Best looking London Underground stations?

[MaidaVale]

This isn't my favourite, nor do I think it's at all the best looking station on the combine, However...

I think Hillingdon is quite pleasant on paper, Quite a unique style compared to most other stations and offers a nice change to the other stations on the Uxbridge branch (not that they aren't nice either).

 

[ThameslinkUser]

Hillingdon is horrendous compared with all other stations on the Uxbridge branch. Ruislip is supremely better.

 

[Recessio]

Jubilee line extension for me. I think Southwark is magnificent, as is Westminster. Really harks back to the days of stations being artistic buildings in their own right, rather than just some bricks at street level (see: Borough)

 

[AM9]

At platform level, Gants Hill is very impressive, with its Moscow Metro feel.

Yes, I've always admired the vaulted circulation area between the two platform tunnels. It looks really good after its clean ups, every few years. It also functions pretty well in the peaks with that lower concourse helping clear the platforms. It's a shame that the gateline is so featureless, especially now the bronze framed booking office windows have gone.

 

[bicbasher]

Cockfosters at surface level isn't great, but go down into the booking hall and it's wonderful.

Others I like are Canary Wharf for the grand concourse and Uxbridge for the 30s charm.

 

[stuu]

Hillingdon is horrendous compared with all other stations on the Uxbridge branch. Ruislip is supremely better.

"In my opinion,..."

 

[ThameslinkUser]

Nope, that's an objective fact

 

[MikeWh]

Hillingdon is horrendous compared with all other stations on the Uxbridge branch. Ruislip is supremely better.

"In my opinion,..."

Nope, that's an objective fact

No, it is YOUR opinion.

Unless you start quoting tangibile facts which back up your assertion, it is only an opinion. And even if you do state tangible facts, if those facts don't matter to other people they will still form an alternative opinion.

 

[Gloster]

Arnos Grove, my old local station

Fifteen years ago The Grauniad did a series of pullouts of great buildings, each one being chosen by someone in the business. Most of them were the usual favourites, such as Le Corbusier’s church at Ronchamp and the Sydney Opera House, but Jonathan Glancey (then the paper’s architecture correspondent) chose Arnos Grove Tube Station.

 

[Busaholic]

Newbury Park, for its Grade 2 listed bus shelter, although perhaps it could have been erected somewhere else with more local buses!

 

[Cravens]

To add my two penneth on Hillingdon, I think if it was still showroom new, it would be a very impressive station (it sure was in the 90's), but it has not received any particular care and attention since its rebuilding, and it is really showing now (I am a daily user of Hillingdon station). As to which station is the best looking, my vote goes to Farringdon as it does a nice job of marrying up the Thameslink, Elizabeth line and Underground, succeeding in making something look vaguely cohesive out of some very different design philosophies.

 

[Silent]

St John's Wood

 

[Deepgreen]

As an ex-LU manager working for many years on station modernisations and refurbishments, I can't really single one out easily, but, in terms of its exterior setting, St. James's Park has a lot going for it, being effectlvely part of the 55, Broadway building above it (I'm probably biased as I worked in there for many years!). It has a few quirks - the eastbound platform has a roundel that reads "St. James' Park" rather than "St. James's Park", which dates from around the turn of the 19th/20th century. After much thought I decided we should retain it on historical grounds. There is also the ex-kiosk on the westbound platform,which became a display unit for historical Underground objects for several years.

Yes, Baker Street is fine, Canary Wharf is spectacular and so on, but I have a soft spot for the southern end of the Northern line to Morden, where the line more or less follows the route of the A24 with quite elegant, but understated, street presences.

 

[TRAX]

I like the atmosphere of Earl’s Court.

 

[endicomark69@g]

Sudbury Town - elegant, well laid out and summing up most of the best points of traditional Underground design in one place.

Also have a soft spot for Osterley - at least at street level.

The eastern Central Line loop stations at Redbridge and Gants Hill are very impressive at platform level though - feels as though the influence of foreign Metros was tried out here just to see if it would fit.

