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Underground Heritage information.
Piccadilly Circus Station. Listed as a building of national importance.
Architects: Entrances and ticket hall - Adams, Holden & Pearson in collaboration with S.A. Heaps, 1928 rebuild.
Piccadilly Circus opened on 10 March 1906 on the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway (Bakerloo line). The Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway (Piccadilly line) platforms and interchange opened on 15 December 1906.
When originally built the station had a street level building incorporating a ticket hall designed by Leslie Green, which stood on the corner of Piccadilly Circus and Haymarket. This was abandoned following the 1928 redevelopment and has since been demolished.
The increasing number of people using the station led to a major redesign and a new sub-service ticket hall and circulating area designed by Charles Holden, which would also provide public pedestrian subways opened in 1928.
Due to the difficulties in managing the roads above the station, the current ticket hall was excavated from the bottom upwards rather than the traditional 'cut and cover' method more commonly used. The high cost of such a complex task prompted the 'Office of Woods and Forests' to transfer the rights in the subsoil of the Circus to the Underground for a sum of ten pounds.
Walls and stairwells were finished in cream Travertine marble with a coffered fibrous plaster panelled false ceiling. The roof itself is supported by four central columns, with fifty other columns spaced around the columns in two rows. The columns were clad in a maroon scagliola {imitation marble or stone} which was enhanced by the tungsten lighting then in use.
The first fluorescent tube lighting to be used on the Underground system was installed on the westbound Piccadilly Line platform on the 2 October 1945. All four platforms were left untouched by the 1928 reconstruction but extensively modernised by the Underground in 1987.
The ticket hall was Grade II listed on 2 October 1983.