| Summary : London Underground station. Work on a five-mile tube extension from Clapham Common to Morden began on 31st December 1923 with the extension opening on 13th September 1926. With this project Charles Holden, commissioned by Frank Pick, had his first opportunity to design wholly new Underground buildings. The intermediate station at Tooting Bec (originally called Trinity Road) is constructed from Portland stone with a simple plain facade of two storeys. Although the need for an upper storey or mezzanine had been dispensed with after the adoption of the escalator, with its equipment below ground, Holden used a two storey frontage - with an upper floor of greater height - to incorporate the clerestory window, thus lighting the entrance vestibule by day and advertising the station at night, when the interior lighting would shine out through the large stained glass 'UndergrounD' motif. The motif also served to unite the vertical and horizontal elements of the facade. The three windows were separated by stone pillars with spherical capitals - three dimensional representations of the Underground motif - of little structural purpose, but serving as distinctive finials to the rectangular uprights. Above the windows a blue enamel fascia displayed the station name, and this blue band was repeated in the entrance canopy. 'UndergrounD' signs on 'Venetian' masts were placed on the sides of the building to increase visibility from a distance. A moulded lintel was placed over the entrance. The restricted site on which the station was built produced a station that was angular in form with the ticket hall built below ground. |