伦敦地铁 150 岁了 伦敦地铁 150 岁了 像红色电话亭和红色公交车一样 伦敦地铁也是这座国际化大都市不可 或缺的文化标志 其实 地铁就是一本现代化城市的故事书 记载着最细微的人文关怀和最 广阔的文化图景 伦敦算是一位现代化进程中的长者 中国的城市正在经历的城市化过程中 的很多或喜或忧的元素都是伦敦昨日的再现 所以 这趟伦敦地铁之旅对于同样挤地铁上班 的你一定是别有一番感受吧 It s a grey chilly English winter morning and I m making my way through the busy concourse of Paddington Railway Station I m about to begin one of the most eye opening travel tours of my life I m not about to hop on a train out of London instead I m about to hop on one travelling underneath it On January 9 th the London Underground turned 150 This is an important birthday because the Tube was the first subterranean train system in the world It was a miraculous feat of Victorian engineering when the first section of the Metropolitan Railway opened in Paddington in 1863 using incredibly steam locomotives to travel the tunnels It was an instant hit carrying around 26 000 passengers a day Like most Londoners I take the Underground for granted when it works smoothly whizzing me miles across the city in a matter of minutes and moan about it when it s overcrowded and delayed So in honour of its birthday I decided it was time to pay homage to this labyrinthine arterial system that lies beneath my feet Michelle Buckley from Insider London a walking tours company is my guide We stand for a few minutes on the concourse as Buckley explains how the first underground railway journey in history began here 150 years ago Congestion on London s road is not a modern phenomenon she says holding up a copy of a 19th century engraving by Gustave Dore This depicts an apocalyptic scene of a London street swarming with horse drawn carts omnibuses pedestrians traders and flocks of sheep being driven to market In the 19th century London s population was booming growing from one million in 1800 to almost seven million by 1900 Something needed to be done to get the city moving and the man who came up with this outrageous idea of an underground transport system Buckley tells me was the solicitor Charles Pearson Reactions to his proposals were mixed with newspapers such as The Times deriding it as an absurd fantasy Buckley and I descend into the Tube and travel two stops on the District Line to Notting Hill Gate an early Tube station that opened in 1868 Buckley points to its beautiful Victorian brick archways enormous glazed roof and round glass and iron pendant lights above us They re the original 1868 lights she says Baker Street Tube too still has these beautiful curved globes hanging over the platforms Buckley s talk is a roll call of great entrepreneurial names who made the system happen but it s the men who cared about the aesthetic experience of travelling on the Tube whom I find most inspiring There are two characters who stand out in this story Leslie Green and Frank Pick We take the Central line to Oxford Circus where we emerge on the pavement by Argyll Street There are two station buildings here but they are dramatically different in style One you would scarcely notice The other designed by Leslie Green in 1906 is quite different a distinctive arched construction covered in rich oxblood coloured terracotta tiling Beautiful Arts and Crafts lettering proudly announces the station s name on the facade as if it were a West End theatre or grand hotel There are 27 of Green s stations dotted all over London that share this bold design and exotic deep red colour His work began to unify the look of the Tube making the stations elegant recognisable landmarks on busy city streets These were ideas that would be enthusiastically carried forward by the Underground s visionary managing director Frank Pick in the 1920s and 1930s Pick cared deeply about the design and look of the Tube he believed that stations should be places to visit and admire not just use explains Buckley To see a fine example of station design under Pick s guidance we travel south to Piccadilly Circus and emerge onto its magnificent circular ticket hallway This space is pure Hollywood a glamorous Art Deco design that is as elegant as it is functional and redolent of the Jazz Age with soft lighting and smooth pale stone surfaces It was designed by Charles Holden in 1928 who built several notable Art Deco stations in London s suburbs Buckley points out the Deco treasures this station still possesses orange columns and glass cylinder lights an original clock smart lettering on the walls small elegant shop booths still in use and a magnificent linear world clock encased in a handsome wood and glass case Pick not only commissioned great architects and artists such as Jacob Epstein and Henry Moore to create beautiful stations and artworks for the Tube he also introduced its famous bullseye symbol promoted the use of beautiful artistic poster advertising that encouraged people to explore their city using the trains and introduced a universal typeface for all of the network s branding Londoners have a lot to thank him for Nikolaus Pevsner the great British architectural historian described P