Travel with Angela Lansbury: Colourful Tiles and Artistic Artwork To Admire on underground stations all over London, England

Southwark

Southwark underground station, London, England.

The pink and green - and blue - doesn't it arrest your attention! Isn't it delicious? For me its memories are sugary. I don't often relate to people who can translate pictures into sounds, or colours into tastes, but this bright pink seems to me almost edible. The pink evokes delightful images of pink drinks. Sweet foods. Childhood. Parties. Birthdays. Days out. Fairgrounds. Like pink candy floss.

To me this design is both good and bad. Let's start with what is good. The colours are warm, wonderful, vivid, varied.

But the rigid squares, stiff stripes? It could have had waves. Ovals.

The upright stripes are like crowds of soldiers or commuters. It is a marching design. Hurrying on. Energetic.

Not soothing. Yet, I like it. Why?

Yes, on the whole, on second thoughts, on last thoughts, final decision, I like it. it is better than the old plain walls of so many public places. I like the bold colours. It looks easy to clean. It won't show the dirt like a white wall or any wall all one colour. It discourages graffiti.

You can see the colours from a distance. No challenge tao your knowledge of local history or national culture. No guessing the meaning of symbols. Just colour and simple shapes.

The shapes are a bit of a mish-mash. Squares or diamonds, circles, stripes. Make up your mind, Mr or Mrs artist. Which is it, rigid straight lines or soothing circles?

What about the patterns? Looks like a five year old picked the design from a book of patterns. Black and white stripes on day one. Diamonds on day two. Then circles.

Finally, when teacher or parents suggested add some colour, colour. Turn both squares and diamonds into colour. Random colours.

What are the colours? Red, orange, yellow, green, blue. Black and white. No pink or purple. (Nothing too flamboyant. Nor anything depressing, grey or brown, not colours of mould and or earthy dirt.) Nothing challenging. Something for everyone.

No detail. Never mind. This is a corridor. Can't have people stopp ing to inspect the detail, check the text. We want them to more on, along the corridor and up the escalator.

Energize everybody. Get them off to work, or shopping, with enthusiasm. Give them the energy to get home after their tiring day.

Okay, that works.

Vauxhall Street.

I love colour. On murals. Anywhere. I prefer colour to boring black and white. But the black and white informative panels featuring historical and fictional characters also grab my attention.

Usually I am hurrying past to a destination. On the way home I am tired and do not want to stop. But once in a while I have the time, the leisure and pleasure, to stand and stare, and photograph the murals.

My favourite design on the London underground is Sherlock Holmes on Baker Street. Simple, straightforward, one person featured, easy to understand and recognize. On one mural, tiny black silhouettes of Sherlock Holmes in his deerstalker hat make up the image of his pipe.

Baker Street underground railway station mural.

I was puzzled by the little Labyrinth on the wall at ground level near the entrance to Northwick Park station in North London. I asked the man serving at the kiosk, "Do you know what this little design means?" He simply shrugged and raised his hands in the air. "It's an artwork."

Now I can explain it, to local people, or foreign visitors. I feel really pleased with myself. I am a guide, a teacher. I can write about it in my blog. I can put it on Pinterest. I can add it on Google maps.

I only recently, yesterday, discovered that the same artist has designed different labyrinths for stations all over London. The artist is Mark Wallinger. Mark my words, his name is easy to remember. Mark the wall. Wall injured. Or, if you prefer a positive memory aid, wall enjoy. Or wall ingenius. Mark Willinger. Why bother to remember his name? Because you will see his little mazes on the walls of railway stations all over London, the station you depart from and the station you arrive at.

For years I had walked past the little maze on the wall at Northwick Park station and wondered, what is that doing here? What has a maze got to do with this area? The answer is, nothing. The mazes are all over London. Each station has its own maze and each one is unique and charming.