Southgate station – an appraisal

The fact Cockfosters station – an appraisal was popular prompted me to dig out this further look at one of the Piccadilly line’s iconic tube stations. Although we regularly visited Southgate in the 1960s, at no time was the Piccadilly line ever used this far. However the station certainly is remembered because this was where we changed buses for Winchmore Hill. From East London it was certainly a bit of a faff trying to get to this part of North London. Surprisingly heading into London itself wasn’t a problem because we had both the Liverpool Street-Shenfield and the Central lines and then the rest of the tube system was easily attained.

The 123 bus was of course the natural route we took, after having taken a local bus initially and then changed to the 123 in Cranbrook Road somewhere about where Wests department store was. The 123 did go to Winchmore Hill Green Dragon Lane but not until about 1977. It rather went to Manor House so from there we had to get another bus to I think first, Turnpike Lane (and of course that tube station I remember too in those early days), then another to Southgate and so on. Yes it was a fair bit of hassle but in them days, the only way really to do such things was by means of Red Rover tickets. Essentially the London Underground and BR (E) were out of bounds to those more lowly of us who wanted to make a substantial trip (apart from a straightforward run into town) like a day enjoying the sights of London or the Thames at Richmond or even Hampton Court (as we did sometimes) thus the ubiquitous Red Rover ticket was the option. And then it was a simple case of catching a 25 bus (sometimes it would be a RT with a rooftop number) all the way to Oxford Street or Victoria & continuing via other bus services. Otherwise it was the 123 bus etc for Southgate and Winchmore Hill – and at other times we merely enjoyed the delights of Valentines or Barking Parks.

Having known Southgate station for such a long time, even so its difficult to write about that because so much has been extolled about its unique design! And I’m sure there’s nothing new in terms of knowledge in this post even though its meant to be a fresh look at the station! So let’s cut to the chase and go where no-one has gone before 🙂

But first let it be known Southgate station has the first of the tranche of single word station names on this part of the Piccadilly Line – eg Southgate, Oakwood and Cockfosters. At the time of the opening of the extension, the eighteen preceding stations (since Knightsbridge) had at least a double word name – Holborn was once Holborn (Kingsway) and Arsenal was once Arsenal (Highbury Hill). And yes, Oakwood was Enfield West to begin with but that didn’t last long.

The ‘Tesla Coil’ – the spire that gives the station its futurist look.

Its been claimed the station’s tesla coil was the original inspiration for the Daleks’ stalk and eye. I think its just an assumption, its not borne by facts. Its a nice idea though 🙂 In the photographs of old that can be seen on this page the station’s spire clearly sports a shiny silver ball on top of the tesla coil. Like several others of these modernist Holden styled tube stations there’s a certain amount of neglect and it shows.

Southgate has a notable bus station interchange, a rarity by Charles Holden and a practice which was applied at Cockfosters too.

Essentially Southgate is a radical departure in terms of architecture sensibilities on the extension to Cockfosters. Its clearly an art deco building with aspirations of the future. The Guardian says “Hovering over the ground like an art-deco flying saucer, Southgate is the most futuristic of the many underground stations Charles Holden designed…” Indeed there may be a metaphor behind Southgate that I have not seen postulated anywhere else.

What do I mean by this? Let’s think about it for a second, the trains and platforms are in a tunnel, the station buildings are above ground (as per the tweet show above) and the extension itself was about the future. Hence the idea of Southgate station is perhaps of being one that flies above its trains and platforms. One reasonably can’t have a typical Holden design to convey that metaphor so this unique style was drawn up and thus we have a flying saucer at Southgate! Was Holden in fact thinking in this particular way when he designed the station? That’s one thing we’ll never know.

A symphony of architecture and @JohnstonJourney #typeface. The exquisite #charlesholden station at #southgate pic.twitter.com/6HCWWF9BzP

— Mark Ovenden (@markovenden) July 30, 2017

Above: A tweet that shows Southgate station looking like a…. The station opened on 13 March 1933 along with Oakwood (initially Enfield West.)

