30. The stained glass at Uxbridge

23 June 2012
Designs, Metropolitan line, Numbers 26-50, Piccadilly line, Zone 6
6 Comments

Colour me smittenI think this might be the only station on the Underground that has stained glass (though I’m more than happy to be proved wrong).

The three panels sit above the exit and are only visible to people leaving the station: a fitting location for what is essentially a translucent multi-coloured equivalent of a “Welcome to Uxbridge” slogan:

Which window shall we go through today?They were created by the Hungarian artist Ervin Bossányi, who emigrated to the UK in 1934: just four years before Uxbridge station was rebuilt in its present form to a design by Charles Holden.

During a hugely successful career in this country Bossányi would make stained glass for, among others, the University of London, the Victoria and Albert Museum and York Minster.

But the three designs he produced for Holden must count statistically as his most viewed – and perhaps simultaneously, like Oliver Hill’s bus station at Newbury Park and Eric Aumonier’s archer at East Finchley, his most under-appreciated, by virtue of their home being not an imperious seat of learning or popular tourist attraction but an ordinary railway terminus.

Of course I would argue that Uxbridge is anything but ordinary, and I’ll return to rave about some of its other stunning features another time.

For now I’ll merely sing the praises of this trio of handsome gems, which depict, from left to right: the arms of the old Middlesex County Council, an institution abolished by Tory minister Keith Joseph in the early 1960s; the arms of the Basset family, esteemed local landowners of centuries’ standing; and a historic emblem of Buckinghamshire.

And were there ever need for a more contemporary representation, may I suggest something to do with Press Gang, which was filmed in Uxbridge and which remains the finest children’s TV drama series ever made.

29. The uplighters at St John’s Wood

20 June 2012
Jubilee line, Numbers 26-50, Objects, Zone 2
1 Comment

St John's? Would!The outside of St John’s Wood has been rather spoiled by the construction of a giant apartment block on top of the original modest and charming (now Grade II listed) building*.

But the inside is still worth commending. In fact it’s worth applauding:

There is an uplighter that never goes outThe uplighters march up the escalators like a phalanx of benevolent brass-bound colonels, keeping you in line while guiding you safely and silently to your destination.

They have a simple elegance that somehow both calms and cools you down. I like the idea of having rich, dark furnishings inside an Underground station. As well as giving the place more beauty, they offset all the necessary but sometimes overbearing bright walls and ceilings.

St John’s Wood station opened in 1939. I think – I hope – these uplighters date from the same time.

Ditto their lovely little brother, which Transport for London should manufacture as bedside lights. I’d buy one:

Want.*Though I can’t deny the idea of living directly above an Underground station doesn’t have an appeal

28. The GWR logos at Hammersmith

17 June 2012
Circle line, Designs, Hammersmith and City line, Numbers 26-50, Zone 2
6 Comments

God's Wandering RelicsAnother unexpected find. These benches must be at least almost a century old, for they bear the emblem of a company that helped to build and run this stretch of track long before anyone thought or tried to stitch together a single, unified Underground.

They’re on the Hammersmith platforms that are served by the Hammersmith and City and the Circle lines. It’s a chunk of the network that’s been subject to a number of revamps and rebrandings during the last 150 years. Decades ago it was the Metropolitan line that terminated here; centuries ago it was the Hammersmith and City Railway.

Each name change brought its own batch of new signs, furnishings and corporate clutter. Much will have been cleared up and thrown away down the years. But these benches have somehow survived, and they bear the imprint of the Great Western Railway: the company that helped build this bit of the line all the way back in 1863-64.

GWR: God’s Wonderful Relics, Granted Wise Reprieve.

Granted Wasteful Reprieve