All 272 Tube Stations On The London Underground Bitchily Reviewed

Your handy print-out and keep guide to every single tube station on the London Underground network.

You can now own this as a poster, available on Londonist's online shop!

Acton Town: Clerestory window god tier  ★★★★

Aldgate: Gets short shrift, but OMG those Victorian Turkish bath teal tiles ★★★

Aldgate East: Dreary and bunkerish, and all the sadder when you see what it once looked like ★★

Alperton: Looks like Fireman Sam might burst out of here any second ★★★

Amersham: Genteel countryside vibes, helped by those white picket gables ★★★★

Angel: Soviet-steep escalator kinda worth it for all those pubs/comedy clubs waiting at the top ★★★

Archway: A pervasive sense of foreboding every time you descend into its bowels ★

Arnos Grove: Totally nicked from Stockholm Public Library but ★★★★★ nonetheless

Arsenal: ★★★★★ if you're a Gooner, ☆☆☆☆☆ if you're Spurs, ★★★ if you're neutral

Baker Street: Makes you want to smoke a big ol' pipe, and set off in pursuit of a damnable villain  ★★★★★

Balham: Holden works his chunky deco wizardry but sprinting for the mainline trains is always messy ★★★★

Bank: If you'd asked me up until recently, it'd have been minus stars — but now it's bucked up its ideas ★★★

Barbican: This isn't brutalist. Why isn't this brutalist? ★★

Barking: Like wandering into a provincial airport and not in a good way ★★

Barkingside: Like stepping into a provincial library and not in a bad way ★★★★

Barons Court: Stunner of a station, classy benches too, drops a star for shoddy grammar though ★★★★

Battersea Power Station: Nice shiny new toy, but why not call it Battersea Power Station Station? ★★★

Bayswater: Balustrades to match Buckingham Palace, a staircase to match Titanic — yes and yes again ★★★★

Becontree: Vivaciously red — like someone was painting the Golden Gate Bridge and had some left over ★★★

Belsize Park: Glazed to red-tiled perfection, like a well cooked ham — and just as tasty ★★★★

Bermondsey: Portal to the magical beer mile ★★★

Bethnal Green: THOSE ROUNDEL CLOCKS THOUGH ★★★★★

Blackfriars: Always disappoints having changed at the mainline station that's a SEE-THROUGH BRIDGE ★★

Blackhorse Road: Top pedigree of horse artwork here, plus it's gateway to the Blackhorse Beer Mile ★★★★

Bond Street: Why is this hiding in a naff shopping centre? WHY? ★★

Borough: The doomy sense that you're clambering inside a submarine ★★

Boston Manor: Not Holden's finest, but the ludicrous modernist steeple make you want to pray here ★★★

Bounds Green: So utterly handsome, and those deco uplighters inside! ★★★★★

Bow Road: Kinda cute, like something you'd find in the middle of a forest ★★★★

Brent Cross: Anyone for a game of ticket hall human chess? ★★★★

Brixton: Massive roundel! Massive mural! Cool pamphlets! Houseplants! Perpetual hotdog aroma! ★★★★★

Bromley-by-Bow: The recent facelift has done it a world of good ★★★

Buckhurst Hill: Pretty, polite, provincial pea-greeness ★★★★

Burnt Oak: Just going about its business, though that 'for Watling' roundel earns it a extra point ★★★

Caledonian Road: Leslie Green doin' his thang ★★★★

Camden Town: An ongoing wind problem. And does anyone understand which platform to go to? ★★★

Canada Water: The tube station of the future... today ★★★★

Canary Wharf: A sci-fi sensation — you could shoot Star Wars here and... oh, they did ★★★★

Canning Town: THE place to head for filthy DLR on tube action ★★★

Cannon Street: An oppressive tomb — they wrecked this like they wrecked the main station — for shame ★

