11.17.03

Up and down the tube

Posted in London at 6:32 pm by

I couldn’t maintain any pretence of covering London in this thing, this jotter, without acknowledging this expansion of the classic tube map into three dimensions. Stations that serve several lines are fudged, unfortunately; I’d like to see them as vertical tubes running from the surface. Otherwise this is great.

I got a completely different view of London over the weekend. I flew in and out of London City Airport (pictured). It made for quite a ride, particularly given that Friday was a windy day, and our 80-seat plane was clearly giving its best impression of a rollercoaster. The smug businessman behind me rapidly went from “Oh my!” through “Oh dear!” to just “Oh!” Meanwhile, I was enjoying the alien landscape of what is now rebranded as “Thames Gateway”. Power stations, ports, old towns, new towns, all carved tight against the severe edge of the Thames itself. It’s really quite beautiful in its way; knowing East Anglian saltflats as I do, I can assure you it’s certainly the best way of seeing it.

The Dartford Bridge and the Isle of Sheppey, in particular, were easily identifiable. (All aerial images found in the very browsable online galleries of Adrian Warren, where the bird’s eye view of Oxford Circus really catches the eye.)

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