The best London Underground photograph ever?

[londontransit]

E.O.Hoppé's famous British Museum tube station photograph is certainly a famous composition and possibly the best ever taken on London's tube system.

But no-one's ever penned any details about the work - thus I've done an in-depth write-up on it and tried to explain many things - including why Hoppé chose a disused tube station & how the photo compares with another work taken the same year.

Link: The best London tube photo ever?

 

[Gloster]

First paragraph 1937, second paragraph 1973. Is that correct?

 

[KenA]

Holloway Rd Station was unique in it had a spiral escalator . It is unclear whether it even went into public service so it appears it was not a success. I guess it weas in the early day when they need something with more capacity than lifts and of course back then lifts needed attendents
Holloway road was choen I guess as its a pretty shallow station, If it had worked it would hve been a quick and easy way to increase capavity as a spiral escaltor could go in a standard lift shaft. Putting in standard escaltors being a major construction task

I think the LT Museum has a few bits of theescaltor snd some engineering drawings

 

[londontransit]

First paragraph 1937, second paragraph 1973. Is that correct?

As correct as it can be - now that its the right way round!

 

[londontransit]

Holloway Rd Station was unique in it had a spiral escalator . It is unclear whether it even went into public service so it appears it was not a success. I guess it weas in the early day when they need something with more capacity than lifts and of course back then lifts needed attendents
Holloway road was choen I guess as its a pretty shallow station, If it had worked it would hve been a quick and easy way to increase capavity as a spiral escaltor could go in a standard lift shaft. Putting in standard escaltors being a major construction task

I think the LT Museum has a few bits of theescaltor snd some engineering drawings

Yes the LT museum has some bits of the escalator and there are a few pictures of the installation plus what remains of it.

Seeing no one built a successful commercial spiral escalator until the late 1980s clearly demonstrates the odds the Underground/Reno faced when the Holloway Road prototype was built.

Couple of drawings not seen anywhere else.... Internet Archive

 

[45669]

Here's a photo of the Holloway Road spiral escalator in the LT Museum Depot at Acton:

RD19795. Spiral Escalator.

RD19795. This was an amazing find as it had been buried at the bottom of a lift shaft for 77 years! It's part of an experimental spiral escalator, or spiral travelator, that climbed round the walls of an unused lift shaft at Holloway Road Station and dates back to 1906. It was discovered...

www.flickr.com

Ron.