off Wikipedia.
You all know the classic Johnston stroke New Johnston
now Johnston 100 font.
Well, this is not that, this is one, this is the original,
the main reason why Sudbury Town caught my attention
and then made me realise
of all the little beautiful architectural features,
which just make it a delight,
is that the font is slightly different.
This was in secrets of the Piccadilly Line video as well,
but it's just worth mentioning again here.
It says some of the original station signage,
and this is why,
because I couldn't remember this,
uses the Johnston Delf Smith typeface,
which is a wedge-serif variation
of the standard London underground Johnston typeface.
It's got the little bits on the edge,
which are really, really nice.
Onto the westbound platform,
oh, eastbound, London bound.
Even the sign for toilets is in that font
as are the signs for ladies and gents as well.
And I really want to go, but I don't have 20p on me.
Have you got 20p on you?
- [voice off camera] Afraid not.
- pressman hasn't got 20p on him.
Okay, more reasons to love Sudbury Town,
just this waiting,
it's not really a waiting room, it's a waiting area.
It's slightly echo-y.
It's curved at this end.
There's these beautiful wooden benches.
Where the newsagents kiosk is,
which is only open in the morning,
there's a shutter this side as well,
so even if you're already gateline side,
you could still, like buy your newspaper,
not just from the kiosk outside the gateline.
And there's the gorgeous old passimetre as well,
which we'll look at in a second.
So this is what they call, pronunciation, passimetre .
This wooden area here
where the ticket collecting person would stand,
all tickets to be shown at the barrier, please,
or book here, you could buy your tickets as well.
And you'd pass through on either side,
obviously replaced with a modern day ticket office,
but this might not have been originally here.
This was probably here when it was rebuilt,
this station, in the 1930s, which we'll get to in a second.
But now we're on the booking hall side
on the eastbound side of the station
and we just need to look up around at this incredible space.
That is fantastic.
Just having to dodge the buses
that terminate here outside Sudbury Town.
Well connected for buses.
I'm going to get run over.
I just wanted to come out whilst it's still light
and again, get the building in the background
and point out that originally
Sudbury Town was part of the District railway,
what we know as the District line, of course,
it went up to up to Rayner's Lane.
And this wasn't the original station building,
this station building, like Station Crescent,
smart naming there, London Borough of Brent,
came along, it's a classic Charles Holden.
And when they brought the Piccadilly Line
up to Rayner's Lane and then through
all the way down to Uxbridge,
he then designed a lot of stations along this bit,
not Park Royal, and redid Sudbury town in his classic style.
And it just amazes me
how like, a simple block of brick and glass structure
can just look so magnificent,
but it does just look magnificent.
I love it.
There's even a Charles Holden-esque
sort of concrete archway here,
which leads to this passageway, car park, by the way,
and then that leads up to the footbridge up here.
Even the footbridge is magnificent,
with the sign for the City and West End,
and the one here for Harrow and Uxbridge trains.
The signs are gorgeous, and look at the lamps.
The lamps have now come on,
the lamps from the footbridge are gorgeous,
it's all gorgeous, what's not to love
about Sudbury Town?
So on the Rayner's Lane Uxbridge bound side, there's this.
It has a waiting area of it's own, nice.
I don't think I've ever caught a train
from Sudbury Town to Uxbridge, I've always gone that way,
so it makes a change to sit here.
Again, it's slightly echo-y.
It's just nice to reflect.
It's so nice now that the light's fading,
the lights've come on.
It's just, I think out of Charles Holden's,
and you should put a link to who the heck Charles Holden is
in case you don't know.
I think he designed 49, correct me if I'm wrong
and I'm sure you will,
49 stations for the Underground and yeah,
it's the best Holden out of all of them
and my favourite tube station.
Go on, it's good, right?
- Yeah.
- [Geoff] Is it good?
- It's good.
- What's your favourite bit?
- My favourite bit is actually,
well, it would be quite random to most people,
at the back of the roundel, if you come round here,
there's normally roundels at the back of them
don't have any details,
but the back of this one,
you can see just a simple line,
and I know it sounds really silly,
but it actually makes for a nice photo.
I've got a good photo at the back there,
Geoff might actually make it pop up now.
[*camera shutter noise*]
- I wanted the silhouette, has it worked?
I've got the silhouette, we're at that time where it's dusk
and there's lights, uplighters in the windows,
a little bit of twilight dusk is still seeping through,
but you just end up in the echo-y,
amazingly cool lit at dusk, ticket office.
Have I got it across to you yet?
It's really nice.
Come and visit, oh, there we go, it's found my light.
Come on visit Sudbury Town.
Thanks Luke, that's great.
I'm going home, trains a coming.
Are you going to come with me, Mr. Luke Mapper?
It's Tube Mapper.
- Tube Mapper. - Tube Mapper.
Everybody follow Luke.
- Tube Mapper
on Instagram, yep, lovely. - On Instagram.
And follow me, which you're doing already.
Shall we get the train home?
- Yep, time to go, see you guys.
- Go on, admit it, it's a nice station, right?
Is it - - It is a nice station.
- Is it in your top 10 do you think?
- From the frontage alone,
it's definitely one of the top 5 frontage.
- What's your number one station then?
If mine's Sudbury Town - - Don't, we're gonna miss
the train. Miss train. - Put him on the spot,
put him on the spot.
Gotta go, gotta gotta, gotta go.
- [Train Announcer] This is a Piccadilly Line service
to Cockfosters.