Another view of the station and its bus stands. August 2017. As the next picture shows a considerable amount of expense and effort was made in giving Charles Holden’s stations a super smoothed look.

Embed from Getty Images

A rare picture of Southgate station under construction.

As mentioned in the Cockfosters – an appraisal post, initially this form of work was employed on the new style Piccadilly line stations, but it was soon found to be time consuming and expensive. Thus by the time Enfield West (Oakwood) had been reached it was used less. At Cockfosters station the concrete smoothing was used only very selectively. Fortunately the wooden grain look has given the terminus a very unique look especially in terms of a homage to the farmyard barns of Hertfordshire.

When Southgate station was built it was in a somewhat rural setting with a horse sited trough in front of the main entrance! I think the light pylons were added soon after opening and the horse trough removed about the same time. Image: Enfield Dispatch.

Colourised picture of Southgate station specially done for the 2024 version of this post! This is how the station would have been soon after opening however some detail has had to be missed off including the actual white blue squares around the base of the main station building. The horse trough and gas lamp posts have gone and are replaced by the light pylons and other modern street lighting. The image was sourced from a larger black & white one at Cogent Heritage.

Beyond Arnos Grove the Piccadilly Line traverses Arnos Park viaduct (see this article on the viaduct) before venturing onto a lengthy hillside section of line. The land here mainly falls to the west. Before long the line reaches the substantial cutting which forms the southern approach to the Southgate tunnels. The famed tube station can be found sited almost at the far end of these tunnels – the most northerly tube sized tunnels on the entire system.

Southgate station with rush hour arrivals.

Daylight can be seen from the westbound platform at Southgate. Its about two carriages length from the platform ends to the brick lined cutting.

Southgate is the only station on the entire tube that has its own set of tunnels. Nowhere else on the tube are there any tunnels that are so short. As soon as the train enters the tunnel from the north its just a couple of carriages or so before it arrives in Southgate station!

The station platforms at Southgate are basically similar to all the others on the 1930’s extension from Finsbury Park. There is a difference however! Southgate station (and Bounds Green) features a more economical version of the design which was styled at Manor House, Turnpike Lane and Wood Green.

Several of the stations north of Finsbury Park have letter boxes in differing locations. The one at Southgate was clearly for the former train guard’s use as it is towards the rear of the platforms.

Post box for the train guards of old!

The lower hall at Southgate, in much the same style as every other station on the line – with certain exceptions made in order to economise on expense.

Like Bounds Green, Southgate has two escalators with a fixed central staircase. Both had three operational escalators when originally built. The escalators at Southgate are the most northernmost ones to be found on London’s tube system.

Southgate’s escalators. Built in 1991, vintage style panelling was used to give them a historic look. The view looking up towards the centrepiece of the main roof is quite clear and the concentric rings can easily be seen.

The top and bottom end of the escalators sport Waygood Otis symbols as part of the station’s heritage feel.

As the poster image below shows, the reason for this heritage feel to the station’s escalators is because its Grade II* listed. Evidently modern escalators with stainless steel sides and tops would have not worked here even though it has indeed been done at a couple of other listed tube stations.

1991 poster showing the old style new escalators to be built. Repro image created by the author.

The station has the obligatory clock however its one that’s traditional – very much similar to the self-winding clocks seen on much of the tube system. The modern style clock without numerals which is part of Holden’s signature work, is in fact on the wall of the bus station next door.

The windows with clock above the escalator bank.

The passimeter (the ticket office) is unusual because it sports a circular roof – strangely a sort of hat if one likes. If one looks at that – there’s evidently a lot of ‘UFO’ about it! The light domes beneath the canopy look like landing feet or anti-gravity thrusters. Its as if the esoteric was truly a part of Southgate station. The passimeter canopy is essentially a miniature UFO hovering over the ticket hall! This detail no doubt complements the circular interior and the one solitary support that holds up the entire roof.

