RAILWAYS

This colourful new book provides an excellent account of the development of architecture on the Underground from the earliest stations on the Metropolitan in the 1860s through to the most recent work on the Jubilee Line and Docklands Light Railway. With the appointment of Charles Holden who worked closely with Frank Pick in the mid 1920s and in particular after the creation of the LPTB, London Transport became a byword for architectural excellence with work on the Piccadilly extension, for example, now regarded as amongst the finest British architecture of the interwar years.

Even before the creation of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933, the stations constructed for use on the future Underground network had developed distinctive styles both above and below the surface, according to the individual company that had promoted them. Thus, even today, it remains possible to easily identify both open and closed stations, even when in the latter case, the use of the building has changed subsequently (e.g. Marlborough Road station is now a restaurant although part of the platforms remain at track level and Aldwych station is still largely unchanged and is now used regularly for film and TV work).

This impressive book contains over 200 color photographs that show surface and sub-surface views, with detailed captions covering the wide variety of stations, both open and closed, constructed for use on the London Underground network over the past 140 years. The book will be of significant use as reference material for historians and modellers alike and continues the quality of this established series.

pp. 96 illusts #270124