I used up the film documenting my trip from Kings Cross to South Ken gathering up the above-mentioned four stations that had not yet been collected.  This meant chatting up passers-by to do the camera work, and I was excited to see how they turned out.  I'm not shy by nature - in fact many of my friends would laugh out loud were I even to posit the idea of me being called shy - so it is suprising to me to find myself feeling awkward about asking someone to take the picture - not like I'm panhandling for change, but London is just not that friendly a place most of the time. But then, part of the 'art' of the project is to be both quest and question, so I felt I was exploring my own boundaries as much as the tube network.

It's sad the pictures are mostly blank, because it was an interesting journey.

At Russell Square I asked a chap who was waiting in the cold for his girlfriend to take the pic.  He was amused at what I was doing, but very dilligent in getting the station name in shot. I was thinking I should have been wearing blue stockings for my appearance in deepest Bloomsbury. 

These are the best of the pics, and they're dreadful! Even with the flash on it's nothing but murky pixels. Nothing from Piccadilly Circus came out at all.


At Holborn a group of slightly baffled Americans did the honours.  The chap who actually did the photo was incredulous - firstly at how many stations there were and then that I really meant to go to all of them, individually.

'What, even Zone Six?' he said.

Inside on the Platform another tourist got a shot of me next to the stations art of mummies and sarcophagi to represent the British Museum. Always loved those fascias, but then they are black and brooding and I am Goth...and of course, it didn't come out.Most put out as I wanted to do some embroideries based on the mummies.

Train was busy to Piccadilly where vast numbers of Christmas shoppers and myself disgorged...upstairs I was confused and disorientated as Piccadily Circus looks exactly like Oxford Circus, even down to having the same World Clock that indicates exactly where it is midnight in the world.  Have I done this station already and got muddled? I shall have to return to Oxford Circus and check.  However, not one of the pictures came out even a tiny bit.  Explained to a confident type woman carrying several shopping bags what I was up to, and she thoguht it was  'a cool idea', and she took a pic of me crouched by the station ident roundel.  No sign of the shot on the negative, just blank space.

Hyde Park Corner was deserted; a ghost station.  I followed the only other passenger up the escalators.  He was shoving a piece of paper into his pocket and it fell out onto the escalator so I picked it up. It was only a receipt, so perhaps he'd meant to discard it intentionally, (oh, I hate litter) so I tapped him on the elbow and handed it back to him.   'Oh, thank you' he exclaimed. 'I need that to claim back my expenses', and beamed at me, so with the ice broken I got him to do a pic in the tiled tunnels that are decorated with scenes of Victorian London leisure time; lots of crinolined ladies strolling in the park.  I took an extra few shots of the tiling for myself as the costumes were fun, and returned to the tiny, empty ticket hall.  The guard watched me wanderning about, looking around, and in a heavy French accent asked if 'Mademoiselle was lost'...maybe it was the 50's dress I was wearing but it was sweet to be called 'Mademoiselle' rather than 'Madame'

Down on the platform, the station name was blazoned across the tiling in suitable Edwardian styling.  I took several shots of the typeface for the 'way out' and 'to the trains' signage, but alas even with a sneaky flash nothing showed up on film. The platform was deserted and only three minutes till the next train so  I was concerned that there wouldn't be any other passengers as I wanted a shot of me with the full Hyde Park Corner on the tiling.  Finally other people arrived and I asked a confident looking executive type woman if she'd mind, and she agreed but fired off stridently: 'you do know it's illegal to do this'.  I could immediate counter that indeed it wasn't, and quoted the LUL instructions, i.e. personal photos allowed as long as you didn't use a flash, which I wasn't, so she allowed me to direct her to the angle on the signage that I wanted but still peered over the top of the camera at me and demanded again, 'you're sure there's no flash on?' before actually pressing the shutter.  At least a little bit of it came out. 

The question is now, as I am not actually visible (Holborn), or the pics are blank (Piccadilly Circus) is it fair to say these stations count?  I was there, but the evidence is slight.  Is this just part of the nature of the game, to be disappointed sometimes?  Highly annoying.  There are still so many I have never ever been too, as well as the 103 that I worked out I have passed through in my life to which I am returning, that it is galling to have to retrace steps again.