Manor House Tube Station, 1932

Comment by Liz on May 17, 2008 at 8:22

Like a place out of a Fritz Lang movie

Comment by StephenBln on May 17, 2008 at 9:37

Over on the right, there was a window in the wall, which was the season ticket office. From the 1950s onwards, Red Rover Tickets could also be purchased here and during the summer holidays, groups of school kids would be seen lining up to get their tickets. This layout remained the same until the 1970s, when the entrance gates were installed.

Comment by Hugh on July 21, 2008 at 19:04

I found the following this morning on the Archaeology Data Service website:

Manor House was one of the stations opened on the first section of the Piccadilly line extension. This first section was 4.47 miles from Finsbury Park to Arnos Grove, opened on 19th September 1932 to the designs of Charles Holden. The tube station was excavated below the intersection of Seven Sisters Road and Green Lanes. Access to the subsurface ticket hall was via nine stairways located at various points around the road junction, and the only ground level structures were a tram shelter on Green Lanes and a tram station on Seven Sisters Road by which interchange between road and Underground services could be made completely under cover. The subsurface ticket hall was designed around the most efficient flow of traffic, which resulted in an asymmetrical plan with no wasted corners or spaces; and 'dead' areas were utilised for the installation of kiosks or other facilities. The ceiling was decorated with a pattern or circular mouldings which fitted the awkward shape. The tunnels were lined to give an elliptical profile enabling furniture and equipment to be recessed without disturbing the general line and also lessening the distortion of posters on the walls. Wall surfaces were finished with biscuit-cream tiles, relieved by narrow bands of blue tiles around the archways, tunnel mouth and recesses, and with further bands along the platform and trackside.

Aha, I thought, this is what Steve was talking about. So, on my way into town I stopped and asked at the information office what they knew. A helpful chap showed me where the two exits used to be (See photo below). They did a very good job of hiding the work. He also showed me the store cupboard to the left of the pic and you can still see evidence of the old stairway.

Comment by alistairj on July 23, 2008 at 23:13

Interesting - I couldn't work out where the 1932 picture was taken from and this I think explains it as where the photographer stood has been filled in?

Comment by John McMullan on July 24, 2008 at 0:13

I love the fact that you guys are so meticulous about this. I bet they never had piped classical music back then....

Comment by StephenBln on July 24, 2008 at 13:50

The information window shown on Hugh's photo is reasonably new and probably dates from when the automatic gates were installed at the station. I imagine that the original 'Passimeter' ticket office was removed at that time, necessitating a new ticket office. The rounded window area is 'new' and wasn't originally there:

The 'Season Ticket window' where we bought our ' 2/6 child Red Rovers' can just about be seen here:

Comment by John Shulver on August 29, 2020 at 17:26

Those commuters look so orderly and respectful of each other.  How nice.

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