Tired of Politics? Here's Westminster Tube Station

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[@JagoHazzard]

Go to ground.news/jago to spot media bias and make sure you’re getting the full story. Subscribe through my link to get 40% off the Vantage subscription this month only.

[@john1703]

"and Britain would never again have a problem with sewage being dumped into its rivers or seas" 🤣🤣

[@YoLo-bb2vc]

well someone should inform thames water then XD

[@caw25sha]

Hazzard for PM

[@Coherers]

Cruel

[@rcm926]

Leader of the Underground Electoral Railways of London Party

[@bostonrailfan2427]

@@rcm926or the Yerkes Party for short

[@bostonrailfan2427]

Give Jago a Go! He’s no Hazzard to the country!

[@unpoppablebubble]

He'd get my vote

[@chrisrand5185]

One of the problems that the architects and engineers had in designing the station and Jubilee line was that they had to avoid going under Government infrastructure and buildings, remembering Guy Fawkes. Only problem was that the powers that be would not tell the architects where this infrastructure was for security reasons. Consequently, they had to keep submitting drawings and getting them rejected with no advice on how to overcome the issue until eventually plans were submitted and accepted.

[@LeafHuntress]

Ok, so now i have to simply get all these earlier designs & i can puzzle out where the boundaries are.... Muhahaha, my quest for worlddomination is going smoothly.

[@NCR5309]

@@LeafHuntresswe literally did that - it was a farce. You could, by overlapping the rejected, see where “non-existent” bunkers basements etc were. It was the most ridiculous game of battleships ever. If they’d proposed a route suggestion or two, in first place.. 😂

[@thefareplayer2254]

I love how perfectly timed and cathartic this video is for Brits AND Americans!

[@johnmurray8428]

And Canadians, Happy Canada Day on Monday.

[@meijiturtle3814]

Jago has an exceptionally relaxing and mellifluous voice. He is the ideal commentator.

[@emjayay]

@@meijiturtle3814 He's the ASMR of transit nerd KZbinrs.

[@nilo70]

@@emjayay You are Not Wrong .

[@Slycockney]

A mention of our friend Mr. Yerkes, so all is well with the world. Excellent video as always Jago, thank you.

[@jasonhaven7170]

Imagine London without Yerkes

[@roseanneb11]

Is there Yerkes merch yet? Maybe a shot glass for a drink every time his name is mentioned in a video.

[@MetroTitanD78]

During construction of the Jubilee Line through Westminster they had to keep an eye on Big Ben to make sure it didn't start tilting due to the work going on and extra work had to be done to stabilise the ground by it. In the end it did move slightly but only by something like a 1CM which was well within the safe limits set by the engineers.

[@BarneyLeith]

Before I retired and was working in London I used Westminster station a lot. I like it. My wife and I went to a reception in the House of Lords on 31 December 1999 and were then taken (with a whole lot of other people) to North Greenwich on a special train on the Jubilee line. The cars were numbered and we were assigned to a particular car, directed by marshals on the platform with numbered placards. We were ushered through security at North Greenwich, entered the Millennium dome, and celebrated the New Year. (HMQ was there and joined in the singing of Auld Lang Syne.)

[@tonys1636]

Just a shame the Millennium Dome became the O2, bloody corporate branding winds me up and changes often as happens with many football stadia, the names many grew up with gone maybe for eternity.

[@f4rr3r]

@@tonys1636i don’t love the name but it’s much nicer as a concert venue than it was as a late 90s nonsense arena

[@sydneylam19]

Hazzard for Mayor of London

[@jjprulz]

He's too good for the job.

[@PokhrajRoy.]

The cold open is just British enough. Anyway, I’m rooting for Count Binface

[@jonc4403]

Given who he's running against, I can't imagine why anybody in his district wouldn't vote for him.

[@jfmezei]

Aren't there Daleks also running?

[@ianmcclavin]

What was there before the late 90's rebuild to accommodate the Jubilee Line has pretty much been completely swept away, apart from the track on the District and Circle Lines!!

