Sunday 6 November 2005

Favourite London Escalators

My favourite London escalators, in no particular order:
  • Level 0 to Level 2, Tate Modern. One day a boy on the first floor stood silently banging on the glass with great verve failing to attract the attention of some of his party on the up escalator, as we sailed down past him from 2 to 0.

  • Angel Tube, the long one. Because its just so long.

  • Canary Wharf. Futuristic and concrete. Feels like being in the set of a sci-fi movie.

  • Tottenham Court Road. On the one up to the ticket hall, where you travel through the arches which are mosaic'd by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi.

  • Lloyds Building. On a visit during Open House one year, we got to go up to the 5th floor and look down into their atrium. The escalators were those sort which have see-throught underneaths - I'd never seen those before.

  • Trocadero - the SEGA escalator. They're boring and normal at the bottom when you get on, leaning over to watch the nutters on that death-drop ride, coming up and up and up and up into the ceiling of the building ready to be plunged back down at great speed, their screams withering away as they hurtle past you. And then you get onto the long one which takes you past all that, through neon blue hoops. Promises so much more than it actually delivers.



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