What do you think it is that fascinates people so much about the London underground?
Hard to say about other people, but what fascinates me is that it really is that it's another little world down there and people behave very differently there to how they would above ground. You just wouldn't normally get a situation where you were in a room with 200 other people and no one was speaking.
Also a room with 200 people from all different walks of life - wealthy city types mixing with homeless, kids mixing with senior citizens, even the odd celebrity mixing with some desperate busker on a carriage. That mix is an amazing opportunity to people watch and that's what I love doing down there. It's also kind of iconic to people who aren't from London as it sort of represents lots of things about London - busy-ness, chaos, coollness, rush and a place that certainly never stands still.
Tell us something most people wouldn't know about the underground system!
I think I've spilled all the "secrets" about the Tube in some shape or form on my blog, on Goingunderground.net or in other interviews. My favourite little known thing is still those fantastic mosaics on the far end Eastern of the central Line at Leytonstone. They pay tribute to Alfred Hitchcock (who was born there) and his films, and are in a really badly lit underpass where people hardly pay them any attention. They absolutely rock!
Have you ever visited one of the 'hidden' or 'secret' tube stations?
No I haven't - I walk past The Strand quite a lot and took a picture of it when I was on a Flickr London Transport Museum Scavenger Hunt about a month ago I'd really love a tour of The Post Office Tube station at some point, though - it was used in Neil Gaiman's 1980's TV series Neverwhere and I've seen a fab set of pictures of them here. It was "mothballed" in 1993 and I've no real idea how to go about seeing it now.
What's the best thing to do with an old Oyster card?
Mmm - I have a feeling I'll see it in a Guy Ritchie film one day being used to line up some illegal substances. Other than that, there is a drop off point for ones that still have a bit of cash left on them at Liverpool Station and the money goes to charidee.
What do you do when you're not blogging? Is blogging a full-time job?
No blogging's not a full time job, I do have a real full time job believe or not, so I do most of my blogging in the small hours unless there is some breaking news. Outside blogging I like gardening, eating and cooking food, drinking, cinema, theatre, gig going, usual stuff really. I don't have another weird hobby like Mexican wrestling or Morris Dancing. I'm fairly normal I suppose.
Do you have any remaining tube-related ambitions? Walking down the tracks? Catching a tube mouse?
I'd love to take a decent picture of a Tube mouse, they are ridiculously hard to snap, as the little fellas move around so quickly. I'd also like to see inside The Strand station and the Post Office station one day. The other is not a Tube ambition but a subway one. I'm going to New York for the very first time in my life in September and am really looking forward to travelling on the Metro there.
There are lots of photos on your blog - do people ever mind you taking pictures of them?
Most of the people pictures I take are fairly subtly done so people rarely notice me taking them. Sometimes the people sitting next to me can see what I'm doing - but you know it's the Tube after all and no one speaks to anyone else. With the Tube Fashion Victims, I always blur faces or "cut off" heads, and if ever anyone saw themselves and felt that they could be easily identified from it and asked me to take it off, of course I would. I've only had one person who recognised herself by the way she was standing (I only showed her from shin down) and she thought it was funny.
What's the secret to a successful blog?
Couldn't possibly tell you that - wouldn't want anyone else doing it now, would I??? Seriously there's no magic secret. It's just to write about things that interest you in a way that other people might find them interesting, too. I'm lucky that a lot of people find the Tube interesting and that a lot of people use it. They spot things that they can find themselves nodding in agreement with or violently disagreeing with. People generally are interested in people and I suppose that's what makes blogs fascinating and readable.
