Mind the Gap: Getting Around London. Part 1, Underground

London is such a magnificent city, and most of the points of interest for a tourist are in the center of the city. Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, The Tower of London, Hyde Park, Tower Bridge, Victoria and Albert Museum, St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Shard are just a few of the sights to see.  If one adds the shopping of Harrod’s, Fortnum and Mason, Selfridges, Liberty, Carnaby Street, Oxford Road, Regent Street, Portobello Road, one finds an abundance of interesting attractions in the center of London alone.  With the city center being so huge, attempting to walk everywhere would be the cheapest method but exhausting and time-consuming. So, how does one get around London?

The answer is pretty simple—there are three main ways of travel around London: the Tube, the bus, and the iconic black cab.  First, let’s cover the Tube.

The subway, operated by Transport for London (TfL) and known as the Underground or the Tube, is world famous, efficient and a good way to travel. The iconic map of the London Underground (also known as the TfL Services Map) was originally designed by Harry Beck in 1931. His inspiration was that the actual physical location of the stations or tunnels was not really important, that what the passenger wants and needs is the topology of the underground—what station is connected to what station, and where do stations on various lines intersect? As a part-time hobby, Beck designed a map in which all lines are either horizontal or vertical or on the diagonal. The actual location of the line underground is not shown or important. The only above ground feature shown on the map is the River Thames, also using only horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines rather than the actual bed of the river.

Map of London Underground (The Tube) courtesy of Transport for London, 2019.

This approach both simplified the map and made it more useful to the passenger and became an immediate hit. These days, it is often considered a work of art. As for navigating the Tube today, the same map philosophy applies. There are now apps for your phone that will give you a detailed route, from where you are to where you tell it you want to be, including walking directions to get to the station you need to start, and from the station where you exit to the destination. One of those that we use is “Tube Map,” and is available at the Apple App Store and also at Google Play.

The “Mind the Gap” slogan comes from the fact that tube train cars are straight, but not all of the platforms are straight, and between the car and the platform can be a gap of just a few inches to as much as almost a foot. The stations are festooned with “Mind the Gap” signs and painting on the platform reminding the passengers to be careful. So, when you mount or dismount from the tube car please do “Mind the Gap” as you cross over it.

If you use the Tube, you can consider an Oyster card from TfL. This pre-paid card can be tapped on the turnstile of the Tube to get in and out. A lot of the Londoners have and use the Oyster card and, on occasion, may get a bit frustrated when a tourist fumbles with the card they got from the dispensing machines in the station, uncertain how to feed the card into the slot to be scanned.  Patience on both sides is key! With the advent of “tap and pay” smart credit cards, the turnstiles now accept them as well, so one does not necessarily have to have an Oyster card. It does. however, offer discounts and the website is well worth exploring to make sure you get the deals you might want.

Next up, the red bus!

Featured image taken from Wikipedia. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.