The Archer

Eric Aumonier putting the final touches to The Archer statue, 1940. Image from London Transport Museum.

The casual commuter travelling along the High Barnet branch of the Northern Line may notice something a little unusual as they pass through East Finchley station. Come rain or shine, a determined looking figure points his bow and arrow south towards the centre of London and beyond to the line’s terminus at Morden. The Archer sculpture, poised on the eastern wall of the station just above the south bound track, was created by artist Eric Aumonier for the station which had been rebuilt from 1939.

The sculpture and the station rebuild were part of the ill fated Northern Heights programme, a plan to upgrade and extend the northern branches of the Northern Line. The Edgware branch was to be extended into Hertfordshire, and the Barnet branch was to have a series of station upgrades. The rebuilding of East Finchley station was the only part of the programme that came to pass, thanks to budget restraints and the outbreak of war in 1939. 

The Archer seen acroos the platforms of East Finchley Station. Image from London Transport Museum.

The new building replaced the 1867 station which was built for the Great Northern Railway, with the rebuilt station primed for the underground which had been slowly making its way northwards. The initial plan by Leonard Bucknell and Ruth Ellis was revised by Charles Holden, who had been busy with his University of London scheme, another project which was curtailed, leaving us with Senate House.

The new station, completed in 1941, did not have the straightforward clarity of Holden’s earlier work along the Piccadilly Line. Partly this is due to the awkward nature of the site, with the station perched on a railway viaduct. However, at platform level, the streamlined platform shelters and glass bridge over the tracks containing offices, reflects the “Speed, Light and Modernity” that Holden and London Transport supremo Frank Pick brought to the network from the 1920s.

The South Wind releif on 55 Broadway, by Eric Aumonier. Image from London Transport Museum.

The symbol of the station and Holden and Pick’s vision, would be the 10ft statue, installed in 1940. Eric Aumonier was born into the family architectural sculpture business, Aumonier Studios, founded by his grandfather, in 1899. He studied at the Slade School of Art, and became the chief artist for the family firm. He would be commissioned to provide a relief sculpture of the South Wind for Holden’s 55 Broadway headquarters for London Transport in 1929, and a couple of years later would design two statues set into relief panels for the Daily Express building in 1932.

The Speed Underground poster by Alan Rogers, 1930. Image from London Transport Museum.

The Archer was created by using beech timber wood fastened around a steel armature framework, before being covered in reclaimed lead sheets. The bow is made of English ash, and covered in copper and gilt. The symbol of the archer was used to represent the former royal hunting grounds of Enfield that Finchley sits on the edge of, as well as nodding to the concerns of speed and accuracy that Holden and Pick were interested in. Of course the archer motif had also been used by Alan Rogers in his 1930 “Speed Underground” poster for the network. By 1955, the wood used for the original statue had already begun to decay, and it had to be replaced at a cost of £1500, a much steeper price than the £245 paid to Aumonier in 1940. ​

A sketch of the intended Highgate station with the Dick Whittington statue. Image from Bright Undergound Spaces by David Lawrence.

The Archer was just one artwork planned for the Northern Heights stations. A couple of stops down the line at Highgate, Aumonier was asked to design a statue of Dick Whittington for a new station building, but neither were ever completed. The statue at East Finchley, nicknamed Archie, has become a symbol not just of the station, but also of the surrounding area, with the local newspaper also named The Archer. The station building including the platforms and statue was listed in July 1987.