Wood Green Underground Station

Wood Green Underground Station

Wood Green Underground Station stands on a corner site at the junction of Wood Green High Road and Lordship Lane. The station was constructed with a reinforced concrete frame and flat concrete slab roofs, clad in multi-coloured red Buckinghamshire bricks. Part of the surrounding late 19th-century commercial and residential properties was demolished to create the station, which means the building has only one visible elevation facing south-west in the form of a curved central entrance block.

The street elevation is faced with multi-coloured red Buckinghamshire bricks laid in English bond with a pattern. A projecting concrete canopy with a bronze-framed, replacement blue vitreous enamel name frieze sits centrally, flanked by a rectangular, flat-roofed retail and office block to the north and a thick full-height brick retaining wall to the adjoining property to the south-east. Louvered brick ventilation towers rise above either end of the convex frontage, designed to reduce the draft from oncoming trains—a distinctive feature of the stations at this end of the Piccadilly Line. The western tower was considerably heightened at some point. The canopy, with its gently stepped soffit and inset bronze-framed light fittings, extends to form the roofs of two slightly projecting shop units, one at each side. These shop units have polished grey Cornish granite finished walls and stallrisers and, although considerably altered, retain some original bronze fittings including the doors. The only fenestration on the curved frontage comprises three horizontal multi-pane Crittall windows placed over three wide entrances to the station, with the central window longer than the two outer ones. The booking hall lighting is augmented by clerestory windows concealed behind the front parapet, which has an artificial stone coping. Above the windows sits a replacement roundel set in the original artificial stone surround, with two more identical roundels located on the returns of the retaining wall and shop-office block. The shop front of the shop-office block has been completely replaced, as have three original Crittall windows to what was originally the staff canteen above.

The spacious elliptical booking hall is entered through three adjacent entrances separated by two rectangular piers clad in Cornish granite. At the base of each pier is a low iron balustrade on a granite base projecting onto the pavement below the canopy. The newel posts carry a disc and diamond motif used by Holden on other projects including Senate House. Original bronze poster panels line either side of the entrance bays. The booking hall has a flat lantern roof with Crittall clerestory windows braced by four deep reinforced concrete beams. Below the roof runs a white painted concrete ring beam, with a further ring beam at entrance level decorated with a shallow stepped pattern matching that on the canopy. The walls are constructed of brown-grey brick relieved by orange-red brick to the window surrounds and pilasters on the rear wall. In 1988, low flat-roofed ticket offices were introduced along the end and rear walls, faced with brown quarry tiles to match the original finish of the lower level and fitted with bronze balustrades with decorative panels to the roofs. Virtually no other original fittings remain in the booking hall, and the floor has been re-tiled, though the blue station clock over the escalator shaft survives. In the staff corridors, stairs, and original canteen (now subdivided), the original cream dado tiling with green trim largely survives.

The escalator shaft exits the booking hall to the north-west and retains its plaster finish. The escalators have lost their original bronze casings, which were replaced in stainless steel and aluminium, and their original uplighters. At the foot of the escalators lies a domed lower concourse with two tunnels either side leading to the platforms, marked by shallow stepped concrete entrance panels. The original cream wall tiles with light green striped trim and floor tiles were replicated in 2009, as were the platform tiles, though original tiles remain on the far trackside walls, which feature poster panels with cream and light green trim. The platforms retain their original pre-cast concrete paving, signage with bronze-edged roundels and WAY OUT signs, and ten decorative bronze ventilation grilles designed with a motif of a deer and two doves by the artist Harold Stabler (1872–1945). Other original platform features include oak benches in the seating recesses, bronze head-wall units, and bronze doors to the fire hydrant cabinets.