[@nigeltocknell3093]

I loved the rebuild in the late nineties when I lived in London. Along with Canary Wharf Jubilee Line station it is one of the best stations in London. Always thought it was what a tube station would look like if designed by a James Bond villain!

[@andycooke6231]

Love ths flying escalators

[@1258-Eckhart]

It actually features in "Skyfall".

[@Mark-p8n2u]

It is also a massive nuclear bunker designed to house UK Government in the event of a nuclear attack. There are apparently 10 or so storeys beneath platform level which make up the said bunker. If you look around the station, not only is it massively over engineered you can see large steel blast doors etc. As I bought a coffee from the the shop at platform level the was a station manager in front of me in the queue, I asked him about the bunker and he joking said 'if I tell you I'd have to kill you'. He then matter of factly told me about the ten storeys underneath that make up the bunker and casually said that is where they hold the COBRA meetings. Fun fact!

[@Azeria]

Westminster is my favourite underground station. I love that Jubilee line extension aesthetic.

[@hannahcornell9056]

Mine too. I love going from the Jubilee line platforms up to the Circle and District line platforms. The transition from modern concrete and exposed steel beams to Victorian elegance is weirdly satisfying.

[@TheCyberSalvager]

I've passed through Westminster station on a couple of occasions and I'm still fascinated by the architecture of the "Concrete box". It's a modern industrial look which is my favourite aesthetic!

[@philipwhiuk]

This Video Is NOT A Yerkes Free Zone. All hail Jago & Yerkes

[@cmw3737]

My only question is why, when Gloucester Road has art on a platform, do those large floodlit concrete hollows of Westminster station no longer have artwork in them? They did for a while and it made the transit from Jubilee to District line the highlight of many a journey. Can we start a campaign to bring back art to the caverns of Westminster?

[@kaitlyn__L]

That about sums up 14 years of the Tories eh?

[@chrisamies2141]

From what I remember, the pre-Jubilee, District-only station was very modest and low-profile for a station serving the Houses of Parliament and so many tourist destinations.

[@Evemeister12]

MPs used taxis or private vehicles

[@chrisamies2141]

@@Evemeister12 but there are a lot of people working there who are not MPs. Regular civil service employees.

[@eekee6034]

It never ceases to amaze me that the Met's engineer proposed a new line called the Inner _Circle,_ the Met themselves formed a new company called the Metropolitan and District which would later become the Met's most hated rival, and today, the Metropolitan, District, and Circle are 3 distinct lines.

[@del4189]

As a recently retired district driver I saw all the development work in the 90's and the District / Circle platforms to this day never looked finished to me, even the platform seating looks like the backrests are missing, when they dropped the tracks it looked very dodgy and never looked or felt safe even with a 5 mph TSR.

[@rikardottosson1272]

Yerkes is back!

[@adrianrutterford762]

A Hazzard video is always better with a mention of Charlie Boy.

[@mattjackson9859]

It's that man again

[@leonbanks5728]

He’s like Voldemort.

[@mikerichards6065]

I hope you all raised a drink when he appeared.

[@paulketchupwitheverything767]

I thought that he was heading for an appearance before the 7 minute mark, though.

[@timothynixon9437]

I went through there many times as a guard and the driver when we on the Metropolitan line used to work the Circle Line, it has changed beyond all recognition.

[@susiewickham9990]

My civil engineer brother worked in the jubilee line at Westminster and helped keep Big Ben standing 😊

[@chrissaltmarsh6777]

Baker Street still has some of the aura of those old pictures of the first underground railways. It is probably my favourite in London. That comment has nothing to do with the Westminster tube.

[@eekee6034]

I was blown away the first time I stopped there! :) I'm sorry to say it's still the only time I've stopped there, but I don't travel well.

[@Andrewjg_89]

I do like Westminster and the Big Ben. But haven’t actually been inside Westminster Abbey. Such an iconic landmark in Central London. The Jubilee Line platforms at Westminster station is almost like being in a different world.

