How Should You Celebrate The Tube's 150th Birthday

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Posted 2013-01-16 by Joanna Sopylo-Firrisa ⇒ follow

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Celebrate 150 years of London's underground in your own way.

Every day, most Londoners take the tube at least twice a day, to go to work or university and to come back from there. Usually we would also get to some other places with this means of transport. The Tube is part of a Londoner's life, whether we want it or not but probably none of us ever appreciate all the work which has been done to it throughout 150 years. Yes, yes London's tube is celebrating its 150th birthday which falls exactly on January 9th. The celebration of this great anniversary and all the related events has already started but how can commuters like me and you celebrate our "friend's" birthday? Here are couple of ideas.

1. Go for a city trip around stations which are not in use anymore
Throughout the Tube's 150 years many stations have opened and closed. The Network doesn't need them anymore due to changes in urban density. Go and check out the disused stations like Aldwych or British Museum . Maybe you even pass them everyday without knowing that previously passengers were going out there from the underground.

2. Throw a "Tube party"
Organise old pictures of the Tube and display them on the wall, if you have a projector, or just print them out and let people recognize the year they were taken or the station which they present. Come up with some funny costumes or prepare a Tube quiz.

3. Buy a book
When I was once visiting a bookshop in the Architecture Centre of London I spotted this book - "What's in a Name?: Origins of Station Names on the London Underground" by Cyril M. Harris . It cost around & #8356 ;5 but if you prefer you can also visit the website that explains the names of the stations.

4. Talk to your fellow passengers
Last but not least. Acouple of times when it happened that I was talking with someone on the Tube, it turned out that everyone heard our conversation. No, not because we were so loud but because everyone else was so quiet. Whether it's afternoon or morning, people read, play on their mobiles or just look into nowhere, but never talk to each other, even about the weather. For the Tube's 150th birthday let's give each other the best gift – let's talk in the carriages – and make travelling more user friendly.