Bounds Green tube station
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bounds Green | |
 |
|
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Place | Bounds Green |
| Local authority | Haringey |
| Operations | |
| Managed by | London Underground |
| Platforms in use | 2 |
| Annual entry/exit | 4.768 million |
| Transport for London | |
| Zone | 3 and 4 |
| History | |
| Key dates | Opened 19 September 1932 |
| Transport for London List of London stations: Underground | National Rail |
|
Bounds Green tube station is a London Underground station, located at the junction of Bounds Green Road and Brownlow Road, in North London.
The station is on the Piccadilly Line, between Wood Green and Arnos Grove stations, and is on the boundary between Travelcard Zone 3 and Zone 4.
Like all stations on the Cockfosters extension, Bounds Green station which opened on September 19, 1932, set new aesthetic standards, not previously seen on London's Underground. During the planning period of the extension to Cockfosters, alternate names for this station, (Wood Green North) and (Brownlow Road), were considered but rejected.
Architecturally, this tube station, designed in the typical "Box-style" of the architect Charles Holden by his colleague C. H. James, is a well-preserved example of the modernist house style of London Transport in the 1930s. The octagonal frontage is flanked by a ventilation tower.
The sub-surface areas of the station are tiled in biscuit coloured tiles lined with red friezes. The station tunnels have, in common with those of Southgate, a diameter of 640 centimetres. In contrast, the much busier Wood Green, Turnpike Lane and Manor House have 700 centimetre diameter platform tunnels. The construction of "suicide pits" between the rails was also innovative. These were built in connection with a system of passageways under the platforms to give access to the track.
On 13 October 1940, the station and the surrounding houses were bombed. The blast caused the north end of the westbound tunnel to collapse, killing or injuring many people. The train service was disrupted for two months. When the damage was repaired the platform walls were not retiled. In 1994 the station was renovated and the missing tiles were replaced. A memorial plaque (at the north end of the westbound platform) erroneously commemorates "sixteen Belgian refugees and... three British citizens who died" in the attack. The records of the civilian deaths held by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission indicate that in fact sixteen people died at the scene - only three of whom were Belgian - with a seventeenth dying in hospital the following day. Approximately twenty people were injured, but survived.
Nearby places:
| Preceding station | Underground Lines | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wood Green | Piccadilly Line | Arnos Grove | ||