[@martineyles]

It's also a reasonably handy place to switch to the boat if you're coming from Marylebone on a nice day. A short walk to Baker Street and a short walk to the boat pier and after sailing under tower bridge you can be on your way to the cable car via another short walk.

[@petemommo9622]

I got a job just outside the station days after it opened. Lived at halls a stone´s throw from Canada Water. The Jubilee extension was a godsend. Westminster tube indeed looks like the cargo hold of USCSS Nostromo.

[@therealcaldini]

I do like Westminster. It’s surprisingly serene despite the huge numbers of people and cavernous spaces. Gets a bit dusty on top of those pipes though.

[@nigelcole1936]

I remember the station before it was redeveloped, the size and scale is incomparable

[@MelanieRuck-dq5uo]

Charles Yerkes gets a mention, and a loud and enthusiastic shout goes up from the fans!

[@1963TOMB]

The Jubilee Line only goes through Westminster due to politics! I believe that the original proposed route of the extension wasn't via Westminster, but the government insisted that it passed through before authorising the same linked to the construction of Portcullis House. I remember having to carry radio test equipment down to the Jubilee Line levels at Westminster when getting ready for the opening of the extension from my car parked on the Embankment (you could in those days). The problem was at the end of the shift I had to carry them back up the not yet commissioned escalators! Still working on LU radio system projects and currently helping getting mobile phone coverage provided on the whole of London Underground.

[@paintedpilgrim]

I do remember the entrance to the Commons being a slightly darkened/security glass door with a desk behind it and mustard coloured walls back in the hazy days of 2000-2004.

[@amethyst7084]

I can remember going to Westminster Underground station a few times (mainly as a school child) before it was rebuilt for connecting to the Jubilee Line. It has quite a charm with alll of the white tiles in the ticket hall, and on the narrow platforms. The white tiles and the lighting at the time, did help to make sure the station was brightly lit.

[@birdbrain4445]

0:19 Always a plan, a creed to live by. This station is a masterpiece; actually breathtaking. My favourite design of perhaps any of the Tube stations I've used, with the possible exception of little old Chesham out in Bucks.; rather at the other end of the scale of modernity. Great video!

[@neilbain8736]

5:24 What an amazing photograph. There's so much going on.

[@ChavJag]

Westminster Abbey is awesome. The place is dripping in history I highly recommend a visit.

[@prismaticmarcus]

i would've liked to have heard more about HOW a rail line gets lowered by a couple of mm a day...

[@stretch9952]

Very impressive. The product of a confluence of brains from a couple of adjacent centuries. Vaguely recalls the visions of Metropolis, managing to invoke fascination, awe, perhaps even dread at the thought that we now must sort it out in our heads and navigate all those layers without selecting the wrong one. But it is also inspiring with a kind of "look what we have wrought when challenged" vibe. Hope I get to London to see it.

[@barrydevonshire9749]

We have some burials disturbed by the building of the station at brookwood cemetery

[@frippp66]

i do like the design of this station - it is so impressive as one travels up on an escalator

[@ianthomson9363]

I agree. I just wish there was a little colour to it instead of everything being grey.

[@NR23derek]

My very favourite underground station. I rode the JLE extension on it's first fully open day as well!

[@DeathInTheSnow]

I'm voting for more trains and trams on the 4th of July! Don't forget your ID on Thursday!

[@peedee2221]

Nice to hear a mention for everybody's favourite, Charles Tyson Yerkes. He has been missing in recent weeks.

[@robertwood1416]

CTY!!!!! Big up to shady Chicagoans!

[@mdhazeldine]

Fantastic station. I feel lucky to have been through that "secret corridor" and into Portcullis House and Parliament a few times for work. It's a very impressive place.

[@eattherich9215]

@7:01, Yerkes has made a return. We've missed you. I changed from the Jubilee line at Westminster and spent a few minutes looking for the Circle/District line platforms. I can only put it down to some sort of brainstorm.

[@joecesa1013]

Love your videos, you're so clever. You even fit in a joke in your ads!! Clever fellow, thanks!

[@esjay2011]

Thanks

[@JagoHazzard]

And thank you!

