Bond Street.........James Bond Street

Bond Street, James Bond Street

With the release of the latest Bond film Skyfall being this month (February 2013), London's Bond Street underground station was done up as one big advert for the release.

I felt like a bit of a spy myself trying to get this shot, above, without being seen , I did want it without any people but this is such a busy station I think I could have been there all day and still not find the right time to get the shot.

The shot below was a little easier to time between waves of people streaming through this area out to the escalator shot above.

Skyfall at Bond Street London

Bond Street station is going through a bit of a makeover in general as it will be part of the London Crossrail Project so the station is being improved and expanded to accommodate the extra foot fall.


The station was first opened on 24 September 1900 by the Central London Railway, three months after the first stations on the Central Line opened. The surface building was designed, in common with all original CLR stations, by the architect Harry Bell Measures.
In 1909, Harry Selfridge proposed a subway link to his new Selfridges store to the west, and the renaming of the station as "Selfridges". Contemporary opposition quashed the idea.
The station has seen several major reconstructions. The first, which saw the original lifts replaced by escalators, a new sub-surface ticket hall and a new façade to the station, designed by the architect Charles Holden, came into use on 8 June 1926. This was demolished with the construction of the "West One" shopping arcade in the 1980s, a period that had also seen the Jubilee Line services to this station commence on 1 May 1979. Some slight elements of the original facade do survive above the eastern entrance to the station.
In 2007 the station underwent a major modernisation, removing the murals installed on the Central line platforms in the 1980s and replacing them with plain white tiles, in a style similar to those when the station opened in 1900

Thanks to Wikipedia for the info on the station.

The architecture on the underground is so diverse dating from the 1920s right up to modern times so there is something there that should appeal to anyone who has the time to just take the time to stop and admire what most people just take for granted.

My Web | My Twitter | My Facebook | My Flickr

London Underground



Gants Hill Tube Station London

Took my 5D mkiii to London yesterday for the first time since I have owned it. The weather has been nothing less than depressing all year so far so not exactly great for photography. However London underground is always a place of architectural beauty all year round, as this shot of a Art deco style underground station shows very well. This is Gants Hill, in the London Borough of Redbridge. It is served by the Central Line and is in Zone 4. It is the easternmost station to be entirely below ground on the London Underground network.

Construction originally began in the 1930s but was suspended during the Second World War. During the war, the station was used as an air raid shelter and the tunnels as a munitions factory for Plessey electronics. The station was finally completed and opened on 14 December 1947. During planning, the names "Ilford North" and "Cranbrook" were considered.

The station, like many others on the same branch, was designed by notable Tube architect Charles Holden; during the planning period London Underground Holden advised on the construction of the new Moscow Metro, which is why the barrel-vaulted halls of Gants Hill echo many stations on the Russian capital's system.

The station is located beneath Gants Hill roundabout, and reached via the pedestrian subway under the roundabout. There are three escalators from the ticket office to the platforms

Thanks to Wikipedia for the info.

This also gave me a chance to test out the much talked about high ISO performance of the camera. The shot above for instance was shot at ISO 3200 F/8.0 1/50th sec. While there was a little noise in the image it did not destroy it and was easily fixed in Lightroom for a perfectly useable image. This high iso capability is great for low light situations such as the underground where you are not allowed to use a tripod, officially!

This was the first time in a long time I had been to London with my camera but without a tripod, and it made a pleasant change not to have to carry that beast around all day. Its even made me consider purchasing the Joby Gorillapod slr and ball head as a option to keep in my bag for days when I do need a tripod for outdoor work. So if anyone has used one of these would like to hear your thoughts on how practical they are in a real world situation.

With the shots I did take yesterday I have been pleased with the results and look forward to sharing more of the images as I process them.

Check out my new website has been redesigned to go supersized !

My Web | My Twitter | My Facebook | My Flickr