Designing a passenger station - Charles Holden : article in "Design for Today", August 1933 : 3

            A fascinating article by the man who designed many of London Transport's now iconic Underground stations during the 1920s and '30s - this allied to a visit by the Design & Industries Association to the 'Southgate Extension' of the Piccadilly line on 20 June 1933. It is rather amazing to think who may have been present that day as both Holden and the senior London Transport manager responsible for commissioning much of his work, Frank Pick, were active in the DIA.

The Piccadilly line extensions, both west and north and that opened in 1932/33, were not only a huge project of expansion and renewal for the Underground as it expanded in the inter war years, but saw a real change in the style of architecture Holden and his partners used. His earlier stations, most notably the 1926 Morden extension of the Northern line, were severe and restrained in Portland stone - now Holden embraced a much more contemporary North European idiom and the stations were radically different in terms of architecture, scale and materials. Holden and Pick had visited various European countries including Scandinavia, Germany and the Netherlands, and many of these designs echo various idioms and components found in strands of the Modernist and Bauhaus approaches - the use of exposed concrete, the brickwork and the large 'Crittall' windows.

Not only were these station buildings externally 'sign posts' for the Underground in the streetscape, in new suburbs for example, they were seen as 'shop doorways' to London via the tube system. Equally impressive were the interior spaces - intended to be spacious, open and uncluttered - designed to facilitate the movement of passengers and the work of staff. Much of this was still, for Holden and Pick, work in progress as later stations saw many design detail changes - some, for example, saw these vast halls as cold and uninviting and a 'waste of space' and indeed later stations are often on a more compact scale in terms of interiors to help offset some of the issues especially for staff who had to work in them.

But the group of stations seen here, that are from both the western and northern extensions, are now regarded as highly important and influential works and are a vital part of the network, and of the "Underground" brand.

This page shows one interesting comparison - the old lift served ticket office at Piccadilly Circus station dating from the 'Leslie Green' era of design and the opening of the Piccadilly and Bakerloo lines in 1906 - and here, largely superceded by one of Holden's earliest central area reconstructions completed in 1928. The clutter and decoration seen here - and that would indeed be swept away at many central area reconstructions - are now equally treasured as being of architectural interest and I have worked on conservation and restoration projects for both style of stations!

Taken on: April 3, 2022

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Designing a Passenger Station

August 1933

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Sets appears in: • Germany : Deutschland • Designing a Passenger Station by Charles Holden : Design for Today, 1933 more » • Design For Today - 1933 - 1935 • London Transport « less

Groups appears in: • Period Photographs of Transportation (pre-1980) • Public Transportation more » • London Underground Tube Station Entrances • Lost London • That Old Timey Feeling • Public Transport Around the World • * L O N D O N - T R A N S P O R T * • Old London • Classic Transport • PLANET EARTH TRANSPORTATION • PLANET EARTH BACK IN THE DAY • County of Middlesex • PLANET EARTH VINTAGE ARCHITECTURE • ₪ ARCHITECTUR•ℰxᴛᴇʀɪᴏʀ┼ɪɴsɪƊƐ•SIGN ₪ « less

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