Willesden Green Underground Station

Willesden Green Underground Station is an underground station with integral shops, rebuilt at street level in 1925 by Charles Walter Clark, architect for the Metropolitan Railway Company.

The facade to Walm Lane and the 3-bay returns to the south and north along Station Parade are faced with distinctive cream terracotta tiling dressed with moulded terracotta architraves, quoins, and raised panels. Windows are metal-framed casements, paired along the front with cross mullions.

The Walm Lane facade comprises 5 parts with slightly canted end bays holding canopies. There are 3 wide bays to the centre, each with 2 windows above ground floor shops that have been largely replaced, although 2 pairs of original doors survive along with the pilasters between them. A continuous pronounced cornice with modillions sits above a frieze featuring original serif upper-case lettering announcing WILLESDEN GREEN STATION and M.R. to the centre, and METROPOLITAN RAILWAY over both canopies, in addition to the company's solid diamond motif. Cantilevered canopies over the entrance are original but feature a late-20th-century dark blue fascia and lettering in London Underground's identifiable sans serif typeface. Below and set within the station is a pair of original shops with quadrant shopfronts of curved glass. To the centre is a cantilevered clock set within a metal-framed diamond-shaped frame.

The south return elevation has single light windows with raised panels and WILLESDEN GREEN STATION lettering in the frieze. The north return has a separate entrance labelled 'Chesham House' below an oculus with swag, all executed in similar terracotta tiles. The rear elevation is plain brick with no ornament; the windows, which overlook the platforms, were all replaced in the late 20th century and are not of special interest.

The booking hall is notable for its extensive lining of sea green tiles approximately 3 by 5 inches in brick shape, with a frieze of yellow and mauve and a dado band in similar colours also featuring the corporate diamond pattern. Surviving fittings include wooden architraves with aprons to three ticket windows and high-level small-pane windows. The station was modernised in the late 20th century with UTS machines, and the original passimeter was removed. A deep coffered ceiling with some raised lanterns lights the booking hall. To north and south, a pair of wide steps leading to the platforms are fully lined with similar tiles, with pilasters painted black.

The shops retain their deep green marble plinths below a black vitrolite band, these materials both curved at the quadrant shopfronts. Shop windows are in metal frames with continuous transoms, some with small-pane leading. Painted pilasters separate the shops. Some original shop glass signage survives in transoms.

The areas beneath the ticket office are not of special interest, as the Victorian platforms have been faced with late-20th-century tiles.

The station was first opened as Willesden Green in 1879 as the temporary terminus of the Metropolitan and St. John's Wood Railway extension from West Hampstead. It was renamed Willesden Green & Cricklewood between 1894 and 1938. The station was reconstructed in 1914 with new platforms to serve fast trains. Originally brick-faced, it was substantially rebuilt at street level in 1925 by the company architect.