Tubewhore (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} tubewhore) wrote,@ 2008-04-02 07:19:00 |
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Top of the Piccadilly - Bounds Green to Manor House: Part 1
Starting from Caledonian Road, decide to knock out the top of the Piccadilly as far as my travelling companion's travelcard would go - in this case Bounds Green and work back. This would leave Arnos Grove and Southgate a tantalising pair isolated at the far Northern end of the line, but it would pick off four stations at least.
So, a drear Sunday afternoon, we arrive at Bounds Green. It's one of those days were the sky is moody, but the sun occasionally staggeringly bright. I've subsequently learnt that the stations we're visiting today are part of the Cockfosters Extension in the 30's, done in the Modernist style. That bit is obvious as soon as you see the clean brick 'box' style - but unlike the 70's Brutalist style of building brick boxes, there's something warmer and more humanist in these structures. They are welcoming rather than alienating environments.
Bounds Green has real 30's glamour. It helps that the station has been refurbished, and the tiling cleaned recently so looks new and gleaming - all the posters spaces on the walls are blank still and the colour scheme is channelling Clarice Cliff in primrose and orange. There are the lovely bronzed deco uplighters, and the curve to the archways onto the platforms has an almost Egyptian feel to it - these curved walls with tiled edges would prove to be the architectural theme for the afternoon - although what is lovely about them is that each station is everso slightly different.
See what I mean about the slight Egyptian styling - it might be an unintentional optical illusion from setting a passageway into a curved tunnel wall, but the gentle flare of the doorway suggests the shape of papyrus flower motifs. And there's just something in the colours...so deco Tutankhamen, even with the classical fluted columns for the uplighters...
Starting from Caledonian Road, decide to knock out the top of the Piccadilly as far as my travelling companion's travelcard would go - in this case Bounds Green and work back. This would leave Arnos Grove and Southgate a tantalising pair isolated at the far Northern end of the line, but it would pick off four stations at least.
So, a drear Sunday afternoon, we arrive at Bounds Green. It's one of those days were the sky is moody, but the sun occasionally staggeringly bright. I've subsequently learnt that the stations we're visiting today are part of the Cockfosters Extension in the 30's, done in the Modernist style. That bit is obvious as soon as you see the clean brick 'box' style - but unlike the 70's Brutalist style of building brick boxes, there's something warmer and more humanist in these structures. They are welcoming rather than alienating environments.
Bounds Green has real 30's glamour. It helps that the station has been refurbished, and the tiling cleaned recently so looks new and gleaming - all the posters spaces on the walls are blank still and the colour scheme is channelling Clarice Cliff in primrose and orange. There are the lovely bronzed deco uplighters, and the curve to the archways onto the platforms has an almost Egyptian feel to it - these curved walls with tiled edges would prove to be the architectural theme for the afternoon - although what is lovely about them is that each station is everso slightly different.
See what I mean about the slight Egyptian styling - it might be an unintentional optical illusion from setting a passageway into a curved tunnel wall, but the gentle flare of the doorway suggests the shape of papyrus flower motifs. And there's just something in the colours...so deco Tutankhamen, even with the classical fluted columns for the uplighters...
Sadly I missed the plaque commemorating a WWII bomb hitting the station and killing several people even if they weren't 'Belgian refuges' as the plaque suggests. More info on Bounds Green's Wikipedia page
