| Summary : Designed by Leslie Green, Piccadilly Circus station opened on 10th March 1906 as an intermediate station on the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway. It opened to trains on the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway on 15th December of the same year. By the early 1920s facilities at Piccadilly Circus were becoming inadequate for the rising levels of traffic and it was decided to rebuild the station under the Circus itself. Rebuilt in 1925-8 to the designs of Charles Holden in collaboration with Stanley Heaps and the consulting engineer Harley Hugh Dalrymple-Hay, the station is constructed from reinforced concrete with the concourse area and access subways clad in cream Travertine marble. The five subway entrances on the pavement are framed by bronzed balustered railings with fishscale mouldings and ball finials, with panelled bronze lampstandards with polygonal, finialed bronzed cased lamps, supporting illuminated London Transport emblems as overthrows. The central station concourse is circular with access to the platforms from an escalator hall placed in the middle. There are a number of original shopfronts, particularly handsome are the shopfronts in the centre of the drum, set behind an inner row of columns. A feature of the central drum is a map of the world's timezones. Over the escalator shafts the artist Stephen Bone produced a mural describing in pictures the myriad of activities that might be pursued using the Underground for transport. By 1938 a large 'Ovaltine' advertisement had replaced it. The station was completely refurbished between 1984 and 1986 by London Transport architects whose tiling scheme was inspired by the bright lights and lively atmosphere of the Circus. |