I missed salymap's alert and the first programme in this short series. This edition focused on the “Art Deco transformation of the [London] underground”. Was it a load of boring tosh only of interest to LT anoraks? Not for me, there was much to savour here.
My formative years were spent in South London, and the seven stations designed by architect Charles Henry Holden when the Northern Line was extended from Clapham Common to Morden in the 1920's formed part for the fabric of my daily life and the sights, sounds and smells of my earliest memories.
The Art Deco paraphernalia of the ticket halls may now only be found the in the LT museum, and the creaking escalators with wooden threads moving between avenues of those iconic sentinel uplights have long gone, but David Heathcote brought all this, and much more, vividly back to life.
I remember only too well the excitement as a young boy when the trains approached. The rumble that turned to a thunderous roar and the great rush of air as the carriages burst from the tunnel into the station. May be I didn't fully appreciate it at the time but the old '38 stock, built specifically for the Northern and Piccadilly lines, was a thing of real functional beauty.
It's easy to lapse into sentimentality, but David Heathcote's appreciation of 55 Broadway constantly reminded us of how modern it was in its day, how American and how forward thinking. It was never mentioned, but nor should we forget this was very short time after the end of the Great War. The guns may have fallen silent on 11.11.1918, but the official end of the War had not come until 31st August 1921. A time when the nation's grief was symbolised by the unveiling of countless war memorials across our communities. It makes the positivism and energy of the extension, modernisation and transformation of London Underground all the more remarkable.
At just 30 minute in length, this programme passed in a hurry. After lingering at 55 Broadway, David Heathcote had little time to say much about Charles Henry Horden or linger at many of his Art Deco stations. The extension of the Northern had begun in 1923 and was completed with in three years. We caught just a few glimpses only of Morden Station and one very brief exterior shot of the construction of a double bore exit which may have been at the same site. As a finale, he choose to visit the circular island of Southgate Station, which lies at one and of the Piccadilly line. It's not quite an alien flying saucer marooned in a suburban mock-tudor landscape, but how I'd love to have landed my tardis there when if had first opened. My memories of the few times I've been there is of a rather shabby place.
It was only decades later I realised I had another connection to architect Charles Henry Holden, and that is “Forceville”. During the later part of the Great War Holden had worked for the Army's Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries, and in 1918 had transferred to the Imperial War Graves Commission. He worked on the prototype cemeteries at Louvencourt and Forecville and many others. The often rather chaotic muddle of wooden crosses where being transformed with the elements we are familiar with today: the Cross of Sacrifice; the ranks of hand carved headstone; rose gardens and discrete walls. When King George V undertook his pilgrimage to the Western Front in 1922, photographs appear to show the new IWGC cemetery at Forceville was complete.
Why Forceville? It is the final resting place of one of wife's eight great uncles who all fought on the Western Front. He was killed late in 1916, it was one of the last actions on the Somme that year.
My formative years were spent in South London, and the seven stations designed by architect Charles Henry Holden when the Northern Line was extended from Clapham Common to Morden in the 1920's formed part for the fabric of my daily life and the sights, sounds and smells of my earliest memories.
The Art Deco paraphernalia of the ticket halls may now only be found the in the LT museum, and the creaking escalators with wooden threads moving between avenues of those iconic sentinel uplights have long gone, but David Heathcote brought all this, and much more, vividly back to life.
I remember only too well the excitement as a young boy when the trains approached. The rumble that turned to a thunderous roar and the great rush of air as the carriages burst from the tunnel into the station. May be I didn't fully appreciate it at the time but the old '38 stock, built specifically for the Northern and Piccadilly lines, was a thing of real functional beauty.
It's easy to lapse into sentimentality, but David Heathcote's appreciation of 55 Broadway constantly reminded us of how modern it was in its day, how American and how forward thinking. It was never mentioned, but nor should we forget this was very short time after the end of the Great War. The guns may have fallen silent on 11.11.1918, but the official end of the War had not come until 31st August 1921. A time when the nation's grief was symbolised by the unveiling of countless war memorials across our communities. It makes the positivism and energy of the extension, modernisation and transformation of London Underground all the more remarkable.
At just 30 minute in length, this programme passed in a hurry. After lingering at 55 Broadway, David Heathcote had little time to say much about Charles Henry Horden or linger at many of his Art Deco stations. The extension of the Northern had begun in 1923 and was completed with in three years. We caught just a few glimpses only of Morden Station and one very brief exterior shot of the construction of a double bore exit which may have been at the same site. As a finale, he choose to visit the circular island of Southgate Station, which lies at one and of the Piccadilly line. It's not quite an alien flying saucer marooned in a suburban mock-tudor landscape, but how I'd love to have landed my tardis there when if had first opened. My memories of the few times I've been there is of a rather shabby place.
It was only decades later I realised I had another connection to architect Charles Henry Holden, and that is “Forceville”. During the later part of the Great War Holden had worked for the Army's Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries, and in 1918 had transferred to the Imperial War Graves Commission. He worked on the prototype cemeteries at Louvencourt and Forecville and many others. The often rather chaotic muddle of wooden crosses where being transformed with the elements we are familiar with today: the Cross of Sacrifice; the ranks of hand carved headstone; rose gardens and discrete walls. When King George V undertook his pilgrimage to the Western Front in 1922, photographs appear to show the new IWGC cemetery at Forceville was complete.
Why Forceville? It is the final resting place of one of wife's eight great uncles who all fought on the Western Front. He was killed late in 1916, it was one of the last actions on the Somme that year.
And thank you for recommending it. 
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