Section 3 Acton Town to Kings Cross

Additional Rule – Rule 5

In the walked parts of each section, whenever a station on another line is nearby it is permissible to include them on the same trip. 

Now, there are 4 District Line stations between Acton Town and Hammersmith. I can distinctly remember the Piccadilly Line stopping at all of them, however that’s not the case now. So as not to cut off my nose to spite my face, I decided to do all of these stations as part of this section. What’s more, it seemed like a good idea to use this as my walked section.

So, a brisk walk from Acton Town to the North Circular, and then back to the junction with Chiswick High Road. Incidentally, this took me past Gunnersbury station. Gunnersbury is on the District line branch out to Richmond. The area is known as Gunnersbury since King Canute gave it to his daughter Gunnhild in the 1000s, hence it became known as Gunnhilds Burg, or Gunnhild’s Mansion. Frankly, I had no wish to linger around the station once I’d taken my requisite photographs. The entrance is through this undistinguished portal into a rather nasty 1960s block. Nothing remains to suggest that the station was actually damaged in the London tornado of 1954. Still, if nothing else, at least Gunnersbury was the 27^th active station of my challenge. What’s the significance of that, you might ask? Well, bear I mind that there are currently 270 stations, this meant that I’d actually visited 10% of them already. I tried to push the thought that there were still 90% of them to go out of my mind. 

Chiswick Park, on the other hand, has much to appeal to the eye. Research suggests that Charles Holden’s design was inspired by Krumme Lanke U Bahn station in  Berlin. Well, I never visited that station when I was there. Photographs suggest a resemblance in the sense that they’re both modernist designs, with semi-circular features, but not much more similar than that. Chiswick Park has the brick, glass and concrete so typical of Holden’s other designs. I definitely remember Piccadilly Line trains stopping at Chiswick Park when I was a kid, but I believe that they never stop there now, and that this is the only station on the Ealing Broadway arm of the District Line that is exclusively for the District Line.

Mind you, for most of the day Piccadilly Line trains don’t stop at Turnham Green either, only early and late. Turnham Green is one of very few Underground stations to share its name with a battle. In this case, the Battle of Turnham Green was the opening battle of the English Civil War. Despite such historical connections, though, Turnham Green Station really isn’t worth getting off the train for. Luckily, this was my walked section, and it took slightly less than 15 minutes along Acton Lane and Hardwick Road. I was unable to discover when it was built, but the whole thing is like a large shed tacked onto the side of the viaduct which carries this raised section of track between Acton Town and Hammersmith. It’s a little reminiscent of the old building at South Ealing. If you look at the sketch I’m sure you’ll appreciate why I didn’t want to linger here either.

10 minutes walk and I arrived at Stamford Brook station. This one dates back to 1912, and I have to say that I rather like it. The only notable thing that I found out about it is that in the year I was born it had the first automatic ticket barrier in the network installed. The station is about the same sized as a cosy suburban house, but the semi circular gable gives it an air of importance, as does the ornamentation on the brickwork. I considered getting back on the train here, but decided to push on.

Again, it only takes about 10 minutes to walk between the two stations, and the last five minutes of this were through a very pleasant little park – possibly the park from which Ravenscourt Park station takes its name. I was actually rather surprised by the size of the station’s ticket hall when I approached it. This is another of those stations I’ve passed through many times, but never actually walked into or out of. I haven’t been able to find out when it was built, but I’d imagine that it’s earlier rather than later. It may even be the original building from 1873. 

Having bagged 4 – or if you count Gunnersbury, 5 stations, I decided that the best thing I could do was get the District line to Hammersmith, short journey though it is. I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to arrive at Hammersmith on foot, because there is no station building now, as such. The station is entered through a 1990s shopping mall. Which I swiftly left, because I wanted to go to Hammersmith station. Let me explain that. There are actually two Hammersmith stations, the District and Piccadilly Line station, and the Hammersmith and City line station. This latter station is well worth a short walk to visit, even though I wouldn’t actually be doing the Hammersmith and City Line for quite some time. For one thing it was the oldest station building I’d yet sketched, dating back to 1868. I have family roots going back to my 3x great grandparents in Hammersmith, and it’s pleasing to me to think that they would have been familiar with this very building. Amazingly, though, this wasn’t the first Hammersmith station, since the original was built a short way north, in 1864.

Now, let’s talk about Baron’s Court. I have passed through the station many times, but never ever alighted there. In fact to me, Baron’s Court was just a name, and a set of distinctive red benches. So you might imagine how surprised I was to walk out of the station, and find this frankly beautiful station building. It slightly predates Leslie Green’s stations, although I venture to say that you can see some of the features that Green himself would adopt and adapt. This station was designed by Harry Ford, who was the chief architect of the District Railway from 1900 until 1911, so his career overlapped somewhat with Leslie Green’s career as chief architect of the Underground Railways Company of London.

