Mornington Crescent: Mind the Northern Line gap

…Camden

Mornington Crescent is a minor street which gives its name to a tube station with two of the many hurdles in London’s tube system that can trip up even a born-n-bred Londoner.

The first is its less than helpful name. It gives no hint of the station’s location in the heart of Camden at the southern end of Camden High Street. If it were renamed Camden South, it might help relieve congestion at Camden Town station at the northern end of the high street.

The second is found on the tube map, where Mornington Crescent is on the Northern Line between Euston and Camden Town. Those who don’t look carefully may not spot that half the trains don’t stop there. Passengers from Euston can inadvertently end up in overcrowded Camden Town and vice versa.

Mornington Crescent is also the name of a long-running radio panel game in which the contestants have to get to Mornington Crescent via the tube and other places in London.

It could epitomise one of several things in this country: muddle-through, a certain type of wit and sense humour, Radio 4, the BBC. It wouldn't have been out of place alongside the shipping forecast, James Bond and the Windrush in London's Olympic opening ceremony. It would have been unfathomable to the rest of the world but so were dancing nurses and so it is to to those who listen to and play it.

You can hear Mornington Crescent on Sunday 13th July at 12 noon in this week’s edition of I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue.