For over 150 years, design on our transport network has shaped how London looks. 🚇 Head out for a fun day out and discover some of London’s most popular transport design icons. 🇬🇧
Baker Street
Visit one of the first stations to have Underground platforms. 🚇 Platforms 5 and 6 at Baker Street date to1865 and are the work of Sir John Fowler. 😲
Leslie Green’s tiles
Admire architect Leslie Green’s iconic bottle green tiles at Regent’s Park station. The colour patterned platforms date to the early 1900s. 💚
Leslie Green’s stations
Continue in Leslie Green’s footsteps and see his trademark style at Russell Square. The oxblood red terracotta exterior and ceramic tiled interior will take your breath away. 🚉
Piccadilly Circus
Architect Charles Holden redesigned Piccadilly Circus in 1928 to make room for more customers. The station’s columns and use of marble and bronze reflect the posh shops above ground along Regent Street. 🛍
SS Broadway
London Underground’s former headquarters above St. James’s Park station is one of Charles Holden’s most revolutionary works. It was once the tallest office building in London! 🏙
Westminster station
Marvel at the deep levels and impressive engineering of Westminster station, opened in 1999. ⚙️ The crisscrossing escalators, steel and exposed concrete make for a dramatic experience.
Embankment station
You can hear the Mind the Gap announcement across the Underground network. 🔊 But at Embankment station you can hear the original recording from 1969 by actor Oswald Laurence. 😲
Tube map
Since Harry Beck created the London Underground map in 1931 it’s become one of the most famous maps in the world. 🌎 See it on the Tube or at our stations or explore our range of Tube maps online to help you get around. 🗺
Routemaster
London’s iconic red Routemaster bus first entered service in the 1950s. 🚌 See models, prints and historic Routemaster buses at London Transport Museum. Or take a ride on the New Routemaster, inspired by the original buses’ design. ❤️
Black cabs
London’s black cab drivers need to learn 25,000 streets across the City before gaining their license. 🚖 Hail one of the distinctive cabs in the street, at a taxi rank or book by phone or app. ☎️
Hungry for more transport history?
Visit London Transport Museum in Covent Garden for more transport design and history. The museum tells the story of London and its transport system over the past 200 years. There are over 450,000 items on display!
Some of Charles Holden’s designs at the southern end of the Northern line are very impressive, also on the Piccadilly line (Sudbury Town, Arnos Grove etc). The 1868 wrought ironwork at the main exit from South Kensington is worth a look, and the underground passageway linking that station directly to the museums should be walked at least once. Gants Hill with its tower and Newbury Park with its impressive covered car park are both worth seeing, and Loughton’s building reflects that section of the Central line’s origins as part of the Eastern Counties Railway, which subsequently became the Great Eastern after various amalgamations.