please empty your brain below

Surely you mean Commercial Street rather than Road?

dg writes: I'm always doing that, sorry.
I want to go and see those tiles immediately. This is one of those posts that makes me want to go and visit the place described as soon as possible.
I've always been confused to what the benefit of having both Aldgate and Aldgate East as separate stations. H&C trains stop there anyway! I don't know the exact track layout, but I'm sure District platforms could be built to the south and H&C platforms to the north.

If TfL say that there ain't enough money, at least build a Green Park-style subway (I reckon it would be shorter anyway). Then that provides an interchange between the District and Metropolitan lines (making the District another line which connects with all the others).
Exact track layout at Aldgate/Aldgate East: http://carto.metro.free.fr/cartes/metro-tram-london/index.php?gpslat=51.514059&gpslon=-0.075432&zoom=5

No trains stop at both stations.

Linking the two with a subway isn't going to happen - too expensive - but it's a short enough walk at street level.
It's such a shame that the Barbican station didn't have it's original name as having:

Aldgate
Aldersgate
Aldgate East

would have done wonders to confuse the tourists. Still, having those multiple Northern Line branches still scores well on that one.
Griffin used to be very much an LT thing. One of their main offices up the Edgware Road used to be called Griffin House and Griffin was the brand name for products commissioned by the department that ran the canteens. Sometimes I would buy a packet of Griffin tea to take home from the canteen in the bus garage.
There is little point in providing a subway between Aldgate and Aldgate East as it would provide no extra connections beyond those available already by changing at Aldgate East. The only people likely to need to make the out of station interchange are either those who have stayed on the Met one stop too far when they wanted to go further east, or Tube challengers who have to visit both stations.

If i have understood what was done at Aldgate east, the existing tunnel walls on the 4-track section were originally the back walls of the platforms, the platforms themselves having been removed to make way fpor the eastbound H&C and westbound District. The other two tracks were the original two - the junction having been west of the origibnal station. Carto Metro does not make this very clear, as it shows the old platforms but the current track arrangment. Whether any 1930s adverts or underground maps remain under the grime on the back walls of the paltforms I wouldn't know.

More about it here http://www.abandonedstations.org.uk/Aldgate_East_station.html
There are 18 Stabler relief tiles in total - but Aldgate East has only 17 of them! They do represent the counties served by the old LPTB - and symbols of London and London Transport. I'll give you a hint about the 'other' tile that is to be foundation only Swiss Cottage and St Johns Wood - it has a cricketing connection!
The track at Aldgate East had to be lowered by about seven feet to allow the new ticket halls to be built, as the Abandoned Stations' website says.

You can see evidence of this on the track, at the headwall looking towards Whitechapel. When a westbound train comes towards you and illuminates enough of the darkness you can see just how much the track drops.
I love the nonsensical pictures on the Altitude scaffolding on Commercial Street. People quaffing champagne on their balconies while looking at the gherkin. It wasn't like that when my great grand parents lived in the area.
@timbo

Can you travel between any station east of Upney to any station north of Preston Road on two trains? No. If you link Aldgate to Aldgate East you can.
@Rotherhithe: You could do it that way, but it still would be loads quicker (by 17 minutes) to take the District, change at West Ham to the Jubilee Line (1 minute walk) and take it to Finchley Road (cross-platform interchange, both directions) to change onto the Met.
I've walked between Aldgate and Aldgate East a few times, neither trying to visit all stations nor having caught the wrong train by accident. I was travelling from the "top" of the Circle/H&C through to east of Aldgate. But H&C trains are so infrequent (as DG says!) that it's sometimes quicker to go to Aldgate and walk to Aldgate East to get a District-line train. It would've been faster and drier if there were an underground walkway, but even I have to admit it's not really worth the money for the few people like me that try to outrun the Hammersmith and City trains!
Pedantic:

'Griffin House'...

Do you by any chance mean Griffith House, on Old Marylebone Road, next to Edgware Road station?










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