The Iconic Underground Stations of Leslie Green 

I'd have to say, you doing an ad, is more entertaining than some other youtuber doing a whole video lol.

Leslie Green was not only an artist but incredibly smart. Not only are these stations made to last with room for development. Using steel in itself was an advanced choice. Truly iconic. And not in the way an estate agent would use that term.

My favourite tube architect and antihero con artist in the same video.

26 December 1953 Goodge Street Station was a Transit centre for soldiers on their way overseas. I committed the awful crime of using the lift - Orficers only dontcha know! - so ended up carrying my kit back up only to come down again!!!!

What is cool is I just watched a future video on Patron and actually said to myself "Oh that is a Leslie Green Station" When one of them popped up in the video #Knowledge it is a little scary how much a mope in Atlanta can actually know about the London Underground thanks to Jago's hard work and videos

As soon as you mentioned Chicago, I realised Green's designs are reminiscent of Louis Sullivan! Never realised this before - many thanks Jago

"I blame estate agents." Translate that into Latin and you've got yourself a proper motto.

The Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh was working around the same time and he would have been a person who I would have loved to have designed tube stations either in London or Glasgow

When the style of the sponsorship block fits so well in the usual content style, that it takes you 15 sec to realize you are watching the sponsorship ad.

Only 33 when he died, what wonderful buildings he created in such a short space of time.

I'll give you credit. I hate ads, but you managed to make yours amusing and as unobtrusive as possible. Well done, Jago.

The Leslie Green Station i use to most over the years is 'Holloway Road' i come out and walk to the Coronet pub which us 'Joe Meek'(Telstar Man) fans use regular. Marc In Bletchley Towers G6XEG

Russell Square is my favorite LG station. I heard the disused Euston is going to be or has been demolished. York Road is still there looking as splendid as it did when it was built. I also recall seeing an old photograph of Kings Cross which was one of the largest of his Stations. Thank you for the time and effort you put into these great videos. 👊

Charles Yerkes makes me proud(DAMN proud Lol...)to be an American. He was a Car Salesman BEFORE Car Salesmen BECAME Car Salesmen!

Well done Jago . My favourite has to be Kilburn Park. Would love to see the ox blood station at York Road station reopen for the Camden High Line

Really eye opening - while I used the Underground including the District line for many years I never paid much attention to the architecture. It was really interesting to look at these buildings and their fixtures and fittings in a way that most hurried commuters do not have the time to do. Sad that Leslie Green's life was cut so short...

I love these blood red tiles on the exteriors of those stations. Great video

RIP chalk farm cab office @1:08. I spent most saturday mornings aged 22-28 drunkenly waiting for a cab to take me back to Harrow after a heavy night in the electric ballroom! Your videos are the ultimate nostalgia trip Jago!

I always thought that the Leslie Green stations rather gloomy, but it could be because maintenance of the exterior has been poor. The lovely, shiny oxblood tiles are now dull and worn. Next time I pass one, I shall look with a new appreciation.

The closed and fenced York Road station was featured in Episode 4 of the 1997 show "McCallum". The villian used this station as a hideout. This series can be found on Acorn TV and is worth watching. This episode shows both outdoor and inside views of this lovely station. Cheers from the Lone Star State.

He does a good job of these videos. 👍🏻

The ability to add extra stories over a station building is very clever. The steel framing design must be ingenious.

The Victorians were some of the finest designers and architects this country has ever produced. So much of it stands the test of time whereas the hideous post-war buildings can’t get bulldozed fast enough for me. And I say that as someone who specialises in art and architecture of the 50’s - 70’s.

I am going to Hazzard a guess you are not only enjoying making these tales from the Tube but doing a great job with it too ;)

Somebody in the Physics Department at King's College had the office behind the arched window of Strand/Aldwych station back in the 80s, it made for a rather gloomier than expected room if I remember correctly. My sister has a tale of trying to buy a train ticket to Goostrey at Euston Station, to visit me at Jodrell Bank, and being repeatedly told that she needed to use the Underground to get to Goodge Street.

There cannot be anywhere in the world that has such a history as the London Underground. From the iconic buildings of magnificent design and durability to the rolling stock and infrastructure and the simplicity of the original Tube map. Green, Holden, Pick, Beck - what would it have been like without them?

