Bringing the call of the Wilde to London Underground

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Martin Moodie
Martin Moodie is the Founder & Chairman of The Moodie Report.

underground photo

Well this makes a change from the usual London Underground service information updates.

Instead of ‘Severe delays are being experienced on the Piccadily Line due to a signal failure at Acton Town’ or ‘Passenger under a train at Baron’s Court”, the service information board at Boston Manor Station near Moodie HQ in West London, was today lit up by the wistful, romantic words of one Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, the great Irish writer, wit and poet better known simply as Oscar Wilde.

What a way to start one’s journey from an otherwise drab and austere station in the capital city. “Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and a richness to life that nothing else can bring.”

Lovely. Maybe the airports of the world should try something similar. Imagine the mood-transforming power of the words of Walt Whitman on a white board in front of the stony-faced immigration officers at Newark Liberty Airport; the romantic tones of Keats softening the sterility of the Heathrow arrivals hall; or some lines of Alexander Pushkin to light up the fascias of the duty free stores at Moscow Sheremetyeveo Airport.

The possibilities are endless. Art and music have the ability to transform both mood and environment. When I arrived at London Heathrow Airport Terminal 3 the other day, a piano was playing in the arrivals area. Note that I say ‘playing’, not ‘being played’. A nice try but the effect would have been so much better if someone had been playing the instrument rather than it being the automated variety.

So who is this mysterious romantic rail station worker who brought the call of the Wilde to unsung Boston Manor Station and with it unexpected  delight to hundreds of commuters? We need to find him or her quickly and offer them a high-power customer service role in the aviation industry.

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