I was meeting a friend in the big open area inside Tottenham Court Road tube station, which has a big, rather fabulous tiled wall. The friend was “running late” as they say, which is clearly very different from just “being late,” so I took this photograph of the wall while I waited.
And then, being the aesthete that I am, I thought obviously it would be better if there were some figures walking in front the wall – to provide a sense of scale, drama, variety of shape, and whatnot. So I took maybe ten pictures none of which turned out to be all that great.
But as I was snapping, a recorded female voice boomed down from on high, only just audible, which said something along the lines of, “The taking of photographs of children is strictly forbidden in this tube station.”
Now, I can’t swear this was addressed specifically at me. though I don’t doubt that I was being watched and filmed by security cameras, but it seemed an odd thing in any case. First, there were absolutely no children around, and if there had been I certainly wouldn’t have taken been taking pictures of them. I don’t much like children. I used to be one and I was forced to hang out with other children – god, it was awful.