The ticket office’s passimeter and roof support.

Heritage information and TfL award plaque (2008)

The western exit with one of the light towers (or pylons) visible. Note also the old style ceiling light shades. There were once three station entrances. The west and north sides remain. That on the east has been removed. The station has two of these light towers – the only other station that has these is Oakwood with a solitary example.

Southgate is the last station on the Cockfosters extension to use the blue colour used right across the tube system for the station name boards. Very unusually both Oakwood and Cockfosters use black colours. There doesn’t seem to be anything to explain why this change in house style occurs at these last two stations.

The station is noted as a Holden classic. There’s one question however. Was it designed wholly by Charles Holden? Or someone else? I ask this because one of his assistants, Charles Hutton, designed Arnos Grove station, a radical departure from the brick box with a concrete lid concept in employing a fully circular structure compared to the other stations on the new line. I would think somehow Charles Holden was so emboldened by Hutton’s circular design that he developed the concept much further at Southgate. In any event it wasn’t just Holden’s work at Southgate for Stanley Heaps also made a substantial contribution too.

The station buildings are Grade II* listed (having been upgraded from Grade II in 2009.) The areas immediately outside the station have seen the original landscaping layout from the 1930s partially restored. Despite being built at the same time, the bus station and shopping parades are not currently listed although the council proposes this be changed.

The bus station and parade. Notice the classic drop lights on the other side of the Parade.

There are many issues which the council believes spoils the overall character of the unique station. These include poorly sited street furniture, badly maintained shop units and arcades, advertising that detracts from the overall site character, wrong types of windows used when the old ones get replaced and so on. The council believes more restoration of the original 1930s street lamps, street furniture and other features would help to make the overall area more aesthetically pleasing

Tube station, bus station, a bus, classic lamp posts and the clock!

It has been claimed Southgate bus station is the only one designed by Charles Holden. I dont think that is necessarily accurate for Turnpike Lane also had a Holden bus station and even Cockfosters sports one that complements its semi-rural surroundings, far in excess of the simple interchanges provided at Holden’s other stations such as South Harrow.

A substantially detailed view of the bus station clock.

Holden clearly wanted to make interchanges with local bus services an essential part of his designs, but at both Turnpike Lane and Southgate he had the land available to expand his ideas further and these two locations sport proper bus stations. Despite its excellent design, Cockfosters has a compromise of sorts because a fully fledged bus station next to the station itself wasn’t possible. Its placed on the opposite side of the road instead and is one of the very few locations where one can find Holden designed structures either side of a road.

Station Parade & 1930s style lamp post.

Some may recognise these lamp posts also being used at Sudbury Town thus the concept dates from late 1930/early 1931. There is a difference though. The ones at Southgate are likely to be original whilst those at Sudbury Town are said to be modern replacements according to Historic England. This need to be checked as Sudbury Town has three distinct types of lamp post design. One style was used for Southgate, presumably the most aesthetically pleasing of the three, whereas Oakwood acquired the second variation of these. These lamp posts were almost ubiquitous to Holden. The could be found at some depots too and were also part of street lighting on the approach to his stations. Larger versions of these an be found at Senate House (University of London) – which is said to have been Holden’s magnum opus. Indeed he viewed Senate House as his best work and not Southgate, Cockfosters, Sudbury Town, Clapham South, Tooting Bec or any of the others about the London Underground system.

The rear of the shopping parade on Crown Lane, Southgate, with its huge roundel. Few admirers of Holden’s work know this is here because its quite hidden away from the main parade and station area. Its worth taking a look at this side of the entire Southgate development and seeing how Holden wished to create a means of drawing people’s attention to the fact a tube station could be found nearby.

The passageway from Crown Lane leading directly to the station, note curved windows and styles of lighting including further examples of drop down shades.

