There are many instances in
popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
in which fictional
underground
Underground most commonly refers to:
* Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth
Underground may also refer to:
Places
* The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston
* The Underground ...
stations appear. In many cases for
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
or
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
, actual stations are used for the purpose of filming.
Fictional London Underground stations
* Belgravia – 1960 film ''
Piccadilly Third Stop
''Piccadilly Third Stop'' is a 1960 British thriller film directed by Wolf Rilla and starring Terence Morgan, Yoko Tani and John Crawford. The screenplay concerns a wealthy playboy who hires a gang of criminals to help him steal £100,000.
It w ...
''.
* Blackwall – featured in the TV drama series ''
London's Burning''.
* Bloomsbury – 1934 film ''
Bulldog Jack
''Bulldog Jack'' (released as ''Alias Bulldog Drummond'' in the USA) is a 1935 British film produced by Gaumont British, directed by Walter Forde, and starring Jack Hulbert, Fay Wray, Ralph Richardson and Atholl Fleming.
The film was followed b ...
''.
*:The film features a chase/fight scene in a disused Bloomsbury station on the
Central line, connected to the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
by a secret tunnel. A map is seen on the wall of the train in the climax scene, involving a race through the tunnels on a runway tube train. The map lists the stations between
Ealing Broadway
Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan.
Ealing was histor ...
and
Liverpool Street from top to bottom, and includes "Bloomsbury", between the now-closed
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
and
Chancery Lane
Chancery Lane is a one-way street situated in the ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. It has formed the western boundary of the City since 1994, having previously been divided between the City of Westminster and the London Boroug ...
, in place of
Holborn
Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part ( St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London.
The area has its roots ...
, as well as a fictional High Holborn station located in-between
Chancery Lane
Chancery Lane is a one-way street situated in the ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. It has formed the western boundary of the City since 1994, having previously been divided between the City of Westminster and the London Boroug ...
and
Post Office (now St Paul's). In an absence of continuity, the map later changes to another, where the order is reversed, with Liverpool Street at the top and, "Western Avenue" is at the bottom. This different map includes a number of fictional stations in place of the real station names. It now reads:
Liverpool Street,
Bank
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Because ...
,
Post Office (now St Paul's),
Holborn
Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part ( St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London.
The area has its roots ...
, Bloomsbury, New Oxford Street, Langham (presumably a reference to
Langham Place near
Oxford Circus
Oxford Circus is a road junction connecting Oxford Street and Regent Street in the West End of London. It is also the entrance to Oxford Circus tube station.
The junction opened in 1819 as part of the Regent Street development under John Nash, ...
), Cavendish Street, Cumberland (presumably a reference to the Cumberland Gate of
Hyde Park
Hyde Park may refer to:
Places
England
* Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London
* Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds
* Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield
* Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester
Austra ...
), Gloucester Gate, Campden Hill, Kensington Park, Holland Road,
White City White City may refer to:
Places Australia
* White City, Perth, an amusement park on the Perth foreshore
* White City railway station, a former railway station
* White City Stadium (Sydney), a tennis centre in Sydney
* White City FC, a football clu ...
(which was yet to be built in 1935), North Perivale, East Perivale, and Western Avenue, where the chase terminates. The station names at the end of this fictional version of the Central line reflect the locations of some of the stations that would later form the extension of the Central line towards
West Ruislip
West Ruislip is a station on Ickenham High Road on the borders of Ickenham and western Ruislip in the London Borough of Hillingdon in Greater London, formerly in Middlesex. It is served by London Underground (LU) and National Rail trains on ind ...
. Bloomsbury was the initial name considered for
British Museum station but was dropped before the station opened.
* Camden Road – Appeared in the film ''
The Gentle Gunman
''The Gentle Gunman'' is a 1952 British drama film directed by Basil Dearden and starring John Mills, Dirk Bogarde and Elizabeth Sellars. The film is based on a 1950 play of the same title by Roger MacDougall that was televised by the BBC in S ...
''; footage later reused in the 1969
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
television programme ''
Strange Report
''Strange Report'' is a British television crime drama series starring Anthony Quayle as Adam Strange. It was produced by ITC Entertainment and first broadcast in 1969 on ITV
In the United States, NBC broadcast ''Strange Report'' between 8 Ja ...