Canons Park: No notes, but not in a good way ★

Chalfont & Latimer: Memorable only for sounding like a vaudeville act ★★

Chalk Farm: The way it sticks out like the prow of a glossy oxblood ship... swoon ★★★★

Chancery Lane: Satisfying to surface here and think you've arrived in Tudor England ★★★

Charing Cross: Top marks for the etymological mural, bottom marks for the ugly as sin entrance/exits ★★★

Chesham: Far too quaint to be on one of the great urban metro networks — love that ★★★★

Chigwell: The kinda place you'd see Jenny Agutter on the platform going "Daddy, oh Daddy" ★★★★

Chiswick Park: Rotunda of wonder! ★★★★

Chorleywood: Cracking canopy, fabulous fencing, smashing signal box ★★★★

Clapham Common: Classic double platform action, plus there's a ruddy wine bar underneath it! ★★★★★

Clapham North: Lacks the exterior looks of its Common cousin, but is just as gorge on the inside ★★★

Clapham South: A devastatingly handsome devil harbouring deep secrets ★★★★★

Cockfosters: Like flloating into a glorious Battlestar Galactica hangar bay of a garden ★★★★

Colindale: As overwhelmingly underwhelming as a man called Colin Dale — only thing it's good for is planes ★

Colliers Wood: Beautiful hunk of Holden, with a boozer across the road named in his honour ★★★★

Covent Garden: Come back when you've got some escalators, mate ★★★

Croxley: Of all the house-esque stations, this might be the houseiest ★★★

Dagenham East: If you were looking for a reason to go to Dagenham, this isn't it ★

Dagenham Heathway: Just Dagenham East with a more pretentious name tbh ★

Debden: Ugly duckling of a station whose grim exterior blossoms into a prettily-footbridged concourse ★★★

Dollis Hill: Ugly duckling #2 — looks jerry-built from the outside, but oh, that curvaceous waiting room! ★★★

Ealing Broadway: Mutton dressed as a shiny Elizabeth line station ★★

Ealing Common: Not exactly Golden Holden but I could look at/through that roundel glass all day ★★★

Earl's Court: That shed roof with pendant lights transports you back in time — as does the TARDIS ★★★★

East Acton: So cute I want to shrink it down and put in on my model railway ★★★★

East Finchley: Swoonworthy art deco swagger, patrolled by the East Finchley Archer ★★★★

East Ham: A very pleasant surprise — worth going just for those wrought iron canopy supports ★★★★

East Putney: Glorious little trio of striped arches, bringing the mini St Pancras energy ★★★★

Eastcote: The not-so-handsome cousin of Northfields, but tbf Northfields is gorge ★★★

Edgware: Looks so much like a 90s Sainsbury's you start craving Angel Delight ★★

Edgware Road (Bakerloo): Incredibly handsome oxblood thing — and that living wall on the side! ★★★★

Edgware Road (H&C/District): Nice enough station but trains here always stop way too long ★★★

Elephant & Castle: If MC Escher designed tube stations... ★★

Elm Park: So forgettable that... sorry, what am I writing about again? ★

Embankment: Rename it Gordon's Wine Bar and have done with it ★★★★

Epping: When a vintage bus picks you up for North Weald — that's some Harry Potter shit right there ★★★

Euston: Almost as unlovable as its mainline counterpart ★★

Euston Square: One of London's great mysteries ★

Fairlop: A gents toilet of an entrance gives way to a pretty little set of platforms ★★★

Farringdon: Still giving off real terminus energy from its youth... ideas above its station, and I like that ★★★★

Finchley Central: Nothing to write home about, but then it does have this wonderful Beck map ★★★

Finchley Road: It's a station, I'll give it that ★★

Finsbury Park: Rename it Rowan's and I'll give you another star ★★

Fulham Broadway: An Earl's Court that's run out of steam ★★

Gants Hill: Stunning lower concourse and roundel clocks — utter tube porn ★★★★★

Gloucester Road: Whoever's idea it was to make this an Underground art gallery should get an OBE ★★★★

