COP3/A DESIGN JOURNEY: PART 1-3//OUGD601

Underground Journeys: Charles Holden's designs for London Transport

http://www.architecture.com/LibraryDrawingsAndPhotographs/Exhibitionsandloans/VARIBAArchitecturePartnershipexhibitions/UndergroundJourneys/UndergroundJourneys.aspx#.UicCtqWaqoi

In this online exhibition discover how during the 1920s and 1930s, London Underground symbolised modern Britain and Charles Holden's designs defined modern British architecture.

introduction

During the 1920s and 1930s, London Underground symbolised modern Britain and Charles Holden's designs defined modern British architecture from this time. Working in collaboration with London Underground Managing Director Frank Pick, they were responsible for some of the finest public architecture in early 20th century London.

Pick wanted new structures which would reflect the efficient, technological modernity of his growing transport system. Holden held similar views on architecture and design which had developed through a rather contradictory mix of treasuring the traditional, English Arts and Crafts ideals and a desire to return to elemental simple forms and exploring new technology that has been described as 'medieval modernism'. Pick was in many ways his ideal client, and their creative partnership produced Holden's best architectural work.

As consulting architect to the Underground and later London Transport, Holden designed more than 50 Tube stations built over a 25-year period, starting from 1924. At the time, it was the largest building programme in the capital shaped by a single architect since Christopher Wren rebuilt the City churches destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.

Designer: Charles Holden (1875-1960) for Adams Holden & Pearson, 1930
Copyright: RIBA Library Drawings and Archives Collections

fitness for purpose

Holden was an experienced architect when he began his Underground work for Pick, though he had never designed for transport. Having worked with Arts and Crafts architect C. R. Ashbee, he joined the practice of H. Percy Adams, establishing his reputation with buildings such as Bristol Central Library and the British Medical Association in London.

Pick and Holden first met in 1915 as founder members of the Design and Industries Association (DIA), a group that brought together artists, architects, manufacturers and retailers intent on improving standards of design in British commerce. In all their work for the Underground they both followed the DIA’s rigorous 'Fitness for Purpose' rule. Pick later commissioned Holden to redesign the facades of several underground stations as well as design a pavilion at the 1924 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley to represent the Underground Group.

In 1924, Holden was commissioned to create several buildings for the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley. This included the bus station and a pavilion for the Underground Group. Designed for a corner site, the pavilion was a simple, single storey structure with a strong geometric form. Although it is not clear whether this design for the pavilion was ever executed, similarities can be seen in his later designs for the stations on the Northern line extension.

BRITISH EMPIRE EXHIBITION

Pencil on tracing
Designer: Charles Holden (1875-1960) for Adams Holden & Pearson
Copyright: RIBA Library Drawings and Archives Collections

In 1924, Holden began his work for the Underground with a small trial project to redesign the side entrance to Westminster station. The original entrance was cluttered and confusing with different signs, posters and architectural detailing. By introducing flat surfaces, carefully arranged publicity material, the blue station name frieze over the entrance with the company's bar and circle logo mounted on Portland stone, Holden transformed the façade. 

WESTMINSTER

Architect: Charles Holden (1875-1960) for Adams Holden & Pearson
Copyright: TfL from the London Transport Museum collection

Holden was asked to redesign the exterior and ticket hall of six stations on the City and South London Tube (later to become the Northern line). These were part reconstructions of the original stations opened between 1890 and 1900. At Old Street the Victorian brick building was remodelled. Working in collaboration with Stanley Heaps, the Underground Group architect, Holden used the same geometric forms and blue station name frieze as at Westminster but dressed with cream ceramic blocks and tiling rather than Portland stone.

OLD STREET

Photographed by Underground Group Photo Dept.
Architects: Stanley Heaps (1878-1962) and Charles Holden (1875-1960)
Copyright: TfL from the London Transport Museum collection

Stockwell, the original terminus of the first deep level electric tube line opened in 1890, was rebuilt in 1923. A low rectilinear building, Holden contrasted this by introducing a bold parapet above the entrance, detailed with the roundel surrounded by a double frame of black tiles. Despite all the re-designed stations being on the same underground line, Holden styled each frontage differently but with key features and materials repeated to provide consistency.

