Elm Park will serve for "desolate suburban hell" purposes, but all in all almost all of the tube is way better maintained than it was, say 30 years ago. But that and most other relatively grottier/neglected places that come to my mind are well beyond Zone 3...
(even further back, Stepney Green was exceedingly dark at platform level - painting the walls a bright colour made an immense difference: it was real "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight" material before).
Mile End's a weird one - it's been through several cycles of being grotty, then smart, then becoming grotty again, then smart again.
Essex Road wins for creepiness, in large part because hardly anyone uses it.
I'm hard pressed to think of anywhere underground on the tube itself that comes close to that sort of atmosphere nowadays- the stations in the past that might have warranted consideration, like Edgware Road (Bakerloo), Kilburn Park, Borough, maybe Tufnell Park , or Mornington Crescent, have been elegantly refurbished and/or kept clean, and in the latter case become much busier.
(even further back, Stepney Green was exceedingly dark at platform level - painting the walls a bright colour made an immense difference: it was real "Down In The Tube Station At Midnight" material before).
Mile End's a weird one - it's been through several cycles of being grotty, then smart, then becoming grotty again, then smart again.
Essex Road wins for creepiness, in large part because hardly anyone uses it.
I'm hard pressed to think of anywhere underground on the tube itself that comes close to that sort of atmosphere nowadays- the stations in the past that might have warranted consideration, like Edgware Road (Bakerloo), Kilburn Park, Borough, maybe Tufnell Park , or Mornington Crescent, have been elegantly refurbished and/or kept clean, and in the latter case become much busier.