The station opened in 1926 as part of the Morden extension of the City & South London Railway south from Clapham Common
Gloucester Road station is one of the most beautiful on the network(Image: Wikimedia Commons)
A London Underground station is so cool it has a mini art-gallery inside it. Gloucester Road station is in Zone 1 and is served by the Circle, District and Piccadilly lines.
It opened in 1926 as part of the Morden extension of the City & South London Railway south from Clapham Common, and has earned itself a reputation for being quite the spectacle. Its architectural prowess is to be admired, but it’s not the exterior beauty that makes it what it is – it’s what lies within.
A disused eastbound Tube platform has been used as a gallery since 2000. These brick nooks within the northern retaining wall have hosted artwork such as sculptures, murals, or photographs.
A large model of a white salamander holding a giant lily on a disused platform at Gloucester Road(Image: Andy Soloman/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
This is courtesy of the Art on the Underground TfL initiative. The scheme sees artists create pieces that are seen by millions of passengers everyday. The installations are meant to represent London’s diversity.
Some of the work has been from Turner prize winners, leaving the TfL pioneering in the art world. But the station hasn’t always been surrounded by positivity, with a holocaust survivor killed there.
In 1957 Teresa Lubienska, a Polish Countess who had survived Auschwitz was stabbed five times on the eastbound Piccadilly line platform and died shortly afterwards at the age of 73. The killer was never found.
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