STOCKWELL

Photographed by Topical Press
Architects: Stanley Heaps (1878-1962) and Charles Holden (1875-1960)
Copyright: TfL from the London Transport Museum collection

Before Holden was employed as a consultant, many of the station designs had been carried out by Leslie Green, using the distinctive ox-blood red brick facades and green glazed tiles. Frank Pick did not like this look, considering it not sufficiently modern or integrated. With Holden’s revamp of Angel station, he used a clean, faience finish as well as consistently featuring the station name and roundel above the entrance, illustrating how both Holden and Pick were developing a uniformed image for the Underground.

ANGEL

Photographed by Topical Press
Architects: Stanley Heaps (1878-1962) and Charles Holden (1875-1960)
Copyright: TfL from the London Transport Museum collection

moving underground

Holden's first Tube station series was for the southern extension of the Northern line from Clapham Common to Morden, opened in 1926. Initially, Stanley Heaps, head of the Underground's Architects Office had created new designs for the stations but following concerns raised by Pick, Holden took over the project. He developed a standard 'folding screen' entrance design that could be adapted to each site, whether it was freestanding or inserted into an existing building. The facades were in white Portland stone with large glazed areas and prominent Underground roundels. Floodlighting and bright internal illumination made each station stand out like a beacon on a dark street. Around the same time, both Bond Street and St Paul's stations were rebuilt to handle the increase in passenger traffic and Holden used the same design elements as he had developed for the Morden extension.

nightingale lane

For his designs on the Northern line extension to Morden, Holden developed the three-part screen . This could be 'folded' into the different station sites, which were all, except at Morden, on corner sites. This early sketch shows Nightingale Lane station (later renamed South Clapham) on the right but the designs on the left are possibly for Morden which had a flat exterior. The initial design for Nightingale Lane had a deeply projected entrance canopy with a large three-dimensional roundel sitting on top but in the final version the canopy was reduced.

Pencil and coloured crayon
Architect: Charles Holden (1875-1960) for Adams Holden & Pearson
Copyright: RIBA Library Drawings and Archives Collections

trinity road

To test his new design for the Morden extension stations, Holden produced a full scale mock up of Clapham South station, using a three-way folded screen as its model. Trinity Road station (later renamed Tooting Bec) is almost identical in its appearance except that the central void is removed, with the entrances positioned either side of the corner. This is due to the narrowness of the site, resulting in the leaves of the screen being folded almost at right angles to each other.

Photographer: Sidney W. Newbery (1894-1985)
Architect: Charles Holden (1875-1960) for Adams Holden & Pearson
Copyright: RIBA Library Photographs Collection

south wimbledon

All of the intermediate stations on the Morden extension were on street corner sites. At South Wimbledon there was enough space for a gently curving rather than angular façade, but in the same style. As this sketch shows, Holden used the same principles, inserting entrance voids into the façade with the shallow canopy stretching across, supporting the signage above. Large windows, centrally positioned above the entrance, provided the ticket hall with plenty of daylight.

Pencil and coloured crayon
Architect: Charles Holden (1875-1960) for Adams Holden & Pearson
Copyright: RIBA Library Drawings and Archives Collections

bond street

As well as extending new lines into the suburbs, some central London stations had to be rebuilt due to the increase in passenger traffic and lifts replaced with escalators. Bond Street station on the Central line was completed in 1927. Based on the same design principles that Holden developed for the Morden extension stations, the façade was rationalised even further with a plain stone surface, three wide openings for entrances and the elevated window incorporating the station name and stained glass roundel design.

Pencil and coloured crayon
Architect: Charles Holden (1875-1960) for Adams Holden & Pearson
Copyright: RIBA Library Drawings and Archives Collections

highgate

The original street facades at Archway station (formerly Highgate) were in Leslie Green's standard ox-blood glazed brick style for the Hampstead Tube, opened in 1907. Holden took on the challenge of modernising the station frontage by exploring sculptural forms including flutes and sweeps as an alternative entranceway to the station. The final executed design featured a simple picture window with roundel mounted above the entrance canopy. The station was rebuilt again in the 1970s.

Photographed by Topical Press
Architect: Charles Holden (1875-1960) for Adams Holden & Pearson
Copyright: RIBA Library Drawings and Archives Collections (sketch) and TfL from the London Transport Museum collection (photograph)