Look for longer … later

Posted on by reasoningwithvolcanoes
A central section of the geographically accurate map of the London Underground network

Can you solve these visual puns of London Underground stations?

If you travel through London, you’ll likely catch the Tube; and while waiting for your train, you’ll probably spend a few idle moments looking at the adverts that paper the opposite wall. Most you’ll forget the instant you step onto the train – but occasionally a particularly eye-catching one sticks in the memory. One such advert appeared around my first years of undergrad (c. 2013). The ad (apparently a CBS Outdoor marketing campaign) invited travellers to ‘Look for longer’ to decode visual puzzles of 75 London Underground (Tube) stations.

I love these games, so the advert has occasionally since resurfaced in my mind as an excellent waste of time. A while ago I wondered: could the original image be found online? Of course it could – the internet never forgets! Thanks to She Loves London, an irreverent blogger posting about the everyday London life: her post hosts both the original image and a lively comment thread that decodes many of the more head-scratching stations.

There are 75 Tube stations in this image. How many can you find? N.B. Click image for full size. Source: She Loves London

Solutions

Below are the solutions I found to the image. These are completely unofficial, based on my own guesswork and a fair amount of help from the She Loves London post’s comment thread. [Brackets] specify where the station clue is in the image, bold is the station name, and (…) gives an explanation for the more esoteric clues.

Hope you have just as much fun guessing the stations as I (and many other folks) have had!

Here: clues I solved (62/75). Warning – SPOILERS REVEALED WITH CLICK:
  1. [Right side of picture] ham = West Ham (the bath tells you North)
  2. Opposite ham = East Ham
  3. Red pin on the hill = Pinner
  4. Mansion House
  5. Green parking sign = Green Park
  6. Shark fin in soil in parking lot = Finsbury Park
  7. Jousting knight on bridge = Knightsbridge
  8. Elephant and castle signage on pub = Elephant & Castle
  9. [Far left] ‘0’ on the pub wall = Oval
  10. [House on left side] Alsatian barking by house = Barking (or Barkingside)
  11. Swiss maid with pitchers of beer = Maida Vale (a ‘maid of ale’ – ha!)
  12. Lamb in bath with ‘N’ = Lambeth North
  13. Man playing keepy-up on hill = Upney (‘Up knee’) (or Stepney Green?)
  14. Marble Arch
  15. Swiss Cottage
  16. Fancy lady with mega hairdo = High Barnet
  17. Farmyard on road = Chalk Farm
  18. Flaming corpse outline on road = Kilburn (‘kill burn’)
  19. Man shooting mud from mansion roof = Mudchute
  20. Limehouse
  21. Seven girls on bridge = Seven Sisters
  22. Angel
  23. Chess kings on zebra crossing = King’s Cross
  24. Barbie and Ken = Barbican
  25. Glue sticking road down = Bond Street
  26. Tuxedo bow = Bow Road
  27. Puddle with maple leaf = Canada Water
  28. [On right] Street sign with 4 Queen silhouettes = Queensway
  29. Shepherd’s Bush
  30. [In far distance] Mill Hill
  31. [In further distance] Taj Mahal = Monument
  32. Whitechapel
  33. Piggybank = Bank
  34. Ton of suspended bricks = Brixton
  35. Bird beak on tree = Becontree
  36. Hammer on blacksmith’s anvil = Hammersmith
  37. Hay bale with hole inside = Hainault (‘hay nought’)
  38. Gate on mansion roof = Highgate
  39. [On right side house] Cyprus flag = Cyprus
  40. [Next to maid of ale] Green Mile 1 sign = Mile End (?)
  41. White arch on hill = Archway
  42. [In front of mansion] Top hat on gravestones = Hatton Cross
  43. [Next to hat on cross] Gravestone bent over = Brent Cross (‘bent cross’)
  44. [Next to crosses] Baker with chocolate cake = Baker Street (‘baker’s treat’)
  45. Black horse = Blackhorse Road
  46. [Next to Swiss cottage] Tree with crown = Royal Oak
  47. [Sponge cake beside green dog] = Victoria (?)
  48. Fire in hole on road = Holborn (‘hole burn’)
  49. [In far distance] White City
  50. Oxo cube suspended in well = Stockwell
  51. [Next to Barbie & Ken] Can on street = Cannon Street
  52. [In front of well] Football with ham = Balham
  53. [Beside Barbie’s feet] Stone inscribed with ‘late’ = Leytonstone (ho-ho)
  54. [On left side hill] Witch turning man and woman green = Turnham Green (‘turn ’em green’)
  55. [Either of the grassy hills] = Embankment
  56. [On right side hill] Lady with bone in top hat = Marylbone (‘marry bone’)
  57. [In front of right side house, next to Alsatian] Three black chip friers = Blackfriars
  58. [In right hand stone wall] Old wooden gate = Aldgate
  59. [On right side hill] Stash of rifles = Gunnersbury (?) (tenuous …)
  60. [Behind Barbie & Ken] Mouse eating cheese = Leicester Square (?) (cheese looks like Red Leicester, and it is a square shape …)
  61. Gardener watering bush = Bayswater (?) (looks like a bay tree)
  62. [Beside Victoria sponge cake] Sad green dog = Hounslow Central (?) (‘hound’s low’ – because he’s sick?)

Here: clues solved with hints from She Loves London (13/75). Warning – SPOILERS REVEALED WITH CLICK:
  1. [On right hand hill] Burn Oak
  2. [Behind the Swiss cottage] Tower Hill
  3. [On road, middle distance] Grey pig with ‘R.I.P.’ on side = Hampstead (‘ham’s dead’)
  4. [Next to bent cross and hat on cross] Shiny silver cross = New Cross
  5. [In front of white city] Redbridge
  6. [In front of well] Broken snare drum = Snaresbrooke (‘Snare’s broke’)
  7. [On left side hill] Set of green Q’s = Kew Gardens
  8. Toilet in fountain = Waterloo
  9. [In front of right side house] Nuns in garden = Covent Garden (‘convent garden’) (or Abbey Road?)
  10. ‘Pressed’ written on road = Preston Road
  11. Green wood suspended in air = Wood Green
  12. [On right, behind beak on tree] rabbit in warren = Borough (‘burrow’) – not Warren Street!
  13. [On road] Man with telly = Bounds Green (it’s a screen! And it’s being bound by the rope: ‘Bound screen’! This one is my favourite – so delightfully tricky.)

Last question: which station is the red fish in the foreground? … Why, it’s just that – a red herring!

Sources:

More map content coming (possibly including a SG version!)

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