| Summary : Holborn opened on 15th December 1906 as an intermediate station on the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway's line from Hammersmith to Finsbury Park. The need to house the lift machinery dictated Leslie Green's station design at Holburn. A large ground floor housed the ticket office, staff accommodation and the upper lift landing, whilst the mezzanine floor, which housed the lift motors and winding and control gear, had large glazed arches. The structure was of steel clothed in brick. There has been some dispute over the material used to clad the central sections of the main and side frontages of the station. Examination of contemporary photographs indicates that a coloured granite was used, probably red, set into a Portland stone surround. Mouldings were of a simplified pattern throughout the elevations, consistent with the reduced amout of carving practical in the harder facing material. The platforms were decorated in a unique tiling scheme involving the use of red, green and white tiles placed in a geometric pattern. When the station was opened to serve Central line trains on 25th September 1933, replacing British Museum station, its name was changed to Holborn (Kingsway); however, the suffix was gradually dropped. In the 1980s the Central line platforms were given a facelift with Allan Drummond's vitreous enamel panels showing near-life size objects of antiquity from the British Museum. In addition huge trompe l'oeil columns flank the escalators. |