Showing posts with label Labyrinth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Labyrinth. Show all posts

Tuesday, 7 November 2023

New labyrinths !!!

First, I must acknowledge that, yes, it has been more than three years since my last post.

This is, of course, mostly due to that global pandemic we all suffered.

I also have to admit that the "Close To Home" and "Chronoyster" series are both dead in the water.

The reason behind this new post is that there are new labyrinths on the network.

For a summary, I suggest that you read my original post on labyrinths.

I have taken photos of all 270 original labyrinths. However, since the original set were installed, two new stations have opened on the Underground network, and recently two new labyrinths were installed on-site.

The original set were labelled "#/270" in numerical order of the order that stations were visited for the 2009 world record, from "1/270" at Chesham to "270/270" at Heathrow Terminal 5. Rather than use "#/272", because the new stations are on a branch off of Kennington (which is "110/270"), the new stations are "110a/270" and "110b/270".


Nine Elms is "110a/270" and can be found at street level, just inside the gate line.


Battersea Power Station is "110b/270" and can be found at ticket hall level, outside the gate line. In fact, it is on the wall below the kinetic sculpture "Sunset, Sunrise, Sunset" by Alexandre da Cunha, which is possibly the only example of two Art on the Underground installations on the same wall.

I also took the opportunity to check the labyrinth at Kennington, which I believe is the only example of a difference between the official image and the installed labyrinth. If you go to the official Art on the Underground page for Kennington, where yours truly added a comment pointing this out, you may notice that the image of the labyrinth and their own photos of the installed labyrinth are different.


Generally the labyrinths are a single path with no branches and you must traverse the whole route to get from the outside to the centre. As highlighted above in red, there is a closed loop detached from the rest of the labyrinth. There is still a route from outside to inside, but it traverses all but the closed loop.

Incidentally, you will find this one at the bottom of the lifts on the side you would wait for the lift to take you up to street level.

Surely this must be intentional. I'm sure they wouldn't make a mistake in the production of this one enamel plate out of 270. I thought this easter egg might be a reference to the Kennington loop which allows terminating trains on the Charing Cross branch to turn around and head north. As the Battersea extension was built off of this loop, I wondered if they would take this opportunity to "fix" Kennington, but no they haven't! Of course the Kennington loop is still in use!






Monday, 6 January 2020

Catching up with Labyrinths (again)

I've recently been able to photograph my final missing Labyrinth, Bromley-by-Bow, so here is that, some other new pictures, and some pictures which are better than the original ones I took.

3. Amersham (August 2017, original picture showed a random girl tracing the route)
88. Bromley-by-Bow (November 2019, recently re-sited after work to install lifts)
124. Putney Bridge (August 2017, better angle)
134. Queensway (July 2018, better angle)
197. Finchley Road (December 2019, better angle)
203. Barbican (November 2019, originally missing during improvement works)
204. Moorgate (October 2017, originally missing during improvement works)

Thursday, 13 July 2017

Catching up with Labyrinths

There are some Labyrinths I've been able to catch up on since I first blogged.

55. Paddington (Bakerloo / Circle / District)
65. Lambeth North
128. Earl's Court
147. Leytonstone
163. Epping
170. Finsbury Park


Monday, 31 October 2016

Labyrinth Challenge - 236 to 270

236. Gloucester Road
237. High Street Kensington
238. Bayswater
239. Edgware Road (District / Circle / Hammersmith & City)
240. Paddington (Circle / Hammersmith & City)
241. Royal Oak
242. Westbourne Park
243. Ladbroke Grove
244. Latimer Road
245. Wood Lane
246. Shepherd's Bush Market
247. Goldhawk Road
248. Hammersmith (Circle / Hammersmith & City)
249. Hammersmith (District / Piccadilly)
250. Barons Court
251. West Kensington
252. Ravenscourt Park
253. Stamford Brook
254. Turnham Green
255. Gunnersbury
256. Kew Gardens
257. Richmond
258. Chiswick Park
259. Acton Town
260. South Ealing
261. Northfields
262. Boston Manor
263. Osterley
264. Hounslow East
265. Hounslow Central
266. Hounslow West
267. Hatton Cross
268. Heathrow Terminal 4
269. Heathrow Terminals 1, 2 & 3
270. Heathrow Terminal 5

Restart (at South Kensington) : 08:20:41, Monday 31 October 2016
Finish : 13:02:25
Elapsed time : 4 hr 41 min 44 sec
Total challenge time : 39 hr 36 min 23 sec

Distance travelled on the Undersground : 47.64 km
Total Underground challenge distance : 407.23 km