Exploring the Piccadilly Line: Houslow West, Osterley & Boston Manor

Have you ever been on a photowalk? They're lots of fun... even when they don't involve all that much walking.

Last summer I went on a Art Deco themed photowalk organised by Kate of Made by Mrs M, exploring some of the great architecture on the Piccadilly Line. We visited Rayners Lane and Sudbury Hill, Sudbury Town and Park Royal, then took a detour to Chiswick Park for lunch. Now it's time to share the final part of our day...

In the afternoon we got the Tube out to Hounslow West, planning to work our way back to Central London afterwards via a couple more stations. It turns out that we probably should have saved Hounslow West for last because it turned out to be an absolute gem.

It didn't look too promising to start with but then we reached the ticket hall and wow! What a space.

The hall has seven sides, with a huge seven-sided light hanging from the middle of the ceiling. There's an original wooden ticket counter. And the colours are fantastic: that green! combined with those pink and orange tiles! Amazing. 

 

We all practically swooned, then rushed around taking lots of photos and saying "oooh" a lot - much to the amusement of the staff! It seems they don't get a lot of groups of women showing up with cameras and going into raptures over the fixtures and fittings.

After we'd all filled our cameras up with photos of Hounslow West, we headed back along the Piccadilly line to Osterley.

 

I adore this lamp-post just outside the station. More lamp-posts should look like this!

Then it was time for our final stop of the day: Boston Manor.

 

Here we all are reflected in the windows outside the station - yet another bit of curvy architecture!

Huge thanks to Kate for organising the day, it was so much fun. Kate organised another photowalk last year (this time exploring the Northern Line)... hopefully I'll eventually get around to blogging about that one too!

Exploring the Piccadilly Line: Sudbury Town & Park Royal

On a slightly grey day last summer, six of us went on a photowalk organised by Kate from Made by Mrs M (well, six of us including the lovely Kate herself!). We spent the day visiting Art Deco stations on the Piccadilly Line... and I took so many photos that I'm blogging about the day in bits.

After our first couple of stops, we left Sudbury Hill station...

... and walked to nearby Sudbury Town...

... it was nice to get out and stretch our legs, but it's a shame the weather wasn't nicer. Ah, the joys of an English summer.

Sudbury Town turned out to have a large entrance hall...

... with a high and brilliantly blue ceiling (and matching blue clock).

The kiosk in the entrance hall was blue too (of course) - I love that zingy green and blue combo!

As well as a quirky curved kiosk, Sudbury Town has a charming curved waiting room.

Lovely benches, too!

Next we hopped back on the Piccadilly Line, travelling two stops to Park Royal. I do love the design of these stations, with all those blocks of windows.

I wonder if this was for customers to post letters to staff, or a private mailbox for the staff to use?

Over the walkway and down the stairs...

 

... to Park Royal's curved entrance hall.

Like several of the stations we visited, Park Royal has a lovely old ticket kiosk still in place - though, sadly, no longer actually used to sell tickets.

 

 

The curved hall looks great from the outside, too.

There are flats built into the same block as the station, with more lovely brickwork and curves. I've got no idea what these flats are like to live in, but the building looks very lovingly designed from the outside.

 

 

A little further up the road we found more nice brickwork and tiles, and lots more curves... as well as the Boden shop, which had a very tempting-looking sale rail in the window!

 

 

By then it was definitely time to head for lunch, so we headed back to Park Royal in search of food. I'll blog about our afternoon's Art Deco finds sometime soon...

Exploring the Piccadilly Line: Rayners Lane & Sudbury Hill

Last July I spent a day photographing Tube stations. This doesn't sound like a particularly fun day out, but it really was! There are some gorgeous old Tube stations in London, and loads of interesting details to see which you might not give a second glance to while travelling from A to B.

Kate from Made by Mrs M had organised a photowalk, to explore (and photograph) some of the Art Deco gems on the Piccadilly Line. Six of us spent the day hopping on and off the Tube, wandering round stations, taking hundreds of photos, and chatting happily the whole time.

We began the day at Rayners Lane, meeting just outside the station. How cute is that little round kiosk?

Before starting our journey along the Piccadilly Line, we popped over the road to see the Zoroastrian Centre - a very striking Art Deco building which was originally a cinema.

Then it was back to Rayners Lane to explore our first station of the day.

Here's the other side of the station entrance.

Gorgeous bricks outside the station (I can never resist some nice bricks).

The ceiling of the entrance hall - obstructed by anti-pigeon netting but lovely all the same!

Old signage on the platform.

Chipped paint on the waiting room door.

The view across to the other platform. Don't you just love all those windows?

Once everyone was finished taking photos we hopped on the next train, travelling two stops to Sudbury Hill.

There were a few decidedly non-Art-Deco details at Sudbury Hill which caught my eye.

 

 

I love all the different textures in these windows where the panes of glass have been replaced over the years.

And I know this yellow is functional, but it still looks fabulous against the black.

A couple of old signs.

And some new ones - whatever you do, don't go through that door!

Nice windows, pale concrete, gorgeous bricks and zig-zagging colour co-ordinated pipes.

 The simple but stylish walkway over the tracks.

Another fine entrance hall ceiling.

And the smart station entrance. I do rather adore that font!

As you might have guessed by now, I took loads of photos during the day so I'm splitting it into several blog posts. More Tube stations will be popping up on my blog sometime soon!