Russell Square Station

So this is the famous station where you pray the lifts are working as you get off the train because if they aren’t, you’ve got a trek ahead of you, otherwise known as 175 steps of hell.
When they are working, the lifts are infrequent at best and if you catch it on a bad day, you’ll be shoved in with five thousand other people willing it to move quicker.
The station is also tiny. It needs to be at least four times bigger to deal with the amount of traffic it gets being so close to places like the British Museum. The map on the wall is also weird as you’re not facing the way the map shows when you stand in front of it so you need to know where you are really.
It did the job and got me where I wanted to be, but given the choice and feet that didn’t feel like they were about to drop off, I’d probably take the longer walk from Kings Cross.

This station is relatively nice and clean but they really need to allow people to use the stairs at all times. I see a lot of people complain about the lifts being out of service. But the lifts are always crammed full like sardines.

You’d think that such a small station would be on the list to be upgraded for more capacity but… it’s not. Russell Square gets insane during the (weekday) (and weekend) rush hours because it’s very close to several major office buildings and the massive British Museum.
The station is in Travelcard Zone 1 on the Piccadilly Line, between King’s Cross St Pancras and Holborn. Another station that has lifts, but it is not step free between the street level and platform level.
It’s worth noting that even though there are stairs (no escalators), there is a warning sign suggesting that you really should reconsider and take the lift. 175 stairs is a goodly number and unless you’ve completed your training for the London Marathon or an Ironman, you probably won’t survive. If the lifts are out of order, get back on the train to the next station because it’s less than a half mile walk.
At street level, Russell Square is a Leslie Green designed structure that is a listed building.

Busy. Russell Square Tube Station is not one that was originally created for the crowds it receives today, but considering how long it has been around and how busy it gets… this station stays pretty clean.
Lifts are regularly out of service or slow. While waiting for the next available ride one normally hears people expressing that the stairs are a good option. GOOD FOR THEM!
Stairs are always the better option when it comes to health, but don’t be surprised when halfway up people start to slow and begin giggling as their legs start to go numb.

Poorly organized and the lifts come at infrequent intervals. For no apparent reason, there are large tour groups queued up here every Sunday morning, so remember to top up your oyster before you go home for the night.

This station is really small, and the elevators were always out of service, so I had walk up about 178 stairs every morning. They need to update this station.

Damn you for being closed (under construction) when we went to London to visit! This made it difficult for us since we had to get off at Kings Cross, then walk a few thousand miles (exaggerating) to our hostel. I guess it wasn’t toooooo bad since Kings Cross was a bigger station and it did house the international terminal to catch the tube to Paris but still — so inconvenient.
*shakes fist at Russell Square*