March 2022 - The Underground (And again!)

This picture is taken at Gants Hill station, way out on the Central Line towards Essex. According to Wikipedia it is “the easternmost station to be below ground on the London Underground network”. It was opened in 1947 – with a design that was modelled on the Moscow Underground. What I hadn’t known was that the London Transport Passenger Board had provided advice on the building of the Moscow Metro during the 1930’s and had decided that the styles used there would fit in well in London.

So, the new station was built – and, truly, it looks magnificent. The concourse in this picture is between the two platforms and below the ticketing hall – it is a totally different experience to, say, Westminster or any of the other Jubilee line stations. The escalators down from the ticketing Hall are behind me in this photo, and they look perfectly normal. 

I really enjoyed the colour, the use of lights (those uplighters that you can see in the centre were pretty powerful), and the feeling of space, of room to move and to enjoy just being there. The design meant that any photos had to be really symmetrical in order to convey something of the building. I can imagine that, at rush hour, people are just coming in or out, getting on or off the trains and probably not even noticing the design. I’m sure that I do this far too often when walking through the City, or in Kingston – and that means that I will be missing some great photo opportunities. A photographer must keep her or his eyes open!