London Underground station infrastructure repairs 2007 -
Taken from rather an unusual angle as I was on a high scaffolding tower here as we assessed possible repairs to the fabric of this wonderful 1932 station designed by Charles Holden for the Underground Group. The very European 'modern' style of architecture was, for both Holden and the Underground, the first in a break away from the earlier style of 'classically' inspired stations, such as Ealing Common, that were finished in Portland stone. The vast semi-circular ticket hall was modified in the 1980s, by insertion of the secure ticketing suite than can be seen on bottom left, but otherwise retains its sense of stark grandeur - a re-inforced concrete frame clad in brick and with the vast Crittall windows allowing light to flood in and, at night, illumination to flood out. As well as looking at the rendered and concrete ceiling structure here we were looking at those Crittall steel frames and I still think now, as I did then, they need replacing as their condition is not good. One of the problems of conservation - you can see the various types of reeded glass in place here and trying to identify an 'original' pattern (given the replacement of individual sheets over time) so as to be able to replace all panes in a single, unified style as it would originally have been presented is the devil's own task. The painting of the frames has also been the subject of much consideration over time. Latterly they were often painted white and this is, to my mind, wrong. Holden aimed for the interior to be powder or sky blue, so that the frames would be 'read' against the external sky, and externally they woudl usually have been in a brick red so that, again, the steel frame would be visually recessive against the bulk of the building - the idea of the steel window frames being 'dominant' was not the intention. I have seen evidence of some frames being grey but white or green, hmm, not right.
The ceiling soffit here is composed of fiberous plaster or render in a sculpted form - later stations had deeper indentations formed fromt he beam pattern. Again we had a debate about several of those stations as, as constructed, there is evidence that these were colour washed (as at Alperton) and that plain white was a later, maintenance simplification.
London Underground station infrastructure repairs 2007 -
Taken from rather an unusual angle as I was on a high scaffolding tower here as we assessed possible repairs to the fabric of this wonderful 1932 station designed by Charles Holden for the Underground Group. The very European 'modern' style of architecture was, for both Holden and the Underground, the first in a break away from the earlier style of 'classically' inspired stations, such as Ealing Common, that were finished in Portland stone. The vast semi-circular ticket hall was modified in the 1980s, by insertion of the secure ticketing suite than can be seen on bottom left, but otherwise retains its sense of stark grandeur - a re-inforced concrete frame clad in brick and with the vast Crittall windows allowing light to flood in and, at night, illumination to flood out. As well as looking at the rendered and concrete ceiling structure here we were looking at those Crittall steel frames and I still think now, as I did then, they need replacing as their condition is not good. One of the problems of conservation - you can see the various types of reeded glass in place here and trying to identify an 'original' pattern (given the replacement of individual sheets over time) so as to be able to replace all panes in a single, unified style as it would originally have been presented is the devil's own task. The painting of the frames has also been the subject of much consideration over time. Latterly they were often painted white and this is, to my mind, wrong. Holden aimed for the interior to be powder or sky blue, so that the frames would be 'read' against the external sky, and externally they woudl usually have been in a brick red so that, again, the steel frame would be visually recessive against the bulk of the building - the idea of the steel window frames being 'dominant' was not the intention. I have seen evidence of some frames being grey but white or green, hmm, not right.
The ceiling soffit here is composed of fiberous plaster or render in a sculpted form - later stations had deeper indentations formed fromt he beam pattern. Again we had a debate about several of those stations as, as constructed, there is evidence that these were colour washed (as at Alperton) and that plain white was a later, maintenance simplification.