Description
Book SynopsisCharles Holden's designs for the London Underground from the mid-1920s to the outbreak of World War II represent a high point of transport architecture and Modernist design in Britain. His collaboration with Frank Pick, the Chief Executive of London Transport, brought about a marriage of form and function still celebrated today. Pick used the term ‘Medieval Modernism’ to describe their work on the underground system, comparing the task to the construction of a great cathedral.
London Tube Stations 1924 – 1961 catalogues and showcases every surviving station from this innovative period. These beautiful buildings, simultaneously historic and futuristic, have been meticulously documented by architectural photographer Philip Butler.
Annotated with station-by-station overviews by writer and historian Joshua Abbott, the book provides an indispensable guide to the network's Modernist gems. All the key stations have a double page spread, with a primary exterior photograph alongside supporting images. A broader historical introduction, illustrated with archival images from the London Transport Museum, gives historical context, while a closing chapter lists the demolished examples alongside further period images.These stations, as famed architectural historian Nicholas Pevsner later noted, would "pave the way for the twentieth-century style in England".
Table of ContentsForeword : The Allure of the Subterranean
Introduction : Medieval Modernism
A New Beginning : The Northern Line Extension to Morden 1924-1926
Re-make, Re-model : The Central London Stations 1927-1935
Little Boxes : The Piccadilly Line West 1931-1934
Into New Country : The Piccadilly Line East 1932-1933
Repeat Performance : The District Line East 1932-1935
Five Year Plan : The New Works Programme 1935-1939
Before The Jubilee : The Bakerloo Line North 1936-1939
Branching Out : The Central Line East 1940-1948
The Long Goodbye : The Central Line West 1940-1961
Victims of Progress : Demolished Stations
