Such is the payback for having the world's oldest underground system.

Still, at least it's a good way to work off all those fish & chip suppers.

At least, the buses network is almost fully adapted now and even the bus drivers are being instructed. It has been one of the pleasures of visiting London for me, I cannot use most of the buses in my hometown in Spain.

Can someone help with which tube station I was in? I felt like a character from Jules Verne's Journey to the center of the universe because after going down a flight or two of stairs, I then had to go down a circular stairwell that seemed longer than the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. I couldn't believe how many stairs I had to go down to get to the train. But I guess it was a good WWII bunker.

It was in zone 1 (central) and I think I was transferring from Central line to the line that goes to the Barbicon (Barbizon?) Center.

I doubt that station will every be fully accessible.

I wonder if it was Covent Garden.
There is a lift but I think that you come to the stairs first.
The last time I was there, there was a notice by the stairs warning about how many there were and how long it might take to get down them.

Sounds like it could be a northern line station - northern line built in deep tubes at places hundreds of feet below ground.

Thanks for the suggestions and for letting me hijack this thread. I'll go over my trip notes tonight and see if anything triggers my memory. I remember doing a lot of walking that day and I didn't enjoy walking down all those steps. And I was wondering WHY a circular stairwell -- ahh the depth, that is why.

I took a photo of the tube sign at Earl's Gate (green line) and the sign hanging over both tracks said north. I guessed right the first time and always went to the same track.

One day I went to Kew Gardens (fabulous) and hopped on a real train, not a subway train trying to get back into town. Oops, I ended up somewhere in Outer Mongolia, but with a little help from my tube map, I changed at a station listed back into town. Kind of worried I'd end up in Scotland first.

Just a reminder about how old the Tube is: "when the US was fighting the Civil war, and the Union and Confederate Armies were fighting the Battle of Vicksburg in 1863, Londoners were traveling underground between Paddington and Farringdon on the new Metropolitan Railway, safe from the 1,102 tons of horse manure dumped on the city streets every day."

Yes and today's tube riders have no problem realizing just how OLD the system is -- at least compared to most of the rest of Europe!

Well, it may be old but at least it is THERE!!

Yes and to me it's the funnest system in Europe and certainly, even in its increpit state, one of the finest. Love the tube don't get me wrong!

ncgrrl, we got on that train from Kew Gardens. Oh, well! We needed the rest from walking all afternoon.

According to Canadian health statistics (available on the web), 75 percent of hip surgeries and 95 percent of knee surgeries are performed on people who are 'clinically obese'. I doubt this was a problem in London in 1863.

ncgrrl, Imagine doing it the other way, up. I followed the herd off the caarriage, noticed a woman struggling with a stroller and two little ones, then turned left with the crowd. I think seeing the woman, I thought she needs the elevator, I can walk.

Well after going up in circles, thinking OK it's almost over, I see the dreaded sign. Could it have been telling me that I'm walking up the equivalnet of 10 stories? I trudged on, big mistake, finally on the street, dying of thirst, I made it to the Mark's-Spensers to buy a drink.

icthecat, I saw that article, too. Just for the record, those percentages are people who are overweight or obese, not necessarily clinically obese.

I doubt that any overweight people had joint replacements in 1863.

More seriously, not everybody who has trouble with stairs is overweight, though. Even in 1863 people had muscular dystrophy, MS, rheumatoid arthritis, broken limbs, etc., and certainly many of them had serious respiratory difficulties from TB.