Golders Green: Likeable, but every time you try to exit, a double-decker/your life flashes before your eyes ★★

Goldhawk Road: Must try harder ★

Goodge Street: Another fine station that lets itself down by its deficiency of escalators, to the tune of none ★★

Grange Hill: Like Tucker Jenkins, needs to buck its ideas up ★★

Great Portland Street: Ridiculously pompous chunk of architecture, which can only be commended ★★★★

Greenford: When you lost the wooden escalator you lost us ★★

Green Park: Just really, really useful, and actually opens out into the park too ★★★★

Gunnersbury: Concrete lovers will swoon over the way it's flanked by staggered car parks ★★★

Hainault: Brutalism and art deco f**ked and then they had Hainualt ★★★

Hammersmith (District/Piccadilly): I was after a tube station, not a shopping expedition ★★

Hammersmith (H&C/Circle): Now that's more like it Hammersmith ★★★★

Hampstead: Cracking use of oxblood tiles in and out — plus that ghost sign in plain sight ★★★★

Hanger Lane: Reconnaissance flying saucer sent out ahead of Southgate, crashed and forgotten about ★★

Harlesden: I mean, that jaggedy footbridge has to be worth something ★★

Harrow & Wealdstone: Redbricked gorgeousness — and a clocktower for the sheer hell of it ★★★★

Harrow-on-the-Hill: A rather smart little station, if you ignore all the atrocities crowding round it ★★★

Hatton Cross: Sad Heathrow wannabe made a bit special because tube challengers start or finish here ★★★

Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3: ★★★★★ if you're going on holiday, ★ if you're coming back

Heathrow Terminal 4: As joyless as a six-hour delayed hungover flight home on easyJet ★

Heathrow Terminal 5: Nice touch lighting up the tracks blue — they should do this everywhere ★★★

Hendon Central: Every TfL press release should be read out in full from that glorious balcony ★★★

High Barnet: Inconveniently located about half-an-Eiger below the town centre ★★

Highbury & Islington: Giant 'Cock' makes some amends of this ugly as sin facade ★★

Highgate: But that escalator leading to a little swing door on the street is a joke, right? ★★

High Street Kensington: As posh and splendid as you'd hope a Kensington tube station would be ★★★★

Hillingdon: A conservatory that got way out of hand ★★

Holborn: Platform mummies! ★★★

Holland Park: So unassuming, I often forget it exists ★★

Holloway Road: Gorge Leslie Green-ness ★★★★

Hornchurch: Grubby and unloved like Rod Liddell, but the adjoining mock-Tudor minicab cottage is ace ★★

Hounslow Central: For something with 'Central' in it, you'd expect something more important looking ★★★

Hounslow East: Sloped beret of a roof wins 'Tube Station That Looks Most Like Frank Spencer' ★★★

Hounslow West: Holden exterior as on point as ever, but the platforms make you want to vom  ★★

Hyde Park Corner: For something so central, how many times have you actually used it? ★★

Ickenham: Call it Ickyham and have done with it ★

Kennington: Fine dome! Can we put a planetarium in it? ★★★

Kensal Green: Looks like something you'd take a book out of, rather than a train from ★★

Kensington (Olympia): Can't get my head around the weird timetables here (but a star for the brackets) ★★

Kentish Town: Solid, no nonsense Northern line station, this ★★★

Kenton: I mean. Sure ★★

Kew Gardens: Oh you put a pub on the platform did you, well then you can have ★★★★★

Kilburn: Leads you underneath a mighty fine bridge and into the thick of Kilburn High Road — love it ★★★★

Kilburn Park: So goddamn perfect you worry someone will cut into it and it'll be cake ★★★★★

Kingsbury: Hiding among the shopfronts, moonlighting as a newsagents, ashamed of what it is ★★

King's Cross St Pancras: Two of the world's great termini, and they're served by this rubbish?! ★★

