h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Station by Station Guide to the London Underground - Northern Line: High Barnet and Bank Branches - A3660419
Author: AlexAshman (Scout) - U566116


Since the last section to enter PR is taking a while to sort out, here's the next installment - 18 more stations, plus 6 that have already been written about. Comments and additions are most definitely welcome

Alex

First section
– unfulfilled ---> unfulfilled

origins section –
travelled --> traveled

High Barnet –
The name Barnet has two roots, either baernet, the Old English for a place cleared by burning, or bernette, which is French for a slope. The area was recorded as Barneto in 1070 and la Bernet in 1235. The High in the name refers to it being on a hill.
Barnet is obviously famous for the battle in 1471, Underhill the famously sloping football ground, and Barnet Fair, cockney rhyming slang for hair.

Totteridge & Whetstone --
The are --> The area
Totteridge comes from an Anglo-Saxon bloke called Totta who lived on the ridge. It was first recorded as Taterugg in 1248. Whetstone means stone quarry, and was recorded as Wheston in 1417. Local legends say that soldiers used a large stone here to sharpen their weapons before the Battle of Barnet.
The station was first opened as Totteridge in 1872, and was renamed Totteridge and Whetstone in 1874

Woodside Park
soutbound --> southbound
Torrington Park in 1872 --> Torrington Park, Woodside in 1872
This area was originally Fyncheley Wode, and was named Woodside (because its by the side of a wood) in 1686.
Woodside Park station is very close to North Finchley, just incase anybody thought North Finchley got left out when Finchley was being given tube stations.

West Finchley
Finchely was first recorded as Finchelee-leya in 1208 and Fyncheley in 1547. Although the name could be derived from ‘the clearing in the forest with finches’, it is more likely to mean Finc’s forest.

Mill Hill East
Mill Hill takes its name from, rather obviously, a hill with a mill on it. The site is Mill Field, north of the present village. The station was first used by underground trains on May 18, 1941, mainly to serve the nearby barracks.

Finchley Central
Station was renamed Finchley (Church End) on February 1 1894, and Finchley Central on April 1 1940.
The line to Mill Hill East carries straight on from the station, the line to West Finchley is a curve off to the right.
Finchley gave the world George Micheal and Baby Spice. In 1967, a band called The New Vaudeville Band had a hit with ‘Finchley Central’

East Finchley
The band Fairport convention were named after a house in nearby Fotis Green when Simon Nicol’s father was a GP.

Highgate
Acess --> Access
Highgate is one of the highest points of London, it gets its name from the toll gate that the Bishop of London used to charge people who used his road across his park on Hornsey to get to Finchley. It was recorded as Le Heghgate in 1354.
Highgate is famous for its cemetery. There are also stairs out of the station, but it is a not for the unfit!

Archway
Archway is named after the road that crosses Highgate Hill. It was originally a tunnel called Highgate Archway. The current viaduct was built in 1897, and designed by Sir Alexander Binnie.
Archway Tavern is situated next to the station, and at least one pre-opening map showed the station name as Archway Tavern. The Tavern featured on the cover shot of the Kink’s Muswell Hillbillies.
Rod Stewart lived around here with his parents.
Archway is near the spot where Dick Wittington is reputed to have stopped and turned round on hearing the bells of London.
The station was rename Archway (Highgate) on June 11, 1939, then Highgate (Archway) in January 19 1941 and Archway in December 1947.

Tufnell Park

Named in honor of William Tufnell, who was lord of the manor of Barnsbury in 1753.

Kentish Town
Kentish town gets its name from the farm of a man nicknamed le Kentiss.

Camden Town
Camden Town gets its name from Charles Pratt, Earl of Camden who obtained the area in 1795. His seat, Camden Place was in Kent, coincidently, he acquired Kentish Town as well !

Angel
Angel is named after a coaching inn, which stood on the corner of Pentonville Road and Islington High Street.
Before its refurbishment, Angel was just a narrow island platform where both lines and the platform were in the same tunnel.
The Hope and Anchor on Upper Street was where bands such as Joy Division, Dexy’s Midnight Runners and U2 made their London debut. Frankie goes to Holywood made their videos for Relax and Two Tribes there.

Old Street
juction --> junction
wagn is in lower case here and in the Moorgate section, and also in capitals in the Moorgate section. I think the WAGN footnote may fit better here.
Old Street, which was recorded as Ealdestrate around 1200 CE and le Oldestrete in 1373. It was originally a Roman road. Before Bishopsgate opened, it was the main highway from Aldersgate to the North East of England.
Moorfields Eye Hospital is nearby

Bank and Monument
The Central line was built Threadneedle Street and Poultry to avoid having to compensate local property owners, and so the Central line platforms at Bank are extremely curved --> sentence needs a few words added and a comma removed.
rumoured --> rumored
Possibly worth mentioning that part of Bank station sits underneath the Mansion House itself, in fact City station was sometimes referred to as Mansion House.

Borough
Borough High Street was originally a Roman approach to London Bridge. The settlement was built by the Romans. In the late middle ages, this was the only London Borough outside of the city walls that sent its own MP to parliament. It has kept the name Borough ever since.

Elephant & Castle
an anomally --> anomaly
rumoured --> rumored

Elephant and Castle was named after the old tavern that was used to be The Newington Theatre, a 16th century playhouse that had staged Shakespeare plays. The sign of an Elephant with a castle on its back, was used by the Cutler’s company who adopted the device in 1445 at the Wedding of Henry IV and Queen Margaret.
The sign is now displayed in the local shopping centre.
The national rail station is a 100m walk away
The station is a short walk from the Imperial War Museum.

(The 1445 wedding would have been that of Henry VI, not Henry IV, who was dead by then and no longer such a good catch.)

Nice entry, Alex.

Ok - I've made some changes.

The Dollis Brook viaduct over Dollis Road on the Mill Hill East branch is the highest point above ground level on the Underground, 18m (60 ft)

The Underground's deepest point below ground level is at Holly Bush Hill, Hampstead, 67.4m (221 ft)

I've added those.

Quick mention for Borough Market - one of the best places in London to buy quality food (although it's not cheap).

Under Borough, obviously.

sprout

Actually just to confuse people Borough Market is much closer to London Bridge station and is partially under the actual rail bridge see
http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?grid2map?x=532750&y=180250&zoom=1

Camden Town station is notoriously crowded at weekends - in fact I think it's been an exit only station on Sunday afternoons for a long time now.

TFL have been trying to get permission for redevelopment for years see http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tube/company/projects/camden-town/

I'll add the bit about Borough market, but there's already an entry on Camden Town station and I'm trying to avoid overlap.

*two weeks (the average time between trains on the Northern line) later...*

Any more comments anyone?

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