| Summary : Although the Bakerloo line was continued from Paddington, via Warwick Avenue and Maida Vale, to Kilburn Park on 31st January 1915, the station at Maida Vale was not completed until 6th June 1915. The design is based on the format established by Leslie Green and is believed to have been executed by his assistant Stanley Heaps, who had been appointed Architect to the Underground in 1910 following Green's death. A major change influenced the design of the Maida Vale building; for the first time escalators were installed from the start, and as the escalator machinery was entirely below ground it was possible to omit the mezzanine floors. The sang-de-boeuf facade differed in detail from the earlier Green stations: pilasters were carried the full height of the wall through the springing of segmental arches and decorated with pendant blocks. Mouldings were simplified: there was no plinth, and the architrave was reduced to short sections on the pilasters; arch keystones were omitted. Faience mullions divided the windows into three segments, and transoms with dentils beneath split them into upper and lower sections. Upper window lights were framed with wrought-iron glazing bars in a diagonal arrangement. The original iron lamp brackets are still in place. Separate entrance and exit stairs linked street-level with the basement ticket hall, crossing each other part way down. The stairwell was decorated with two mosaic bullseye symbols. The ticket hall walls were tiled in white up to a green and white chequered band. |