45 - Underground

Theme 10.

Given I was in London for a weekend, you'd think I'd have sneakily got a photo of the London Underground. I say sneakily, because if they see you taking photos, they ask you to stop. Yeah, I know!

I got a few photos on the quieter stations, but the lighting wasn't good and they were a bit blurred. Here's another one though, from a different underground idea. I'd heard about a tunnel under the River Thames, at Greenwich, and wanted to see it for myself. As it turned out, it was the Greenwich Foot Tunnel.

You enter via an entrance at Island Gardens (the name of the nearest DLR (Docklands Light Railway) station), and go down a spiral stairwell, before emerging into the tunnel - cyclists must dismount, but they get along faster by keeping one foot on the pedal (right foot on the left pedal, etc.) and scooting along. Just as I was taking this photo, one such cyclist nipped into shot, all blurred. But I kind of liked it :-) And there was no-one in my view before he came along - the tunnel slopes slightly, from each end into the middle, making a slight V, rather than being totally level. Therefore, my view of the tunnel wasn't the entire length - when this cyclist came into view as I hit the shutter, I liked it (though it was accidental). Given the amount of foot (and wheel) traffic, I wasn't about to stand there waiting for my entire view along the tunnel to clear, though!

(Also, I only noticed this sign as I was exiting on the Cutty Sark side of the tunnel, and this sign is also shown on Wikipedia - good job, as I didn't take a photo of it. No spitting even!)