Time-travelling on the Northern Line in search of the Stone Parlour

Martin Vander Weyer’s Any Other Business

I’m standing on a hot platform at Tottenham Court Road, waiting for the relief of the momentary breeze that precedes an approaching train. I’m staring at a T-Mobile poster featuring people dressed as nuns at what looks like a karaoke party. And I’m thinking: do I really want to write another essay about the imagined pain of cuts to come, or the right way to regulate banks, or the prospects for growth in 2013-14? And more important, in a heat wave and a mood of post-World Cup gloom, do you really want to read one? Then the air moves, the train rattles in, and I see that it’s bound for the High Barnet terminus of the Northern Line. And the mission of Any Other Business for this week comes to me: I must find the Stone Parlour.

This will take a bit of explaining, but bear with me: I hope you’ll think it’s worthwhile.