TUBE TREASURE TROVE (P-R)

TUBE TREASURE TROVE (P-R)

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 Walter Clark - Metropolitan Railway architect; designed around 25 stations and helped define the architectural character of the Met line and Metro-land.

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.

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.

PADDINGTON

Although shown on the TfL map as a single station, there are two Paddington Underground stations. They are not directly linked and interchange between them is via the mainline station concourse.

David Hamilton's tiles reproduce the technical drawings of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who built Paddington Station.

The Underground track running from Paddington towards Bayswater passes under 23-24 Leinster Gardens. From the street, they appear to be two houses, but they are actually just a façade constructed to match the neighbouring terrace. They disguise where the original buildings were demolished to allow an open section of railway, allowing the steam locomotives to vent smoke and steam. From the front they look pretty much like all the other smart houses in the neighbourhood - except they don't have letterboxes. If you hold your camera at arms length above the wall in Porchester Terrace you can get a picture of where any junk mail would otherwise fall.

PARK ROYAL

Park Royal is the only Underground station named after an industrial estate. It was designed by Welch & Lander to serve the local factories, opening in 1936. It is probably the best of the stations designed in the 1930s in the style of Charles Holden when his own architecture practice was unable to cope with all the expansion of the network. Frank Pick was not happy that the construction of these stations was not overseen by Holden, but the results were still very good. I used to work at Park Royal for Visnews (later Reuters TV), and never knew any of this. In 1936, Guinness's first brewery outside Ireland opened at Park Royal - I remember well the rather unpleasant smell. It closed in 2005.

PERIVALE

Built in 1947, Perivale is similar to Greenford with the platforms on an embankment above the ticket office. However, whilst Greenford has an 'up' escalator and funicular lift, Perivale has neither. Perivale's sweeping staircase up to trains is a thing of beauty - unless you have a heavy case or pushchair. The possible reason for Greenford receiving extra funding for 'step-free-access' is that it is also a rail connection.

PICCADILLY CIRCUS

Whilst not wanting to appear to be a smartarse, I have to tell you these tiled images inside Piccadilly station are not of Eros.

The aluminium statue above the station was actually modelled on Anteros, the Greek god associated with selfless love. Eros is the god of sensual love – which is much more fun. The iconic statue was actually moved to Victoria Embankment whilst Piccadilly station was being rebuilt in the 1920s.

Piccadilly's large Art Deco ticket hall has travertine marble floors and red scagliola pillars with Holden's hanging lamps. Plus, there's a nice monument to Frank Pick in raised golden Johnston lettering. It was commissioned in 2016 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Pick's death.

I was wondering if the London Transport funsters picked Piccadilly for a Pick memorial because they liked the alliteration. However, Piccadilly Circus Underground station was one of Frank Pick's showpiece stations. He and Charles Holden were deeply involved in its spectacular redevelopment in the 1920s. It became a magnet for visitors, including a group of Soviet engineers who, with consultancy work from London Underground, went on to build the formidable Moscow Metro.

Also of interest in the ticket hall is a world map, dating from the 1920s, which contains a linear clock showing the time in all parts of the world.

PIMLICO

Pimlico is the only Victoria line station that doesn't interchange with another Underground line or a railway service. The station's yellow-dotted platform tiles represent the modern art of Tate Modern. Peter Sedgley designed the op-art spots, derived from an earlier work. Sedgley's request that the tiles should be set in a washable grout was ignored, and the grout has become blacker with time.
More references to the nearby gallery are displayed on the subway walls leading to the ticket office.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Salvador Dalí

Henry Moore L. S. Lowry

John Singer Sargent Edgar Degas

Also of interest is a sculptural ventilation shaft, designed and built between 1978 and 1982 by Eduardo Paolozzi. And the Rampayne Street entrance has two roundels which unusually mirror one another on the floor and ceiling.

This is one of my favourite historic London Transport posters - where the blue paint tube represents Pimlico station ...

David Booth, 1987

RAYNERS LANE

Rayners Lane, designed by Reginald Uren, is another station inspired by Charles Holden with its cubic ticket hall - glazed on all four sides - single-storey protruding shop units and two roundel masts. When the station first opened in 1906, as Rayners Lane Halt, there was just a single house nearby, owned by farmer Daniel Rayner. It was nicknamed Pneumonia Junction because of its exposed location.

RODING VALLEY

With its very rural feel, Roding Valley is generally regarded as the quietest station on the Underground network. In a typical year, fewer than 500,000 journeys start or end here, around the same number who pass through Waterloo each weekday. The cute lattice bridge over the tracks was brought to Roding Valley from another station.

It is one of only three Tube stations with no entry barriers (the other two are Chigwell and Loughton) - and the only one with just one ticket machine as opposed to the minimum of two elsewhere.

Incidentally, I took these photos at 10am on a Sunday. Having decided to venture into deepest Essex, I didn't want to risk my photos showing throngs of school kids or Underground enthusiasts.

RUSSELL SQUARE

Russell Square is a Grade II listed Leslie Green station with some nice original tiled lettering.

The sign lists the number of steps down to the platforms as 175 when there are in fact 171. According to Wikipedia there are 176. I was in no mood to check and took the lift.

Tube Trivia and Addenda:

The longest Underground station name was Preston Road Halt for Uxendon and Kenton - now (thankfully) simply Preston Road. It originally opened in 1908 as a request stop, built to serve the nearby shooting grounds, venue for the Olympic debut of clay-pigeon shooting. Live-pigeon shooting was an Olympic event in 1900. It was dropped as inhumane in 1904.

Some more memorable London Transport posters: