Walk Along the Platforms
Click the images below for a full length image of the platform wall designs
 
Since they opened in 1906/7 all stations have suffered to different degrees as to how much original tiling had been lost by the time the research work to create realizations was under way. Many stations had experienced areas of reconstruction - sometimes quite extensive. Though a few stations survived reasonably well, none were in any way complete. Furthermore, even at the better ones, vast expanses were covered by posters, signs and machines, or enclosed inside equipment rooms and cupboards. The realizations shown in this section of the website have been chosen from those where the research surveys were the most successful.
Of all the realizations on this page none of the original tiling now survives to be seen today (See Statistics). Panel reference numbers within the notes below assume you start walking from the left-hand end of the platform.
To experience what passengers would have seen back in 1906/7, chose any of the illustrations below and scroll to view the entire platform length. The height of the tiling was about 7ft 6ins and the vertical bands that separate the individual pattern and name panels, and protrude upwards, projected over the ceiling vault and over to the trackside opposite.
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Belsize Park
  Northbound platform: The basis of this grand concept was that each station would have its own colour scheme and identifying pattern. In this they succeeded. However, a few of the patterns were used at two stations, but with different colours. Furthermore, the concept of repeating pattern panels along an entire platform wall was seldom matched by reality and practicality. Note the wild interpretation of the pattern at Belsize Park, where it had to be made to fit different width panels. The southbound has further width variations.
Brompton Road
  Eastbound platform: This station closed permanently after traffic on 29th July 1934 and much of the tiling is now covered in paint and dirt. It includes some good examples of how the patterns had to be adapted to fit the spaces available. Note also the use of half tiles to adjust the centres of panels 5 and 7 and in particular the variation of the pattern used on panel 13.
Earls Court
  Westbound platform: The panels at both ends are incomplete as they are contained within non-original equipment rooms where access has not been achieved to date. The centre name panel is quite unusual (though not unique) as it is wider than necessary and includes pattern at each end; this was caused by geographical site constraints. The tiling was lost in its entirety when the platforms were re-tiled from 1987.
Euston Road
  (Now Warren Street) Southbound platform: As at most stations, equipment rooms have subsequently been built at the ends of the platforms. To date access has not been gained to the left-hand end at panel 1. The tiling at the station today looks quite similar to this realization, but is in fact not original. The whole lot was re-tiled as a pastiche from 2000 though one original name panel was preserved. The style of the reproduction WAY OUT devices at the station is inaccurate.
Great Central
  (Now Marylebone) Northbound platform: This station opened as Great Central and was renamed Marylebone on 15th April 1917, the day before the Bakerloo was extended beyond Willesden Junction (it originally terminated at Edgware Road). Panel 1 (at the left-hand end) had its tiling destroyed long before I started my site surveys in 1981 and no information has been found elsewhere. Many of the later Yerkes stations had their patterns clipped off at the bottom and the lower panels formed of concrete (with wooden formers above and below). This was an economy measure as posters were by then being affixed to the lower areas of the platforms walls. The adaptations required to make the patterns fit can be noted at panels 6, 7 and 9, where cut-width tiles have been used. The original tiling was completely replaced from autumn 1989 by an inaccurate pastiche, though one name panel was preserved at the the right-hand end.
Oxford Circus Wall image thumbnail
  Southbound platform: Of all the 94 platforms that were part of this massive decorative tiling project, this was the only one that had no interruptions along its full length. Access to and from the platform was via an opening in the headwall at the right-hand end (See Oxford Circus station). As such it was able to enjoy genuinely repeating patterns along almost its entire length. The platform was extended at the left-hand in the late 1930s (See Statistics) and today this platform has seven cross-passages disrupting the original wall. It was re-tiled in Victoria Line style (blue/grey square tiles) at the end of the 1960s and again from January 1983.
Piccadilly Circus
  Northbound Bakerloo platform: This was a very busy and very cramped station when it opened. The extra-wide doorway near the left-hand end led to and from the lifts, which were replaced by escalators when the expanded and re-built station opened on 10th December 1928. (The lifts continued in service for a few more months.) The platform tiling was heavily damaged by this activity (and others over the years) and was completely replaced from 1984. No detail has survived for the panel at the far right-hand end which is why it has been left blank. The Bakerloo platforms opened on 10th March 1906 and did not have the characteristic WAY OUT and NO EXIT signs in the tiling (See Way Out Signs), though the slightly later Piccadilly platforms did.
Regents Park
  Northbound platform: The overall impression of a Yerkes station at opening is well exemplified here (even if the lighting is quite different). It still operates with lifts, as at opening, though the lifts are of course not original - and now nor is any of the platform tiling. It was completely re-tiled in Spring 2007 and, although it is superficially a very pleasing replica, contractual constraints caused a less than satisfactory tiling job. Shame.
South Kentish Town
  Southbound platform: This station was always referred to as Castle Road during its construction phase. The decision to rename it South Kentish Town was taken just before opening by which time the tiling had been erected. The name panel lettering was almost certainly painted over and enamelled iron nameboards almost certainly affixed by the time the first passengers arrived. This station has concrete lower panels, as explained at Great Central. It closed in the middle of the day on 5th June 1924 owing to a strike at Lots Road power station (as did several others) but did not re-open. The tiling is completely covered in paint and dirt now.
Trafalgar Square
  Southbound platform: This was the first Yerkes station to receive tiling; the northbound was tiled, conventionally for its day, entirely in white. Waterloo was then chosen as the prototype for the coloured tile pattern scheme and, in an evolved form, both platforms at Embankment and the southbound at Trafalgar Square were next. The cross-passage doorways here (unique at Yerkes stations) reveal the fact that this was a very early station to be constructed. Decorative mural panels were fixed in front of the original tiling when the station was modernized from early 1982, though the new panels were not visible until 13th December 1983. The station was renamed Charing Cross when it was linked to the Northern Line and the newly opened Jubilee Line on 1st May 1979.
Waterloo
  Northbound platform: This station was the first to receive the decorative coloured tile panels and was unique. The name panel lettering here was green and all subsequent stations had them larger and in brown. The vertical bands (or rings) were also tiled to a very complex style where they abutted the pattern and name panels; there were other differences too. No detail survived to be recorded for panel 2 and the all of the platform tiling was replaced from 1987 (though many of the overhead rings remain to be seen albeit painted over).
York Road
  Northbound platform: There are many panels of different widths here caused by the geographical spacing of the doorways. The pattern was adapted accordingly. This was a lightly used station and closed after traffic on 17th September 1932. The tiling down there is almost complete albeit covered in paint a dirt. (See Revealing the Tiles).
 
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