The Morden Extension: The Tube's Neglected Masterpiece

Some of the Tube’s most famous stations include Arnos Grove, Southgate and Sudbury Town, their radical design continuing to inspire almost a century on. The vision of Charles Holden, the Underground’s most famous architect, he also worked on more gargantuan projects such as 55 Broadway and UCL’s Senate House. Some of his most intrepid but underappreciated work though can be found on the Northern Line’s faded southern stretch.

In the 1920s it was decided to extend the Northern Line both to the north and south (though it wouldn’t actually be known as that until 1937, in favour of cringeworthy portmanteau monikers such as Mordenware and Medgway). Frank Pick, who became CEO of the London Transport Board in 1933, first met Holden in 1915 as a fellow founding member of the Design and Industries Association. But it wasn’t until 1924 that he first commissioned work from Holden. His first design, a side entrance to Westminster Underground Station, led to a flood of further commissions. Through his success Holden came to shape much of the Tube as we still know it today.

Holden’s earlier Edwardian designs already hinted at his distinctive future style. The Central Bristol Library, built in 1906 and one of his first major commissions, already embodied many of the features associated with his later work. While influenced by the Tudor style it is an undeniably modern building too, as demonstrated by its clean spartan lines and vigorous stonework. The British Medical Association Building, completed in 1908, shows these trends further developing. The three lower levels are clad in Cornish granite while the upper levels feature the Portland stone he was always so fond of. It’s a stark building, its unique take on classical decoration giving it an almost unfinished appearance. The slit-like windows of the upper levels, encased in stone, are reminiscent of the Lycian rock tombs of south-western Turkey. It’s not hard to imagine ancient spirits rambling within, ignorant of the roaring traffic below. After the war Holden was employed by the Imperial War Graves Commission, and in 1920 was promoted to fourth principal architect. In his design for the New Zealand Memorial at Buttes New British Cemetery his enthusiasm for simplicity emerges even stronger. Bound by an unremarkable portico of Tuscan columns, at either end a pair of sinister pavilions glower over the site, classical monuments combined with First World War pillboxes. And all in the inevitable Portland stone. 

At the 1924 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley we first see the genesis of the Morden Extension stations. The pavilion Holden designed for the Underground Group was a strikingly simple plan, favouring bold geometric design over external decoration. Though possibly never executed, the concept would germinate several years later when Holden was commissioned to design the stations of the Morden extension. Working on heavily restricted corner sites, Holden developed an angular ‘folding screen’ entrance plan, easily adaptable to different requirements. Wrapped in gleaming Portland stone (what else) with vast sheets of glass, they proclaim modernity to the lines of red-brick Victorian buildings around them. Holden himself stated "I discovered the significance of form as distinct from the tricks of architectural ornament. The building would take on a character of its own, often requiring little in the way of embellishment and finally confirmed my slogan 'when in doubt leave it out'". Though discussing the Senate House, one of his greatest achievements, the principles could just as easily be applied to his stations along the Morden extension.

Working in an office earlier this year, I overhead one woman describe her commute. 

‘I live in Colliers Wood, which is on the Northern Line. But it’s a really nasty line’.

 Staying in Tooting recently I decided to investigate myself. The exteriors of the stations remain much the same as a century ago, though those south of Balham are noticeably dirtier. The Portland stone facades of Tooting Bec, Tooting Broadway, South Wimbledon and Colliers Wood are coated with muck while Morden has been smothered beneath a post-war office block. The interiors of the stations suffer a similar level of neglect, whether that be accumulations of grot or mysterious spatters and dissolved clumps of paint. In contrast Balham appears almost spotless, it’s façade scrubbed clean and its interior sparkling white. Even the station tiles seem to gleam more. Above the shops remain the vestiges of their predecessors, such as one sign reading ‘newsagent’, another ‘confectioner’. The next station along, Clapham South, is dwarfed by the 1930’s block of flats built over it, Westbury Court. But rather than drowning Holden’s design it contributes to it, the green crittall windows and art deco flourishes giving the entire site a blast of interwar confidence, even if many of the flats do feel somewhat neglected today. 

The Northern Line might be in need of some love and care, but to dismiss it as a ‘nasty line’ is to dismiss the bold vision with which it was constructed. Beneath the dust and dirt it’s still possible to admire the beauty of Charles Holden’s design. And though faded, his stations remain beacons to the areas around them.