London 2014 Day 4 Part 2 – Going Underground with London Transport Museum

In the late afternoon of this day we visited Aldwych Underground Station. We had booked the tour beforehand on the website of the London Transport Museum. I started the booking process as soon as the online shop was open and when I looked again not much later all was sold out.

The station had been closed in 1994 and is now being used for example by film companies (who put most of the posters up which you can see on the pictures) and for music videos.

The toilet is still in operation ;)

We had to walk downstairs – 160 stairs. However, this number seemed to have increased when we walked upstairs again ;)

A German (or Austrian or Swiss) construction worker immortalized himself in one of the tunnels:

This hilarious music video was made down there:  

The tickets for the visit of app. one hour cost 25 GBP per person, but it was definitely worth it. We got lots of information on the tube and the station itself - a special treat for tube fans like me :)

London 2014 Day 4 Part 1 – Unusual Houses, Hyde Park, Strand

On the tube in the morning we met Indy and her owner. During the entire journey Indy was calmly lying underneath her owner’s seat and didn’t move, even when people walked directly past her. A real tube dog!

The first destination for us was Leinster Gardens where you can see some special houses. Can you tell what’s unusual with them?

This is what they look like from the back:

They are not houses at all, just dummy facades. This is because of the tube going underneath (for a detailled explanation please visit the About London website).

Leinster Gardens are close to Hyde Park, so we went there next.

After a rest in the holiday flat we returned to the city centre. We had booked a visit to Aldwych station and wanted to be there in time, so we had started early. Therefore we had some time to explore the area.

London 2014 Day 3 – John Lewis Roof Garden and Black Cab Protest

In the morning we went to the weekly Wednesday coffee morning at Belmont Hall for tea, home-made scones and good conversation with lovely people.

Afterwards we visited the roof garden of John Lewis at Oxford Street. As you can see on the photos it is a relaxing place to be and you can have an interesting view over London.

 Hermann relaxing ;) 

In the afternoon we went to Strand from Temple station via Surrey Street to check where we had to go the next day for our visit to Aldwych station. There we saw that the entire street was blocked by black cabs (though some were not black, but I think these are called black as well). We had heard about this demonstration before – it was about a smartphone app for mini cabs – but we had thought it would be just around Trafalgar Square. However, it included all the streets around the square as well. Hermann changed into professional journalist mode immediately and took lots of photos :)