 

[AM9]

I remember in the '60s that the Piccadilly Circus booking hall/gateliine area was still quite fresh with it's pseudo art deco presentation that somehow matched the appearance of some of the stores in Regent Street. Since the turn of the century I think I've only been through there once or twice and can't remember what it looks like now.
Elsewhere in Zone 1, South Kensington still looks good with its arcaded entrance with the 1906 railways named in the wrouight ironwork above the entrances to the gateline hall, - giving it a style vaguely similar to some of the Paris Metropolitain station entrances. At platform level, the breath of fresh air is put to good use with the flower beds in the old eastwards facing bay. I remember reading in the London Transport Magazine in the '50s and early '60s, that the annual 'best kept station' award went several times to South Ken.

 

[Busaholic]

I remember reading in the London Transport Magazine in the '50s and early '60s, that the annual 'best kept station' award went several times to South Ken.

With so many LT top brass passing through most days on their way to and from the South Ken Dining Club, that should be no surprise. The Underground guys (and they all were guys) would want to show one up on the what many regarded as inferior road transport guys. You could get a sense of the 'pecking order' at the club, apparently. I was allowed to eat there at one time, but it certainly wasn't 'fine dining' at the scrag end!

 

[southern442]

Potentially unpopular one, but Heathrow Terminal 5 - quite simple and yet if any central london tube stations had this design I think it would make for a really pleasant experience.

 

[317 forever]

Arnos Grove, my old local station

I like Arnos Grove. You can see trains heading or emerging from underground in both directions.

 

[Western Sunset]

Clapham North and Clapham Common on the Northern Line. How many would perceive as being the "classic" tube station; a narrow island platform within a single bore.

 

[AM9]

Clapham North and Clapham Common on the Northern Line. How many would perceive as being the "classic" tube station; a narrow island platform within a single bore.

Unsettling, I also remember Angel being like that as well. When I was visiting Glasgow with my son, we were standing on the platform at Buchanan St Metro station when this little orange 'toy' train pulled in, and despite being on a narrow island platform, didn't find that unsettling at all. The ride around the circle was quite interesting though.

 

[Snow1964]

Unsettling, I also remember Angel being like that as well. When I was visiting Glasgow with my son, we were standing on the platform at Buchanan St Metro station when this little orange 'toy' train pulled in, and despite being on a narrow island platform, didn't find that unsettling at all. The ride around the circle was quite interesting though.

So was Euston, an island platform in one large tunnel, until an extra platform tunnel was added as part of Victoria line works in 1960s

 

[danaceks]

Can't get enough of JLE stations, particularly Westminster

 

[AM9]

So was Euston, an island platform in one large tunnel, until an extra platform tunnel was added as part of Victoria line works in 1960s

Ah yes of course, it was the Bank branch platforms, - that was the first to get the new platform tunnel and the original large one now carrying just one direction.

 

[Western Sunset]

Unsettling, as others have mentioned...

 

[Uk125]

Unsettling, as others have mentioned...

Which station is that?

 

[stuu]

Which station is that?

Clapham Common or Clapham North

 

[Mikey C]

Unsettling, I also remember Angel being like that as well. When I was visiting Glasgow with my son, we were standing on the platform at Buchanan St Metro station when this little orange 'toy' train pulled in, and despite being on a narrow island platform, didn't find that unsettling at all. The ride around the circle was quite interesting though.

The old Angel station was decrepit, as well as being dangerous with that really overcrowded central platform! The station building was tiny also.

 

[Intercity110]

Euston for the tiles of the earl, and the fact it‘s a nice coat of arms. (I also quite like the mainline station)

 

[ThisIsSurbiton]

I love the southern end of the Northern line, especially Clapham South, Balham and - once downstairs! - Morden. Heathrow Terminal 4 hasn't had a mention yet, so of its time. Gants Hill of course, and Southwark. If we stretch to the rest of TfL - Canary Wharf EL. Ah, yes! And the seventies colours of Charing Cross, a shame that half of it is behind closed doors