At 6:36 I have to admire your dedication to filming the titular subject without distraction.

Another excellent video there Jago, getting the sponsorship message done first is a good approach rather than interrupting the flow of the video.

Mornington Crescent is a phenomenomal station. The architecture is breathtaking

Good to see you got out in the recent snow! These stations are iconic and still look superb over 100 years later. I used Russel Square station recently, it’s a delight!

Sunny Goodge Street, where a violent hash smoker shook a chocolate machine (according to Donovan). The chocolate machine that was mounted in the wall at platform level in the late 1960's is long gone but I still look for it.

I used to work in the office with those arc windows just above the covent garden station. It was nothing special but it had a terrace out back that would open up to the whole block. Quite the maze of staircases and balconies there that you could only get to if you went through one of the buildings. It was a nice quiet spot in the middle of the bustle :)

Some of my favourite London Underground stations. Thank you

Thank you, thank you, thank you for this video! I love the iconic look of the oxblood red station buildings and the art nouveau touches (I'm originally from Vienna where we do love a bit of art nouveau (Jugendstil) - perhaps you should go on a trip there to explore & make videos about the U Bahn history Austria's beautiful capital 😀 ) and I've been waiting for you to make this video focused on Leslie Green's legacy. Dankeschön! 👏

Glazed tile facades were such a beautiful aspect of Art Nouveau architecture (and to be fair, other styles as well but less prominently). I wouldn't mind having buildings integrate them again.

Thank you for your research. Would you say that Green might be London's answer to Charles Rennie Macintosh? Use one side of the paper only.

Definitely Russell Square. I am so glad you made this video - I didn't realize how much I was craving a Leslie Green video from you until I saw it posted! Cheers.

Take a good long look,at Grand Central Terminal,that is also,thankfully,an Art Noveau treasure!! The interior,is worth any trip to New York! And by the way,it was designed in the same period as was London's stations! Thank you for a beautiful architectural side trip,makes touring London that more interesting 😊! Now all you need to do,is start a quiz program,on whos the Architect,and since you've got everything from 1000 A.D.,forward,it definitely would keep people on their toes! Thanks again,Jago!! 🏦🏨🏣🏢🏡🏠🧱🏗🏛🛖🏚🏘🏚🏨🏦🏥🏤🏣

Jsgo Hazard braving the April snow 🌨 showers to bring us the next installment

I really admire the work that goes into making these, and your doing a service documenting the history of these places for future generations!

Great videos, Jago. Very happy for your channel's success. As a Bristolian who moved to Houston, Texas 10 years ago, I love dipping into your videos each day. There's something comforting and reassuring about watching videos of a person with your dedication muse over the biggest array of topics, places, buildings, train stations, etc. I lived in London and Kent during my final 15 years in England, so it's great to see a lot of familiar sights. I just watched your Thamesmead video. I lived there on Carnoustie Close between 2001 and 2009 in a new-build that backed onto the river. It was on the more pleasant fringes of Thamesmead. Certainly an interesting part of London! Before that I lived in Gravesend, Sidcup, Beckenham, then finished up in Ealing for a few months before jetting over here.

What a fantastic video, just over 7 minutes with an advert, but end-to-end well made and interesting to watch. Very sad about the young Leslie Green going so soon - your voice carries the history and sadness equally well. Bravo Jago, bravo.

Goodge Street has always been a favourite. Used to feel like a time capsule.

Yes, up there with the K6 'phone box and the AEC Routemaster as an enduring London icon.

Love the Leslie Green stations, another video on the platform designs would be fantastic.

My Great Grandfather was from the Leslie Clan . Their Motto was Grip Fast on the Heraldry

Favourites are too many - but special mention must be made of Chalk Farm....one of my favourites of all of my favourites.

Mornington Crescent. Only used it the once but the woodwork is amazing.

Hello from Stateside, I am a great fan of Lambeth North. While I realize it was heavily restored after damage in WWII it just feels right with its smallish ticket hall and lifts. I spent a week based at a hotel just up the road next to a less recognized station up the road from it and one of my favorite Italian restaurants in London was just across the street I am hoping when things reopen to more normal travel I will again get the chance to make Lambeth North home base.

