Task 3

Art on the Underground

Leslie Green
Date of Birth: 1875 Date of Death: 31 Aug 1908
Leslie Green was the architect of many of the early station buildings on the Northern, Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines. Green was commissioned to design 40 station buildings as a cohesive group. He chose the style known as Arts & Crafts Classical. The distinctive look of the stations, all clad in oxblood red glazed faience blocks, made them easily recognisable even in a busy metropolis.
Portrait of Leslie Green, architect, (1875-1908) photograph

Leslie Green
There are several of these sprinkled around London, but the one at Russell Square is particularly well-preserved and prominent. Embedded in Leslie Greens stubbornly perfunctory and visually peakish facade, the logo radiates freshness and imagination like sunlight sneaking through a crack in the Berlin Wall. An interloper from the drawing board of a visionary rather than a functionary, it cant help but catch and retain the eye.

Ticket Office Window

Ticket office window designed by Leslie Green, probably from Russell Square station - ticket office window

Green had a massive task on his hands - to design deep-level tube stations within difficult constraints and many pre-determined engineering limitations, and yet create functional layouts that were dependable operationally and attractive to the eye - and which conveyed a consistent image. The picture shows the longest of his facias, at Chalk Farm, constructed on a sharp road junction in north London. Several others survive.

This picture was taken at Russell Square and appeared in Railway Gazette in 1906. It shows a typical arrangement of tiling and ticket windows.

This is the southbound platform, at Trafalgar Square station on the Bakerloo Line, looking north. It was almost certainly taken just before opening.

Walk along the platforms

Click the image below to learn all about different platform wall designs