Leslie Green

Leslie William Green (* 1875 in London, † August 31, 1908 ) was a British architect. He became known through numerous station building of the London Underground in the center of London in the first decade of the 20th century. Most have been preserved and still serve as an entrance to the underground stations of the Northern Line, the Bakerloo Line and the Piccadilly Line.

Biography

Green grew up in London's Maida Vale; he was the son of the architect and royal surveyor Arthur Green and his wife Emily. After completing his studies in London and Paris in 1897, he opened an architectural office. In 1902 he married Mildred Ethel Wildy and had a daughter with her. Greens early work included houses and shops in different parts of the capital. 1899 took him the Royal Institute of British Architects on as a member.

1903 Green was commissioned by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London by the U.S. financier Charles Tyson Yerkes to build station building for three at that time under construction subway lines. These lines were the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP & BR), Baker Street and Waterloo Railway ( BS & WR ) and the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway ( CCE & HR) from which later the Piccadilly, Bakerloo and Northern Line developed.

The access buildings were designed in a uniform style, which was based on the Arts and Crafts Movement. These were two -storey building with a structural steel frame - then a new method of construction, which had recently been imported from the United States. The steel frame allowed for the large interior spaces for ticketing halls and elevator shafts. The walls were covered with blood red glazed terracotta bricks. The upper floor had each large semicircular windows and above toothed cornices.

The station buildings were flat roofs, with the intention of being able to add more floors for commercial use. Many of the surviving buildings are now under monument protection. On the platform level, the stations were given a standardized tile design with the station name, an individual color scheme and repeating geometric patterns.

It was intended to open the subways in the years 1906 and 1907. The pressure imposed on him to build dozens of buildings within a short time, led to Green to health problems. He contracted tuberculosis and died in 1908 at the age of 33 years.

List of station building by Leslie Green

Piccadilly Line:

• Holloway Road
• Caledonian Road
• York Road ( closed in 1932, the building has been preserved )
• Russell Square
• Holborn (1933 through new construction replaced)
• Beach (1914 renamed Aldwych, closed since 1994, the building has been preserved )
• Covent Garden
• Leicester Square
• Down Street ( closed in 1932, the building has been preserved )
• Hyde Park Corner ( building is no longer used as access )
• Brompton Road ( closed in 1934, an elevator was preserved )
• South Kensington
• Gloucester Road

Northern Line:

• Tufnell Park
• Kentish Town
• South Kentish Town ( closed in 1924, the building has been preserved )
• Hampstead
• Belsize Park
• Chalk Farm
• Camden Town
• Mornington Crescent
• Euston ( building is no longer used as access )
• Goodge Street
• Leicester Square

Bakerloo Line:

• Edgware Road
• Oxford Circus
• Lambeth North
• Elephant & Castle