Last week I made the monumental mistake of taking photographs of
Cockfosters Station, on my way home from work.

I always take pictures of tube stations - the Piccadilly Line ones are
just beautiful. Especially Southgate, but I digress.

One of the station staff approached me and asked what I was doing and
I told him. (I have spoken to him before about taking pictures and it
was never a problem...)

First things first - I should have asked permission as a courtesy. I
totally accept that. In my defence it was spare of the moment with the
light and shadows and I was in the last carriage, so didn't think
about walking the length of the platform and back again. But yes, I
should have asked permission. I thought that was the end of it. I
apologised and explained that I thought it was fine because I recall
seeing a sign (somewhere) asking people not to take flash photography,
so I kind of thought that was a presumed permission.

He then said that I was causing alarm amongst passengers and drivers
- which was totally not the case. There were no passengers or drivers
about at that time. And I actually don't want people in photographs of
buildings.
One of the cleaners exclaimed something in French to me but I didn't
understand. But accept that she could have been alarmed. But then she
alarmed me by not speaking in English but that's beside the point.

He then got his supervisor who asked the same question, and said he
understood that I wanted to take pictures of the architecture but I
wasn't too photograph anything in the roof, due to "heightened
security". Yet Cockfosters is without staff for several hours in the
morning and evening - if security was so heightened should this not be
addressed? Or was that a fib?

SO I then decided to check the TfL website, where I discovered some
fairly stringent rules about taking pictures, he
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/medi...aspx#section-2

TfL's website offers a "student/non professional users" £40 license
fee, that takes about three weeks to be processed and "this permit is
only a permit to film or photograph. It does not allow you to publish
or broadcast your photographs or films anywhere externally, including
on the internet..."

Then I found this:
https://custserv.tfl.gov.uk/icss_csi...ewTabtext=Tube

Taking photographs on the Tube
If you are just passing through, you shouldn't have a problem taking
personal snaps, souvenir shots etc. although you must NOT use flash or
lights on any of our platforms. However, if you want to spend more
than 10-15 minutes at any one station videoing or taking photos, or if
they are for professional use, you MUST have a permit.

So, I was correct in the presumed permission - the pictures were not
for professional use, and I was at the station for about 5 minutes.

I suppose my point is that if you want to take pictures, take a print
out of that webpage from TfL with you! And that if people mention
security as a reason for anything, I instantly lose interest in what
they are saying. It seems such an easy one-excuse-fits-all kind of
answer.