TUBE TREASURE TROVE (C-D)

TUBE TREASURE TROVE (C-D)

     This is an A–Z of London’s most interesting Underground stations. In an age where we are often looking down at our phones, Tube Treasure Trove is an invitation to look up and discover the architecture, history and oddities hiding in plain sight - on what might otherwise be a mundane journey, perhaps one made many times before.

Preface (short version):

      London's Metropolitan line was the world’s first underground. Opening in 1863, it was a 3.5-mile Victorian steam railway with seven stations running from Paddington to Farringdon.

      More than 160 years later, the network has grown into a living museum of architecture, engineering and graphic design. Today the Underground carries around four million passengers on a typical weekday across 272 stations.

The Visionaries

Frank Pick – The design visionary of London's transport system from 1908 until his retirement in 1940, Pick shaped the identity of the Underground more than any other individual. 

Leslie Green – Green designed around 40 oxblood-red glazed stations in the early 1900s.

Charles Holden – Holden was responsible for designing more than 50 stations during the 1920s and 1930s. 

Edward Johnston – Johnston designed the distinctive Underground typeface, Johnston Sans, in 1916. It remains in use to this day. He also redesigned the famous roundel symbol. 

Harry Beck – In 1933, Beck transformed the underground map by prioritising clarity over geographical accuracy.

Charles Clark – As London Underground's publicity manager from 1933 to 1960, Clark championed the idea that stations should reflect the character of their neighbourhoods. 

Roland Paoletti – As the architect behind many Jubilee Line Extension stations, Paoletti oversaw one of the most ambitious programmes of station design since the 1930s. 

CANADA WATER

      This is the first of the stations on my list commissioned by Roland Paoletti for the 1999 Jubilee Line Extension (JLE). All eleven new stations were designed to be "future-proof", with wide passageways, lots of escalators and lifts, and emergency exits. The stations were the first on the Underground to have platform edge doors and were built to have step-free access throughout.

     Paoletti had previously been chief architect on Hong Kong's MTR, and Canada Water's circular ticket hall resembles a modern Hong Kong Metro interchange. The glass and steel drum is 25 metres in diameter. 

    Canada Water was the first station to receive external sponsorship ....

    Nestlé sponsored the station on the day of the 2015 London Marathon, with roundels modified to advertise Nestlé's Buxton Water.

CANARY WHARF

     The station was intended from the start to be the showpiece of the 1999 Jubilee Line Extension, and the contract for its design was awarded in 1990 to the architect Sir Norman Foster. The result was a huge ultra-modern glass-and-steel station built in a former dock, with entrances inspired by Foster's Bilbao Metro. In 2000, Canary Wharf station received seven major architectural awards.

    

     Over 40 million people pass through the station each year, making it the busiest on the London Underground that serves only a single line.

     

      Its platform name roundels are the largest on the network.

     Unsurprisingly, the station has been used as a filming location, notably as an imperial base in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016). It can also be seen in Masters of the Universe (2026).

CHALK FARM

    Chalk Farm's narrow, wedge-shaped station gives it the longest frontage of any of the oxblood-red stations designed by Leslie Green.

    The Roundhouse next door was a railway turntable servicing the Chalk Farm railway station when it opened in 1847. Within ten years the locomotives became too long to be accommodated. The building was subsequently used as a warehouse, then fell into disuse before World War II. It reopened in 1964 as a performing arts venue, which was redeveloped in 2006 ....

    

    I didn't realise people still physically queued for tickets - these people were hoping for returns for Hayley Williams that same evening. Just to show my age - the last time I went there for a gig was to see the Edgar Broughton Band.

    The sculpture on the roof is yet another casting of his own body by Anthony Gormley - this is one of the few with his 'anatomical details' removed.

CHARING CROSS

 

     Cross for Queen Eleanor (1979) is a series of panels on Charing Cross's Northern Line platforms by David Gentleman. His platform-length murals are essentially a strip cartoon depicting the construction of the Eleanor Cross, from whence Charing Cross got its name. Gentleman's murals were wood-engraved, then enlarged before being printed onto laminate panels.

     Charing Cross is the nearest station to Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. Artworks from the two galleries decorate the station's Bakerloo platforms ...

  

  

  

    The modern day Charing Cross is an amalgamation of two old stations: Trafalgar Square and Strand. At one time it was on the Jubilee Line. But when the JLE was planned it became apparent it would be impossible to connect Charing Cross to Waterloo because the curves would have been too tight. So parts of the old Jubilee line platforms are abandoned and used as sidings and for filming, including:

      The Fourth Protocol (1987)

      28 Weeks Later (2007)

      The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

      The Escapist (2008)

      Spooks (2009)

      Thor: The Dark World (2013)

      Paddington (2014)

      Killing Eve (2019)

     In 2026, the old Jubilee Line platforms were also used for war games by the Allied Rapid Reaction Corporation.

CHESHAM

  

        Chesham, is a cute station on the edge of the Chilterns with a cute 1930s signal box and the most complete surviving example of a late nineteen-century rural Metropolitan station. The signal box is one of the last manual ones left on the network. 

       It can also lay claim to being the furthest station from central London - 25 miles from Charing Cross and is the only station in Buckinghamshire. At one time TfL pretended it was Zone 6 to sell more travelcards. But, in fact it is in Zone 9, both the most northernmost and westernmost station on the whole Underground network.

