007/270: #TurnpikeLane – The Holden

ImageJanuary 11, 2017January 11, 2017Andy Carter 2 Comments

In 1923 Frank Pick, general manager of the UERL, commissioned Charles Holden to design a new facade for Westminster station. This began a famous decade long partnership between Holden and Pick that would see them design huge swathes of new and refurbished station buildings across the network.

At Turnpike Lane we see one of his later additions in the modernist Art Deco stylings. I don’t think it’s the best example of his work, but nevertheless it marks a stark contrast to the poky two story Leslie Green facades of the inner city. Whilst Green’s work is very much about fitting new stations into an already crowded inner city, this was the birth of suburbia; Holden and Pick wanted new stations to be the central focus of new communities. Grand concourses match the spaciousness of the outer boroughs.

Image copyright A Carter – CallingAllStations.co.uk

006/270: #ManorHouse – The Bungalow

ImageJanuary 10, 2017January 11, 2017Andy Carter 1 Comment

Some tube stations blend seamlessly into their surroundings. Manor House is one of those stations. This unassuming single story bulding supplements a number of subway exits at the intersection of Green Lanes and Seven Sisters Road. It doesn’t shout about it’s existence like many stations but still acts as that familiar London Underground calling card.

Image copyright A Carter – CallingAllStations.co.uk

005/270: #Arsenal – The Gunners

ImageJanuary 10, 2017January 11, 2017Andy Carter Leave a comment

Originally another Leslie Green fronted station, Gillespie Road was upgraded in the 1930s when The Gunners moved to town.

The only station to be named after a football team, Arsenal is now a hybrid of Holdenesque Art Deco on the outside and classic Leslie Green at platform level.

Despite it’s significance, it’s a fairly modest affair and now shares the matchday workload with nearby Holloway Road (004). Look out for the fan segregation barrier that runs the length of the station passageways.

Image copyright A Carter – CallingAllStations.co.uk

004/270: #HollowayRoad – The Green

ImageJanuary 10, 2017January 11, 2017Andy Carter 3 Comments

In 1903, architect Leslie Green was tasked with designing 50 stations for the then freshly unified Underground Electric Railways of London company.

Let’s go ahead and acknowledge his iconic red terracotta tiled stations with their instantly recognisable arched window frames early on at Holloway Road.

Image copyright A Carter – CallingAllStations.co.uk

003/270: #CaledonianRoad – The “It has to start somewhere”

ImageJanuary 10, 2017January 11, 2017Andy Carter 1 Comment

So here we are on my first purposeful day out to collect stations. Although I’ve already visited the inevitable home and work stops the rest of the collection has to start somewhere and it’s starting at Caledonian Road.