Interesting, wonder when they started with that message? Don't remember it from when I lived in London 8 years ago. What fascinated me though was how hard they tried to regulate the flow of pedestrian traffic in the tube stations. Telling everyone to stand to the right on the escalator was pretty effective I must say. Some of it just seemed dumb, signs directing people to walk certain ways when it was clearly easier to cut across a space or down an "up only" stair. And being an ugly (and young) American, I'd be the only one breaking the rules...

One really interesting thing. In America people tend not to know the stand to the right on the escalator rule. But on NY's 7 train, which runs through a ton of immigrant neighborhoods, people tend to stay right while standing on the escalator. At Grand Central you'll ride a polite escalator up from the 7 train then merge with the crowd getting off the 4,5,6 lines, which run through NY snottiest most expensive hoods. The next escalator? People standing next to each other, with absolutely no space for the "escalator walkers" to pass. So much for the upper class being the ones with manners...