Great edu-tainment video! Leslie Green sure knew how to make the tube stylish. The platforms of his stations sometimes feel like Roman baths with the tiling and the serif font of the station names. I have only been to some Leslie Green stations, but maybe the best one is Convent Garden since it still has the lifts and separate entrance/exit areas. I haven't been on or off at Mornington Crescent but I like the name of that station and there's the secret about how it's not shown accurately on the modern map in relation to the bypass

Underrated icons of London. Great vid

Tiling video? Yes please!

Iconic video on iconic stations. Thank you Mr. Hazard.

Beautiful stations

I happen to really like the oxblood red tiles that were so fashionable in the early days of railway expansion in London. I have never seen that colour or style of tiling anywhere in Australia. However, although I've travelled somewhat, I'm mostly familiar with the two eastern seaboard states of New South Wales and Queensland. N.S.W. was heavily influenced by British Rail, especially rolling stock and station design. But not to inclusion of those magnificent oxblood red tiles. Keep fascinating me Jago!

Thank you for this well built episode. I realized that London's subways(I know underground, but I'm a Yank) have above ground entrance building; where in say New York, Paris, San Francisco, the entrance is a stair in the sidewalk down to a mezzanine(ticket hall). May have much to do with the era, but New York and Paris started about the same time (early 20th Century).

All your videos are interesting, but this was a particularly interesting one. I've always been fascinated by the architecture so it's really nice to hear the story behind it and how the buildings were constructed. Yes, please, to a video about the tiling and the platforms. And you've shown two local tube stations from my past in the one video!

Surf shark and fans of the underground. What an amazing Venn diagram

Another top quality video & insight of the underground stations I've seen & some I've not in the past 40 years of my working life. Please keep it up 👍

enjoy these videos even though i live on the other side of the earth , big thanks

The disused Brompton station between Knightsbridge and South Kensington nice, at least the exterior. Love it when the pantomime villain Charles Tyson Yerkes makes an appearance!

Crazy to think how different the stations would be if he'd been Leslie Brown.

what is less well known is that the Art Nouvou movement in the UK was pioneered in Glasgow

I always love popping in to the Food & Wine place on the corner of Chalk Farm station when I'm up Camden way 👍

I've been waiting for this sort of thing for some time as I knew so little about it. It's as striking and contemporary as the stations of the Paris Metro and so utterly different. The best way to describe the difference it is that it's like the French architects knocked back the absinthe till 2 a.m. while our lot drank the evening away on strong pots of Nambarrie and were in bed by ten thirty. At least it explains the cost effective enamel tiling colour on one hand and ten foot tall wrought iron triffids guarding the entrances on the other. In fact Leslie Green would have just missed Fulgence Bienvenue, a one armed engineer arriving on the scene to dig his Metro around 1899 +/- .

Anyone noticed the dented car on 2:13 ?

Thanks for another iconic video, Jago. Those buildings are not only architectural and artistic masterpieces, but they were also designed to be sympathetic to surrounding buildings. Something all too often lacking in a great deal of modern architecture.

Great side story to the Underground's story!

This is a marvelous contribution to both transport and architectural history. Leslie Greene had a very clear grasp of his medium. He was able to bring together the public that used transport, the urban context, and the best face of his clients aspirations. The oxblood tiles are wonderful, and how delightful it is to hear that they were chosen as well for their cost competitiveness. A clear demonstration of those all too few occurrences when just the right talent meets the opportunities to engage, and the outcome is significant, memorable and worthy of our continued attention. Thank you Jag! You and Paul Lucas give Surf Shark a lot of credibility. Hope they recognize you accordingly. May have to try that.

My fave is Maida Vale!!! Where i grew up! :)

Lovely to see Mornington Crescent - My home station from childhood. I actually used to live in the Crescent itself.

I would say Grosvenor Square but my fist ever usage of it was after a 8 hour train journey from Scotland and then the lift had broken down 😞 5 million steps later 🙄

Personally, Leslie Green's stations are some of my favourites. I also love Charles Holden's stations (especially Cockfosters/Uxbridge)

Gloucester Road's a real beauty but I also like Belsize Park, its charm and atmosphere

I'm continually stunned at the quantity and quality of information that you manage to put into these videos. Thanks again for your work.

