A Typographical Review of London Underground Stations

[Whyperion]

OK, not all , but there have been design changes through the years of some of what might be recognised , for generally being in London , Stations on the Deep Tube and/or the Sub Surface Lines.
It could be taken for granted that everyone knows that the First Underground Railway in the World was the Metropolitan Line, two broad gauge tracks from Paddington To Moorgate , an approximate line of the above ground "New Road" , later Marylebone Road / Euston Road / City Road that was also broadly Mr Shillibeer's first Omnibus route in London - a single deck box on wheels hauled by three abreast horses.
Designed to be operated in conjunction with the Great Western Railway that company fell out leaving the Met on its own. Extensions of the Line followed , to the west via Royal Oak and Latimer Road to Hammersmith , much of which was built on a viaduct allowing for letting of the arches for income and to the east in more "cut and cover" or shallow cuttings , to Aldgate via Liverpool Street and to Aldgate East where further late developments sent it to Upton Park and Barking ,using tracks of the London Tilbury and Southend Railway that were "spare" local stopping services. A northwestern extension , from Baker Street - which would be the HQ of the Metrolpolitan - would create Metro-Land - places like Moor Park, Watford , Amersham and at one time , with a more happy relationship with the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincoln railway as the Great Central with services from Aylesbury and other bits of Buckinghamshire , bits of which exist as Chiltern Railways today (and East-West rail upcoming in small amount, and indeed HS2 trackbed in spirit and sometimes body). Shorter extensions would get to Stanmore in then Middlesex and an ambitious expansion of financial interests in the Northern City Line - Finsbury Park to Moorgate , disconnected generally from the rest of its network and the East London Line passenger services using the Brunel Foot Tunnel under the Thames at Rotherhithe, that had already been adapted by lines out of the The Great Eastern Railway Liverpool Street Station to the likes of the London Brighton and South Coast stations in Peckham and Crystal Palace among a myriad of others. A connection near Whitechapel joined the Met to the East London. The Metropolitan could also run accross the passenger concourse at Liverpool Street to the Great Eastern Railway lines , but maybe not surprisingly this didnt really work well and was ceased.
The Metropolitan encouraged the building of the Metropolitan District Railway , or District Line, to build much along the south part of central london - helped by the Metropolitan Board of Works construction of the Embankments of the Thames including new super sewers to take liquid waste out of flowing into the Thames - well at least till Abbey Wood and Crossness where a falling tide could carry the problem away to Essex. The District didnt have much money and actually getting the job done was difficult and the District also went to get running powers over other lines that would give it services from Windsor via Slough to Southend on Sea once a short line via Stepney Green would connect with the London and Tilbury Route. Eventually running powers with the London and South Western would take the District to Richmond, Wimbledon and with the GWR of sorts to Ealing Broadway along with its own route to Hounslow.
Deep Tubes , if we exclude the Tower pneumatic railway - the Tower Subway , from Tower Hill to the other side of the Thames ( smelly and unreliable its tunnel would to this day carry comms and electric cables ). The City and South London Railway from Kennington (later Clapham Common ) to King William Street had a success that saw the Central London Railway (the tuppeny tube) run from Shepherd's Bush to Bank, where it would meet the London and South Western oddity of a single route of Waterloo to City via its deep level tunnel, this line lasted into the Southern Railway as part of the grouping in 1923 of most of Britains Railways ( the Metropolitan keeping out of things and managing to be independent ) . Later lines would be promoted , the Highgate Railway - that would later become effectively the West End Branch of the Northern Line , extensions of a rebuilt City and South London tube to a wider bore and rolling stock size to head north via Old Street, Angel , Kings Cross and Euston to join at Camden Town the twin arms of the Highgate railway and forge on to the open fields of Golders Green. The mouthful of Piccadilly , Brompton and ? Finsbury Park ? (I can never remember the name) was folded into ideas of the District Line for fast journeys on a deep line along part of its length such that Hammersmith via Earls Court onto Piccadilly , Kings Cross and Finsbury Park would happen , much under ideas of financing and electrification via the Lots Road Power station designed by former Chicago based Charles Yerkes, who brought US methods of running railways to the tube in part leading to why Underground Carriages are called Cars, Yerke's finances would eventually bring what would be in due course the Northern , The Picadilly and The Baker Street and Waterloo railway- Bakerloo into one Organisation - Underground Electric Railways of London. Yerkes died before much of the lines could be built and creditors found there was more hole than money and saught the services of Albert Stanley to pull things together , Stanley would later become Lord Ashfield , and along with Commercial Manager Frank Pick would expand The Underground (UERL) into holding tramway companies like London United in the South west of London , and the rather massive London General Omnibus Company. The earlier separation of competing lines had meant many locations had separate stations including , as may have been noted the Inner Circle (via High Street Kensington) and Middle Circle (via Latimer Road and Olympia/Addison Road ) (there was an outer circle not part of the group as such which wasnt a circle but sort of ran over the North London Railway lines to places like Richmond ) South Kensington would have separate ticket halls for District ,running anti-clockwise around the circle and Metropolitan running clockwise. Eventually sense prevailed and joint ticketing was created and the District would join the underground group, but not before the Picadilly line station was built in the ox-blood facing style that the Underground group adopted for its stations. Some key interchanges would look different - with The Central London at Oxford Circus having a tall station building with the upper floors as offices - indeed these would be that railway s admin HQ, while adjacent was the Bakerloo Entrance in the ox blood style. again with offices above. Indeed even when a single storey station was built its design was to have buildings above in many cases either as residential or offices. Most stations were designed with lifts for access ground level to the platforms metres below ground. Many would be supplanted by escalators - which meant passenger halls moved often to locations with no striking above ground structures and the foot subway often crossing the busy roads of London became purposed as the station entrance - Hyde Park Corner being perhaps the most notable , or Green Park which replaced entirely Down Street Station (used then as offices for govt in WW2).
Frank Pick considered that Stations should be bold and stand out in their area (something with the building above of some offices rather reverse) with the extensions to Piccadilly and Northern Lines in the either the Concrete Box with a lid on style of Charles Holden as architect finished with a red brick facing or the same architect's style for Northern Line extensions in a neo classical portland stone clad style , with the southern section differing in detail compared with northern places as Edgeware and Hendon Central. In 1924 road services in London became licenced London wide which gave the underground group in the end more opportunities to consolidate but the tube network remained marketed as Underground , and incorporated the Central London Railway too. In early 1933 after a commission on transport generally and earlier ideas of what should happen in London as the London County Council had already been estabished and the Metropolitan Board of Works had alread got sewage and much water supply in London under its control a quasi public corporation The London Passenger Transport Board was formed , this acquired The Underground Group, The Metropolitan Railway and further bus operators such as Tilling in London , Birch Brothers London area services and regular coach services such as those of Hillman of Romford along with company and local authority Tram services . In a backdrop of a recession in the country government grants for capital works meant more planning for new line extensions along with new rolling stock for the lines and more electrification of the Metrolpolitan Line. Other ideas to take on more commuter lines of the big 4 main railways along with some parts of the Metropolitan passing to the LNER as sucessor to the Great Central Railway.
Ashfield and Plck would continue as generally running the organisation up until the early years of WW2 and a trading name of London Transport Was Established.
This set of transistion years gave rise to some rather strange design quirks as the general visitor to London , certainly in the 1960s and still today may see what appears to be timeless in design of "underground" in the roundel/bulls eye with similar for station names at street and platform level , but a bit of viewing over photographs (and alas missing many that would have answered some queries for some locations ) I dont propose to cover every detail encompassed in the very brief history foregoing but a few bits I found of passing interest.

