Brixton Station and colourful, crowded, noisy, lively streets

 

Brixton station has delightful artwork. As do an increasing number of London stations.

Come out of the crowded underground station from Euston and look right. A seething mass of people, musicians with music blaring from portable loudspeaker. Happy couples, families, groups, laughing loners, people sleeping on the ground, beggars, and major international chain stores and supermarkets. All life, all the world, from all round the world, is here.  Above them on the right you'll see the bridge with murals carrying the overground. Walk towards it and take the first road right.  Now you are amongst the small shops and pushcarts selling ethnic food, clothes, and what looks like parties.

It's not all cheap. Lots of it is bling and pricey.

Take the tunnel adorened with more murals on your left. You pass the entrance/exit to the overground rain line going south. 

Now the murals are so gigantic there's no room for more graffiti.

More shops are every few steps. you come out into another street with more shops. All along under the overhead railway are arches filled with shops and eating places. One giant disco complex blrares music. Depending on the time of day, in the evening you see the market shutting up with a few leftover stall. You might see wheeled kiosks selling clothes, and open sided vans serving fast food.  

Beyond, towards the houses, are trees lit not just around the crown as in London's supposedly wealthier northern suburbs, but lights, bright blue, neon green, electric pink, down the drunk to the ground. Each tree transformed into a city artwork.

See more pictures in my other blog posts on Brixton.

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Where To Find Poetry On The Underground in London, New York, Paris, Shanghai - post 7847

 

Poetry on the underground started in London, England and spread to New York, Paris, Moscow and Shanghai. 

I picked up a leaflet of poems advertising the book of them which you can buy.

The latest version of the book is available for about thirteen uk pounds (plus postage if you are not a prime member) from Amazon.

Second-hand copies of older versions are available at about three pounds or more from Awesome books, ebay and others.

One of several editions of Poems on the Underground. From Wikipedia.

Poems About The Underground

I was surprised to find that poems on the underground were used to entertain travellers on the underground with poetry, both classical and modern, on universal themes such as love, rather than poems about the underground.

Poem About The Underground

By Irish poem Seamus Healey

Poem about the UK overground, London to Scotland, commissioned by the railway company pre second world war.

Night Mail by W H Ausen 1936 has the rhythm of the train. This is the first line

'This is the night mail crossing the border ...'

In the USA Poetry In Motion has produced poems in New York city, Washington DC, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Nashville and more cities, as you can see on the Poetry Society website.

You cn also buy books by featured famous American poets.

China

Chinese poems translated into English have appeared on London underground.

In 2017 The British Council organized poems in the English language in Shanghai and other major Chinese cities, as well as English poems translated into Chinese and Chinese poems translated into English..

FRANCE

Back in 1912 Ezra Pound wrote a poem about the Paris Metro, entitled 

In A Station Of The Mero.

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

My favourite poem about the Overground is Auden's. I've written my own poem about the underground.

 Brunel statue, Paddington station.

The trains are travelling round and round

The underground with their roar-in sound

The passengers are running up and down

The escalators to the underground

I love the hand-written signs

Which joke and meet and greet

And the kind souls who smile

And keenly offer me their seat

The posters give me information

Something new on every station

There's Sherlock Holmes, and Shakespeare, too

The Elizabeth line which shines brand new

With lifts which keep grandma beside

As escalator passengers ride

The safe glass doors, wide corridors

One of London's new joys for sure.

When overhead you might see rain

Waiting for buses in cold's a pain

Brunel's statue on the overground

Even more to see if you take the lift down.

Sherlock wears a deerstalker hat

I wonder if he has a map?

I'm sure he'll smile and never frown

If he finds himself on the Underground.

-ends-

Useful Websites

UK

poemsontheunderground.org

tfl.gov.uk/poems

https://arts.britishcouncil.org/projects/poems-underground

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poems-Underground

USA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry_in_Motion_(arts_program)

https://poetrysociety.org/poetry-in-motion

https://poetrysociety.org/poetry-in-motion/all

CHINA

https://www.britishcouncil.cn/en/about/press/british-council-launches-poetry-metro-five-chinese-cities

FRANCE

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_a_Station_of_the_Metro

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Where can I see a statue of Brunel?

Problem
Where is Brunel?

Answer
Here he is, seated on Paddington station.

Brunel on Paddington station. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

If you arrive on the underground train (for example from Queens Park), at the top of the long escalator, you see the exits and ticket office in front of you. Instead take the right hand corridor. At the end turn right and exit through the barrier. Ahead is a very short escalator. Alternative take a lift. This rings you out almost opposite the platform with seated Brunel.

What a magnificent roof the station has. Upstairs are some shops and restaurants. Engineer Bruneal sits surveying it all. I imgaine he must feel pretty pleased.

Author, Angela Lasnbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Using your phone, iPad and laptop when travelling

Your phone
Many cities, stations and cafes have areas where you can work on your laptop and log into wifi and hotspots. For example, sitting waiting for a bus in Switzerland I read a sign telling me I was in a hotspot. In the UK in London on stations you get free wifi, although the time is limited. You can also use phones in branches of Wetherspoons pub and Costa coffee shops. At Costa you may have to log in and get their password, but usually once you are on the system it works at every coffee shop.

Your iPad
A friend of mine from Writers' Summer School wrote to me on Facebook that she was unable to use her iPad to connect to the log on system for charging on Virgin, although the system says you can charge your iPad. Before that I hadn't even realised that you could use sockets to charge up use your machines on long journeys.

Charging Forbidden
Sockets on London overground trains have signs saying Not For Public use. This is a big disappointment. It costs them very little. In fact, surely it's like charging your phone in a moving car. The electricity is generated by the car.

I look forward to the day when my laptop and phone will be charged by sunlight or the movement of my wrist, - even a wind up computer, like a wind-up radio.

Meanwhile, if you invest in a power pack and charge it before you set off on your day's travels, you can be sure of more security and the ability to make that vital phone call, 'I'm here at the station/airport. Come and find me!'

Please, Mr Mayor, help the public use phones on public transport. What's the point of giving us free wifi when a phone has died.

The most vulnerable people are the ones most likely to have phones which die on them.  When we travel home late at night, that's when we need the safety of a phone.

I also read that somebody was fined for staying more than two minutes at a pickup point.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/iphone/11737063/Man-arrested-after-charging-iPhone-on-London-Overground.html
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-2242801/The-trick-beat-private-parking-tickets-I-dodged-service-station-fine.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2981794/10-minute-let-avoid-parking-ticket-month-new-law-let-overstay-meter-without-fine.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3170758/Pregnant-mum-hit-70-parking-fine-stopping-just-SIX-minutes-partner-changed-baby-s-nappy.html


Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.