Concrete and Netting
Arnos Grove Underground railway station,
Built 1932, designed by Charles Holden
Arnos Grove station was built as part of the first section of the northward extension of the Piccadilly Line to Cockfosters. This seven-mile extension beyond the original terminus of Finsbury Park, to serve the enlarging suburban areas in north Middlesex, was authorised by a parliamentary Act of 4 June 1930, and was overseen by Frank Pick (1878-1941), the visionary administrator of the Underground Group and Chief Executive of the London Transport Passenger Board from 1933. The first section of the extension, from Finsbury Park to Arnos Grove, which included the stations at Manor House, Turnpike Lane, Wood Green and Bounds Green, was opened on 19 September 1932. Southgate and Enfield West (now Oakwood) followed in March 1933, and the terminus at Cockfosters opened on 31 July 1933.
Work on Arnos Grove started in 1931. Like most of the stations on both the east and west extensions of the Piccadilly Line, it was designed by Charles Henry Holden (1875-1960). However, much of the practical detail for Arnos Grove was undertaken within the practice of Adams, Holden, and Pearson by Holden's chief assistant at the time, Charles Hutton (1907-95). The first of Holden's stations with a circular ticket hall, its design of a cylinder within a square was, according to Hutton, based on a groundsman's lodge at Midhurst Sanatorium designed by Adams, Holden, and Pearson in 1904-6. Others have identified the Stockholm City Library (1920-28 by Erik Gunnar Asplund), which Pick and Holden had visited in 1930, as an influence. Following problems at Sudbury Town, and subsequently at Arnos Grove, with leaking shuttering for the concrete roof discolouring the brickwork, the construction methods were changed part way through the project and the load-bearing brick walls were replaced with a reinforced-concrete frame with brick infill. This necessitated changes to the design, carried out by Hutton, with the entrances repositioned to fit the sixteen concrete stanchions grouped in pairs between the windows and changes to the proportions. The Piccadilly Line stations of Charles Holden are among the first and most widely celebrated examples of modern architecture in Britain. They are significant for bringing this new idiom to the general public, and for imposing a brand image to buildings and design when this was still novel. The stations are perhaps unique in the admiration they attracted from more experienced foreign architects and critics, for Britain was elsewhere backward in modern architecture and design. Arnos Grove represents perhaps the single most powerful architectural composition by Charles Holden in his work for London Underground and as a single clear statement of the architect's classic early 1930s style it is unsurpassed. The station was listed at Grade II in 1971 and renovated in the late 1980s to a high standard.
[Historic England]
Taken during the Piccadilly Line Tour- Turnpike Lane to Cockfosters
Concrete and Netting
Arnos Grove Underground railway station,
Built 1932, designed by Charles Holden
Arnos Grove station was built as part of the first section of the northward extension of the Piccadilly Line to Cockfosters. This seven-mile extension beyond the original terminus of Finsbury Park, to serve the enlarging suburban areas in north Middlesex, was authorised by a parliamentary Act of 4 June 1930, and was overseen by Frank Pick (1878-1941), the visionary administrator of the Underground Group and Chief Executive of the London Transport Passenger Board from 1933. The first section of the extension, from Finsbury Park to Arnos Grove, which included the stations at Manor House, Turnpike Lane, Wood Green and Bounds Green, was opened on 19 September 1932. Southgate and Enfield West (now Oakwood) followed in March 1933, and the terminus at Cockfosters opened on 31 July 1933.
Work on Arnos Grove started in 1931. Like most of the stations on both the east and west extensions of the Piccadilly Line, it was designed by Charles Henry Holden (1875-1960). However, much of the practical detail for Arnos Grove was undertaken within the practice of Adams, Holden, and Pearson by Holden's chief assistant at the time, Charles Hutton (1907-95). The first of Holden's stations with a circular ticket hall, its design of a cylinder within a square was, according to Hutton, based on a groundsman's lodge at Midhurst Sanatorium designed by Adams, Holden, and Pearson in 1904-6. Others have identified the Stockholm City Library (1920-28 by Erik Gunnar Asplund), which Pick and Holden had visited in 1930, as an influence. Following problems at Sudbury Town, and subsequently at Arnos Grove, with leaking shuttering for the concrete roof discolouring the brickwork, the construction methods were changed part way through the project and the load-bearing brick walls were replaced with a reinforced-concrete frame with brick infill. This necessitated changes to the design, carried out by Hutton, with the entrances repositioned to fit the sixteen concrete stanchions grouped in pairs between the windows and changes to the proportions. The Piccadilly Line stations of Charles Holden are among the first and most widely celebrated examples of modern architecture in Britain. They are significant for bringing this new idiom to the general public, and for imposing a brand image to buildings and design when this was still novel. The stations are perhaps unique in the admiration they attracted from more experienced foreign architects and critics, for Britain was elsewhere backward in modern architecture and design. Arnos Grove represents perhaps the single most powerful architectural composition by Charles Holden in his work for London Underground and as a single clear statement of the architect's classic early 1930s style it is unsurpassed. The station was listed at Grade II in 1971 and renovated in the late 1980s to a high standard.
[Historic England]
Taken during the Piccadilly Line Tour- Turnpike Lane to Cockfosters