Medieval Modernism: Charles Holden and the London Underground

Arnos Grove station ticket hall. Image from RIBApix.

Charles Holden’s designs for the underground from the mid 1920s to the outbreak of World War II, represents a high point of transport architecture and modernist design in Britain. His collaboration with Frank Pick brought about a marriage of form and function, civic service and commerce. Indeed the collaboration was not just between Holden and Pick, but also between a host of architects, designers, builders, tradesmen and bureaucrats. This army of people, working under Holden and Pick, created what Pick would termed “medieval modernism”, comparing the extension of the underground network to the creation of a great cathedral, many hands and years in the making. 

Holden and Pick were not the first pairing of architect and management to adopt a uniform design for the underground network. What we now see as a unified network was originally a collection of competing companies, with different designers. From 1900, financier Charles Yerkes and architect Leslie Green had introduced a standard station design featuring distinctive red exterior tiling, steel frame construction and patterned tiles at platform level. The early deaths of both Yerkes and Green led to financial problems and a loss of design focus. This was not remedied until the meeting of Pick and Holden in 1915 at a conference for the Design and Industries Association, and their subsequent collaboration.

Charles Holden. Image from RIBApix.

Holden had begun working as an assistant to a surveyor when still a teenager, eventually becoming an apprentice to a Manchester architect. He later moved to London to work for architect C.R. Ashbee, before moving on to work with H. Percy Adams. The practice specialised in hospitals, with Holden designing a number of them, such as the former children's hospital in Belgravia. After World War I, Holden worked for the Imperial War Graves Commission, designing cemeteries and memorials for those who died in the war. ​

Franck Pick. Image from RIBApix.

Pick 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 four years later Pick was the U.E.R.L’s Commercial Manager. It was in this role that Pick started to have a real impact on the identity of the Underground network. Pick wanted to revolutionize design on the underground network, bringing in a new eye catching, modernist influenced look, that would take in everything from station design to advertising posters to platform lighting. Pick commissioned Edward Johnston to create his now iconic typeface for use on all underground materials and Harry Beck to create his tube map, and he saw Holden as the man to modernise the design of the stations. The UERL already had a chief architect, Stanley Heaps, but Pick felt his designs were not modern enough.

Trinity Road station, now named Tooting Bec. Image from RIBApix.

Heaps had been assistant to Leslie Green, and took over his role after Green died of a heart attack in 1908. The first stations Heaps designed by himself used Green’s distinctive oxblood tiling and semi circular windows. His next major set of stations were for the expansion of the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway (now part of the Northern Line). Heaps designed five stations, between Brent Cross, and Edgware that, unlike his previous work, would be situated in the leafy North London suburbs. To fit in with these surroundings Heaps designed the stations in a more suburban style, with tiled roofs and brick colonnades. Pick wasn’t a fan of this style, and brought in Holden to design the other end of the Northern Line, as the tube extended to Modern. Holden’s stations for the Northern Line from 1924-6 introduced a new style for the underground, with double height ticket halls, simply clad in Portland stone.

Holden’s next two projects for the U.E.R.L. would become two of his most famous and would set the scene for the next few years of innovation. First of all came the rebuilding of Piccadilly Circus station, a difficult project that was redesigned with aplomb by Holden. An subterranean elliptical ticket hall was added, clad in marble and adorned with a mural by Stephen Bone. The new building was a great success, and would influence the building of the Moscow Metro in turn. The second building was a new headquarters for the U.E.R.L. at 55 Broadway, replacing the hodge podge of offices the company used in the same area. The gleaming white Portland stone of the finished building brought to mind a cathedral, and proclaimed the might of the growing centralised transport network.

Sudbury Town station. Image from RIBApix.

In June and July 1930, Holden and Pick took a tour of Europe to explore the new modernist architecture of the continent. They travelled through Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, visiting buildings by the likes of Willem Dudok, with whom Pick was particularly taken. Pick and Holden were also impressed by the illumination of buildings at night, something they replicated on many underground stations. They didn’t visit the buildings of Le Corbusier, nor those that came out of the Bauhaus, Holden and Pick were both of a mind that exposed concrete was not the proper material for Britain, both practically or emotionally. They were determined to use what they saw as more suitable materials, primarily brick but also wood and metal, in a bid to make the new station architecture forward looking yet humane.

The first fruits of the European trip were the new stations designed for the Piccadilly Line at the start of the 1930s. The changes were significant, as can be seen at Sudbury Town from 1931. The Portland stone finish was replaced by locally produced brick, the three screen facade jettisoned for a rectangular box and as much light as possible was provided for the interior. This design would provide the blueprint for the rest of the decade. The extension of the Piccadilly Line into the growing suburbs around London provided space for Holden and Pick to bring to fruition their ideal of an integrated transport network that balanced beauty and utility. 

The apex of the working relationship between Holden and Pick were the new stations between Manor House and Cockfosters, lauded in the architectural press and in the network's own publicity posters. The commission was given to Holden in April 1931, with the first set of stations opening in September 1932. At the same time as this, a number of stations at the western end of the Piccadilly Line were also being built. This was a heavy workload for a relatively small firm like Adams, Holden & Pearson, and so the ‘one man, one station’ design policy was developed. This gave Holden overall responsibility for the design of the stations, often producing an initial sketch, which was then worked up into a detailed plan by his assistant or the office of Stanley Heaps. Once it was given the green light by a committee headed by Pick, the design was taken up by an assistant who would see it through to completion. 

The interior of Cockfosters station. Image from RIBApix.

This method worked well through the early 1930s, but the Golden Age didn't last forever. As the New Works Programme was launched in 1935 to replace older stations with the new modern London Transport style, Holden’s attention and energies were being drawn to the rebuilding of the University of London in Bloomsbury, a project that would be only partially completed. The slack was taken up by the office of Stanley Heaps and a few different outside architects, like R.H. Uren and Leonard Bucknell. The designs produced by this group fell below the high standards that had previously been set. Pick asked Holden to return and oversee some of the new designs, but the genie could not be put back in the bottle. 

Perhaps the biggest compliment that can be paid to the stations of Holden and Pick is the fact that they are still in use, helping millions of Londoners travel around the capital nearly 100 years after they were built. The little boxes designed by Holden to facilitate the journeys of passengers have become instantly recognizable icons of London and its suburbs. 

The article was originally published as the introduction to London Tube Stations 1924-61, available here