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Location Profile: NOTTING HILL GATE |
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Made famous most notably by both the annual carnival and the film Notting Hill, Notting Hill Gate features in two forms in Victoria. |
| The first area to feature is the impressive original platforms of
the Underground Station that serve the sub-surface Circle and District (Edgware Road
Branch) lines. The view seen here is the south end of the platforms looking south into the distant tunnel portal into which a main character is required to clamber to examine a nasty discovery further up the line. The open space at the far end of the station is a relic from when the line was run by steam locomotives, it let the smoke out! |
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Outside the station, the original surface buildings were swept
away when the main road was widened in the 1960's. Instead four classical design
pavement subway entrances, two on each side of the road, where installed as seen here. This leads to a cross road subway and a rather cramped ticket hall situated immediately below the centre of the road. |
| Sadly the area is now dominated not only by the large dual
carriageway main road but also by some of the dullest and dreadful examples of 1950's
concrete "modernisation" most of which I am sure no one would miss if it was
quietly demolished. It is worth noting these pictures were taken at lunchtime on a cold Bank Holiday Monday in January - it is usually a lot busier than this! |
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Another thing to be found in the area of Notting Hill Gate and the
surrounding Kensington district in abundance are embassies and consulates. This rather austere looking building is the Russian Embassy although very little by way of signage on its exterior exists to inform any passer by of this fact. |
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For the sake of completeness although it does not (as of yet)
feature in any of the novels in the series, here is the Central Line eastbound platform at
Notting Hill Gate. It is one of the few on this part of the Central Line still largely in near original condition with its rather sparse white platforms now that Queensway has been refurbished and Lancaster Gate is currently heading the same way. |