Knightsbridge: Exterior is very Knightsbridge, but like Harrods, there's not much to love inside ★★

Ladbroke Grove: Marvellous roundels, but my god, what did they do to the facade?! ★★

Lambeth North: Another station I kinda forget about, but handy for going to see planes and guns ★★★

Lancaster Gate: The architect who made this look like a job centre should be sacked ★

Latimer Road: Quaint and likeable somehow, especially the way it melts into the railway bridge ★★★★

Leicester Square: Watch out for the terrifying giant gingerbread man above the escalator ★★★

Leyton: Functional, sure. But what's with the wonky roof? ★★

Leytonstone: Hitchcock! The only station whose walls depict a shower murder and bird attack ★★★★★

Liverpool Street: Chaos at the best of times. Really feels like you're in London ★★★

London Bridge: Look up for rocket nozzles! ★★★★

Loughton: Triumphant modernist cool — a big old vintage wireless of a thing ★★★★★

Maida Vale: THAT MOSAIC THOUGH ★★★★★

Manor House: Someone slapping up a fake Underground sign on a derelict outbuilding to lure you in ★

Mansion House: Should be closed under the Trades Descriptions Act ★★

Marble Arch: Needs more marble. Needs more arch come to think of it ★★

Marylebone: If we're counting its edifice as Marylebone station, this is ★★★★★, otherwise just ★★★

Mile End: Ceilings are too low, like they're gradually moving in... oh Christ, they are! ★★

Mill Hill East: Anyone ever been? ★★

Monument: I use this more as a way of crossing the road than actually catching the tube ★★

Moorgate: Brooding, NYC subway kinda place, but oh that diamond roundel! ★★

Moor Park: Doesn't exactly leave you crying out for Moor. I award it with its spoonerism ★★

Morden: Defiantly juts out of that 60s monstrosity behind it ★★★

Mornington Crescent: Just glorious — a show tube station — and a fine game to boot ★★★★★

Neasden: 🎵 You won't be sorry that you breezed in 🎵 ★★★

Newbury Park: Inevitably outdone by the palpitatingly stunning bus station ★★★

Nine Elms: Forgettable sibling of BPS — also who are you kidding, this ain't zone one fella ★★

North Acton: Straddles cute and ugly. Cugly ★★

North Ealing: Heritage railway vibes ★★★★

North Greenwich: Absorb all that O2 traffic nicely ★★★★

North Harrow: Far less pretty than you think it might be... much like Harrow really ★★

North Wembley: Middling outpost with country vibes, but does have a superb view of a ghost sign ★★★

Northfields: Stunningly symmetrical — and oh boy that ticket hall ★★★★★

Northolt: A flaccid air traffic control tower of a thing ★★

Northwick Park: Less tube station, more backstreet garage ★★

Northwood: They say don't drink in flatroofed pubs — also don't catch trains from flatroofed stations ★

Northwood Hills: Station name was the result of a competition but in a beauty contest this would come last ★

Notting Hill Gate: Glorious arches everywhere you look — take that, Rome! ★★★★★

Oakwood: Another Northfields, arguably better ★★★★★

Old Street: Ongoing s**t show that might be OK if they ever finish the bastard ★★

Osterley: Ridiculously towered and utterly loveable for that reason ★★★

Oval: Cricket, classical music, cheese plants — oozing class ★★★★★

Oxford Circus: It's like Piccadilly Circus in here... oh hang on, that doesn't work ★★★

Paddington (District/Circle Bakerloo): Everyone loves Paddington ★★★★

Paddington (H&C/Circle): Unlike the films, this Paddington 2 isn't as good as the original ★★★

Park Royal: A cornucopia of satisfying shapes ★★★★

Parsons Green: Smart little above ground station not doing itself any favours with lack of apostrophe ★★★

Perivale: Fittingly delicious amuse bouche to the neighbouring deco masterstroke ★★★★

