Maintenance workers for Tube Lines are planning a series of strikes for higher wages. The maintenance workers are concerned by the 4.95% pay rise they were offered over the next two years, given that those employed by Metronet are getting a better deal. Two 72-hour strikes are planned to start on the 20th (next Wednesday) and 3 September, both at noon. Expect complications on the Northern, Jubilee, and Piccadilly lines. Meanwhile, the Tube cleaners network-wide......

Things you may already know about Stanmore station: - it's at the very end of the Jubilee line, north London - it's in Zone 5 - it's one stop after Canons Park Things you may not know about Stanmore station: - it is connected to Bletchley Park, the place where the World War Two German Enigma code was cracked and is currently in not very good condition. 57 Turing Bombe machines were housed at......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 7th April 1779: The Reverend James Hackman follows Martha Ray, a singer and the mistress of the 4th Earl of Sandwich, to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. When she leaves the theatre after the performance, Hackman shoots her dead, seemingly out of jealousy. Tuesday – 8th April 1908: Edward VII appoints Herbert Asquith as Prime Minister, following the resignation of his predecessor, Henry Cambell-Bannerman, due......

Lunchbox Linford won't carry Olympic flame Yellow box rules for Jubilee Line platforms Affordable homes cheek by jowl with hordes of Sloanes Arsenal's earning loadsamoney New mothers urged to bank umbilical blood Art Deco Dream Home image courtesy of onionbagblogger via the Londonist flickr group.......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 21st January 1976: Concorde’s first commercial service, from London to Bahrain (and Paris to Rio de Janeiro) commences. Tuesday – 22nd January 1876: The Royal Aquarium opens in Westminster. It would be demolished just 26 years later and replaced by the Methodist Central Hall. Wednesday – 23rd January 1571: The Royal Exchange in the City of London is officially opened by Elizabeth I. Over the next few hundred......

Heads up people: the East London Line closes this Saturday. It will undergo a magical transformation that will take rather a long time but the line will reemerge from a 3 year chrysalis as a beautiful section of the newly tangerine London Overground network, linking the North and East London railways. You'll eventually be able to travel from Richmond in the West all the way round in a massive arterial horseshoe via the existing......

26. Going Underground Urban legends of the more sinister variety have always intrigued me, so continuous whispers and friend-of-a-friend tales concerning a mutant race of beings inhabiting the dark tunnel systems, sewers and subterranean passages beneath the capital are always welcome, even if unfounded (despite rumours circulating as far back as the nineteenth century). However, one thing us folklorists do know is that the underbelly of the city is teeming with all manner of......

Go through Stratford Station one evening between now and Saturday 10 November, look up above the ticket barriers and you'll see rows of faces scanning the crowds, each face topped with a pair of headphones. This is the audience for Small Metal Objects by Back To Back Theatre, a site specific performance in the Barbican's Ozmosis festival of contemporary Australian performance. You can see them but they can't see the actors. You can't hear......

By definition there must be at least two sides to every dispute. But we're really struggling to find empathy with the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) union after it broke ranks with other unions to insist on shutting down most of the tube network until Thursday. Next week they will cripple the tube again, if there's no agreement. The strength of the RMT argument doesn't seem to be making much headway in the......

Off to see Timberlake at the new-look Dome tonight? Make sure you don’t get the wrong venue. The Greenwich attraction isn’t the only O2 in town… The O2, Greenwich Peninsula Function: Entertainment venue, including stadium, 11-screen cinema and exhibition space. Includes Justin Timberlake. Age: 7.5 years. Opened at the end of 1999 as the Millennium Dome, now recalled to life as the O2. Capacity: 20,000 in the main arena. Size: 365 m diameter and the......

This Week In London’s History Monday – 23rd April 1979: 33-year-old teacher Blair Peach dies from head injuries following outbreaks of fighting with police at an Anti-Nazi League demonstration against a National Front meeting in Southall, West London. Tuesday – 24th April 1993: A massive IRA bomb explodes on Bishopsgate in the City of London, killing one person, injuring 44 more, and causing more than £350m damage to the area. Wednesday – 25th April......

