London Underground - London Underground Architecture - LLondon Underground - L London Underground Architecture Seventy of the 272 London Underground stations use buildings that are on the Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, and five have entrances in listed buildings. The Metropolitan Railway's original seven stations were inspired by Italianate designs, with the platforms lit by daylight from above and by gas lights in large glass globes. Early District Railway stations were similar and on both railways the further from central London the station the simpler the construction. The City & South London Railway opened with red-brick buildings, designed by Thomas Phillips Figgis, topped with a lead-covered dome that contained the lift mechanism and weather vane (still visible at many stations e.g. Clapham Common. The Central London Railway appointed Harry Bell Measures as architect, who designed its pinkish-brown steel-framed buildings with larger entrances. In the first decade of the 20th century Leslie Green established a house style for the tube stations built by the UERL, which were clad in ox-blood faience blocks. Green pioneered using building design to guide passengers with direction signs on tiled walls, with the stations given a unique identity with patterns on the platform walls. Many of these tile patterns survive, though a significant number of these are now replicas. Harry W. Ford was responsible for the design of at least 17 UERL and District Railway stations, including Barons Court and Embankment, and claimed to have first thought of enlarging the U and D in the UNDERGROUND wordmark. The Met's architect Charles Walter Clark had used a neo-classical design for rebuilding Baker Street and Paddington Praed Street stations before the First World War and, although the fashion had changed, continued with Farringdon in 1923. The buildings had metal lettering attached to pale walls. Clark would later design "Chiltern Court", the large, luxurious block of apartments at Baker Street, that opened in 1929. In the 1920s and 1930s, Charles Holden designed a series of modernist and art-deco stations some of which he described as his 'brick boxes with concrete lids'. Holden's design for the Underground's headquarters building at 55 Broadway included avant-garde sculptures by Jacob Epstein, Eric Gill and Henry Moore. When the Central line was extended east, the stations were simplified Holden proto-Brutalist designs, and a cavernous concourse built at Gants Hill in honour of early Moscow Metro stations. Few new stations were built in the 50 years after 1948, but Misha Black was appointed design consultant for the 1960s Victoria line, contributing to the line's uniform look, with each station having an individual tile motif. Notable stations from this period include Moor Park, the stations of the Piccadilly line extension to Heathrow and Hillingdon. In recent years, the stations of the 1990s Jubilee Line Extension were designed in a high-tech style by architects such as Norman Foster and Michael Hopkins. The project was critically acclaimed, with the Royal Fine Arts Commission describing the project as "an example of patronage at its best and most enlightened", and two stations shortlisted for the Stirling Prize. Stations were built to the latest standards, future proofed for growth, with innovations such as Platform screen doors. West Ham station was built as a homage to the red brick tube stations of the 1930s, using brick, concrete and glass. Many platforms have unique interior designs to help passenger identification. The tiling at Baker Street incorporates repetitions of Sherlock Holmes's silhouette, at Tottenham Court Road semi-abstract mosaics by Eduardo Paolozzi feature musical instruments, tape machines and butterflies, and at Charing Cross, David Gentleman designed the mural depicting the construction of the Eleanor Cross. Robyn Denny designed the murals on the Northern line platforms at Embankment. London Underground In Popular Culture The Underground (including several fictitious stations ) has been featured in many movies and television shows, including Skyfall, Death Line, Die Another Day, Sliding Doors, An American Werewolf in London, Creep, Tube Tales, Sherlock and Neverwhere. The London Underground Film Office received over 200 requests to film in 2000. The Underground has also featured in music such as the Jam's "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight" and in literature such as the graphic novel V for Vendetta. Popular legends about the Underground being haunted persist to this day. In 2016, British composer Daniel Liam Glyn released his concept album Changing Stations based on the 11 main tube lines of the London Underground network. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has a single-player level named Mind The Gap where most of the level takes place between the dockyards and Westminster while the player and a team of SAS attempt to take down terrorists attempting to escape using the London Underground via a hijacked train. The game also features the multiplayer map "Underground", in which players are combating in a fictitious Underground station. The London Underground map serves as a playing field for the conceptual game of Mornington Crescent (which is named after a station on the Northern line) and the board game The London Game. In 1999, Carlton Television premiered a regional game show (Greater London area only) also called Mind the Gap. London Underground Busking The London Underground provides busking permits for up to 39 pitches across 25 central London stations, with over 100,000 hours of live music performed each year. Performers are chosen by audition, with previous buskers including Ed Sheeran, George Michael and Rod Stewart. London Underground Research The London Underground is frequently studied by academics because it is one of the largest, oldest, and most widely used systems of public transit in the world. Therefore, the transportation and complex network literatures include extensive information about the Tube system. For London Underground passengers, research suggests that transfers are highly costly in terms of walk and wait times. Because these costs are unevenly distributed across stations and platforms, path choice analyses may be helpful in guiding upgrades and choice of new stations. Routes on the Underground can also be optimized using a global network optimization approach, akin to routing algorithms for Internet applications. Analysis of the Underground as a network may also be helpful for setting safety priorities, since the stations targeted in the 2005 London bombings were amongst the most effective for disrupting the transportation system. A study in March 2023 showed that over £1.3 million worth of mobile phones were stolen on the London Underground in 2022, more than the entire UK rail network combined. London Underground Notable People
London Underground Overview London Underground Locale: Greater London, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire London Underground Transit Type: Rapid transit London Underground Number of Lines: 11 London Underground Number of Stations: 272 served (262 owned) London Underground Daily Ridership: 3.15 million (January 2023) London Underground Annual Ridership: 1.026 billion (2022/2023) London Underground Began Operation: 10 January 1863, 160 years ago London Underground Operator(s): London Underground Limited London Underground Reporting Marks: LT (National Rail) London Underground System Length: 402 km (250 mi) London Underground Track Gauge: 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge (1863–pres.) 7 ft (2,134 mm) Brunel gauge (1863–1869) London Underground Electrification: 630 V DC fourth rail London Underground Average Speed: 33 km/h (21 mph) | |||||
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