''.
* Charnham – TV soap ''
Family Affairs
''Family Affairs'' is a British soap opera that aired on Channel 5. It debuted on 30 March 1997, the day of the launch of said channel and was the first programme broadcast on the channel. It was screened as five thirty-minute episodes per w ...
''.
* Constitution Hill – 2004 ''
Time Hunter
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to co ...
'' novella ''The Tunnel at the End of the Light''.
* Crouch End – 2004 film ''
Shaun of the Dead
''Shaun of the Dead'' is a 2004 zombie comedy film directed by Edgar Wright and written by Wright and Simon Pegg. Pegg stars as Shaun, a downtrodden salesman in London who is caught in a zombie apocalypse with his friend Ed (Nick Frost). The fi ...
'' featured a deleted scene (included on the DVD).
*:The title character (played by
Simon Pegg
Simon John Pegg (né Beckingham; born 14 February 1970) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. He came to prominence in the UK as the co-creator of the Channel 4 sitcom ''Spaced'' (1999–2001), directed by Edgar Wright. H ...
) attempted to catch a tube to work from the station only to find it closed. A special 'Crouch End' tube station sign was made for the film scene and, according to Pegg's DVD commentary, is now mounted in his own bedroom. Under an abandoned part of the Underground's 1930s
Northern Heights plan
The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs from North London to South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. The Northern line is unique on the Underground network in having two different routes through central London, two ...
the real life
Crouch End
Crouch End is an area of North London, approximately from the City of London in the western half of the borough of Haringey. It is within the Hornsey postal district (N8). It has been described by the BBC as one of "a new breed of urban villag ...
main line station would have transferred to the Northern line. The station closed in 1954 without the transfer taking place (see also:
List of former and unopened London Underground stations
The London Underground is a public rapid transit system in the United Kingdom that serves a large part of Greater London and adjacent parts of the home counties of Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. It has many closed stations, while oth ...
).
* Duchess Street – featured in the 1932
Jack Hulbert
John Norman Hulbert (24 April 189225 March 1978) was a British actor, director, screenwriter and singer, specializing primarily in comedy productions, and often working alongside his wife (Dame) Cicely Courtneidge.
Biography
Born in Ely, Ca ...
film ''Love on Wheels''.
* Ginners Park - station used as a shelter in an air raid in the 1942 film ''Unpublished Story'' starring
Richard Greene
Richard Marius Joseph Greene (25 August 1918 – 1 June 1985) was a noted English film and television actor. A matinée idol who appeared in more than 40 films, he was perhaps best known for the lead role in the long-running British TV series '' ...
and
Valerie Hobson
Babette Louisa Valerie Hobson (14 April 1917 – 13 November 1998) was a British actress whose film career spanned the 1930s to the early 1950s. Her second husband was John Profumo, a British government minister who became the subject of the P ...
.
* Grays Inn - Portrayed as a deep level
Piccadilly line station, in the series 5 episode (Tubes help you breed less easily) of the British T.V. sticom,
Shelley. Broadcast, 2nd December 1982.
* Haggerston – Appeared as an abandoned, sub-surface station in ''
The New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
'' episode, "Waste Not Want Not".
*:It should not be confused with the real
Haggerston railway station
Haggerston is a station on the East London line in Haggerston within the London Borough of Hackney, Greater London. The station is located on the Kingsland Viaduct at the junction of Arbutus Street and Frederick Terrace, near Kingsland Road. ...
in East London. This station is on an elevated section of the
London Overground
London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a ...
; it re-opened in 2010, but was disused when the programme was made.
* Hanover Street – 1979 film ''
Hanover Street'', starring
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford (born July 13, 1942) is an American actor. His films have grossed more than $5.4billion in North America and more than $9.3billion worldwide, making him the seventh-highest-grossing actor in North America. He is the recipient o ...
.
Hayne Street tube station on the studio tram tour at Walt Disney Studios,
">Disneyland Resort Paris
* Hayne Street – Mock-up found in the
Disneyland Paris
Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Chessy, France, east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, resort hotels, Disney Nature Resorts, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, and a golf course. Disneyland Park is the origin ...
Disney Studios "Studio Tram Tour" inspired by the film ''
Reign of Fire'' (2002); the film did not include a completed/named station.