The British al Qaida terrorist who planned to blow up the tube has been jailed for a whopping 40 years. Kate Moss is at the forefront of a new National Portrait Gallery exhibition.. The Faces of Fashion exhibition will run from June next year. Meanwhile Kate's waster of a boyfriend was at court again today to be fined for attacking a Radio 1 newsreader he attacked when leaving the same court earlier in the......

...and then three come along at once. First up: the Jubilee Line, where RMT union members are being asked to vote on whether to walk out after a driver lost his job for passing a red signal. Raj Nathvani, apparently had "an excellent safety record during his eight years as a Tube driver," right up until made the mistake of not stopping when he should have. London Underground say "Passengers expect nothing less than......

A four-week trial of anti-terrorist screening devices is due to start on the Jubilee Line at Canary Wharf later this week (although there's a bit of dodgy scanning going on there already). The Tories have sent Tessa Jowell a nasty letter accusing Labour of playing politics with the Olympics. And the Conservatives aren't too happy about Hugo Chavez's visit either. The final stages of this year's Tour of Britain will take in eight London......

A walk from Stratford to the South Bank doesn’t sound particularly alluring. What, after all, is the Jubilee Line for? But, as you’ve probably guessed from the hilarious title of this post, we’re talking about Stratford-Upon-Avon, not Stratford-Upon-Olympics. Yup, some chap’s come up with the idea of creating a special walking route from the Bard’s home town all the way to the Globe. Measure for Measure, that’s about 146 miles, passing through many charming......

... To Woolwich, to be precise, or so we are told. Now, we aren't too sure where Woolwich is - it's out past zone 2, darlings! - but we're pretty sure that more DLR can only be a good thing. Also, we were amused by:A 540-tonne boring machine for the new 1.5-mile (2.4km) stretch has been put in place ready for tunneling to start in April.It will excavate enough material to fill 40 Olympic-sized......

Huge explosion rips through fuel depot near Hemel Hempstead. The blast was heard in London, and smoke continues to blanket the surrounding countryside. You may have missed this one... There’s a reduced service on the Jubilee Line from today, while they prepare to introduce the newly extended trains. London bomb survivor who lost her legs in the blasts walks down aisle. Barnet couple who created FriendsReunited are swimming in cash after selling the site to......

The Waterloo & City line is to be closed for as long as five months from next April so that "urgent repair" work can be undertaken. "Travel hell" hardly begins to cover it; the odd little W&C line, known to its "fans" as "The Drain" relieves a terrific amount of pressure on the Underground system. If closed, the thousands of commuters pouring in from the southern suburbs and attempting to get to the Square......

Earlier this week the BBC printed this piece of writing by Geoff Ryman. Ryman is the author of 253, a fantastic piece of fiction about the relationship between all the passengers on a single tube train. The article on the BBC encapsulated Ryman's views on the bombings of 7 July and offered some thoughtful and intelligent insights into the aftermath of the events. After reading the article, Londonist contributors decided to draw up a......

I left my house in West Hampstead a little before 9 O’clock. The southbound Jubilee Line was running a full and efficient service. It was much quieter than usual, I'd guess about a quarter normal capacity. IPODs were all left at home, and few people were reading. Unclaimed copies of Metro lay discarded about the carriage. Vigilance was the watchword. I got off at Baker Street with a view to walking the couple of miles......

The ballet is coming to the London Underground today. If you're on the Jubilee Line travelling to Waterloo around lunchtime then you might get to experience an excerpt from a new performance entitled Constant Speed set to music composed in 1905 by Franz Lehár. It's all part of the Rambert Dance Company's aim to "reach out to new audiences". Having cannily decided to "avoid the rush hour" the fourteen costumed dancers will descend the......

Today's Times carries a pretty lengthy article on London's transport system and it's influence on the bid for the 2012 Olympic games. Next month an IOC "evaluation commission" will be inspecting the capital's transport systems looking for any improvements that have been made since last time they were here (when they concluded some areas of the Underground system were "often obsolete"). So what will they be shown? The Hammersmith & City line between Whitechapel......

It's becoming easier and easier to mock the London Underground system recently, what with the grand promises of a gleaming new transport system by 2012 and the fact that Jarvis are involved. But now it seems that the tube bosses are actually trying to make London's transport system the laughing stock of the world. We're talking, of course, about Jim Haynes of Tube Lines who said today: "If something goes wrong in the signalling system,......