Here’s a piece of London trivia that will most likely only serve to make you feel a little more smug than usual when it comes up on a pub quiz.
Of all the 272, there are only two London Tube stations that use all five vowels in their names. If you’re manically reeling railing them off in your head, you have successfully been trapped by a ‘humdinger’. Anyway, scroll down if you’ve given up.
South Ealing, amazingly the only of the many Ealing stations to perform this feat despite roaring out of tracks with two consecutive, and Mansion House are the ones you need to be looking out for to reaffirm your encyclopaedic London railway knowledge.
South Ealing
I mean, the vowel-iness of this one just springs up off the page at you like the seagulls in Finding Nemo, getting two of them in early doors and then starting off the second word with two quick-fire vowels like it’s a game of fookin’ Countdown.
Those visiting South Ealing on the Heathrow branch of the Piccadilly line to check out the cracking use of all five vowels in the same Tube station name may also want to stick around. There’s some leafy vegetation in the form of both Lammas Park and Walpole Park, the latter of which will provide a sunny and smooth walk down towards Ealing Broadway (just the four vowels for that station).
Take a stroll down St. Mary’s Road, which runs parallel to Walpole, and you’ll come across a string of boozers, including The Castle and The New Inn, to while away the hours talking of other such trivial topics, from London boroughs to Ealing’s long-standing musical history.
Mansion House
Vowels don’t leap out at you quite like South Ealing, but slowly run your eyes across it and you’ll see that the fact checks out. Funny how that works. Unlike its frankly suburban Zone 3 counterpart, Mansion House is pretty damn central, nesting itself into the heart of the City Of London. It’s quite a small exterior and easy to miss, but it’ll get you onto the Circle and District Lines just the same as you would at a taller and wider station.
Once you’ve stepped away from the Mansion and pondered about the scenarios you could use the word in Scrabble, you’ll be a hop, skip and a jump away from big hitters including St. Paul’s Cathedral, the bank of the River Thames and the Samuel Pepys pub.
To any London-themed Christmas Cracker fun-fact writers reading this article: you’re welcome.