[@SeverityOne]

I've been in Westminster Underground station, and I cannot say that I'm a fan of the design. It's like having to walk behind the scenes in the Portal computer game. In contrast to the clinical game rooms, what's behind the scenes is what you aren't supposed to see. Regarding feet, I think we continentals can more or less figure out a foot, or even two of them. It becomes difficult when it's more than that. If something is 15 feet, I have to mentally do the maths and come to around 4.5 metres, but not quite.

[@JW1_1]

Westminster was my first tourist stop as a kid. The jubilee line extension was constantly in the news back then. I used to think they looked like the central line then soon after I discovered they made their funny sound 🤣🤣🤣

[@DaveF.]

Glad you've done this one - it's one of my favourites - such a vast space and completely unexpected when you enter. A modern classic.

[@peterdavy6110]

I remember the wrought iron gates to Parliament being in use. Heck, I feel old.

[@JamesBrown-zu8iv]

Yea... The Tale of the Tube, Jago! ❤

[@antontsau]

All these pipes, crossing escalators and cladded walls resemble internals of huge steam boiler with links, rivets, bubbles of steam and flows of liquid

[@lordpitnolen2196]

Should there be a branch line from Westminster leading to a new terminus named OBLIVION? 😮

[@RainhamRailEnthusiast]

This is my favourite underground station, I just love the architecture of it. I was going to do a video but won't bother now as this is (as always) excellent.

[@AFCManUk]

It's like a brutalist underground cathedral!

[@Mikeb1001]

Took a fair while for Yerkes to get a mention, but there he is!

[@MrGreatplum]

One of my favourite stations, Jago. The jubilee line extension has some brilliant architecture, and Westminster is so different to nearly every other tube station!

[@weetabix2]

Ok, so I’m thinking a collaboration of some sorts between you and ‘Dale Charman Travels’ would be really really good. You are both extremely good communicators, fantastic to listen to and knowledgeable. I’m just sewing the seeds👌😊

[@ukroadsandtransport]

Awesome stuff as always Jago

[@lynnlambert8745]

Fascinating and funny too. Thank you

[@philanderson5138]

As cybersalvager says below this tube station is one of the best - just a pleasure to travel through - brutal yet beautiful. thanks again J.

[@DavidSmith-648]

Jago for Britain's very first President! #notmyking

[@georgewallis2020]

I commute here, it's a great station! My favourite bits are teaching tourists how we use escalators in the UK, and the adverts targeting MPs which you don't see anywhere else, trying to sell me fighter jets and things like that.

[@kenmorris100]

Good evening Jago another informative video about London's historic tube stations. There is one lesser known fact you didn't mention namely in 1922, a new entrance and canopy was designed for the Bridge Street entrance by Charles Holden and, in 1924, he designed a plainly rendered replacement elevation for the eastern entrance on to the Embankment. These were the first commissions to Holden and the now long demolished entrance to embankment was in the Portland Stone design he used on the Morden Line extensions. I am not sure whether you have made a video in the past about the relationship between Charles Holden and Pick including their European trip that so influenced the "Sudbury Box" designs on the Piccadilly and subsequent extensions. Food for thought and keep up the excellent work.

[@boabrahamsen9442]

Excellent video thank you so much. Westminster Tube station precedes the Copenhagen Metro by a few decades and I'm struck by how similar the construction and layout is, except the metro lines run under the station proper rather than beside it as far as I can judge. Bet they had a good look at the jubilee line.

[@rachelcarre9468]

All I can say is that it is a blessing to every KZbinr than what was planned for the tube wasn’t what actually happened, otherwise your content would be much blander. The tube’s history has the power to make the plot twists of a soap opera to appear sedate and the politics of Rome, gentlemanly. 😀

[@davidfarnes4615]

My favourite tube station. In my humble opinion it is a finer piece of modern art than 90% of the stuff in the Tate Modern.

[@stanleymorse3260]

I'm not a train or history buff of any kind, but I found this video very interesting and I have to say Westminster is easily my favourite station... There's just something about that brutalist concrete mesh that makes it feel so impressive, and to know it's essentially serving as the foundation for the building above is so cool!

