London Underground 1970-1980 by Mike Goldwater

Down in the dimly lit Tunnels, the Tube was one photographer's playground

LondonUnderground_1970s Mike Goldwater

Oxford Circus 1978

The first thing that strikes anyone who regularly rides on the London Underground is how clean it looks in Mike Goldwater’s photographs. Taken during the 1970s, Goldwater shows us a Tube a million miles up wind from New York’s filthy Subway, a place so disgusting, violent and vandalised that the only respite from the dystopian stench and fear of impending doom was a self-made cloud of incontinence and a Beatrice armoured in a red beret and a ‘Guardian Angels’ t-shirt. Not that the Underground is some idyll, a place where the sun isn’t silent and the air is sweet. Homeward bound tourists keen to recapture the thrill of minding the gap and cooling their heels on overcrowded platforms are not offered a range of signature scents. But if Goldwater’s pictures came with scratch and sniff cards, panels would feature the odours of guard’s pipe, football fan and warm cat.

 

LondonUnderground_1970s Mike Goldwater

Kings Cross – 1972

 

LondonUnderground_Westbourne Park 1979 Mike Goldwater

Westbourne Park 1979

LondonUnderground_Wembley Park 1979 Mike Goldwater

Wembley Park 1979

LondonUnderground_1970s Mike Goldwater

Tottenham Court road 1977

LondonUnderground_1970s Mike Goldwater

Piccadilly Circus 1978

LondonUnderground_1970s Mike Goldwater

Oxford Circus 1979

LondonUnderground_1970s Mike Goldwater

Northern Line 1975

LondonUnderground_1970s Mike Goldwater

Northern Line 1974 – shades of Bob Mazzer’s party Tube

LondonUnderground_1970s Mike Goldwater

Holborn 1978

LondonUnderground_1970s Mike Goldwater

Baker Street 1979

LondonUnderground_1970s Mike Goldwater

Moorgate 1973

 

London Underground 1970-1980 by Mike Goldwater is published by Hoxton Mini Press

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