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
— Enfield Dispatch (@EnfieldDispatch) July 24, 2024
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
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.