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| If the words, pictures and illustrations on this website have captured your imagination the way this magnificent Edwardian extravaganza captured mine back in 1981, you might like to know that a book is in bookshops now. The word ‘unique’ is over-used these days and frequently incorrectly. However, the decoration of over half of central London’s tube network back in 1906/7 was genuinely unique. The world had never seen anything like it before on this scale. The worlds of art, design and finance spectacularly collided. |
| This hardback book includes 224 large-format pages, which will allow the details and splendour of it all to come to life. There are 158 drawings and plans all specially produced and about 270 photographs, almost all previously unpublished. |
| Every one of the 46 stations has a dedicated double-page spread, each of which includes the earliest known photograph of the station exterior (See the South Kensington Photograph above), a detailed plan showing the platform layout as at opening in 1906/7 with present-day superimposed for comparison (See Oxford Circus Station), and a potted history of the station. And the centre-piece of each is a realization of about 100ft of the tile-decorated wall. |
| The eleven chapters include: an historical background for the late 19th century; how American finance and the influence from New York subway caused the idea to be borne; developments in electrical power and lighting making the concept possible as it had not been before; the evolution of the design and the press reaction to it when the three lines opened. For serious students there is also detail of the methodology for the 24-year research study. Universities and such like may find this useful to adapt into other areas. |
| The presentation of the book ought to provide widespread subject matter appeal to readers of works on industrial history, architectural art, graphic design, ceramics and transport. The nature of the subject also crosses boundaries and may appeal to serious students, researchers, and also those with a general interest in their surroundings. |
| This design project had a major impact on London's Underground map (See Yerkes Network Map in Context) and arguably marked the start of its now international renown. With today’s almost obsessive drive for corporate identities by corporations large and small, it must be stated that since 1907, it could not be said that as many as over 90 platforms would have the same truly corporate identity. This was the start. |
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