* Hickory Road – in ''
Hickory Dickory Dock
"Hickory Dickory Dock" or "Hickety Dickety Dock" is a popular English-language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 6489.
Lyrics and music
The most common modern version is:
Hickory dickory dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
...
'',
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...
novel.
*:''
Hickory Dickory Dock
"Hickory Dickory Dock" or "Hickety Dickety Dock" is a popular English-language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 6489.
Lyrics and music
The most common modern version is:
Hickory dickory dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
...
'', one of
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...
's detective stories featuring
Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot (, ) is a fictional Belgian detective created by British writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, two plays ('' Black Coffee'' and ''Alibi''), and more ...
, is set in Hickory Road in London. A version of the story was made by Carnival Films for London Weekend Television's ''
"Poirot"'' series. First broadcast in February 1995, the start of the programme sees the main characters alighting from an Underground train and exiting from Hickory Road station. The climax of the programme also involves a chase around the fictional station.
* High Street - 1954 film ''The Good Die Young'' with Laurence Harvey. Locations in Barbican/Farringdon area.
* Hobbs End – 1967 film ''
Quatermass and the Pit
''Quatermass and the Pit'' is a British television science-fiction serial transmitted live by BBC Television in December 1958 and January 1959. It was the third and last of the BBC's ''Quatermass'' serials, although the chief character, Profe ...
.''
*:Featured a tube station called ''Hobbs End''. The station is located at the end of the non-existent 'Hobbs Lane'. One shot shows a new street nameplate reading "Hobbs Lane", and indicating it as being in the
W10 postal district. Next to it a much older nameplate reading "Hob's Lane". ''Hob'' is an old name for the
Devil
A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...
. The name Hobbs End has more recently been used by London Underground as one of the stations on The Model Railway training simulator at the
West Ashfield Underground station training facility.
*Lewisham, Ladywell, Edge of the World and Catford – in an episode of the
LWT
London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 un ...
comedy series ''
End of Part One
''End of Part One'' is a British television comedy sketch show written by David Renwick and Andrew Marshall; it was made by London Weekend Television. It ran for two series on ITV, from 1979 to 1980 and was an attempt at a TV version of '' ...
''
*:The main characters watch a film called "The Life of Christopher Columbus". In the film, Columbus goes to a tube station and asks for a train to America but is told he can go only as far as Catford. Part of a modified tube map is shown which shows the fictitious tube stations ''Lewisham'', ''Ladywell'', ''Edge of the World'' and ''Catford'' on the
East London Section of the
Metropolitan line
The Metropolitan line, colloquially known as the Met, is a London Underground line between in the City of London and and in Buckinghamshire, with branches to in Hertfordshire and in Hillingdon. Printed in magenta on the tube map, the line i ...
south from
New Cross station
New Cross railway station serves New Cross in south-east London, England. It is down the line from and is in London fare zone 2. The platforms are lettered rather than numbered to avoid confusion with those at by staff who worked at both st ...
. There is an actual part of the mainline
Mid-Kent Railway
The Mid Kent & North Kent Junction Railway (usually referred to as the Mid Kent Railway) was an early railway in Kent England. (Note the name is given both with and without the hyphen in different sources.)
History Origins
The Mid Kent Railway wa ...
that interchanges with New Cross station, and the stations are, southwards in order:
St. John's,
Lewisham
Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified i ...
,
Ladywell
Ladywell is a locale in Lewisham in South East London, England, and a ward in the London Borough of Lewisham between Brockley, Crofton Park and Lewisham proper. It has ample green space including Ladywell Fields and Hilly Fields which borders ...
and
Catford Bridge (
Catford
Catford is a district in south east London, England, and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Lewisham. It is southwest of Lewisham itself, mostly in the Rushey Green and Catford South wards. The population of Catford, includ ...
on a different line interchanges with the latter).
* Marble Hill – seen at the beginning of the 1991 ''Poirot: Wasps' Nest'', adapted from
the novel
''The Novel'' (1991) is a novel written by American author James A. Michener. A departure from Michener's better known historical fiction, ''The Novel'' is told from the viewpoints of four different characters involved in the life and work of ...
by
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...
. In reality,
Arnos Grove Underground station was used as the location.
