Kate Williams

London tube and train station names offer up wonderful scope for fairy-tale fantasies. I’ve been day-dreaming my way around the Underground and Overground lately, from one school to another, basking in the fascinating images conjured up by these history-rich names.

Perhaps Seven Kings will step forth from the Mansion House and make their way through the Orange Grove to meet Seven Sisters waiting by a Monument. But will they be stopped at the Custom House and sent to their deaths at Hanger’s Lane? That’d Turnham Green! Or will some kindly Blackfriars help them escape through an Archway and over a Highgate? Will they get stuck at Mudchute, or trapped at Snaresbrook? Or will an Angel guide them up a Silver Street to a White City to rest in a pretty Swiss Cottage? 

And what of the Seven Sisters, meanwhile? Will they be patiently hanging on at the Monument? Or loitering in a Carpenter’s Park, lounging on a Shepherd’s Bush, or stuffing their faces with Wapping great cakes at Pudding Hill Lane? Perhaps they’ll all meet up at Oxford Circus and watch the Elephant & Castle show. Royal Albert might not have approved, but maybe Harold Wood.

Kate