The tube is an odd place at the best of times. Londoners from all walks of life can be seen going about their business. When they bring their prized possessions with them, however, things get really strange.
We asked our Facebook followers what's the weirdest thing they've seen carried on public transport in London. They did not disappoint. Some were ridiculous, some were hilarious and some made us feel a bit sick. Here are a few of our favourites.
Musical instruments
Apparently there's no shortage of musical instruments on the tube. Makes sense — musicians have to get to work like the rest of us. One man's briefcase is another man's saxophone. There were more reports of cellos, double basses, keyboards and amplifiers than any other instruments, unsurprisingly as their size makes them more noticeable than an easily concealed ukulele.
Animals
We have a particular penchant for the massive dog that regularly travels (accompanied by a human) between Sloane Square and Embankment on the tube, but it seems he's not the only animal going places.
Plenty of fake creatures have been spotted including a life-sized model camel, an inflatable crocodile and a (hopefully not life-sized) inflatable dinosaur. One reader once saw a man on the bus with two hobby horses sticking out of his rucksack.
Sheep, a donkey and a foal were also reported, although it wasn't made clear whether these were artificial or real. A black bag of eels was definitely full of life, as was an aquarium.
"Someone tried to take a donkey in a straw hat on the bus the other day. I'm unsure of the circumstances," reports Henry. If you can shed any light on this one, please let us know.
On a slightly more sombre note, one reader had to take their dead frozen dog home from the vets on the top deck of a double decker bus; another reader saw a dead deer being carried around in bin bags.
Household goods
Do you all use the tube to move house or something? From the responses received, you could certainly furnish a new-build with items seen on the London transport system. We had reports of vacuum cleaners, several doors, ladders, tables, chairs, carpets, fridges, lamps, TVs, ironing boards, and even a two-seater sofa. Lisa went some way to explaining her huge mirror, a set of saucepans, iron, chopping board and kettle — she was on the way home from the Ideal Home Show.
Mattresses cropped up frequently with both doubles and king sizes making it safely to their destinations. Yet when Colette tried to take her single mattress on a bus, she was refused permission to board. Perhaps it's all in the technique, Colette.
Christmas trees were common with everything up to six-footers transported on both buses and tubes. Naomi says she felt like an extra in Love Actually and was very proud too. Just check for prickles before you sit down. Flowers, plants and trees are all extremely common on the last day of the Chelsea Flower Show, when the foliage is sold off.
Transport on transport
Louanne admitted to carrying a VW Golf car bonnet on the tube. While elsewhere in transport-on-transport news, Alastair's Vespa broke down so pushed it on the rear carriage of a train at Maze Hill for the journey home. Neil saw "a motorcycle being taken on a down escalator at Angel, before being stopped by staff." He also saw a unicycle on a platform elsewhere that day.
Tools of the trade
Someone spotted a concrete mixer on the tube — could we have an explanation for this particular incident? Alan "got some very concerned looks when I was carrying the tools of my trade on a tube train when I was going to do a job in the grounds of the South African embassy. I'm a tree surgeon."
Weird and weirder
Human-sized teddy bears, a large angel statue, surfboards, snooker tables and a trampoline (size unspecified) have all made Underground journeys. Niall holds no qualms about admitting to travelling on the tube "with a 5 foot statue of the Venus de Milo." A shop dummy wearing Ralph Lauren boxer briefs on a bus was one of many mannequins reported, along with a concrete gnome.
If all that's not peculiar enough, someone actually spotted a coffin on the tube (hopefully uninhabited), while another commuter tried to take a single mattress with a skeleton taped to it on a bus. Apparently the driver didn't let it on.
But perhaps most alarming of all is David's sighting of "a sports bag containing a massive leg of frozen meat. And a hacksaw. Which he then proceeded to hack the meat with..."
Seen (or carried) anything weirder on London public transport? Was one of the above people you? Let us know in the comments below.
