tubewhore: Kings Cross tiling

Tubewhore (

tubewhore) wrote,
@ 2008-01-21 14:24:00

Kings Cross tiling

On the way through KX to visit St Pancras, I notice that the tiling is under attack. I quite like the texture revealed as the tiles have been chiselled off - presumably as part of the ongoing renovations to the whole KX interchange.

It's not often I use the Piccadilly Line through KX...usually I'm on the Victoria. The tiling that remains here are strange blocks of colour that I have no recollection of looking at before, but then before this project, like most people, the colour of the walls around me as I travelled the system barely registered on my consious mind. Except for TCR -a always loved the crazy mosiacs at TCR.

Despite being blocks of vivid colurs, the effect at KX is gloomy - like someone bought a job lot of random coloured tiles back in the 70s on the cheap from a warehouse going out of business and used them all up at once in a vague effort to be cheery. Municipal ideas of what is cheery are invariably depressing...

I look forward to KX's Piccadilly Line emerging swan-like from the current dirty ugly duckling look it's working:

Later in the day, as newly minted goth girl band Souless Minions of Orthodoxy travel back this way for tea at Libertys, A takes pictures of me against the tiling; the odd colours fighting with my hair, turning my skin green. I should be snogging Captain Kirk with skin like that!

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	lindyhoppr 2008-01-21 03:52 pm UTC (link)
	So, is there really a platform 9 3/4? I've heard that it doesn't actually exist, but not from anyone whose actually been there. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	glitter_thing 2008-01-21 04:01 pm UTC (link)
	platform 9 3/4 is actually in the overland bit of Kings Cross, you can tell when you are there by the hoards of gaggling tourists (Reply to this)(Parent)

	yuxonomei 2008-01-21 04:05 pm UTC (link)
	No. Platform 9 3/4 was filmed at Marylebone. KX has a weird painted on thing that passes as 9 3/4 near the entrance to platforms 9, 10 and 11. It's generally populated by giggly Japanese girls taking pics. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

severe_delays
2008-01-21 05:56 pm UTC (link)

9 3/4 from the books is at Euston, not Marylebone or KX. The author got confused about which station she had remembered. Maybe she should have tubewhored them so she remembered right. :)

I seem to remember a friend telling me she was in KX and saw bits of the first film being shot. The bit where Hagrid and Harry are walking across the station discussing Hogwarts. Although having said that they weren't up by 9 and 10 as the station had renumbered some of the platforms.

What was the bit filmed at Marylebone? A later film?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

tubewhore
2008-01-21 06:10 pm UTC (link)

hmmm...the bit I remember in the last movie at supposedly KX had a waiting room, and Harry and Sirius-as-dog running over and elevated walkway...none of which calls to mind KX Mainline - but then my memory has just put KX on the Bakerloo line - will have to have another look around Marylebone as it looked more like that than the more modern Euston...and of course filming may have had different access to bits of KX that normal travellers wouldn't get to use...

...gives me an excuse ot have tea at the Landmark which I've been promising myself for bloody years and couldn't afford last time I was there

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	carakins 2008-01-22 07:44 pm UTC (link)
	I think the elevated walkway bit was King's Cross, as I watched them filming that bit while waiting for my brother's train to come in. It's on the far left platform before you get to left luggage and all the Cambridge platforms. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	tubewhore 2008-01-21 04:46 pm UTC (link)
	Next time I'm there I'll get a picture of you of the signage on the mainline station for Platform 9 3/4...if, as yuxonomei says, I can get past the giggling Japanese tourists (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	meekay 2008-01-21 05:22 pm UTC (link)
	Last time I was there they'd added half a push-cart sticking out of the wall. Edited at 2008-01-21 05:22 pm UTC (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	poggs 2008-01-21 08:20 pm UTC (link)
	That was the other Platform 9 3/4 which wasn't near Platform 9... (Reply to this)(Parent)

	girfan 2008-01-21 04:04 pm UTC (link)
	So, any idea of what the tiles will be replaced with? I agree about Tottenham Court Road. It's always been my favourite tiles in the Tube system! (Reply to this)(Thread)

tubewhore
2008-01-21 04:48 pm UTC (link)

no idea at all - I'm just another aimless commuter bimbling around the system with no insider info - I'm just assuming that this is all part of the same refurbishment that's seen the H&C, and Bakerloo sections of KX change so dramatically in recent years - what was dark and closed-in, is now bright and airy...I'll guess we'll just have to wait and see how the Piccadilly turns out over the coming months...

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	severe_delays 2008-01-21 05:57 pm UTC (link)
	coughNotBakerloocough (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	tubewhore 2008-01-21 06:02 pm UTC (link)
	oops...faulty memory... ...but remember how nasty that section used to be - thankfully I rarely used that end of KX, sticking mainly to the Victoria line...couldn't believe the difference when I went there to get stations out on the Metropolitan last year! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	severe_delays 2008-01-21 06:16 pm UTC (link)
	I dunno to be honest. I don't like train stations. I find them very unnerving. (Reply to this)(Parent)

astras_brian
2008-01-21 05:48 pm UTC (link)

Why does the bare wall in that first shot remind me of Quatermass And The Pit....?

*jealous cos I'm in shitty midlands and we don't have tube here*

I like seeing the old posters (there used to be an old Sealink poster at Lichfield City station in one of the closed off waiting rooms) from times past. Some of them were much better than the crap we're exposed to now.

Have you been to the new-look Transport Museum? I'd like to know what you and other friends here think of it.

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tubewhore
2008-01-21 06:00 pm UTC (link)

I love Quatermass and the Pit- it's something I watch again and again - in fact tore through the whole thing again just before Christmas. Maybe it's the sense of ecavation that makes you think of it...chipping away at an ordinary surface to find something strange and sinister below it...

