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

Golders Green was originally the end of the Line. It was right out in the countryside and tube adverts were made inviting people out to relax in the country air.

Now it is the bustling hub of Northwest London, complete with a bus and coach station on its forecourt, where the trams used to stop.

The main entrance and forecourt face onto the junction with North End Road, Finchley Road and Golders Green Road, at the centre of which is the War Memorial, whose four clocks have never been known to all tell the same time at the same time. At the left-hand corner of the forecourt, is the Hippodrome, Home of the BBC Concert Orchestra and the perennial radio show, Friday Night is Music Night. Up the hill of North End Road, is the Bull and Bush pub, famous for the song written about it in the music hall days, and at the top of the hill, Jack Straw's Castle. This was until recently a very old and famous pub, on the site where Jack Straw (the original rebel leader, not the current politician (although he is a descendant)) massed the people to march on London. Although the facade has been preserved, it is now a block of flats.

Golders Green had an original brick ticket hall, complete with trademark Underground arches architecture and wooden ticket booths, until the late eighties, when it was knocked down and a new, more spacious, tiled entrance hall was built, with built-in ticket machines.

This entrance hall leads you into one of two subways or tunnels, from which you can climb the stairs to any of its five platforms, although one of these is now closed off and used for staff offices.

Golders Green actually has two entrances, the second being at the other end of the tunnels. It connects to Finchley Road via a long covered walkway. This was in use until 1991 (I think), when it was closed to save the cost of having another ticket inspector at that end. Recently, building work has begun to update and reopen this entrance and one can only hope that these works will include some disabled access to the platforms, as there currently is none whatsoever, and some toilets!

Don't know how much of this you want to use, but help yourself! Let me know if you want any more/ less etc.

I'm really not sure how much info I need...

I thought there were some toilets outside, on the buss station (just round the corner between the station entrance and the Hippodrome).

I don't know - maybe em-ma6 does

well, yes, there are... but have you been IN them?!

When standing with your back to the bus station looking at the station, they are just to the right of the ticket hall, outside in a separate block. Prior to all the knocking down and rebuilding, there were toilets to the LEFT of the ticket hall building, but they were unspeakably unpleasant, so we don't talk about them!

I didn't mention the semi-circular road to the left-hand side, between the station and the Finchley Road. This used to be a turning circle for trams at the end of the line, then it was closed and used as station staff parking, and now it has been re-opened for buses to use. This ensures that lots of people that have spent nearly 20 years blithely walking across it because it was closed will now get hit by rather unexpected omnibuses coming at them from all directions!

The grassy semi-circle that defines this lane is used at Christmas time to house a 30-foot high eight-branched candlabra, which is lit every night for eight days during the Jewish festival of Chanukah. They hand out free doughnuts each night, if anyone's interested!

During the 90s the grass on this little lawn was allowed to grow wild and it grew to a couple of feet high. Sadly, a tramp lay down and died there and no one noticed for three days, so now the grass is kept short. This also assists with dog poo surveillance when cutting across it!

National Express coaches stop at the station too. If anyone is interested i can blather on about them for a bit too...?

I'll add as much of that info as I can