Another district line detour next, I’m afraid. The Piccadilly Line goes direct from Barons Court to Earl’s Court, but it does this through nipping underground on the approach to Earl’s Court, while the District Line manages to squeeze in another stop at West Kensington. I don’t honestly think that West Kensington is the kind of station you’re ever likely to be drawn to for its aesthetic qualities, and the only reason for me to take the detour was that it was a very convenient way of lightening my District load a little when the time came. Apparently it is a Charles Holden design, but I have to say that it’s one of his least effective.

Well, that’s Holden. Going back to Harry Ford and Leslie Green, if you want to see an overlap of their two styles you just need to go to the next station on the line, Earl’s Court, since this was a collaboration between the two men. Well, the façade was, anyway. The main part of the station is John Wolfe Barry’s from the 1860s. As for the façade, well it has the familiar semi circular windows of Leslie Green’s stations, but the terracotta tiles are much lighter in tone than his trademark ox blood tiles, and in fact the tiles of both Earls Court and Barons Court are far more similar in tone to those on the front of the Natural History Museum. Research suggested that it would be worth walking through the station to take a look at the other entrance on Warwick Road. This was built in 1937, and space was added for offices on the roofs in the 60s. Which is a bit of a shame, since the coloured glass screening obscures a lot of the original 1930s features, which I find more pleasing on the eye.I did consider making another District Line detour at this point, to Olympia. However, from my ays of visiting a friend who lived within sight of Olympia, I recalled that it’s only a short walk from High Street Kensington, and so it made more sense for me to leave it until the District Line as part of a walked section.

I don’t know for certain that the District Line station building for Gloucester Road station is the original, but I’m pretty sure. The moulding below the ornate cornice and balustrade on the roof of the building declares that this is the Metropolitan & District Railway. It’s a pretty, Italianate construction, with a rather lovely glass canopy above the entrance. The two small wings on either side give the whole building a pleasantly symmetrical, pretty much palladian appearance. This is enough beauty for any station, and yet there is also the Leslie Green station building as well, built for the opening of the GNPBR. It’s the first station on this challenge to feature the famous ox-blood terracotta tiling, but to my mind it looks slightly unbalanced and less harmonious than the typical Leslie Green stations, since the first storey abruptly ends before the ground floor does. 

One other feature of the station is that the disused Circle line platform houses an Art on the Underground exhibition. Since we’ve been speaking of exhibitions, it’s ironic that the next stop is South Kensington, since it’s famous as the tube station for the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the V and A, which it can be claimed all had their genesis in the Great Exhibition of 1851. I remember back in the early 80s being surprised to discover that there is actually a street level station building, since every time I’d used the station prior to this I’d taken the pedestrian subway to the museums, and these just emerge from glorified holes in walls. As for the station building, which is a few streets away from Exhbition Road and the Museums, well, the first thing you notice is the façade of the original turn of the century GNPBR Leslie Green station. However the actual entrance to the station is through the Metropolitan and District entrance. I have to say that the elegant columns really aren’t well served by the blocky generic blue canopy bearing the stations name, which just serves to distract from the delightful ornamental metal work between the columns with the station name and the Metroplitan and District Railway. It’s a bit like a gentleman in his 80s sporting an electric blue Mohican. 

At this point in the trip I parted company with the District and Circle Lines, and continued with the Piccadilly to Knightsbridge, probably best known as being the station you get off at for Harrods. The original 1906 Leslie Green main entrance went the way of all flesh in the 1930s, although the former rear entrance in Basil Street, with its ox blood tiles and all, still exists as part of an office building. In the 1930s the station was remodelled to install escalators to the platforms, and it was necessary to demolish the ticket hall, and built the one which stands there now into the corner of an existing building. So either you take the building as a whole and say that it’s one of the most impressive station buildings, or you’re honest and say that the station building is just a small part of this and it’s really not that much to write home about

Which still makes it more impressive than our next stop, Hyde Park Corner. This is our first hole in the ground type station, and as you can probably see from the sketch there is little attempt at sweetening the pill, or humanising the dirty concrete with any sort of canopy, a la the Paris Metro. The sad thing is that the original station building, a Leslie Green 1906 effort still stands on the south side of the road junction. As with Knightsbridge, the building proved an obstacle to the installation of escalators in the 1930s renovation, and was closed and replaced with a completely underground ticket hall. That about wraps it up for Hyde Park Corner, and I have to admit that even though I’d already ticked off my between station walk, with the sun shining I decided that a walk along Piccadilly to Green Park might be pleasant. 

