Tag: underground

Abandoned Tube Stations: Aldwych

Or why Aldwych Station is the best ‘#EmptyUnderground’ ever.

Formerly known as ‘Strand’, Aldwych first opened in 1907, closed in 1940, reopened in 1946 and then closed again, for the final time, in 1994.

Twenty years later, sharp-eyed Sherlock fans (as if there’s any other kind) would go on to spot it in the first episode of season three, ‘The Empty Hearse’ (as confirmed by Buzzfeed and the BBC shortly after).

Back in November, my good friend Robbie managed to lay his hands on an extremely rare pair of tickets for the tour of the now abandoned station and, if you know anything about me and a certain hobby I have, you’d know that it was pretty much like Christmas coming a whole month early for me – I couldn’t have been more excited.

Aldwych is amazing. The above photo, for example, shows a track before the introduction of ‘suicide pits’ – a fairly recent addition that a medical study found halved the death rate of those falling onto (or under) the tracks (it was the first thing I spotted when we entered this part of the station; it’s weird to see tracks flat like this, I thought anyway).

Interesting facts about Strand/Aldwych:

  • Located on The Strand, the station is/was on the Piccadilly line and was the terminus and only station the short branch from Holborn.
  • During both World Wars, aside from being partially fitted out as an air-raid shelter, disused parts of the tunnels were used to store and protect artworks from London’s museums from bombing – including the Elgin Marbles.
  • While many old posters can be seen adoring the walls of the platform, nearly of these have been placed there by movie studios, to provide the ‘old abandoned platform’ look for many films.

There are no rats in Aldwych, apparently. What with a distinct lack of commuters down there every day, they have no opportunities to snack on our litter. Sad but true.

What’s also sad (but also quite cool) is that the tours aren’t really on that regularly. You have to be super keen to catch one. So keep your eyes peeled, you never know when they might open them again.

UPDATE: see the comments for an update on when the tickets might be available again in 2014.

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All photos taken, by me, with the Nokia Lumia 1020, published under Creative Commons with the full set of photos available on my Flickr page.

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Wi-Fi on the Underground

How much will you pay for it?

Nokia N9: Empty Underground

Now that the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games are nearly gone, and summer too is following suit, Virgin Media’s free Wi-Fi on the underground promotion will also be coming to a close.

Since the beginning of July, commuters, tourists and Olympic-goers alike have been able to log on, albeit intermittently (it’s on the platforms, not in the tunnels), by simply handing over a name and an email address… However, as Virgin have always said, it’s only free ‘for the summer‘.

Now, being British, summer part one ended at some point in June. Part two has just arrived (after a rainy intermission) and I doubt the Wi-Fi will match the same timeline.

So here’s the big question: how much will it cost when the summer is gone?

 

My gut says £5pcm.

My heart says it will be FREE to all existing Virgin Media subscribers.

My head says I’d probably £10pcm (but only with a guaranteed coverage increase of 50% of stations by 2013).

[update]

Twitter tells me that not everyone will or wants to pay for it. As in, they don’t actually want it. Yeah, there is that.

 

What do you think?

 

[update 2] 

Virgin have just confirmed that the WiFi service will remain free for the rest of 2012. Win.

REKALL

Creative print advertising on the tube shocker. 2012 edition.

Rekall

While the above ad isn’t as inventive (or as contextually aware) as the awesome Limitless Clear Pill ads from early last year, the above ad for the new Total Recall film (yes, another re-make) the similarities between the two still shine through – and I like it.

Let’s start with the basics: the above ad is not for Total Recall. No no. It is for the entirely fictional company [from the film] ‘Rekall‘.

Using real world reference points for what is a very futuristic film is a touch of genius, I love it. There are two main variants on the ad, one puts you as a football star and the other gifts you women and a yacht.

Rekall

“Tell us your fantasy,” the ad says “We’ll make it real*”
– the asterisk is used to perfection

Rekall Tube Ads

Why else does this work?

1. Title [or lack thereof]
If you slap ‘Total Recall’ on anything the first question that’d pop into anyone’s head is ‘Where’s Arnie?’. The original film is such an iconic sci-fi of its generation; it’s cheesy as hell and some of its Paul-Verhoeven-directed moments are stalwarts of early 90s pop-culture. Getting over that is not easy. So just ignore it! If we don’t mention the original, we won’t get the Schwarzenegger mind pop! Win!

