Swinging London
I know, only too well, what is happening here. That chap is conducting a pendulum swing test to check the degree of 'slippiness', or ideally 'non -slippness' or slip resistance of the floor tiles!
Prior to my retirement from London Underground I got to know possibly just a bit too much about the results of such tests as station floors should meet a certain standard and many are the sites that have indeed had their floor tiles replaced due to failure - although I do recall some embarrassing moments when new floors failed usually due to a lack of finishing (some surfaces require in-situ grinding) or actually seemingly produced results worse than the ones we'd replaced. An exact science; hmm.
The tiles seen here are in fact amongst some of the best we ever had - the 1920s and '30s saw London Transport use a tile to its own specification and that is known as the "St James's". The secret is in the mix of clays, cement and carborundum that allows for wear to gradually expose flecks of the carborundum thus actually improving the slip resistance. These floors were also very solidly laid and the tiles are cast to quite a depth that proved complex to replicate in renewals.
The station is, I'm sure, Leicester Square station, opened in 1906/7, that was reconstructed between 1930 and 1936 in a hugely complex scheme to construct a new sub-surface ticket hall and replece lifts with escalators to serve both the Northern and Piccadilly lines. The staircase entrances, ticket hall and upper escalator landings have walls clad in these large faience blocks that still survive in places although the carefully laid floor, seen here, was replaced with an unfortunately 'square' layout in a circular space that has never looked that good to my eye,
The bronze framed direction sign is a later replacement for the original (this has two flights to the arrow, the original would have had three flights - a good way to date an LT sign) and is in Johnston typeface. Given that, the fashion and other details such as the wear to the walls I'd think this is mid-late 1950s.
Swinging London
I know, only too well, what is happening here. That chap is conducting a pendulum swing test to check the degree of 'slippiness', or ideally 'non -slippness' or slip resistance of the floor tiles!
Prior to my retirement from London Underground I got to know possibly just a bit too much about the results of such tests as station floors should meet a certain standard and many are the sites that have indeed had their floor tiles replaced due to failure - although I do recall some embarrassing moments when new floors failed usually due to a lack of finishing (some surfaces require in-situ grinding) or actually seemingly produced results worse than the ones we'd replaced. An exact science; hmm.
The tiles seen here are in fact amongst some of the best we ever had - the 1920s and '30s saw London Transport use a tile to its own specification and that is known as the "St James's". The secret is in the mix of clays, cement and carborundum that allows for wear to gradually expose flecks of the carborundum thus actually improving the slip resistance. These floors were also very solidly laid and the tiles are cast to quite a depth that proved complex to replicate in renewals.
The station is, I'm sure, Leicester Square station, opened in 1906/7, that was reconstructed between 1930 and 1936 in a hugely complex scheme to construct a new sub-surface ticket hall and replece lifts with escalators to serve both the Northern and Piccadilly lines. The staircase entrances, ticket hall and upper escalator landings have walls clad in these large faience blocks that still survive in places although the carefully laid floor, seen here, was replaced with an unfortunately 'square' layout in a circular space that has never looked that good to my eye,
The bronze framed direction sign is a later replacement for the original (this has two flights to the arrow, the original would have had three flights - a good way to date an LT sign) and is in Johnston typeface. Given that, the fashion and other details such as the wear to the walls I'd think this is mid-late 1950s.