Piccadilly Circus: Those lampposted entrances and the way you emerge into the heart of it all ★★★★★

Pimlico: Roundel lightboxes! ★★★★

Pinner: All rather lovely, until you clock the hoofing great footbridge they've indelicately slapped over it ★★

Plaistow: A series of surprising flourishes — churchesque windows to old school UP/DOWN stair signs ★★★★

Preston Road: Next! ★★

Putney Bridge: Grand and well looked after — but why didn't they keep the magnificent chevron sign? ★★★★

Queen's Park: Clumsy, unlovable entrance gives way to a grandish canopy which claws back some dignity ★★

Queensbury: We'd love to say Queensbury Rules, but it just doesn't ★★

Queensway: Looks like you're walking into a swanky hotel, which in fact you once would've been ★★★★

Ravenscourt Park: Adore how trains rattle right over the top of this station ★★★★

Rayners Lane: Looks just as glorious from its back end — maybe even more so ★★★★★

Redbridge: Unglamorous pitstop for dropping off the car, and tubing into town ★★★★

Regent's Park: Used precisely once a year, for Frieze Sculpture ★★★

Richmond: A stunning slab of deco 'techture in the vein of Surbiton — and the same architect after all ★★★★

Rickmansworth: Quite literally loopy entrance leads to Arcadian platforms ★★★★

Roding Valley: Enchantingly underused ★★★★

Royal Oak: A welter of tracks charges through this weary station, taking away any charm it might've had ★★

Ruislip: Marvellous pitched roof footbridge, which puts Network Rail's efforts to shame ★★★★

Ruislip Gardens: The name might be bucolic, but the reality's a fugly mess ★

Ruislip Manor: Quite forgettable, even if that RUISLIP MANOR bridge doesn't want you to forget it ★★

Russell Square: Suave and urbane. Hardly ever use it ★★★

St James's Park: The redoubtable art deco home of TfL... well it used to be... ★★★★

St John's Wood: A doozy, with some of the handsomest escalator lighting on the network ★★★★★

St Paul's: Should be a religious experience, feels like falling into the depths of hell ★★

Seven Sisters: Fully unremarkable, although it does run a forbidden service to the tube wash ★★

Shepherd's Bush: Roomy and important, with the swagger of Tottenham Court Road ★★★

Shepherd's Bush Market: The way it opens into a market makes it 'Station Most Like Walford East' ★★★

Sloane Square: Besmirched from the outside, but lots to love on the platform, inc. THAT secret river ★★★

Snaresbrook: Another eccentric fringe station — plenty to like, nothing to adore ★★★

South Ealing: All the vowels, and a smashing waiting room too ★★★

South Harrow: Is it me you're looking for? Certainly not ★

South Kensington: Regal Albertopolis gateway (but if ever a station needed step-free access...) ★★★

South Kenton: Not so much a station as a slovenly subway ★

South Ruislip: Modern architects trying to channel Holden, and winding up with a shit snare drum ★

South Wimbledon: Oh boy, when that glass frontage glows up after dark ★★★★

South Woodford: Flat-roof dive-station out front mask an attractive little station inside ★★

Southfields: Oh aren't you clever, you know how to get to the tennis quickest ★★★

Southgate: Out of this world ★★★★★

Southwark: Southgate's true successor — a vast crashlanded spacecraft of a thing — and that lightwell! ★★★★

Stamford Brook: Smart, respectable and shabby — an old, proud duke who's fallen on tough times ★★★

Stanmore: Country cottage with a back garden of spectacular countryside ★★★★★

Stepney Green: Alluring on the surface, oppressive on the inside — the venus flytrap of tube stations ★★

Stockwell: Another tube station put to shame by the neighbouring bus garage ★★

Stonebridge Park: You're here for the motorbike cafe aren't you? ★★

Stratford: Not an obvs classic, but take a sec to appreciate the sweeping roof and slanted glass ★★★★

