| Summary : Tottenham Court Road opened on 30th July 1900 as one of the intermediate stations on the Central London Railway's line from Shepherd's Bush to the Bank. The station was designed by Harry Bell Measures and had a pinkish-brown unglazed terracotta facade. The adjacent Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway station opened on 22nd June 1907. At this time the CCE&H station was known as Oxford Street before being renamed Tottenham Court Road in March 1908. In 1979 sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi was commissioned to design murals for Tottenham Court Road. He used as a basis for his design the activities for which the street of the same name has become known - music, photography and electronic equipment, fast-food and nightlife. The colour scheme was varied according to the lines: brighter hues with some metallic glass for the Central platforms, and more muted, 'digital' decorations with a thread of black or grey throughout the Northern. Designs were applied using mosaic tesserae and smalti. Murals were continued throughout the station from platform to street, decorations in the 'rotunda' (a disused lift shaft) and escalator approaches being made more effective by the polished metal ceilings. Central line platforms were completed in 1983, and the Northern line murals in 1985 forming one of the most impressive and complete schemes executed during the facelift scheme to the Northern and Central line platforms in the central area. |