Indeed it was, too. I will admit to a brief detour along Down Street to see one of the more famous of the London Underground’s ‘ghost stations’. Down Street was originally a stop between Green Park and Hyde Park Corner, which opened in 1907, and closed, due to lack of use, in 1932. The Leslie Green station building still remains, but probably wouldn’t be much remembered other than for the fact that it was used by Winston Churchill as a bunker during World War II. Apparently it is possible to access the underground levels of the station, and occasionally London Transport has allowed the privileged few to do just that. Well, I’m not one of them so after pausing to buy a paper from the shop which occupies part of the building, I pressed on to Green Park. 

Green Park is another of those Piccadilly Line stations which acquired a subterranean ticket hall in the 1930s, although the entrances are at least a bit better than Hyde Park Corner’s. The main entrance is accessed through a building which houses, amongst others, retail outlets including Marks and Spencers. It also has its own hole in the ground entrances. The hole in the ground entrance on Piccadilly has a rather  uninspiring concrete shelter  above it, while there’s another 21^st century entrance through Green Park itself, and I have to say that for all its simplicity, I rather like this entrance. 

I was already well aware that the large booking hall of Piccadilly Circus station was underground. The original Leslie Green station building closed in 1929, yet it continued to stand until being demolished in the 1980s. Shame, especially since it means there are no surface buildings associated with the station now. At least each of the 4 entrances has a rather imposing gate way consisting of ornamental lamps and metalwork with the Underground sign over head between them. 

The Piccadilly Line stations come thick and fast above ground on this section of the line, and I knew for a fact that I could walk from Piccadilly past Leicester Square to Covent Garden a lot more quickly than I could take the tube between stations, get out at each and then get back on the train again. So continuing the above ground walk was a no brainer. Besides, this is a part of London I used to spend a lot of time in when I was at university, so it was no hardship to revisit old stamping grounds. Much of the original Leslie Green Leicester Square station faced still exists, even though the station has a subterranean ticket hall now, and there’s a steak house restaurant inside most of the original building. On the opposite side of the Charing Cross Road, on the corner of Charing Cross Road and Cranbourne Street steps emerge from a rather blocky, 1930s building next to Wyndham’s Theatre. 

Leicester Square and Covent Garden are well known as the closest stations on the Underground, although I somehow doubt that they’re the closest street level station buildings. Nonetheless it didn’t take long to walk to Covent Garden. When I was a kid, the London Transport collection and museum were temporarily housed in Syon Park in Brentford, at the end of the E1 bus route from opposite Elthorne Park. In 1980 though the Museum moved to its permanent home in Covent Garden, and I dare say that if you’re reading this book, which you are, then a visit would be something you’d enjoy. The station, at the corner of Long Acre and James Street, is the original Leslie Green building, and is , in my opinion, one of the finest of his oeuvre. The corner site gives it a really pleasing

appearance, albeit that the later building placed on top of the station does little to enhance its charms.

At this point I hopped back on the train for the last few stops before the end of this trip at King’s Cross. The next stop was Holborn. Holborn is, to be honest, a bit of an ugly duckling in my opinion, although it shows precious few signs of turning into a beautiful swan. The original station was built by Leslie Green, however turn of the century planning regulations demanded that all buildings on Kingsway should be faced with stone, and so there’s none of the famous ox blood terracotta tiles. In the 1930s modernisation parts of the Leslie Green facades were replaced by come of Charles Holden’s least appealing structures. Portland stone and glazed screens in order to accommodate a new ticket hall and escalators. The remaining parts of the Green station buildings now house retail outlets. 

The opening of Holborn eventually rang the death knell for the former British Museum station, which was just a couple of hundred metres away. Prior research showed that sadly the remains of the station building were demolished in 1989, so there was no point in me looking for it. Not so the disused Aldwych station. I mention it here, because there was a short branch line between Holborn and Aldwych. I did consider walking to the splendidly

restored Leslie Green station on the Strand, but time was getting on, and not to put too fine a point on it, I was knackered. I made the decision to try and accommodate the station on a future trip, but being as its not an any active line now, I wasn’t going to lose much sleep over it.

My penultimate stop for the day was Russell Square, and a fine, original 1906 Leslie Green building. It was on the line between Russell Square and Kings Cross St, Pancras that an explosion, part of a terrorist attack , took place on a train in 2005. There is a plaque remembering the victims in the station. I considered calling it a day then and there, but made up my mind to push on to my original objective.

Apart from anything else, once I’d ‘bagged’ King’s Cross St. Pancras, it would mean I’d also have one less stop to worry about on the Metropolitan, Circle, Northern, Hammersmith and City, and Victoria lines as well. 

King’s Cross is where the Piccadilly Line intersects with the first underground line, since Kings Cross, which had originally opened in the 1850s, was one of the stations on the route of the original Metropolitan Railway in 1863. I tend to associate the main line station building with the name, however the underground station does at least have a distinctive modern, 21^st century entrance, opened as part of wholescale redevelopments in 2009.

Including Down Street, Gunnersbury and the stations between Acton Town and Hammersmith this had been a marathon trip of no fewer than 21 stations.