Auction Archive

London Underground Railway Architecture Buildings Book

Title: Underground ArchitectureAuthor: David LawrencePublisher: Capitol Transport Publishing Date Published:  1994Pages: 208Condition:Blue  boards very slight wear to bottom of spine/corners otherwise  in very good condition, internally clean and sound.  Dust jacket - good, slightly creased to edges with slight surface marks, small closed tear to top edge front.FOREWORDby Christopher Nell, Environments Manager, London Underground LtdChange can be seen throughout the Underground system; it is there in layers and the historian or enthusiast can read it like a book. They can do this because not only have the designers, architects and engineers left their mark through their knowledge and expertise but they have also left something of their personality. These people have turned London's Underground into something unique, even idiosyncratic, as different as it can be from the underground railways of Paris, Brussels, New York or even Glasgow.  The Underground also reflects the nation's fortunes and aspirations. The confidence of the Victorian engineer to build a passenger railway underground as a means of reducing the pressure on the city's road traffic was both remarkable and visionary. Compare the scepticism with which some still view the idea of travelling under the Channel despite the advances of 150 years of design engineering and construction. In architecture Leslie Green and Holden are the giants; Green for his prolific architectural output and for developing a style of building which unified the system, making its station architecture unique in the streetscape and effectively branding the transportation offer. I find Holden and his contemporaries the most interesting, for their clarity of design and for stripping away the decorative excesses of the period in return for or space and clear volumes. Holden brought new materials into the system and used them for their physical qualities without regard to their cost. The window glass, for example, was the cheapest he could find, yet in use it gives a pleasant, obscuring effect whilst filtering the light. Holden's stations have stood the test of time and, despite the additional layers of alteration and changes in requirements, their original clarity is still evident.I am pleased that David Lawrence has written this book because it provides the enthusiast with a well researched authoritative reference on the Underground's development in addition to providing the amateur with a well presented and illustrated history of the capital's favourite means of transport.As new stations are built and existing ones refurbished, I hope to influence a return to seeing the clarity of the structure expressed, and signing and other hardware contrasted against a calm and neutral background. This will indicate to the public that London Underground is a well managed and confident transport system that London can be proud of. INTRODUCTION In architecture Leslie Green and Holden are the giants; Green for his prolific architectural output and for developing a styBeneath our feet, below the streets and buildings of this teeming metropolis, there runs a complex network comprising many miles of tunnels. While the roads above throng with traffic, hundreds of trains run through these iron and concrete arteries, carrying millions of night workers, commuters, shoppers, tourists and theatre or cinema-goers from the suburbs ito and around the city — keeping it alive.How do we know the railway is there: how can we catch a train? This is the function of the station: to advertise, to attract and welcome travellers, and to offer all the facilities necessary for making a journey. It serves as a shopfront and entrance to the system, and must make the transition from street to train safe and comfortable. As far back as the Euston Arch, designers have been concerned with the concept of the station as gateway and urban focus. I began this book by photographing the stations that appealed to me visually. As I looked closer I began to see the wealth of architectural and design history present on the Underground, which by its relative compactness has retained much of the integrity the main line railway has lost. The Underground was an early pioneer of what is now called corporate identity to unite its many parts and it forms a total environment created by the co-ordination of good design, materials, signs, furniture and equipment.Underground stations may be seen as a modern continuation of the great railway tradition adapted specifically to suit the peculiar needs of a modern mass-transit system. The best of the architecture has preserved the identity of the railway station whilst setting an innovative example through inspired patronage, providing both public and staff with clean and bright facilities enhanced by good design and accessible art. In this book many official photographs from the London Transport Museum photographic archives are supplemented by drawings prepared from original plans to give an impression of preliminary and unbuilt designs. Towards the back of the book an appendix contains biographical details of the main architects and some artists employed on Underground projects.It has not been the intention to offer a gazetteer of stations, nor a protracted architectural criticism of the buildings discussed in this book, but to present an objective historical account. A great many buildings still survive and the interested reader could do no better than to spend an afternoon visiting the stations and enjoying them at first hand.Twickenham, October 1994 DAVID LAWRENCEThankyou