* Museum – 1972 film ''
Death Line
''Death Line'' is a 1972 horror film written and directed by Gary Sherman and starring Donald Pleasence, Norman Rossington, David Ladd, Sharon Gurney, Hugh Armstrong, and Christopher Lee. Its plot follows two university students who find them ...
''. (See also: the real
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
station)
* Norbidge – 2022 drama-thriller series ''
Inside Man
''Inside Man'' is a 2006 American heist thriller film directed by Spike Lee and written by Russell Gewirtz. It centers on an elaborate bank heist on Wall Street over a 24-hour period. The film stars Denzel Washington as Detective Keith Frazi ...
''.
* North Atwood – 2011 video game ''
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception''.
* Park Street – 1948 film ''
The Passionate Friends''.
* Queen's Arcade – ''
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...
'' episode
Rose
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
.
* ''Rumbaloo Line'' – Tube line in
Joan Aiken
Joan Delano Aiken (4 September 1924 – 4 January 2004) was an English writer specialising in supernatural fiction and children's alternative history novels. In 1999 she was awarded an MBE for her services to children's literature. For ''The ...
's children's book, ''
Arabel's Raven''.
* Scratch Row – an abandoned tube station in
Wireless Theatre's Victorian-set fantasy-adventure audio series, ''
The Springheel Saga
''The Springheel Saga'' is a drama audio series about the Victorian bogeyman, Spring-heeled Jack, written by Jack Bowman and Robert Valentine, and produced by The Wireless Theatre Company. The first series, ''The Strange Case of Springheel'd Jac ...
''.
* Sumatra Road – featured in "
The Empty Hearse
"The Empty Hearse" is the first episode of the third series of the BBC television series '' Sherlock''. It was written by Mark Gatiss and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes, Martin Freeman as Dr John Watson, and Mark Gatiss as Mycro ...
," the first episode of the third series of the British TV crime drama ''
Sherlock''.
*:The station's name is an allusion to "The Giant Rat of Sumatra", mentioned in the original Sherlock Holmes stories. It is fictionally located between
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...
and
St. James's Park
St James's Park is a park in the City of Westminster, central London. It is at the southernmost tip of the St James's area, which was named after a leper hospital dedicated to St James the Less. It is the most easterly of a near-continuous ch ...
, underneath the
Houses of Parliament
The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north bank ...
. In the story, the station was partially constructed but never opened, being similar to
North End. The scenes were shot at
Aldwych Underground station.
* Sun Hill – Long-running
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
police drama, ''
The Bill
''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, first broadcast on ITV from 16 August 1983 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, '' Woodentop'', broadcast in August 1983.
The programme focused on ...
''.
* Union Street – featured in the 2008 film ''
The Escapist'' and filmed on location in
Holborn tramway station
Holborn tramway station was a tram stop underneath Kingsway in central London, England. It was built in 1906 by the London County Council Tramways as part of the Kingsway tramway subway, joining the separate networks of tramways in North and ...
. Altered versions of
Harry Beck's 1941 map were produced for the film, showing the station located between
Borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ag ...
and
Elephant & Castle
The Elephant and Castle is an area around a major road junction in London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark. The name also informally refers to much of Walworth and Newington, due to the proximity of the London Underground stati ...
, close to the position of London's real Union Street.
* Vauxhall Cross – 2002
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
film ''
Die Another Day
''Die Another Day'' is a 2002 spy film and the twentieth film in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions. It was produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, and directed by Lee Tamahori. The fourth and final film starrin ...
''.
*:A supposed closed station on a disused branch of the
Piccadilly line (similar to
Aldwych
Aldwych (pronounced ) is a street and the name of the List of areas of London, area immediately surrounding it in central London, England, within the City of Westminster. The street starts Points of the compass, east-northeast of Charing Cros ...
) that runs south of the river to
Vauxhall Cross
Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...
, in the vicinity of the
MI6
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
building. In fact, the Piccadilly line does not cross the river at all, although
Vauxhall
Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...
on the
Victoria line
The Victoria line is a London Underground line that runs between in south London and in the north-east, via the West End. It is printed in light blue on the Tube map and is one of the only two lines on the network to run completely undergr ...
is within about 100 metres.
*
Walford East –
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
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