| Summary : Bond Street station was opened on 24 September 1900 by the Central London Railway. The original station was designed by Harry Bell Measures and had a unglazed terracotta facade. In 1924 the station was redesigned with the first of Charles Holden's Portland stone frontages. The rebuilding was completed in 1927, replacing the entrance by Harry Measures. Despite this alteration it continued to serve only the one underground railway until construction work on the Jubilee Line began, to link the new line and the Central, with a new booking hall. The use of steel 'umbrella' decking to carry road traffic while new sub-surface booking halls were built had become familiar during the progress of the Victoria Line works at Oxford Circus in the 1960s. In 1972 Oxford Street received its second construction of this type so that the work of converting the station to handle the additional Jubilee Line traffic could be carried out. When the Jubilee Line opened in May 1979 reconstruction was complete. The station could be entered from three points: a subway entrance on the north side Oxford Street on the corner of James Street, a subway entrance built into a building on the south side of Oxford Street, and via escalators from the 'West One' shopping centre which was constructed next to it at the same time. The interior decor of the station incorporated extensive use of plastics and tiling, but some features, such as the passimeters, were relics from the 1960s. The Central line platforms were given a facelift in 1982. London Transport architects chose a 'wrapping paper' motif, with the station name silk-screened onto tiles laid in panels and bands. |