| Summary : The second underground station to be named King's Cross opened on 15th December 1906 to serve the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway's line from Hammersmith to Finsbury Park. The first King's Cross underground station was opened by the Metropolitan Railway a short distance to the east in January 1863 (see TQ 38 SW 2165). The new station was designed by Leslie Green and built from heavily moulded terracotta blocks, heavily glazed in a deep ruby red colour described as 'sand de boeuf' - oxblood. The ground floor housed the booking office and upper lift landing whilst a mezzanine floor contained the lift gear and office accommodation. In 1941 a new station opened when the LPTB closed the Circle Line platforms at the former Metropolitan station and replaced them with a new station to the west to afford better interchange with the Northern and Piccadilly lines. As part of a facelift given platforms in the central area abstract painter Paul Huxley was commissioned in 1984 to produce designs for the Northern and Piccadilly platforms. Huxley selected tiles as a suitably traditional material. The murals are effectively individual panels sharing related forms and colours with each platform being given a separate overall colour - turquoise, green, brown, and violet - graduated in intensity, and linking the mural panels into a whole. |