Contact Me: Tubewalker

Subject: Tubewalker
Posted: 12 Jul 2010 7:48 am

I first signed your guestbook in February 2009 and had intended to update you on our progress around the tube network. Not being a natural blogger or twitterer I have not done so, but as my brother and I will be attending your talk tomorrow night, I thought I ought to update you.

We have now walked most lines, mostly dividing it into chunks of between five and nine miles as we are both now OAPs and also like to punctuate the walk with a visit to a local hostelry, with a good pub menu and decent selection of wines.

When we started off doing a weekly walk together some six years ago, we did start off taking sandwiches etc. but soon decided that life really is too short...

We are currently nearing the end of the Metropolitan line, which you walked first and we saved until I had bought my ex-husband out of the Former Marital Home between Rickmansworth and Chorleywood. As a life long child of Metroland who has spent all but four of her sixty years of life living in all types of Metroland homes, ranging from a two bed terrace to a large detached house (the aforementioned FMH), I found your comments on the line between Rayners Lane and Uxbridge rather harsh.

Had you walked north of the railway line, closer to the original villages of Eastcote and Ruislip, you would have found more of the larger semis which clearly seduced you just a little bit in later walks.

Any tubewalk is by definition going to be about suburbia, but we have found it all absolutely fascinating and have loved all of it, come rain, shine and snow.

These suburbs are great places to bring up children, but I now spend most of my time at one of my fiance's houses which is in an inner London borough, south of the river, 4 miles from Charing Cross. Much more interesting at my time of life! Ironically the house is also a beautiful 1930s semi on an estate in a sea of Edwardian and Victorian housing!

We have only the District and Piccadilly to do (need advice on how to get round Heathrow) and after that are resolved to make up our own walks - DLR? Overgound? Linking coal tax posts (bit geeky that one)

Anyway, looking forward tremendously to tomorrow night

Kind regards

Jillian

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Subject: Heathrow tips
Posted: 12 Jul 2010 9:32 am

Hi Jillian.

I remember you saying you were setting off in 2009, and that you enjoyed the Morden to Kennington section more than I did... and I'm delighted that it's continued in the same vein! It just shows that people's opinions are just that, and that one person's suburban slog is another person's fascinating trip through picturesque suburbia. As I said at the time, I thought I must have 'picked the dullest route possible from Harrow to Uxbridge', so it's good to hear that the northern route is better - though I did enjoy the likes of Roxbourne Park, Victoria Road, Ickenham, the Hillingdon Trail and Hillingdon Court Park, so you shouldn't take too much notice of my grumblings. I blame the litter mountain I stumbled into between West Harrow and Rayners Lane, which set me off on the wrong foot...

The point is, though, that you've been enjoying your own tubewalk, and that's great news. I have to say that your approach of finding a decent pub is absolutely the right way to go - much more enjoyable than sandwiches and bottled water!

As for going round Heathrow, parts of the route that I did were on private land run by BAA, so technically I needed permission to walk it, though nobody stopped me or showed any particular interest in what I was doing. The parts of my route that were on private land were:

* The small section along the Western Perimeter Road from Terminal 5 to the A3044 roundabout south of Longford
* The whole walk from Hatton Cross to Terminal 4 and on to Terminal 5

However, the most interesting part of the walk - from Longford through to Sipson and round the eastern edge of the airport - is all on public land, so you don't need permission for that part, and you can walk from Hatton Cross to Terminal 5 without straying into private land by following the A30 to the junction with Stanwell Road, and then going west along Stanwell and Bedford Roads, through Stanwell and then turning north to Terminal 5. You can't walk to any of the terminal stations without crossing BAA's land (though Hatton Cross is accessible by foot), but to be honest, you're clearly not terrorists, so even if they stop you, you wouldn't get into trouble.

Anyway, I look forward to meeting you both tomorrow night, so feel free to get more information out of me then.

Best wishes,

Mark

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Subject: Tubewalk
Posted: 12 Jul 2010 10:32 am

Thank you for replying so promptly and for your advice on Heathrow. I did work for Btitish Airways as a planning manager until 1996, so I could always flash my Retired Staff Card.

I am amazed that I have been able to take photographs of all the tube stations, without being challenged by anti-terrorist squads. just a few puzzled LUL staff, who initially think we are crazy and then warm to the idea. Oh and an extremely irate black gentleman, whom I accidentally caught in one of my photos. I initially tried to exclude people from the photos, but actually they look better with people in them.

Forgot to say that although you have a disclaimer on your maps, probably for some ghastly health and safety reason, we have used them religiously and have not yet fallen off the edge of the planet!

See you tomorrow

Jillian

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Subject: Heathrow
Posted: 12 Jul 2010 12:44 pm

Hi Jillian.

I should think an old BA staff card would do nicely! Besides, I'm sure that when people see the two of you walking along, it's fairly obvious that you're just out for a walk.

On the other hand, when I walked the Tube I had long hair, a beard and a backpack, I was walking alone and I was taking lots of photos of things like Tube stations, and that understandably arouses slightly more suspicion these days. I got stopped and searched by the Police on three occasions, though as soon as they heard what I was up to, they were polite and even a little embarrassed that by law they had to issue me with a stop and search form.

I'm glad the maps are proving useful. And you're right, the disclaimer is one of those silly legal things; you can never be too careful in this age of 'no win, no fee' TV lawyers. Ah well!

See you tomorrow.

Mark

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