On Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:34:28 +0100, Tom Anderson
wrote:

Evening all,

One for the collectors of fictitious underground stations - and in
particular for the specialists who like fictitious abandoned underground
stations!

There's a film out at the moment called The Escapist, about a prison
break, made by means of underground passages. At some point, the escapees
reach the capital-U Underground, in the shape of an abandoned station,
Union Street. There's WW2 paraphernalia on the floor, and a copy of the
1941 tube map on the wall:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/clive.b...maps/1941.html

Which is utterly distinctive because of the way interchanges are shown.

Indeed. I saw this film on Sunday and commented to my companion
"that's definitely a WWII-era tube map" and she thought I was bonkers
:-)

I didn't spot Union Street on that map, but my companion did, and he said
it was just east of Elephant & Castle. There is a Union Street in
Southwark, but north of Elephant. However, the prison is described as
"south of the river", and they walk through the tunnels to Charing Cross,
so either of those makes sense. I'm afraid i couldn't tell you if it was
on the Bakerloo or the Northern line, though!

I don't think there are any prisons in that vicinity - perhaps the
producers thought HMP Clink was still in operation? Or, more
geographically but less comically, Marshalsea or Horsemonger Lane.

The letter that Perry receives names the prison - though I can't
recall now what it was, it was fictitious, though I remember it did
have an SE1 postcode.

The actual prison used for the set is in Dublin, FWIW.

Anyway, it's a decent enough film, so if you're stuck for something to do
and like fairly well-acted crime capers, give it a go.

Agreed. I loved it, which surprised me as the reviews have been
generally positive.