     

     Situated at the end of the Metropolitan line, it only has one platform. On my visit, the same train I'd arrived on was still sitting on the platform after I'd spent some thirty minutes taking my photos. There were no other passengers - maybe the driver was waiting for me.

     Chesham certainly feels like it belongs in an E. Nesbit story. But what it does have in common with every other Underground station is one of these ...

    Labyrinth is a 2013 artwork by the British artist Mark Wallinger to mark the 150th anniversary of the London Underground. The artwork consists of 270 unique unicursal labyrinth designs, one for every station on the Underground. Each is numbered according to its order in the route taken by the contestants in the 2009 Guinness World Records Tube Challenge. The plaque at Chesham is numbered 1/270 - the obvious starting point for a challenge to visit every station in record time. Two new labyrinths were unveiled by Wallinger in 2023 - at Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms stations, which had opened in 2021.

CHISWICK PARK

     Charles Holden's unmistakable design was inspired by Alfred Grenander's Krumme Lanke  U-Bahn station in Berlin. Once known as Acton Green, the name was changed to Chiswick  Park due to there being six other Acton stations already. There are still five Acton stations today (Acton Vale closed in 1959).

    

    The station is notable for its cantilevered platform canopies and heritage signage.

    The four-feather direction arrow is classic London Transport from the 1930s-40s, the feathers representing the District, Piccadilly, Central and Northern Lines. The bold caps for "EASTBOUND" and the lighter weight for the station list is textbook Edward Johnston. The cream background and blue border combo is the pre-WW2 LT enamel style.

CLAPHAM COMMON

    

     Originally opening in 1900, Clapham Common and Clapham North are the only two surviving underground island platforms in a single tube tunnel - not for the faint-hearted.

     The stylish glass-domed entrance is another Holden design, built in 1926.

      For two weeks in September 2016, all of the adverts in the station were replaced by photos of cats. This was paid for by a crowdfunding initiative organised by The Citizens Advertising Takeover Service (C.A.T.S).

CLAPHAM SOUTH

 

      Clapham South is one of eight London Underground stations with a deep-level air-raid shelter underneath it. In 1948, the shelter was used as temporary accommodation for immigrants arriving from the West Indies on the HMT Empire Windrush.

COCKFOSTERS

     Charles Holden's odd long brick and glass elevation flanked by squat brick towers and roundel posts hides a huge concrete train shed.

   

     Being the final/first station on the Piccadilly Line, the platforms are designed to mirror the ones at Uxbridge at the opposite end of the line.

     Frozen in 1930s optimism, Cockfosters probably derives from “cottagers’ foresters,” not anything rude.

COLLIERS WOOD

    

      The Holden, a pub opposite the Grade II-listed Colliers Wood station, is named after the architect who designed the station itself.

  

     The stations on the Morden extension were Charles Holden's first major project for the Underground. He was selected to design them by Frank Pick, general manager of the UERL (Underground Electric Railways Company of London) after he was dissatisfied with designs produced by the UERL's own architect, Stanley Heaps.

    Holden went on to create over fifty stations on the network. PS The pub is worth a visit.

COVENT GARDEN

      Built  in 1906-1907, Covent Garden's famous oxblood-red tiles make it instantly recognisable as a Leslie Green station.

     The platform tiles date back to 1907, although they were replaced like-for-like in 2010.

     Covent Garden Underground Station is one of the few stations where lifts are effectively mandatory because the spiral staircase has 193 steps. It is usually exit-only.

     The journey between Covent Garden and Leicester Square measures 260 metres (280 yd), the shortest distance between any two adjacent stations on the Underground network. So, London Underground’s standard £4.80 single cash fare for the journey between the two Piccadilly Line stations equates to £29.81 per mile, making the fare more expensive per mile than the Orient Express.

DOWN STREET (closed)

     Opening in 1907, the Piccadilly Line station was never busy as it served an area where the residents were mostly wealthy enough to travel by other means. Lack of patronage and proximity to other stations led to its closure in 1932. 

     During the Second World War it was used as a bunker by Winston Churchill - who called it "The Barn" - until the Cabinet War Rooms were completed. Tours are available through the London Transport Museum.

Tube Trivia:

     The Underground wasn't always this hot in summer. More than a century of trains has gradually warmed the surrounding London Clay, reducing its ability to absorb heat. More frequent services, higher passenger numbers and warmer summers have added to the problem. The new Piccadilly line trains are the first deep-level Tube trains to feature a passenger cooling system, alongside more efficient braking and improved ventilation to make journeys more comfortable.

     Ironically, the oldest line, the Metropolitan, is also one of the coolest. Built using cut-and-cover rather than deep tunnels, it was designed for large steam locomotives and has much more space for air circulation. The need to deal with smoke and steam also led to generous ventilation arrangements, helping make it easier to keep cool today.

     The current Guinness World Record for visiting all 272 London Underground stations is held by Robin Otter and Thomas Sheat, who completed the challenge in 17 hours, 46 minutes, and 48 seconds on August 10, 2024.

    If you enjoy discovering London's hidden stories and would like to support a good cause, please consider visiting the Willow Foundation.