Down hellish spirals
the virtuous pagan bounds
perpetually
After the football yesterday (a drab 0-0 draw vs Chelsea) I took my usual brisk stroll to Caledonian Road tube station. Unless I’m feeling particularly lazy, I take the spiral staircases down to platform level. I do it as fast as I can, bounding, sometimes two at a time. There is nothing like a leg burning descent to get the heart pumping and the mind racing. Although ascending is tougher, it hints at light and redemption. A descent however, (taking aside the pragmatic need to actually catch a tube train to reach a destination!), feels more sinister, feeding the primitive danger receptors in the ancient parts of our brain.
I thought about Dante and his layers of hell. And of William Blake and his depictions of it. According to this website, Caledonian Road has 134 Steps, making it sixth deepest in the tube network. In your face Moorgate! (seventh).
And here is one of Blake’s incredible images of Hell. The Lovers Whirlwind. 1824-1827. (pen, ink, watercolour). Just like the Piccadilly Line! Truly mesmerising. I’d love to see all of these works in full someday. Caught sight of a few of them in the Tate (Britain) last year.
(image from wikipedia)
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