Not been beyond the shop in the new museum yet - I'm saving that as the final destination, the last stop, for

tubewhore. I do want the tubemap printed shirt that they sell, even if the fabric is horrible, but it doesn't seem to be on their website anymore - last time they only had larges - I'll be really upset if I can't get one!

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astras_brian
2008-01-21 06:46 pm UTC (link)

*meows and wonders why I didn't find here before I did*

Quatermass And The Pit is fantastic, the series and the film. I've got a soft spot for the Doctor Who story "The Web Of Fear" too.

Will you be having a meet up to finish the project?

If they don't do a tube map shirt and you have a decent resolution graphic of the map you want, you could always get a t-shirt printed with that.

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tubewhore
2008-01-21 07:06 pm UTC (link)

I have a soft spot for a lot of Doctor Who stories...including Inferno, Pyramids of Mars, City of Death, Talons of Weng Chiang...oh, the list goes on...

I hope to have a meet-up for the final station. I have no idea how much longer it's going to take me to get everything of course - especially when the sneaky devils keep adding in more stations.

I'm hoping the shirt is just out of stock for now, as I want to get one and alter it to have a more feminine fit to go under a waspie...I'm not really a 't-shirt' person.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

astras_brian
2008-01-21 07:26 pm UTC (link)

*meows and goes all useless and Hugh Grant* Inferno is one of my favourite Doctor Who stories. Count me in for the final station meet up. Whenever it is.

I'm working on a photo to t-shirt project which may or may not work (will post photos when it is finished, it's great if you dislike Pot Noodle).

I have an undergound tea towel from 1975 featuring an escalator link, btw.

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	...and they were all wearing eyepatches tubewhore 2008-01-21 07:53 pm UTC (link)
	Inferno is the most fantastic use of limited budget - it's the same story repeated over seven episodes but done so well that it's tense rather than tedious...a sense of doom over everything as things go wrong again! I loathe pot noodle...and would love to see the 70's teatowel. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: ...and they were all wearing eyepatches astras_brian 2008-01-21 08:01 pm UTC (link)
	meows and curses himself for not finding here earlier The teatowel might be in the laundry, I'll see if I can dig it out and photograph it for you. You may indeed be interested in the t-shirt too. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	Re: ...and they were all wearing eyepatches astras_brian 2008-01-21 08:35 pm UTC (link)
	Your wish is my command, my Lady: 1975ish underground tea towel. With two additional notes and Escalator link between Bank and Monument Full shot of tea towel The key to the London Underground lines Escalator Link Moorgate openings 1976 notes Heathrow Central opening 1977 note Enjoy! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Re: ...and they were all wearing eyepatches

tubewhore
2008-01-21 08:58 pm UTC (link)

oh that's wonderful! Look, Watford Junction is on there - look at the Hainault loop and up past Epping!!! Fantastic stuff...love it! Love that it's a bit battered tooo...

...as for Doctor Who silliness, once the weather gets better I hope to do Perivale (Ghostlight) and from there walk up to Horsenden Hill (Survival)and through to Greenford and Northolt after a picnic at the top...although I refuse to do it dressed as Ace; I'm much more a Romana. Blending two of my loves - fashion history and Doctor Who, I think I will have to do it dressed in purple from head to toe, in honor of the first aniline dyes - Perkins mauveine - that made Victorian clothes so insanely colourful from the 1860's. Perkins was based at Greenford, and there's a blue plaque that I'd like to find while there...and hell, I love wearing purple...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauveine

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	Re: ...and they were all wearing eyepatches astras_brian 2008-01-21 09:46 pm UTC (link)
	Purple is very nice indeed. Interesting story how Mauveine came about... Ace didn't do much for me, Romana had infinitely more class. I did a fashion show style appearance yesterday in some victorian influenced satin lined pinstripe which I'm told looked pretty good. Waiting for the photos to come. Might do a few myself if I can get things sorted for photos. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: ...and they were all wearing eyepatches tubewhore 2008-01-22 12:27 pm UTC (link)
	I much profer Romana - especially Romana II - love her costume in Destiny of the Daleks where sh'es running around in pink tweed. I saw your post on the fashion show - I look forward to pictures (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: ...and they were all wearing eyepatches papajoemambo 2008-01-27 09:58 pm UTC (link)
	One can never see enough pink tweed, in my humble etc, etc... (Reply to this)(Parent)

spangle_kitten
2008-01-21 09:33 pm UTC (link)

I have an idea for a tubemap corset, the closest thing I could find for fabric was a touristy tea towel though :-/

Did you hear the station announcer that sounds like God in Kings Cross. He makes "There are severe delays on the Central Line" sound like a national disaster. And when he tells us not to leave bags behind "or they could be destroyed" like an episode of Die Hard!

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	failing_angel 2008-01-21 06:08 pm UTC (link)
	That first shot of King's Cross sans tiles looks like some hide from a gigantic lizard. (Reply to this)

	poggs 2008-01-21 08:21 pm UTC (link)
	Pop along, if you can, to Euston. They've peeled the top dozen layers on the posters back to reveal the original posters from around '95! (Reply to this)

	rhythmaning 2008-01-21 08:48 pm UTC (link)
	I love the no-tiles picture, and the turbo-charged poster-and-tiles. magic. And I should see if I can get down to Euston to do some poster archeology! (Reply to this)

	Cool quote (Anonymous) 2008-05-08 03:57 pm UTC (link)
	If you can't get your work done in the first 24 hours, work nights. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://pearlsargentcy.easyjournal.com (Reply to this)

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