Exploration: Leslie Green Stations Of The Northern Line

GalleryJanuary 3, 2015August 22, 2016Andy Carter 2 Comments

The London Underground maybe a functional and sometimes frustrating piece of infrastructure for some, but for others it’s an architectural gem known the world over. Being over 150 years old, and made up of various former Victorian companies, the Tube has some of the most varied and interesting architectural designs of any mass transit system. None more prominent than the stations of Leslie Green.

In 1903 Leslie Green (born 1875) was appointed chief architect of the newly formed Underground Electric Railways Company of London who were busy in the process of building 3 new lines through the capital: Great Northern, Picadilly & Brompton Railway (Piccadilly Line), The Baker Street & Waterloo Railway (Bakerloo Line) and the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway (Northern Line – Charing Cross Branch). Leslie Green was tasked with designing the stations for all 3 lines.

Green designed the stations in a bold uniform ‘Arts & Crafts’ style so that they would be instantly recognisable for the UERL’s new customers. Each station was constructed around a steel two story frame, with ox-blood red tiled façades with large semi-circular windows above wide entrance/exit gates. This December (2014) I went to take a closer look at some of the examples surviving on today’s Northern Line.

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CAS Weekly: 12/12/14

December 12, 2014August 23, 2016Andy Carter 1 Comment

It’s my intention to start curating a weekly wrap of interesting railway based news (of a both real and modelling persuasion). So here’s this weeks interesting stories:

Modelling

Pendolino in N have set up a ground funding website to make an N-Gauge model of the Virgin Pendolino 390’s.
Loco Yard are running their traditional Advent Calendar feed…
…as are OO Rail.
A man has created the best (or worst?) Christmas jumper which includes a working model railway as seen in The Metro.

UK Rail

The Londonist have created a Medieval Tube Map of Ye Olde Ancient London destinations.
They’ve also ran a pole on who should get the armrest on trains…
London Bridge Station is to start an extensive 3 year remodeling program over the Christmas period. Expect Disruption.
London Reconnections are running a challenging transport themed Christmas Quiz! Entrants could win limited edition 1:120 models from the Corgi Railways Legends collection.
TfL have announced their ‘Ticket Hall Transformation Schedule.’ (Or job cuts to you and me).
Geoff Marshal takes a sneak peak at the ongoing work to revamp Tottenham Court Road station for Crossrail.
A petition to save Ashburton Station is on 38 Degrees.
The UK Rail network continues to get busier…
…and more expensive.

Exploration: The Northern Heights

GalleryDecember 2, 2014January 12, 2015Andy Carter 3 Comments

The Edgware London & Highgate Railway opened in 1867. It was almost immedately taken over by The Great Northern Railway and ran services from Edgware, High Barnet and Alexandra Palace to Finsbury Park via Highgate and then onto Moorgate on what is now the Thameslink Northern City Line.

In 1933 it was announced that the line would be amalgamated into London Underground’s Northern Line as part of The New Works Programme and the entire route was to be electrified during the 1930’s. The scheme became known as ‘The Northern Heights.’ Quick and efficient electric trains would then serve the line to The City, as well as the West End, via a newly constructed tunnel linking the line with the tube network at Archway.

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Langstead Makes The Tube Map!

November 4, 2014March 3, 2015Andy Carter 1 Comment

Thanks to a Twitter suggestion from yours truly, my fictional town of Langstead is now on The Tube Map!

Not the real one of course but an Alternative version dreamed up by The Londonist. They recently asked people on Twitter to come up with suggestions of how they would rename stations if they had the chance. You’ll spot a lot of method in the madness as Stratford becomes Olympic Park and Westminster becomes Parliament Square.

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Side Tracked: The Mist Beneath The Smoke

October 30, 2014Andy Carter Leave a comment

The London Underground carries over a billion passengers each year, but what happens after the commuters depart, the escalators are shut down and only a handful of staff are left to patrol the desolate stations?

Image by www.CGPGrey.com

Find out this Halloween weekend as John Mabey tells the story of real life accounts of unexplained phenomena on the worlds oldest underground railway in: The Mist Beneath The Smoke.

Friday October 31st and Saturday November 1st @ The Reading Rooms, Great Baddow, Chelmsford.