The Southgate station pylons, or light towers as the tube call them, initially look alike however they are very different. The northern one is somewhat smaller in girth compared to the southern pylon. and its the only example of four built (others at Oakwood and Turnpike Lane) that has a marble like embellishment on the pillar above the seating. Sadly the full impact these days of the appearance of the station at Southgate and its pylons/light towers is somewhat marred by the everyday street furniture we have come to expect on our high streets.

Who designed these fantastic station pylons? Historic England has this to say of these pylons: “They were erected in 1933 to the designs of Stanley A. Heaps for the London Passenger Transport Board, based on a design by Charles Holden…” From this it seems the circular bus shelter designed by Holden in the 1920’s was used and Heaps developed these further to produce the final designs.

In reference to Holden’s design, these pictures from Pinterest illustrate the concept alluded to:

  

These shelters are sited in South London, and possibly related to the new bus routes linking to Morden station, opened 1924. A square type was also designed by Holden, and an adapted version of this used at some tube stations. Stanley Heaps clearly added a much larger central pole that doubled as a light tower, circular seating and a huge roundel. In a way, I imagine he wanted to show he, like Holden, could think up ultra modernist and immensely large designs too! Later on in the 1930s one did get to see some of Heap’s far more modern work such as St. John’s Wood. Alas no others were built and exist only as architectural drawings for the failed Northern line extensions.

The northern pylon (that facing Chase Side) is apparently original whilst the southern one (opposite The Bourne) has been rebuilt. None of these had seats at least for the first few months of station opening. Seats were added somewhat later.

As I have mentioned before Southgate has many examples of the original 1930s style of lighting which used to be common throughout the stations between Finsbury Park and Cockfosters. These particular ones shown below are within the station entrances, and there are also some examples of the dropped shade type once used on the platforms here and other underground stations such as Manor House and Bounds Green.

A different style of lamp shade in the Parade. These were quite numerous when the station was first built. These examples are a variant on the ones that were first used on the Piccadilly line extension in the 1930s. Those ones gave the station platforms a very unique and modern appearance. Like all other things these were removed during WWII and the station platforms are now lit in the far more traditional ways.

A rarer 1930s dropped glass shade light fixture which still exists at Southgate station.

Beyond the station the tube itself is in a very short section of tunnel leading out onto the Southgate viaduct, the second major such structure on the Piccadilly line extension. Its not more than 150 metres as the crow flies from the station’s entrance before one can spot tube trains in the open!

The tunnel mouths north of Southgate station. The full sized tunnel portals are evident.

Heathrow bound 73 tube stock at Park Road, Southgate heading for the station.

The substantial Southgate viaduct extends for a good distance north of the station.

2024 update:

The larger station clock had been away for renovation for some time – finally in 2024 it was back once again!

Southgate Station's Art Deco clock returns following renovation

The Charles Holden timepiece is now back in its rightful position in Station Parade following a revamp carried out by Cumbria Clock Companyhttps://t.co/yCJzLhiJCf

— Enfield Dispatch (@EnfieldDispatch) July 24, 2024

This post was first written in November 2017 consisting of one of a sixteen part series on the Piccadilly line’s eastern extension stations between Manor House and Cockfosters. It could not be used on London Rail like the other posts as all the images were missing. These had to be found and in a couple of instances entirely new images have been used in lieu of the original! Some changes to the text was undertaken plus a different introduction added.

The aim of these articles was to try and give a somewhat fresher look at the work of Charles Holden and the initial focus was on the Cockfosters extension. Suffice to say, the stress of trying to write a detailed analysis of each station (sixteen posts in all) plus the substantial amount of research and photography over many weeks trying to capture details others might have missed meant a corresponding series covering Holden’s work on the west side of the system to Hounslow and South Harrow were dropped after one post had been done. Certainly I was in no mind to complete a multi part appraisal of those other Holden stations. Further, as things stand, I don’t think I shall be retrieving any of the others in the original sixteen part series (two posts for each station) as restoring this one extra post was very time consuming.