TUBE TREASURE TROVE (S Part 2)

TUBE TREASURE TROVE

S Part 2 (Southfields to Sudbury Town)

     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. 

SOUTHFIELDS

     Southfields station undergoes a makeover each year to coincide with the Wimbledon Championships. The fifteen-minute walk to the All England Club is actually shorter than from Wimbledon Park station.

    In 2022, for Wimbledon’s centenary at its current venue, TfL laid artificial grass across Southfields' District line platforms ...

Andre Edouard Marty, 1933

SOUTHGATE

     Charles Holden's stunning circular station looks like a flying saucer. It is topped by a Tesla coil, said to have inspired the design of Doctor Who's Daleks.

     Along with St John's Wood and Earl's Court it is one of only three Underground stations still retaining their original bronze escalator uplighters. 

     Two distinctive circular shelters flank the station, each with a concrete canopy topped by a large roundel supporting an illuminated turret. A secondary semi-circular parade containing shops wraps around the station. 

     On 16 July 2018, the tube station was renamed "Gareth Southgate" for two days in recognition of the efforts of the England men's football manager in leading his team to fourth place in the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

SOUTHWARK

     Richard MacCormac's minimalist late-1990s station feels oddly serene, with its massive white walls and blue lighting.

  

     The upper concourse - designed by artist Alexander Beleschenko - is faced with a spectacular wall of 660 blue glass tiles. MacCormac said that the design of both this and the lower concourse was inspired by a 19th-century stage set by the Prussian architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel for The Magic Flute.

STANMORE

    Charles Clark's Underground station, with its country house appearance, was a secret outstation for Bletchley Park during WW2. Created by the German artist Wolfgang Weileder, the ceramic tiles on the front of Stanmore station are a memorial to the brains that helped win the war.

Stanmore Crosswords (1999)

     Weileder's tiles depict crossword puzzles, referencing a test that prospective wartime  codebreakers had to pass: completing The Times crossword in under twelve minutes.  Unfortunately, London Transport covered the crossword tiles with glass and they are now undecipherable - even Alan Turing would struggle. 

     Like Moor Park, Stanmore also has a gallery of 'roundel art'. In 2008, to celebrate the roundel's 100th anniversary, Art on the Underground commissioned 100 artists to produce posters celebrating Edward Johnston's original 1919 design ...

Including A Man in a Hat on a Bicycle by David Shrigley ...

STOCKWELL

     In 1890, Stockwell station opened as the southern terminus of the world's first deep-level electric Underground line - the City & South London Railway. As all previous lines had been cut-and-cover, it was the first to be called "The Tube".

     

     The platform tile motifs, by Abram Games, reference the Swan public house opposite the station. The popular Irish pub has been on this site for around 400 years; the present Swan was built in the 1930s.

     Stockwell is one of eight London Underground stations with an adjacent deep-level air-raid shelter, constructed during the Second World War. The shelter lies below the current station and comprises two parallel tunnels, each wider and approximately six times the length of the present platforms.

     The tunnels are split horizontally into upper and lower levels, with connecting and branch tunnels used for medical posts, toilets and ventilation. The shelter had a capacity of around 4,000 people.

     Access was via the station and two further entrances containing staircases. One entrance, next to Stockwell's War Memorial, now serves as an iconic memorial mural ...

I've posted separately on the Stockwell Memorial Mural - click here.

      This mosaic on the front of the station is a memorial to Jean Charles de Menezes. The Brazilian electrician was shot dead by plainclothes police officers at Stockwell station on 22 July 2005. This happened two weeks after the 7 July bombings on London's Underground and bus network. It later emerged that de Menezes had been killed as a result of mistaken identity by the police and that he had nothing to do with the attacks. 

STRATFORD

     In the last 40 years, Stratford station has evolved from a Central line interchange with mainline services into a busy transport hub serving the Olympic Park and Westfield Shopping Centre. It is now the busiest station outside zone 1 on the London Underground network.

     Stratford's westbound platform is unusual as the carriage doors open on both sides. Barking is the only other Underground station where this happens.

     Despite its grand name, Stratford International can only get you as far as the Kent coast, so better pack your swimwear. (However, there are plans to use it as a terminus for Eurostar competitor Gemini Trains from 2029).

SUDBURY TOWN

      Sudbury Town, opened in 1931, is unmistakably a Charles Holden creation. In fact, this style of Underground station design became known as the "Sudbury Box".  

      Sudbury Town's original features include a barometer - the only remaining one on the network - and a wooden ticket booth.

      Lucy McKenzie's extensive 2020 artwork, Pleasures Inaccuracies, adds to the charm of this Grade II*-listed station. Her hand-painted ceiling murals in the two waiting rooms feature maps of the local area, highlighting past and present landmarks ...

   

      The posters on the heritage kiosk were also designed by Lucy McKenzie.

Tube Trivia and Addenda:

    South Ealing and Mansion House are the only Underground station names containing all five vowels.

    If you hear a tannoy announcement calling for Inspector Sands, it's a code to alert staff to a possible emergency without panicking travellers.