The underground in days gone by

[NSE]

Now I'm living in London and using the tube daily, I've started to notice plenty of things around the network from days gone by, for example a Bakerloo line cab showing WATFORD on the display blind, on the Central line maps, it can easily be seen where the Ongar branch has simply been covered up, and a notice at Liverpool Street saying change at Hainult for the Chigwell branch (I do believe that these are all through to Woodford now), and many maps still say BR and therefore do not acknowledge the DLR and the Jubilee extension.

So out of interest, and maybe to provide things for me to look out for on my travels, what other 'underground relics' do people know of?

Awaiting your replies with interest

 

[Ivo]

I can't think where (Green Park maybe), but I'm sure I've seen Piccadilly circuit maps showing Aldwych.

The Ongar ones you refer to are all too common...

 

[NSE]

Ahhh right, I also saw an old Victoria line train today at Northumberland park

 

[trentside]

There's so much history on the Underground - helped by the huge variety of architecture and design styles in use. Some of the 1930s stations are fantastic, IMO. A lot of the line diagrams at stations are surprisingly old - some dating from the 1980s and even earlier, hence the various amendments that have been made.

There's also various old trains dotted around the system such as the 1983 Tube Stock dumped and vandalised beyond recognition in South Harrow sidings and the various stocks at Acton Works.

 

[transportphoto]

There is one station where you have to go up from street level to get on the underground trains, Piccadilly line IIRC

TP

 

[transmanche]

There is one station where you have to go up from street level to get on the underground trains, Piccadilly line IIRC

There'll be quite a few stations where platforms are above street level (East Finchley and Putney Bridge immediately spring to mind). Greenford (Central line) was the first station where an escalator was installed to take you up to the platforms from street level.

 

[Tiny Tim]

For a great website showing many Underground relics try:

http://www.abandonedstations.org.uk/

 

[Yew]

There'll be quite a few stations where platforms are above street level (East Finchley and Putney Bridge immediately spring to mind). Greenford (Central line) was the first station where an escalator was installed to take you up to the platforms from street level.

Dont they still have a wooden escalator there?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

No, all wooden escalators were replaced after the King's cross fire.

Initially those that remained had their treads replaced with metal ones within about 3 - 4 months but retained the wooden panels, but the panels themselves all went within a year or so.



As to stations where you go up to board the Underground... South Harrow might be the Piccadilly one mentioned above? Others are Ravenscourt Park, Stamford Brook, Turnham Green, Chiswick Park... Most of the Hammersmith branch from Paddington beyond Westbourne Park as well.

 

[Anon Mouse]

No, all wooden escalators were replaced after the King's cross fire.

Initially those that remained had their treads replaced with metal ones within about 3 - 4 months but retained the wooden panels, but the panels themselves all went within a year or so.



As to stations where you go up to board the Underground... South Harrow might be the Piccadilly one mentioned above? Others are Ravenscourt Park, Stamford Brook, Turnham Green, Chiswick Park... Most of the Hammersmith branch from Paddington beyond Westbourne Park as well.

I am sure there were wooden ones at Marylebone IIRC a few years ago, unless I was hallucinating

 

[causton]

No, all wooden escalators were replaced after the King's cross fire.

No, there is *still* a wooden escalator there!
I think as the station is not enclosed that much it does not qualify for the extra precautions which removing wooden escalators needed.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/stations/sjp/GFD/images/photos/800/o1914-0000018.jpg

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I'll have to go and have look then, for the memories.


As for Marylebone, they are metal but I think they have darker colouring on the panels. The wooden ones there were certainly replaced pretty quickly after King's Cross.

 

[Tubeboy]

Greenford still has a Wooden escalator. Maylebone's wooden escalator lasted till 2002/3 IIRC.

 

[Anon Mouse]

Greenford still has a Wooden escalator. Maylebone's wooden escalator lasted till 2002/3 IIRC.

That ties in with my memories actually. Not an underground station, but the last time I walked through the Tyne Pedestrian Tunnel the escolators were still wooden

 

[pendolino]

Some of the 1930s stations are fantastic, IMO.

Not just your opinion by any means, mine too, and many others'. Charles Holden is revered in the world of Architecture for his designs for tube stations (as well as his many other buildings - The Senate House at the University of London, and 55 Broadway, the Underground HQ above St James's Park tube, for example). He was awarded a Royal Gold Medal by RIBA in 1936. Today, many of his buildings are listed: Arnos Grove and Southgate are Grade II*, 55 Broadway was upgraded to Grade I last year.

He came to the underground courtesy of Frank Pick, the visionary managing director who brought together not just avant-garde architects, but a whole wealth of designers and artists: Harry Beck, the designer of the schematic tube map we still use today (albeit slightly modified and updated); the vorticist Edward McKnight Kauffer who designed promotional posters, as did the surrealist Man Ray; Edward Johnston was engaged by Pick to produce the typeface still in use by TfL today; sculptors such as Eric Gill and Jacob Epstein* provided adornment to Holden's work (although some such as Southgate are an artwork in themselves).

Pick and Holden, and the many designers which Pick employed are still celebrated today: there was an exhibition of E McKnight Kauffer's work at the Estorick Collection last year (which I went to), the V&A had a retrospective of Holden's work the year before (which I went to) and the now-closed Church Farm Museum in Hendon had a display of Harry Beck's tube maps (which I went to.....am I coming across as a bit obsessed about this stuff? Good, because I freely admit I am).

But if you know where to look these are not just pieces to be displayed in galleries in museums. Every time I drive through Balham, I look down on the tube station with it's Portland stone façade and mullioned windows lit from the interior by the art-deco 'electroliers' and thank Mr Holden for what he did for London.

A brilliant book on Holden's work came out a couple of years back, which is well worth reading. This is also a great book on Underground architecture (not just Holden, but his predecessors such as Leslie Green and Charles Clark too), although I think it's out of print. And I can happily spend a couple of hours looking through the poster collection on the LT Museum's website.

*Holden's 55 Broadway includes two sculptures by Jacob Epstein, 'Day' and 'Night'. 'Day' depicts a naked boy. At the time it was unveiled this caused outrage in the media which led to Frank Pick running into serious trouble with the Underground directors and his threatening to resign. The V&A exhibition included a letter from Christian Barman (an LT publicity officer in the 1950s) asking Holden to confirm that

the anger of the Underground Directors was only calmed when Epstein was persuaded to perform a small operation on the anatomy of 'Day' and that he in fact removed 1 1/2" of the offending portion

Fantastic!

 

[Mutant Lemming]

55 Broadway was upgraded to Grade I last year.

Will it still have the same allure once it becomes a hotel ?

 

[pendolino]

Will it still have the same allure once it becomes a hotel ?

Are there plans for that then? (Source?) If so, I don't see why not. Given the Grade I listing, the character of the building can't be drastically altered. And if it's a hotel, public access may be greater than the current measly one-day-a-year that TfL permit for Open House.

 

[transmanche]

Not an underground station, but the last time I walked through the Tyne Pedestrian Tunnel the escolators were still wooden

Claimed to be the longest wooden escalators in the world and now over 60 years old. Sadly all four escalators are now out of service. Two of them are due to be replaced by 'inclined lifts' sometime this year, with the remaining two left in situ effectively as works of art.