Piccadilly Circus Underground Station Booking Hall Concourse and Bronzework to Pavement Subway Entrances

Piccadilly Circus Underground Station: Booking Hall, Concourse and Bronzework to Pavement Subway Entrances

An underground railway station representing the 1925–1928 rebuilding by Charles Holden of Leslie Green's original station of 1906. The station was renovated in the 1980s.

The structure uses reinforced concrete throughout, with the concourse areas and access subways clad in cream travertine marble. The seven subway entrances at pavement level feature granite kerbs and are framed by bronzed Neo-Roman railings with fish-scale mouldings, turned balusters and ball finials. Each entrance has panelled bronze lamp standards supporting polygonal finials with bronzed-cased lamps and an illuminated London Transport emblem. The bronze metalwork is among the earliest uses of this material at London Underground stations.

The station is planned as a subsurface elliptical ticket hall accessed by four irregularly spaced subway entrances providing seven separate ways in. An escalator shaft leads downward to a lower concourse with tunnels to the four platforms.

The central concourse is circular in plan, with the escalator hall placed at its centre and subways leading off the ambulatory. The travertine-lined walls feature shallow cornice moulding, and the interior reflects Holden's modern interpretation of the Neo-Roman style. Two lines of twelve-sided columns, originally finished in maroon scagliola and now painted orange, have vertical brass filets and fluted rectangular bronze capitals incorporating hanging lantern fittings. Original directional signs are incorporated into the walls over bronze panels. Bronze-framed glass display cases and shop-fronts line the circumference, with particularly handsome examples set behind an inner row of columns and featuring fluted bottom panels. Around the perimeter are areas with original sans-serif lettering identifying PHOTOGRAPHS, PUBLIC TELEPHONES and TICKET MACHINES. A distinctive feature is a world time-zone map set within an oak frame with an illuminated panel reading 'The world time today'. The ceiling, originally coffered fibrous plaster panels, has been replaced with enamelled metal echoing the original design. Floor tiles remain mostly original, laid concentrically with some carefully replaced areas retaining the angled pointing.

Steps to a basement plant room follow the curve of the inner drum with bronze railings, partly enclosed with later cast-iron security grille. The travertine-lined concourse extends to the top of the escalator shafts, with three fluted columns, the central column bearing clocks on two faces. The station control room between the two escalator sets has bronze-framed windows to three sides. A panel records the station's opening by the Mayor of Westminster, Vivian B. Rogers, on 10 December 1928, and an opposite panel marks the reopening after 1989 modernisation. The travertine stops at floor level above the escalators.

Four numbered subways lead from the perimeter of the central concourse to the above-ground entrances, all lined with travertine. Subway No. 1 leads to Regent Street (East), with its street-level entrance set within the open portico of No. 50 Regent Street (Grade II listed separately). The upper level of the steps is faced with Portland Stone to match the adjacent building, with Neo-Roman railings at the top forming gates. Subway No. 2 leads to Regent Street (West) and Piccadilly (North), forming a wide western passage lined with travertine walls, bronze-framed poster panels and display cases, with directional signs bearing three feathers. The passage terminates in shop-fronts with bronze frames and grey terrazzo plinths. Subway No. 3, with steps to Lower Regent Street/Eros and an L-shaped passage to Piccadilly (South), has travertine-lined walls with a central travertine-lined square column and bronze poster-boards. The street level features a particularly deep granite kerb. Subway No. 4 leads to Shaftsbury Avenue with travertine-lined walls and bronze poster-boards set in niches. Geometric grilles appear on a wall vent near the concourse entrance and at the base of the steps.

The only parts of the station visible above ground are the seven subway entrances, distinguished by decorative railings, lamp standards and lighted signage as described above.