The Anonymous Widower

Islington to the M25 By Public Transport

I had to go back to Suffolk to pick some bits and pieces up and thought that the easiest way to do this was to get to Cockfosters Station, which is just a few minutes from Junction 24 on the M25.

So I took the 141 bus to Manor House taking a few pictures and a video on the way, where I got the Piccadilly Line to Cockfosters.

The journey from the Balls Pond Road took just 35 minutes and that included a delay of two minutes at Arnos Grove station, where they changed drivers. I could even have got a bus to the M25 from Cockfosters.

As I was running early, I did make a detour at Southgate Station to take a few pictures.

The station has been sympathetically restored and still contains many of the Art Deco features.  It is still very much as it was, when I used to use it to go to Minchenden Grammar School in the early 1950s and late 1960s.

I also seem to remember reading somewhere, that the ticket barriers can be removed, so that the station can be used for period film and TV productions.  Parts of the film, The End of the Affair were shot in the station.

I just think that Southgate Station sums up everything that was so good about the designs of London Transport before the Second World War.  It was designed as a bus/tube interchange and still fulfils that function, with style and panache.

Southgate Station was one of the buildings created by the archtect, Charles Holden. If he had been of any other nationality, than British, he would be one of the most famous architects in the world.  But he was a modest man, who twice declined a knighthood.  On the other hand, his buildings speak eloquently of the quality and beauty of his work.

February 10, 2011 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Architecture, Buses, Entertainment, Films, London Underground, Trains