Charlie Chaplin and the UndergrounD

On Saturday I had to go to a NADFAS meeting in London. It was in a pub called 'The Three Stags' in Kennington Road, London, near the temporarily closed Imperial War Museum. This pub's claim to fame is a partitioned corner of the bar named 'Chaplin's Corner' wherein, it is asserted, Charlie Chaplin's father would spend many an hour over a pint of beer. I drank water.

 Arriving at Lambeth North tube station I was astonished to find that the passenger exit to the street for those who did not wish to use the lift was this hole in the wall. It looked like the entrance to a wartime bunker, but the slip of the girl in front of me stepped through it quite confidently and so I followed and together we climbed the spiral staircase to the street. 

On the way I paused to feel some ceramic tiles on the wall. I had never been to this station before but suspected that it was one of the many which had been designed by the gifted Arts & Crafts architect, Leslie Green.

Sure enough, on reaching the street, I turned and admired the characteristic three-arch design faced with blood red ceramic tiles.