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Zone 4

24. The exterior of Perivale

5 June 2012
Architecture, Central line, Numbers 1-25, Zone 4
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Peer-ivalePerivale station was given Grade II listed status in July 2011. I’m surprised this took so long. The building was opened in 1947, meaning a total of 64 years passed before it was deemed worth protecting in law.

This does seem an awfully lengthy period. I’d have thought – or hoped – the station’s elegance and style would have been self-evident the moment it was finished.

Perhaps there was lingering ill-feeling towards such a unashamedly modernist construction taking the place of what went before, for there has been a station a Perivale since 1904. And to be fair, the original incarnation does sound quite charming, with “long wooden platforms” and “pagoda huts”.

But times, and tastes, change. I’m not sorry this rather dashing building exists.

On the list

20. The wooden escalator at Greenford

20 May 2012
Central line, Numbers 1-25, Objects, Zone 4
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Wood, you believe it?I was chased out of Greenford station while taking these photographs. A member of staff objected to me using my camera, even though I was, as I protested, pointing it “merely at an escalator”.

This was a slightly underhand remark, as it clearly wasn’t “merely” an escalator.

Indeed, I’d come to the station precisely because it wasn’t “merely” an escalator, and was instead the only one of its kind still in service on the entire network.

By looking at this photo you are breaking the lawWhy it’s the only one of its kind still to be found in use on the Underground I’ve no idea. I’m guessing it’s retained for its novelty value.

It’s around 100 years old and is certainly a charming oddity. All of its cousins across the network were scrapped in the wake of the King’s Cross fire in 1987.

It's rude to stairWhenever I’m chased out of stations for taking photographs – which is not often, admittedly – I find myself nursing a grudge against from wherever it is I’ve been evicted.

By all means take the effort to visit Greenford and experience this unique chunk of motorised history. Just remember to secrete your camera in a specially-designed satchel, or within a ring like the one Roger Moore had in A View to a Kill.

Oh, and don’t, whatever you do, behave as if you’re there to admire something.

(A different Ian has a different, and better, set of photos.)

15. The roundel outside Queensbury

25 April 2012
Jubilee line, Numbers 1-25, Objects, Zone 4
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Fit for a QueensburyThis is the first item I’ve included in my quest about which I know almost nothing. I confess I’ve no idea when precisely it was built, nor who by. I haven’t a clue as to the designer. I’m not even entirely sure what to call it. A monument? A turret? A freestanding feature?

Dish of the dayIt’s not just the object itself that’s striking; it’s also where it is positioned:

Urban urbaneWhat a finely-conceived, thoughtfully-implemented bit of suburban planning.

I’m guessing the whole area was laid out around the same time as the construction of the station, which opened in December 1934.

Hopefully whoever did it received some sort of municipal honour or local corporation tie. Cleverly (but sensibly) the Underground roundel is visible from a number of approaches, including the far end of the long slice of green that stretches away from the roundabout and behind the point from which I took the above photo.

All the roads, paths, shops and houses fan out from the station – as they should. And there, right at the point where all the trajectories meet, is… is…

Lovely erection (steady now)Whatever it is, it’s a bit special.