Pub owner Kenny Nicoll: "We've never tried to pass ourselves off as a station"

Kenny Nicoll, owner of the pub for just over a year, is being told to remove all the offending symbols within seven days or face legal action.

A fax sent to Mr Nicoll said that compensation should be paid for the breach and suggested it should be in the form of a "substantial contribution" to the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden.

Mr Nicoll said it was a "crazy situation" and he has no idea how London Underground found out about his bar.

Unrepentant

"We're just a small pub in Dundee which you have to go underground to get to," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

He said that he was happy to remove the London Underground-style signs, but hoped that with respect to the compensation demand "they'll see sense and forget the matter".

If they do not, Mr Nicoll is worried he will have to seek expensive legal representation.

A spokesman for London Underground was unrepentant.

'Plastered in it'

"He used our London Underground roundel and he's in breach of copyright," he said.

"My understanding of it is that the place was plastered in it."

The spokesman admitted he had never actually seen the pub, adding: "But you only have to use it once to be in breach."

The company that handles advertising and sponsorship for London Underground, TDI, said that any use of the famous London Underground roundel would require intense negotiations with the company.

"It would cost a great deal of money and is highly unlikely they would grant permission. London Underground is loathe to jeopardise its design heritage which goes back over 100 years," a spokesman said.