[@spectro742]

I love that the period cartoons about sewage in the Thames and the great stink shown in the video came up during my GCSEs. I did history of medicine and it covered public health in Britain.

[@barrydevonshire9749]

Nice one Jago

[@peterdavy6110]

Vote Jago! You know it makes sense!

[@paultidd9332]

It has a majestic ambience and I love the smell of the concrete! It feels like a set from one of those space films where we’re all living in underground cities because it’s probably too hot to live above ground.

[@DennosManCave]

Probably my absolute favourite tube station. I think the design is a remarkable piece of infrastructure. Love going thru the station on my trips to London.

[@mjowsey]

I love the bare concrete I think that it has a kind of beauty. I used the Jubilee Line quite a bit a few years ago.

[@makkari1]

"You are the foundation to my Portcullis House. " Can I have that one, Jago?

[@michaelkinsey4649]

Prime Minister Hazard begins to appoint his Cabinet - Chancellor Yerkes has a ring to it.....

[@brettpalfrey4665]

Emperor Yerkes sounds better for a Star Wars sequel....

[@davidsummer8631]

Who here has already forgotten that Charing Cross was once on the Jubilee Line ?

[@Julius_Hardware]

Never!

[@davidclark1545]

Passed through there for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I really liked the station.

[@doojab]

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE! More information needed on how they lowered the station "a few millimetres at a time"! That must be Jago Gold-dust!

[@jfmezei]

If they lowered the platforms, did they also lower the tracks? I can see the removing tiles on plaftform to bare concrete and "scratch" it every night like they do roads before repaving. But 1 foor would mean they would get to earth (below concrete) at one point. Seems like a huge undertaking while keeping station operational. Wouldn't it have been simpler to close 1 side and operate station as single track while other side is lowered?

[@gatorbackradial]

6:59 Drink! (For those of you still playing the Yerkes drinking game)

[@mdhazeldine]

P.S. Excluding Taylor Swift might the best ad for Ground News I've ever seen :D

[@upthebracket26]

wait..wait... so what you're saying is, if I eat lots of fish I can get high? This is excellent news!

[@mikerichards6065]

Westminster Jubilee line station has serious Bladerunner vibes. It’s an awesome piece of engineering and architecture. Shame about the hideous Gothic horror across the road on the surface.

[@teecefamilykent]

Brilliant video sir, award yourself some points!

[@eastlancsesteem]

The Jubilee line extension was the best thing for Westminster.

[@MichaelCampin]

My father passed away on 4th July 1986 at 57 so I know the history of the day

[@alanmoss3603]

3:45 - well I personally buy my best 'charlie' from a Haddock!

[@PokhrajRoy.]

Moral of the Story: There’s politics in your niche interests

[@willhovell9019]

Don't forget the Old Middlesex County Hall , now the Supreme Court 😮

[@kipe933]

Where is the sign that says "Jubilee line trains now run through to Stratford, and no longer call at Charing Cross" (8:11)?

[@willum223]

6:57 YERKES KLAXON

[@blue2sco]

That car horn at the end was well timed.

[@AlanHMartin]

Quite the relevant video. * I descended into The Box on 15-Sep'22, and was duly impressed. * I noticed Portcullis House whilst walking the Embankment(s). While I didn't remember what was there in 1973, I was sure it wasn't that hydra of chimbleys. And no, I _don't_ prefer metric.

[@hotsaucebeliever]

This applies to every single professional career. If you want to advance you have to go into management and that takes you away from the subject matter field you love, from a business perspective you end up with glass ceiling of how much experience your actioning staff has before they move up. From an employee perspective it's a tough decision that you have to make regarding your salary expectations and what you'll do every day

[@the123king]

YERKES! It's not a Jago Hazzard video without Charles Tyson Yerkes!

[@carltonleboss]

Westminster is a very cool station.

[@MrDavidht]

It would be nice to know who the brilliant engineers were who actually built the expanded station.

[@davidellis2021]

So good they stopped all that sewage going in the river.