Sudbury Hill: The only thing I don't like about this is that it's not a lido ★★★★★

Sudbury Town: A modernist elysium with a waiting room worth waiting in ★★★★★

Swiss Cottage: Would warrant more stars if the Swiss Cottage was actually part of the station ★★★

Temple: Half station/half stately home terrace — weird but it works ★★★★

Theydon Bois: Not much here to make you want to bother learning how to pronounce it ★★

Tooting Bec: Competent warm-up act for Tooting Broadway ★★★★

Tooting Broadway: One of the grand dames of south London stations ★★★★★

Tottenham Court Road: A beating organ of central London — take a deep breath and enjoy ★★★★★

Tottenham Hale: Grey and beigey — every day's like Sunday ★

Totteridge & Whetstone: Steepest climb to get to a tube station? ★★

Tower Hill: A real introvert — ducking out of the eye line of that swaggering castle across the road ★★

Tufnell Park: Lends its name to one of the great comedy characters ★★★★★★★★★★★

Turnham Green: One stubborn station, that's only a station when it feels like it ★★★

Turnpike Lane: Could be an art deco church, and we'd worship in it too ★★★★

Upminster: They've not looked after this place, and slapping C2C pink all over it isn't fooling anyone ★

Upminster Bridge: Something doesn't feel right, or rather something feels EXTREME right ★

Upney: You drive past in the car and go "oh we're still in London" ★★

Upton Park: Charming, like an old Victorian schoolhouse, and more peaceful since 2016 too ★★★★

Uxbridge: Stained-glass masterpiece. All bow before it! ★★★★★

Vauxhall: ★★ for the tube station, ★★★★★ for the bus station above it

Victoria: Integral yet impractical — feels like you're schlepping around twice as long as you should be ★★

Walthamstow Central: If you don't like it here, you can be in Brixton in half an hour... ★★★

Wanstead: London Underground goes brutalist-ish — what Barbican should look like ★★★★

Warren Street: For a station so central, it feels like it's chucking you out in the middle of nowhere ★★

Warwick Avenue: But which entrance, Duffy, there are two? ★★★

Waterloo: Depends which line you're on, although the W&C platforms smack of purgatory ★★

Watford: Given its proximity to Harry Potter Land, it's fitting this looks like a cottage in Hogsmeade ★★★

Wembley Central: They desecrated this like they desecrated the stadium ★

Wembley Park: Feels like Coming Home ★★★★

West Acton: They sure knew how to use glass back then ★★★★

West Brompton: Because of the cemetery, has the hint of Necropolis line — in all the right ways ★★★★

West Finchley: Not so much a station as a walk-through shed ★★

West Ham: All those glass blocks make you feel like you've stumbled into London's biggest WC ★★

West Hampstead: Sweeping deco waiting room, but wider station let down by regular overcrowding ★★

West Harrow: Looks like one of those info centres you get in forests ★★

West Kensington: Nothing not to like, little to have you rushing back ★★★

West Ruislip: Trying to do what West Acton does, and falling well short ★★

Westbourne Park: A nothingy station that spits you out nowhere in particular ★★

Westminster: Like entering the lair of a Bond villain ★★★★★

White City: Super benches ★★★★

Whitechapel: Overground Underground (Wombling free?) ★★★★

Willesden Green: Everything's suitably green: tiles, columns, shrubbery ★★★★

Willesden Junction: Makes you sorry you didn't go to Willesden Green ★★

Wimbledon: Nowhere near the tennis ★★

Wimbledon Park: Brimming with eccentric redbricked charm ★★★★

Wood Green: One of the most satisfying curves on the entire network ★★★★

Wood Lane: Crinkle-cut windows?! Must be the finest modern tube revamp this millennium ★★★★

Woodford: Are you a station or a Co-op — cos from where I'm standing you could be either ★★

Woodside Park: A comely station for a comely name ★★★★

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