Boston Manor Underground Station

787/0/10127 BOSTON MANOR ROAD 21-MAR-02 Brentford Boston Manor Underground Station

II

Piccadilly Line Underground station. 1933-34 by Charles Holden, with earlier fabric at platform level dating from 1883. Brown brick facing, reinforced concrete structure. Glazed ceramic tiles with enamelled London Underground logo on tower; vertical strip of glass bricks forming lighting feature along upper stages of tower. EXTERIOR: Single storey structure on girders over railway bridge: booking hall to right, lit with clerestory; projecting shop unit to left with curved picture window. Flat roofs of concrete now with safety rails to edge (added recently). INTERIOR: Ticket Hall modernised in 1980s but retains ticket office kiosk with banded tile decoration. Modern steel doors. PLATFORM LEVEL: Reached via stairs with cast iron balustrades, remaining from the original station. Each platform retains fretted wooden awning from the earlier District Railway station of 1883, with part-glazed timber roof carried on cast iron roof trusses, supported on cast iron columns with capitals and octagonal bases. Metal-framed windows at western ends of platforms date from 1933-34 rebuilding. HISTORY: Boston Manor Station was opened on 1st May 1883 as part of the District Railway extension to Hounslow Barracks. It was taken over by the Piccadilly Line extension, wholly rebuilt at upper levels, and re-opened on 25th March 1934; the old station was demolished late in 1932. Occupying a narrow site because of the approach to the adjoining depot, the station was built out over the tracks. The distinctive tower feature, strongly influenced by contemporary Dutch and German architecture, was intended to create a landmark building amid this area of low-rise suburban housing. A highly characteristic example of Charles Holden's much-admired Modern Movement designs for London Underground.

REFERENCES: Laurence Menear, 'London's Undergound Stations' (1985 ed.), 19 and 83-84; David Lawrence, 'Underground Architecture' (1994), 82, 110-11, 119.