Tube wants bigger buns on Calendar Girl

The prudes at TfL are at it again, as an ad for the play Calendar Girls featuring Kelly Brook had to be amended three times before it was allowed on the London Underground.


It's like one of those spot the difference games, but finally the picture of Kelly on the right was deemed to have large enough buns to keep TfL happy.

The play's producer, David Pugh, said "Someone is sitting in a dark room somewhere peering at any sort of nudity. The whole truth of the story that I'm doing is about this group of ordinary women who did something extraordinary. I'm replicating what they did. They said we were trying to titillate Tube travellers, I thought it was a joke."

With a quote more suitable to a Carry On film than an transport statement, Metro said a spokesman from TFL said they asked for "a few tweaks" to make sure the advert complied with their policy.

This isn't the first time PhotoShop has been used to make an advert comply with London Underground's policy on decency.



An ad for Nip Tuck was amended so that the models looked a little more clothed last March. Although a nude Venus advertising a Royal Academy exhibition was initially banned, but bosses relented. But only after they were they were branded "bonkers" by the chair of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.

So what of the current bun cover up? Are they "bonkers" or would Kelly have been showing too much of herself for the travelling public?

Art Deco Icons: London Transport - BBC4

I forgot to blog about this show when it was on over the weekend, but if you're in the UK you can watch it on BBC iPlayer


"David Heathcote explores the dramatic 1930s London Transport HQ in St James', London. When it was built in the 1930s, it was the highest skyscraper in London. Frank Pick, who commissioned it, offered to resign from the London Underground Company, because there were so many complaints about its ambitious design.

The HQ became the nerve centre for an Art Deco transformation of the underground which remains today. David Heathcote ventures out on the Piccadilly Line to Southgate to investigate. For many, it is just the scene of a crowded journey to work, but Heathcote discovers a perfect example of a co-ordinated Deco look. The sleek tube station uses streamlined features, soft uplighting and chrome to create a glamorous overall effect. It may be lost on the commuters on their way to work, but for Heathcote it is a moment to stand back and enjoy the marvel that was Art Deco"

If you find yourself hanging around St James's Park Tube station on the Westbound platform there's some exhibition cases with a lot of goodies from the 1920's & 1930's which illustrate the features that are often missed.


Think of it as a mini free London Transport Museum. Bowroaduk also spotted some wonderful clocks at 55 Broadway.


He said "This was formerly a publicly accessible area and these clocks were installed here (and at Piccadilly Circus) for the interest of passengers. Only two of the dials now work."

There's a lot of art deco around on the London Underground and it's great that it's now been highlighted in the BBC documentary. Let us know some of your favourite art deco parts of the Tube.

Tube Photo of the week

Sometimes when you have to sit down on the London Underground, you really have to sit down. I've seen a number of women sitting on their boyfriends laps, but never seen a girl force her man to become a mobile seat:


The photo was submitted to reddit by xoe26 - thanks to sizemore for the heads up.

Definitely one of those pictures for which the following sign was made for



Any other photos of strange seating on the Tube are most welcome.

Are London Underground staff taking Calligraphy lessons?

It's like something you might have seen at Oxford Circus Tube in 1909 not 2009:


and the one below taken by Bash


I also love the little hand drawn buses and river boats on the following sign, also taken by Yalli - Thanks for those.


Perhaps Tube staff are having art lessons as well as calligraphy ones.

By the way, if you take photos on the Tube, watch this space, as next week I'm getting together with the lovely people at Blurb to give you all another chance to win some of their books.

What can NYC Subway learn from the Tube?

The people that run New York's subway system want to enter into a two year consultancy contract with Transport for London. They feel that they've got a lot to learn from the London Underground - including our Oyster cards and arrival time indicators at station & bus stops.


This would be a no-bid consultancy "Rather than having to bring in high-priced consultants, we’re getting experts with success already in doing these things, and getting them at public sector costs," said Jeremy Soffin, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Staff members from London would charge $125 to $200 an hour, according to a document released this week & reported in The New York Times (thanks to Emiana for the heads up for this).


New York's subway doesn't have off peak fares (although they also don't have our very high peak fares to start off with) and they seem to be excited about this idea

"It would save New York money; we deserve it to be lowered," said commuter Shakiba Hickman. "We want lower fares, but better service. We have to be working around the MTA, not the MTA working around us."

However others were sceptical about off peak travel and wondered if the discounts would really encourage more people to use mass transit on weekends. Susan G. Metzger, an MTA said, "I want to sit back and see what it really entails for us. Many people who use the subway don't really have an alternative. The only alternate would be a taxi, and our subway pricing is pretty good." I took the picture above on a Saturday morning and it's hard to imagine even more overcrowded trains if travel became even cheaper at the weekends.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of this. I went to New York for the first time last year and it actually made me realise that we do have some things better in London.


However, there's a lot that could be learnt from New York too and if the consultancy worked both ways, perhaps we'd find ourselves with slightly longer opening hours on the Tube (I know we'll never have the Tube running 24 hours). It was great to be able to travel late and actually see engineering & cleaning taking place while people were still travelling on the subway.


Is there anything you think we can teach New York about subway travel? Perhaps not to call it subway but underground! And vice versa, what could they teach us?

UPDATE - Just learnt that Bob Crow's not happy about this proposal. He said "If these people are as good as they are being cracked up to be then they should remain in London sorting out our problems." Worryingly he's implied that it's increased the threat to walk out over pay - see Evening Standard.