 2. They make it REAL
As I mentioned, it uses real world fantasies to bring the message home and to pique commuters’ interest. I love the idea of fictional companies advertising fictional products from the films that they feature in and communicating this in the way – making it real, if you will – works perfectly.

How could it be better?

First and foremost the ad doesn’t work as hard as the Limitless efforts from March 2011. The two call to actions (one web, one Twitter) are semi-usable in our new kind-of-online London Underground BUT I don’t think its strong enough to warrant an online only response. There’s no recognition that you’re without mobile signal, and for that REKALL lose points.

Overall though, it’s a good effort and hey, I’m blogging about it!

Grade: B+
Better than most, but still room for improvement.

 

Notes:

  • The website is actually ace (up until you realise the Facebook bits don’t work).
  • Apologies for the blurry photos; it’s really hard to take photos on the tube without looking like a complete weirdo.
  • Finally, it turns out the new film isn’t actually that good either.  Damn.

The Internet is Mental

This week, my friend Joey shared this photo on Facebook –

(1 share, 3 likes, 14 comments)

He had seen it on a Facebook page called Handpicked London  –

(2263 shares, 3025 likes, 185 comments)

Handpicked London link their image back to the source – aka – this tweet:

(826 RTs, 62 favourites, 284 replies)

Amazing how images travel, right?

The really funny thing is, the image above is nothing to do with the Olympics at all. In fact, it was taken about three and a half years ago, back in the early part of December, 2008.

How do I know?

Because I was there when I took it.

Peak Hours may mean lap sitting

(2989 views, 8 favourites, 6 comments)

It was lunchtime and I was on my way into central London to meet some bloggers I was hosting for The SpinVox Wishing Well, which had just opened in Covent Garden.

One of the bloggers in attendance was one Annie Mole – aka the editor of ‘Going Underground‘, London’s best London Underground blog. So, when I spotted this stuck on the inside of a Piccadilly Line carriage, I immediately snapped it so I could share it with Annie when I saw her.

The best thing was, after I took the original photo, the couple sat behind me tapped me on the shoulder and offered me their laps to sit on (to much laughter from our fellow passengers), it was a lovely moment.

Naturally, Annie Mole blogged it, and that’s about it…

Imagine my surprise when the image started trending nearly four years later.

 

Mental.

1000heads: First Direct come first, but what about the others?

Recently our Data Systems Manager here at 1000heads, one Mr Andrew Stretton, was extolling the virtues of First Direct. Their first forays into social media have been widely covered by the trade press and – as such – FD have followed up with some facts and figures.

However, it’s these facts and figures that are raising questions with our manager of data systems.

Andrew, the floor is yours

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First Direct captured my attention this week with an innovative ad campaign on London Underground, using the findings of an online market research study as its centrepiece.

“77% of what’s said about us online is positive”

It’s exciting to see companies shouting about their word of mouth. The sample WOM on the advert is also interesting – could we soon see realtime social media feeds on billboards just as Skittles attempted on their website?

On the other hand, the wording of the ad and the methodology used raises a few questions.

First Direct claim that 77% of what’s said about them “online” is positive, based upon a sample of opinions posted in a controlled environment on a brand presence. It would be interesting to know what the results would be if all banks gave their users the same opportunity and what the exact effects of the incentives involved were.

As Data Systems Manager here at 1000heads I’m tasked with bringing our clients a representative sample of spontaneous conversation from the widest variety of online sources possible. Benchmarked, contextual data from realtime, unprompted conversation could provide more interesting top line stats for an advert, giving people a birdseye view of what they themselves are saying online. For example:

“In online conversation, Brand X is strongly endorsed 20% more often than any other major UK bank”

This is of course is not to say that surveys have no place, it’s just that there is so much more insight out there to play with.

How do you think these different measures of opinion can be reconciled? Do let us know what you think in the comments, or if you would like to know more about our WOMTrak and WOMActive products please drop us a line.

Two Escalators

Shot this on Saturday on the way back from the Plan9 shenanigans.

Two different shots, cut together to make something quite lovely and quite seamless.. Ha!

The first person who can tell what the two main differences are between shot one and shot two wins a prize.

Ready, steady… GO!

PS. This kind of serves as a nice introduction to the post I have lined up for later in the week. Good times.