User:Simply south/LU trivia (interesting)

This article contains information about the London Underground railway which is not of sufficient importance for inclusion in the main article.

Passengers and other inhabitants[edit]

An estimated half a million mice live on the Underground system, about which, TV personality Anthea Turner has written a series of books. London Underground mice. They appear black because their brown fur is covered with dirt, mainly brake-dust from the trains.
Two people are known to have had their coffins transported on the Underground: William Gladstone and Dr Barnardo.

Stations[edit]

Regent's Park, Piccadilly Circus, Hyde Park Corner, Bank, Chancery Lane, Manor House and Warwick Avenue stations have no associated buildings at or above ground level, being entirely underground except for access stairs. There were surface buildings at Piccadilly Circus and Hyde Park Corner but these are no longer used by the Underground (both of them are now pizza restaurants).
Arsenal is the only Underground station named after a football club (it was previously known as Gillespie Road). Watford is named after the area which it serves, as is West Ham. The nearest station to West Ham United Football Club is Upton Park.
Greenford and Stratford are the only stations that have escalators up from street level to the platforms.

Linguistic[edit]

St John's Wood tube station is the only tube station, the name of which contains none of the letters of the word 'mackerel' (the word Saint is not spelt out) and Pimlico is the only station which contains none of the letters of the word 'badger'. (Hoxton, contains none of the letters of either word but - as it is on the Overground line - it is not, strictly speaking, a tube station). Pimlico and Hillingdon are the only two tube stations that contain none of the letters of the word breakfast. Woodford is the only tube station which contains none of the letters of the word stickleback, Borough is the only tube station which contains none of the letters of the word scientifically and the pair of them are the only two tube stations that contain none of the letters from the word catlike. Every tube station contains at least one letter from the word bacteria.

In 2014 some of these puzzles were used in an advertising campaign by Yakult, a pro-biotic yogurt drink. The practice of finding such stations has been dubbed tubewhacking. A website that generates the stations that do not have any letters from a particular word or words can be found at http://bengreen.org.uk/tube.html.

There are only two Underground stations that have all five vowels at least once in their names;South Ealing and Mansion House. Heathrow Terminal 4 would contain all five vowels, if 4 was spelled out as four.
Bank is the only station that contains one syllable. It is also the only station whose name contains only one vowel (Aldwych shared this distinction until its closure in 1994). Oval is the only other station whose name contains only four letters.
Knightsbridge is the only station whose name contains six consecutive consonants (see note about Aldwych above). *There are six alliterative Underground station names - those with two or more words in their names which all begin with the same sound. These are Clapham Common, King's Cross, Sloane Square, Seven Sisters, Golders Green and Bromley-by-Bow. Charing Cross is a visual but not a true alliteration.
There are four Underground stations whose name contains the colour of the line they are on (as depicted on the tube map) - they are Parsons Green, Redbridge, Stepney Green and Turnham Green.
There is only one station name containing the letter 'Z' - (Belsize Park); ~~two~~ three containing a 'J' - (St James's Park, St John's Wood, Willesden Junction) and five containing the letter 'X' - (Brixton, Croxley, Oxford Circus, Uxbridge and Vauxhall).
Temple is the only station name common to the Underground and the Paris Metro, both refer to historic associations of the local area with the Templars. (There was - see http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/07/paris-mayor-contender-plan-metro-station-makeover - a Metro station called Arsenal close to the Bastille but this was closed in 1939). There is a station named (in Latin script) Victoria on line one of the Athens Metro.
There are 15 Underground stations whose name starts and ends with the same letter. 6 contain one word the other 9 are made up of two or three words. They are Eastcote (Metropolitan, and Piccadilly), Edgware (Northern), Hammersmith (Hammersmith & City), Hornchurch (District), Neasden (Jubilee), Southfields (District), Elephant and Castle (Northern, and Bakerloo), Euston Square (Metropolitan, Circle, and Hammersmith & City), Kilburn Park (Bakerloo), North Acton (Central), Seven Sisters (Victoria), St. Paul's (Central), Surrey Quays (East London), West Harrow (Metropolitan) and Ruislip Manor (Metropolitan).
There are no tube stations where all its letters are ones that you cannot color in a part of e.g. i, h, u, l.
There are 2 tube stations with three consecutive alphabetic characters in their name. They are Buckhurst Hill (Central) and Baker Street (Bakerloo) - although technically the latter has a space character between the three.

Sloane Square, Wembley Central, Oxford Circus, London Bridge, Warren Street, Goodge Street, Covent Garden, Cannon Street, Arnos Grove, Brent Cross, Ealing Common are all stations where 2 words contain symmetrical total number of characters. Most are (6,6) other than Wembley Central which is (7,7) and Arnos Grove / Brent Cross which are (5,5). Mill Hill East is the only station with 3 words that contain symmetrical total number of characters (4,4,4).
Adjoining stations with the same character count of their names are reasonably frequent. Croxley / Watford (7 - Metropolitan); Barbican / Moorgate (8 - H&City, Circle, District) are ones with one word names. Canada Water / Canary Wharf (6,5 - Jubilee); Oxford Circus / Warren Street (6,6 - Victoria); Goodge Street / Warren Street (6,6 - Northern); Wembley Park / Preston Road (7,4 - Metropolitan); Kentish Town / Tufnell Park (7,4 - Northern) are ones with two word names. Heathrow Terminal 4 / Heathrow Terminal 5 (8,8,1 - Picadilly) is the only with 3 separate linguistic entities though slightly subjective as they are mostly the same and only the number distinguishes them.
Holborn, Bank, Temple are stations that only have one vowel character type in their name.

Miscellany[edit]

Waterloo and King's Cross stations share the highest number of escalators - 20 each.
Angel has the longest escalator on the tube network and the 3rd longest escalator in western Europe.
The Jubilee Line is the only line that intersects all others. The District Line meets all other lines except the Metropolitan Line; which it misses by approximately 20 m at Aldgate. If, however, the Hammersmith and City Line is considered as part of the Metropolitan, as it once was, then the District qualifies. (Which line does the Central line not intersect with?)
The Waterloo & City Line is the only line to both start and end in Zone 1.
The return journey from King's Cross St Pancras and Euston and back again can be made travelling only in "northbound" trains. The northbound Northern Line runs from King's Cross to Euston and the northbound Victoria Line runs from Euston to King's Cross. It is also possible to make the same trip on "southbound" trains only.
It is possible to travel through ten stations in a row all beginning with the same letter without changing trains, on the Piccadilly Line, by starting at Hounslow East, travelling towards Heathrow and round the Heathrow loop and returning to Hounslow East again. Intermediate stations are Hounslow Central, Hounslow West, Hatton Cross, Heathrow Terminals 1,2,3, Heathrow Terminal 4, Hatton Cross again, Hounslow West again, Hounslow Central again, returning to Hounslow East.
The only station on the Underground with London in its name is London Bridge. The station for London City Airport is on the DLR.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

London Underground Tube Trivia.