Harold Stabler relief tiles on the London Underground : Mr & Mrs Croome's list and tabulation, December 1986
I thought I should share a list and tabulation of the relief "Stabler" tiles that exist on a handful of London Underground stations and that was given to me many years ago by a colleague at the Underground who was retiring.
The list was drawn up by the remarkable Desmond Croome who, at the time in 1988, was Development Manger (Buses) based at 55 Broadway. Desmond was one of the great historians of London Transport and went on to write, with fellow historian Alan Jackson, the seminal work "Rails Through The Clay". In 1986 Desmond and Mrs Croome, off their own bat, decided to enumerate the various designs of Stabler tiles that had been fitted to five stations that had been designed as part of the later stages of the 1935-40 "New Works Programme" of London Transport. This scheme, delayed and curtailed due to the outbreak of war, delivered the Bakerloo and Central line extensions (from 1939 and 1946 onwards respectively) along with major Central area reconstructions.
For several years the Underground's design of 'choice' in passageways and at platform level, was for plain 6" x6" tles manufactured by Carter's of Poole. Carter's also made the larger and more structural faience blocks found in sub-surface areas and ticket halls - again in varying shades of yellow, this largely due to contemporary glaze specificatons and firing temperatures. It appears that from around 1936/7 thought was given to relieving the rather flat look of this tiling but introduction of a small amount of visual 'interest' that would work with the tiling module as well as the development in post-1938 tube station platforms of the tiled frieze bands that include the station name in tube lined slip lettering.
As ever, the company would not have wanted anything too 'forced' or overtly like 'applied art' and so a tile that matched the specification of the generic filed pattern would be highly suitable. They turned to Harold Stabler, an acknowledged designer who had undertaken earlier work for the Underground Group, and who by chance - was part of the Adams, Carter & Stabler concern who ran the Poole based pottery where the tiles were made. Stabler chose 18 designs based on the heraldic symbols representing the ten Counties served by the London Passenger Transport Board, three of London buildings, three representing London Transport itself and two others - London's river and Thomas Lord of cricketing fame.
A series of models for moulding and approval were made and some of these survived into the LT Museum collection. However, Mr & Mrs Croome accounted for a total of 803 tiles that had been manufactured and were, in 1986, still on the stations they'd been applied to. These were the NWP reconstruction of Aldgate East, the escalator areas of St.Paul's (Post Office), the two new Bakerloo line tube stations of Swiss Cottage and St John's Wood and one of the Central line's eastern extension stations, Bethnal Green. Some had already been lost at St Paul's.
In recent years all these stations have had major renovation programmes carried out due to their physical state and often poor condition. Of the five stations only St. Paul's has lost all its Stabler tiles during two earlier waves of reconstruction. Of the other four, all four have been almost wholly retiled with replica finishes, albeit with subtle changes to the layout pattern, and for these we at LU went down the route of commissioning a company in Shropshire to manufacture exact copies of the correct numbers of the various designs. At Swiss Cottage and St. Johns Wood all the tiles are renewed. At Bethnal Green we retained two original panels of tiling, including the extant Stablers, on each platform and renewed the rest. It is testiment to the retiling contractors that spotting the original panels is not that easy. At Aldgate East, where the walls were in perilous condition and much work had to be done to stabilise the fabric, all the platform walls are renewed - but the staircase return walls at either end still carry the originals that include Stablers. On the replacement walls we did count the numbers of each design and replace them 'like for like'.
As can be seen - not all stations carried all designs. Only Swiss Cottage and St. Johns Wood (now Jubilee line stations) carried a handful of Mr Lord. I was so tempted at Aldgate East to quietly introduce a spare Thomas Lord on to the wall to see if anyone ever noticed! When we did the renewals work much effort was made to try to salvage originals but it was difficult work as they were embedded in concrete mortar along with the tiles and even cutting them out was not easy. Some small number, often damaged before removal, did survive and were given to the LT Museum and other institutions.
