Plus Heathrow Terminals, Battersea, Nine Elms, Hillingdon and others rebuilt!So sounds like the answer is pretty much every station, except the Jubilee line extension?
Plus Heathrow Terminals, Battersea, Nine Elms, Hillingdon and others rebuilt!So sounds like the answer is pretty much every station, except the Jubilee line extension?
I’ve always thought that. I’ve also always been quite intrigued by the stairs leading DOWN from the platform to get into the lift to take you back up and also the doors around the staircase that they really don’t seem to want you to use.Essex Road has always struck me as a strange one as it was realistically an Underground station until 1975 but looks anything-but like a typical Underground station!
I only discovered the doors from the booking hall to the spiral staircase a couple of weeks ago. Very narrow double leaf doors but what a treat if you open them and descend. Totally decrepit, peeling paint etc.I’ve always thought that. I’ve also always been quite intrigued by the stairs leading DOWN from the platform to get into the lift to take you back up and also the doors around the staircase that they really don’t seem to want you to use.
I only discovered the doors from the booking hall to the spiral staircase a couple of weeks ago. Very narrow double leaf doors but what a treat if you open them and descend. Totally decrepit, peeling paint etc.
Almost the opposite of Merseyrail's Moorfields: to get to the station from street level you go up an escalator, then down again to get to the platforms.I’ve always thought that. I’ve also always been quite intrigued by the stairs leading DOWN from the platform to get into the lift to take you back up and also the doors around the staircase that they really don’t seem to want you to use.
Russell Square has a certain charm, in fact it's probably one of the best surviving Leslie Green examples both outside and at at basement level, though the original platform tiling was (I think) tiled over with a near replica in the mid to late 2000s for some reason as it wasn't in bad condition. I think the corridors and stairs still have original 1906 tiles. Ticket hall sympathetically tiled as per platform colours.
I'm sure it was Ken Livingstone that sarcastically remarked that there was a programme of retiling the tube at the expense of other things!!The re-tile will almost certainly have been something which was contained within the contract. They didn’t do too bad a job with it to be fair, better than Covent Garden which was done around the same time and (IMO) looks rather a mess. The trouble with many of these re-tiles is modern standards dictate thicker lines of grout between the tiles, which simply doesn’t look right. Like putting modern glass in sash windows.
Caledonian Road and Holloway Road are thus the only platforms which retain their tiling in original condition. One can add to that the disused platforms at Holborn, Aldwych, and some surviving at Hyde Park Corner albeit heavily patched up. There’s plenty of fragments remaining in spiral staircase and non-public areas at most stations though, only at Leicester Square has successive refurbishments pretty much banished it.
I'm sure it was Ken Livingstone that sarcastically remarked that there was a programme of retiling the tube at the expense of other things!!
Must have scored highly on ambience in the PPP hence Russelll Square and Covent Garden were done with higher footfall and Holloway Road wasn't.
I think it's why Holborn and others at platform level have a sort of half finished quickly wrap it up look as Metronet went bust, i think more extensive work was planned at Holborn at the time but I may be wrong . But you're right that Tube Lines did seem better overall.I think that’s exactly the reason, though to be fair a lot of the stations work was driven by replacement (or in some cases installation) of systems like PA, CCTV, help points, lighting, fire detection or other station management subsystems, which in many cases was quite destructive to old finishes, and as such replacement of tiling was probably a small cost in the grand scheme of things.
Up until that point LU had tended to go with a “do what is necessary” ethos, rather than going in with the intention of doing everything whether it was fully necessary or not.
A more measured approach seems to have returned, hence why we’ve again seen some more limited works at some of the stations touched in the last few years, for example Euston Square retaining much of its legacy signage, which wouldn’t have happened under a PPP refurb.
What this leaves us is a quite conspicuous tidemark between various stations in terms of decor. Essentially:
1) Untouched since before PPP (eg Old Street)
2) Full PPP station refurbs (eg Bethnal Green)
3) Post-PPP works (eg Holland Park)
I think it’s generally accepted that Tube Lines works were superior to Metronet. Bethnal Green and Wanstead are a total mess compared to Swiss Cottage and St Johns Wood, though Highgate is a mess too to be fair.
I think it's why Holborn and others at platform level have a sort of half finished quickly wrap it up look as Metronet went bust, i think more extensive work was planned at Holborn at the time but I may be wrong . But you're right that Tube Lines did seem better overall.
PPP was a silly idea but that's another discussion!!