Before the Clean Air legislation of the 1950s, glazed ceramic tiles had a big practical advantage over other surfaces like Portland stone, unglazed brick and tile, or stucco. The London air was full of coal smoke, with frequent smoky fogs, which left any porous surface impregnated with dirt and soot. Even after the Clean Air Act, a lot of public buildings (e.g. Westminster Abbey) were absolutely filthy for decades, until new steam cleaning methods did something to remedy the situation. Whereas with glazed tiles, all it needed was soap and water and a sponge!

Hello again, one of my many positions while working for the Underground was a Secondment to the "New Rules Team" based at Lambeth North so I was very familiar with these buildings, the arch shape windows in our offices being the most memorable... Good times.

When the old Leslie Green building next to Euston was demolished to make way for the HS2 platforms there were people wondering why it couldn't have been dismantled and rebuilt somewhere else to preserve it. If it had been the only such example of his architecture remaining then it might have been worth doing that, but as there are plenty of others it probably wasn't

A really great video 😊 My favourite Station is Chalk Farm, I think the entrance features on the cover of the Madness album ‘Absolutely’, I love the Charles Holden stations on the Piccadilly line also, hopefully a film on those. Keep up the great work.....🚂😊❤️

Jago, you really know how to push my buttons. 🌟 Right from the start: - I know I can’t cross the Atlantic right now! I can’t wait to get back to Old Blighty! - The White Star line, Liverpool to Quebec: my great-great grandparents were on it! I might be a Scouser instead of a Montrealer if they hadn’t. - If I could be there, Goodge St would be my tube station, since I would be staying at a B&B near it.

I propose we return to this style for the for the bakerloo line extension.

Ok, but is it beyond TfL to come up with a design code for the rented shop units? Inserted fenestration, access provision and lettering needs to relate to existing building elements, surely. Some of what I saw there had all the appeal of a car crash.

An interesting video Jago 😎 Very well thought out and put together 🍻 I applaud you sir 👏🏻

Nice one Jago. - I would love to see a video on the tiling sometime.

Very interesting again ! Thank you jago !

Belsize Park tube station. I worked at the Budgens across the road and used the station every day.

Not a dubious scaremongering security claim in sight, it's rare to see an honest VPN sponsorship spot and I quite like it!

Interesting video.

Piece of art that Nissan Micra.

The steel-frame (I include iron-frame in that category) construction was common in UK before the US. Most mills were built using the method. The first was Ditherington Flax Mill, which was part of Marshall's empire. You may recall I drew your attention to Marshall's Egyptian-style mill in Leeds.

Are you planing on making a video about Charles Holdens architecture, I'd say they also fit the description iconic

I saw on another blogger's entry that the Leslie Green building at Euston station is going to be demolished to make way for the new HS2 station. If so, how many of the buildings he designed still exist as working Tube stations?

If I didn't already have an VPN, I'd buy the one you are hawking. Actually a funny as hell advert! Followed by your always excellent content.

I could totally happily listen do a narration of RWS Books, u have that voice like Willie rushton had when narrating

Thx for this Jago; been away for a bit, and this is like coming home to yr favourite pair of slippers :-) ps, I have it on good knowledge that an accelerating tube (like at 06:52) is what The Prodigy sampled at the start of their track 'Serial Thrilla' - go take a listen...

Favourite station has to be Chalk Farm. Shortest lifts on a deep level tube. Longest facade of his stations and , oh yes I worked there for 15 years

What a sad ending, I had no idea Leslie Green died so young. Whatever the reason for choosing them, the oxblood tiles were an inspired choice, managing to be completely distinctive - you immediately recognise where the Tube station is - without being hideously loud and OTT like a 1980s/90s equivalent would have been. I rather like Chalk Farm station, which due to its "acute" corner location, is shaped as a triangle and has the tiling on its two visible sides

Have all of Mr Green's station frontages survived intact? It seems like they must have been "listed" before they were too old, great to see.

Russell Square is probably in the top 3, in addition it's gold station name lettering on the exterior rather than black on white makes it a little more grand looking. Shame the ticket hall doesn't have a more replicated original look and feel.

how sad that he died so young. Although i've never been to London i find your videos fascinating. I would someday like to visit the UK archives to view some material related to the railways here in Hong Kong.