Harold Stabler relief tiles on the London Underground : Mr & Mrs Croome's list and tabulation, December 1986
I thought I should share a list and tabulation of the relief "Stabler" tiles that exist on a handful of London Underground stations and that was given to me many years ago by a colleague at the Underground who was retiring.
The list was drawn up by the remarkable Desmond Croome who, at the time in 1988, was Development Manger (Buses) based at 55 Broadway. Desmond was one of the great historians of London Transport and went on to write, with fellow historian Alan Jackson, the seminal work "Rails Through The Clay". In 1986 Desmond and Mrs Croome, off their own bat, decided to enumerate the various designs of Stabler tiles that had been fitted to five stations that had been designed as part of the later stages of the 1935-40 "New Works Programme" of London Transport. This scheme, delayed and curtailed due to the outbreak of war, delivered the Bakerloo and Central line extensions (from 1939 and 1946 onwards respectively) along with major Central area reconstructions.
For several years the Underground's design of 'choice' in passageways and at platform level, was for plain 6" x6" tles manufactured by Carter's of Poole. Carter's also made the larger and more structural faience blocks found in sub-surface areas and ticket halls - again in varying shades of yellow, this largely due to contemporary glaze specificatons and firing temperatures. It appears that from around 1936/7 thought was given to relieving the rather flat look of this tiling but introduction of a small amount of visual 'interest' that would work with the tiling module as well as the development in post-1938 tube station platforms of the tiled frieze bands that include the station name in tube lined slip lettering.
As ever, the company would not have wanted anything too 'forced' or overtly like 'applied art' and so a tile that matched the specification of the generic filed pattern would be highly suitable. They turned to Harold Stabler, an acknowledged designer who had undertaken earlier work for the Underground Group, and who by chance - was part of the Adams, Carter & Stabler concern who ran the Poole based pottery where the tiles were made. Stabler chose 18 designs based on the heraldic symbols representing the ten Counties served by the London Passenger Transport Board, three of London buildings, three representing London Transport itself and two others - London's river and Thomas Lord of cricketing fame.
A series of models for moulding and approval were made and some of these survived into the LT Museum collection. However, Mr & Mrs Croome accounted for a total of 803 tiles that had been manufactured and were, in 1986, still on the stations they'd been applied to. These were the NWP reconstruction of Aldgate East, the escalator areas of St.Paul's (Post Office), the two new Bakerloo line tube stations of Swiss Cottage and St John's Wood and one of the Central line's eastern extension stations, Bethnal Green. Some had already been lost at St Paul's.
In recent years all these stations have had major renovation programmes carried out due to their physical state and often poor condition. Of the five stations only St. Paul's has lost all its Stabler tiles during two earlier waves of reconstruction. Of the other four, all four have been almost wholly retiled with replica finishes, albeit with subtle changes to the layout pattern, and for these we at LU went down the route of commissioning a company in Shropshire to manufacture exact copies of the correct numbers of the various designs. At Swiss Cottage and St. Johns Wood all the tiles are renewed. At Bethnal Green we retained two original panels of tiling, including the extant Stablers, on each platform and renewed the rest. It is testiment to the retiling contractors that spotting the original panels is not that easy. At Aldgate East, where the walls were in perilous condition and much work had to be done to stabilise the fabric, all the platform walls are renewed - but the staircase return walls at either end still carry the originals that include Stablers. On the replacement walls we did count the numbers of each design and replace them 'like for like'.
As can be seen - not all stations carried all designs. Only Swiss Cottage and St. Johns Wood (now Jubilee line stations) carried a handful of Mr Lord. I was so tempted at Aldgate East to quietly introduce a spare Thomas Lord on to the wall to see if anyone ever noticed! When we did the renewals work much effort was made to try to salvage originals but it was difficult work as they were embedded in concrete mortar along with the tiles and even cutting them out was not easy. Some small number, often damaged before removal, did survive and were given to the LT Museum and other institutions.