Camden Town. The problem is the tents are slowly being bought up and replaced by corporate stores, from what I've heard (I was there a few years ago before that fire and that's at least what people told me). MLB, as for using oyster cards when you leave, most places will have gates that won't open until you use your card. That makes it pretty convenient to figure which is which. The only confusing one is the DLR. I'm honestly not sure what the rule is for that thing, since there aren't any doors and the thing you have to use wasn't always obvious for a tourist like me. But, unless you're planning on seeing the Docklands Museum (which is pretty cool) or Canary Wharf, I don't think there's any reason to worry about that.
Oh, well I was there 10 years ago.... so it might have changed. Well... I just looked emo up myself, so something with punk style. *shrug* Yeah..like I said alternative. Still interessting to watch the going ons and the people there...at least 10 years ago. TerokNor
MLB, though I am no longer a Londoner, I was until 6 months ago. On the Tube, as mentioned, the majority of the time the gates won't open unless you swipe the Oyster card. On the Docklands Light Rail, the swipe in/out machines are by the stairs to the entrance/exit of the stations; the gates apply to some of those as well. On the London Overground, gates and swipe in/out machines are the norm at all stations. The Oyster is so named because of the phrase "the world is your oyster," or in this case, city.
So you will always know if you have to swipe to get out, because then you will have to go thru a gate? No gate, no swipe? Sounds ok.
You still have to touch your card to a reader even if you are not passing through a closed gate, as there are some stations that don't have gates/the gates are fixed open on quiet days. That's the case for the Underground and light rail anyway.
Or you could just vault the gate in a jaunty manner ~ we British are always amused by such japes Disclaimer ~ do not do this unless you want to get wrestled to the floor by hefty men in orange jackets and then spend a night 'At her majesty's pleasure' ~ actually that sounds quite fun
But in such circumstances, the readers are still easy to see? So there's little risk of missing one? A tourist such as myself would indeed miss it if it's not right out in the open... I couldn't vault the gate. I can barely vault a matchbox. And given the current configuration of New York City subway turnstiles, I am already conditioned against attempting any sort of turnstile jump. In NYC, that attempt might cost a man his nads.
This only matters if you use Pre-Pay so they know how much to charge you. If you just buy a weekly Travelcard it won't make any difference. With Pre-Pay, if you enter a station and then tap your card on a reader, and then by the time the trains shut down for the night you haven't tapped your card on the way out then the system has no way to know what journey you made and thus how much of your Pre-Pay money to take so it has to assume that you made the longest journey possible. (i.e. if you entered in Zone 1 it will assume you went all the way out to Zone 6) For the most part this is irrelevant since you won't be able to get out of the station anyway. The most obvious place this can happen is if you get off the Waterloo and City line at Waterloo and don't get on another Underground train from there. There are no barriers and the readers are not obviously placed.
^That's extremely unlikely given that such officers aren't exactly on regular patrol. I haven't seen one for years and even that was at Waterloo Station while it still served the Eurostar.
Like Hermiod said, it will assume you travelled the maximum possible distance - say out to Zone 6, and charge you accordingly.
Ah, OK. When I was there, I think I had unlimited use in Zones 1 and 2, so that wasn't an issue. Good to know, though.