Shooting the Northern Line

If the London Underground is the city’s nervous system, then the Northern Line is its jugular vein. Black, split right down the middle and tracing the city’s bounds from top to tail, the Northern Line runs for 58km, and is second only to the Central Line as London’s busiest tube route.

I decided to pick up a camera and uncover the exact nature of this intrinsic, overlooked and ever-present part of my city’s character.

That other regular element of travel on the Northern Line – planned engineering works on the High Barnet branch – determined the direction of my journey: down to Morden, then all the way up to Edgware. Bereft of the coffee-house credits for a bigger lens, I charged up my Nikon Coolpix digital camera and set out to discover for myself what London’s inner workings look like.

Burnt Oak: Dark grey, sad streets packed full with too-bright marketplace stalls

Colindale: Serene and sparse: the Tube’s organs unashamedly on show

Belsize Park: Hidden, and increasingly larger splashes of colour as we inch closer to Hampstead

Camden Town: Busy, bustling; a pilgrimage point for tourists seeking “cool” photo ops

Mornington Crescent: Flat geometry and soft salmon walls line the border of Camden Town

Euston: A short, rugged breath between “clean-tourist” sheen and “cool-tourist” bustle

Goodge Street: London doorways that belong on postcards

Tottenham Court Road: The epicentre; the eye of the storm

Clapham Common: Trendy South London hideaway sprawled out in the Saturday sun

Tooting Broadway: Derelict, mottled edges that seep into wide, dark grey kerbs

Colliers Wood: A bright blue beacon in a ghost town

Morden: At the line’s end: where most fear they’ll drop off the edge of the Earth.  Instead, there’s a giant park C

Monica Karpinski is is Digital PR and Marketing Executive for Hotcourses, the UK’s largest directory of higher and further education and short courses worldwide