[Whyperion]

A bit small , but it is representative , but not so. Rather overspecified for its location, Kilburn Park was almost rural in Edwardian days with "upstairs downstairs" terraced houses around much of the area. Unusual I think is the over arch to the entrance though this could double up as a shelter for a bus stop.
I think the building to the rear was part of the Bakerloo Line electricity supply transformers , Kilburn Park was the northern most station but not the end of the line, as next along was Queen's Park where a depot was built but at the same time the station was owned and built by the London and North Western Railway . later LMS. Bakerloo line trains would run at one time to Watford High Street and Watford Junction via Bushey , but Harrow and Wealdstone is now the northern extent of the Bakerloo's activities , with the now London Overground covering the rest of the rout with its service out of London Euston . In later days of British Railway's Network South East and early privatisation to "Silverlink trains" the Watford BR service was known as the Harlequin Service with a colourful logo for it , under the Overground it is dubbed the Lioness line after the Womens' FA England Football team successes at Wembley Stadium.
In the picture view there is little of the styled roundel with an UndergrounD picked out on the tiling and the cast shape typeface for the likes of Exit, not even the line name has any prominance but we can see the space left for offices or whatever. I think this was designed wholly as escalators only as they go straight from the booking hall (machines only like the rest of the present day tube network with in this case more history panels in the old serving windows but also some as glass vivariaum? ornamental plant displays, to the mid point of the platforms.

Many of the Bakerloo and similar lines had lifts and more speciically a short flight of stairs onto one end of the platforms , this makes either a long walk if you get your exit from the train wrong , or crowding at the foot of the stairs. Over the years some have been modified particulary as the likes of the connecting Victoria Line was built. However even the new Elizabeth Line station at Abbey Wood in SE London has the same problem being built with only three escalators and a small lift at one end due to cost saving on the station build , but there is some scope to add either exit in middle area of station via a mezzanine , or with relocating some of the plant room , an exit at the other end via the basement of any proposed adjacent build of offices or residences. Similar but planned with two exits and the second recently put into use is the Northern Line extension to Battersea Power Station - which needed it as the numbers using the station now and more housing planned is really pushing modern elbow room to the limit. The cost "saving" in the political stop start money tap of course being seen with HS2 (north segment) /Northern Powerhouse rail

[Whyperion]

A busy probably bank holiday , the bus probably going somewhere like Pariiament Hill Fields or Hampstead Heath and would have been cheaper and more direct.
the "Johnson" form of typescript that would generally be come to be used in the Underground Group I am not expert enough to identify , I think the lettering here is of an early weight and sizing

[Whyperion]

A later (1950s ?) probably Christmas Day or early on a Sunday , and the rear of the site has gained modern higher rise flats, I think these have recently been subject to Gentrification as new slighly higher mansion blocks. The station entrance canopy is much simplified but we can see how the old curved structure nestled in the curve of the window header structure