Frank Pick: Beauty and Utility

Whilst we regularly feature and praise the work of Charles Holden for London Underground, without Frank Pick, none of Holden’s designs would have been possible. Pick, working for the Underground Electric Railways of London (UERL) and then the London Transport Passenger Board (LPTB), revolutionised the way the fledgling underground network presented itself, changing everything from advertising posters, network maps and the stations themselves, creating the tube we know today.

Pick was born in Spalding, Lincolnshire on 23rd November 1878, to Francis and Fanny Pick. After finishing his schooling he studied law at the University of London, before going to work for North Eastern Railways. There he became assistant to managing director George Gibb, and when Gibb moved to work for the Underground Electric Railways of London in 1906, Pick followed. Starting as assistant to Gibb, by 1908 Pick had become Publicity Officer, and by 1909 Traffic Development Officer. Three years later Pick was the UERL’s Commercial Manager. It was this this role that Pick started to have a real impact on the identity of the Underground network.

Frank Pick 1878-1941. Image from the Standard.

Pick was given the task of increasing passenger numbers, as the UERL was locked in competition with a number of other private rail, bus and tram companies. Pick started by instigating a standardisation of advertising materials; setting poster sizes, as well as their number and placement within stations. Pick also commissioned Edward Johnston is design a distinctive typeface for UERL materials, the now iconic “Johnston” type. A few years later, Pick would also change to the underground map o Harry Beck’s radical new design. Pick initially dismissed Becks design, produced by Beck unwarranted, but after some persuasion by Beck and a trail run, the tube map as we (almost) know it today was launched in 1932.

Edward Johnston's typeface for London Underground. Image from Mikey Ashworth.

The other important person Pick bought in to the UERL fold was of course, Charles Holden. They met in 1915 at a Design and Industries Association meeting, and when in the early 1920s Pick wanted to modernise the underground networks stations, Holden was man he turned to. The UERL already had a chief architect, Stanley Heaps, who had taken over from Leslie Green in 1908, but Pick was not a fan of his designs, so Holden and his firm, Adams, Holden & Pearson, were bought in to create a “new architectural idiom”, with the stations themselves communicating modernity, speed and ease of use. This was first achieved on the Morden extension of Northern Line, where Holden produced a simple design of double height ticket halls, clad in Portland stone.

Harry Beck's map of the tube system. Image from talassa magazine.

Pick and Holden’s next major project was the Piccadilly Line extension. Something that had been planned for a number of years but shelved due to lack of funds, before work began in the early 1930’s. To research the new architectural styles, in 1930 Pick and Holden visited Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, visiting buildings by the likes of Willem Dudok, with whom Pick was particularly taken. The buildings they saw eschewed decoration and concentrated on letting the function of the building guide its form. Pick and Holden were also impressed by the illumination of buildings at night, something they replicated on many underground stations.

Piccadilly Line Extension poster. Image from London Transport Museum.

The new Piccadilly Line station, especially those built from Turnpike Lane to Cockfosters, set new standards in contemporary British public architecture. This was the first time a group of public buildings had been so carefully planned and executed in the modernist style, taking in all aspects of the commuters journey from station design to advertising posters to platform lighting. The buildings themselves were highly praised in the architectural press and visited by designers and officials from aboard. Of the stations built, Turnpike Lane was recorded as Pick’s favourite due to the to the success of the design in integrating the different above ground transport elements, including bus station and tram stops. The highly thought of Arnos Grove proved to be his least favorite, and he approved the scheme only after much persuasion.

Turnpike Lane ticket hall (1932) by Charles Holden. Image from RIBApix.

More stations and works were built as part of the 1935-40 New Works Programme, and Pick who had become Joint Managing Director of UERL in 1928, was named as Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman of London Passenger Transport Board when it was formed in 1933. However, Pick’s star would not ascend forever. Despite his achievements since joining the UERL in 1906, in May 1940 Pick resigned from the LPTB after disagreements of its restructuring. He then had a short and unproductive spell as Director General of the Ministry of Information. He only lived until November 1941 when he died at his house in Golders Green from a cerebral haemorrhage.

Pick’s legacy was far reaching, being instrumental in creating a large scale integrated transport network for what was then one of the worlds biggest cities. Pick thought of this undertaking as being the modern equivalent of building a medieval cathedral, bringing together a large number of master craftsman, to create a modern work of art. Pick’s mix of pragmatism, drive and attention to detail would allow those designers, such as Holden and Johnston, to create the Tube as we know it.

Sources
Charles Holden- Eitan Karol
Bright Underground Spaces- David Lawrence
Frank Pick Wikipedia page

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