IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Margravine Gardens, LONDON, W6 8RL

Cross platform interchange at its most convenient. A Piccadilly line service to Heathrow Airport terminals 4 and 1/2/3 (left) arrives at Barons Court at the same time as a District line service to Ealing Broadway (right). Although the latter is slightly further away, the height difference between the 1973 Tube stock (left) and D78 stock can be appreciated. Below floor level, these two types of train are basically identical, the D78 stock being the first subsurface Underground stock built with Tube stock wheels.

Looking east, towards central London, along the Piccadilly line platforms at Barons Court station. Here, the Piccadilly line uses the central pair of tracks, while the District line uses the outer tracks; this means Barons Court is a very convenient place to change between the two lines. Note the very tall red benches, which incorporate station name signs.

A train of 1973 tube stock, trailed by driving motor 226, leaves Barons Court, forming an eastbound Piccadilly line service to Arnos Grove via central London.

The tracks through Barons Court were first opened on 9 September 1874 when the Metropolitan District Railway opened an extension from Earl's Court to Hammersmith. When the line was constructed, the area now known as Barons Court was open fields and market gardens. By the beginning of the 20th century, the area had been developed for housing and, on 10 October 1905, the District Railway opened the station to serve these new developments and in preparation for the opening of the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (now the Piccadilly Line), then under construction. The station building is now a Grade II listed building as it retains many of its original features, including terracotta facing and Art Nouveau lettering. Immediately to the east of the station, the Piccadilly Line goes into tunnel and doesn't emerge again until after Bounds Green. This is looking in the opposite direction towards Hammersmith.

Even apart from the steam-age platform canopies, a range of early fixtures and fittings have survived here. From childhood memory I can say that these seats - and the colour they are painted ('crimson lake' ?) - are just as they were more than half a century ago. In all likelihood they date from 1905, when the station first opened. The blue enamel panel with its sans-serif lettering is later - probably from the late 1930's.

With a departing westbound Piccadilly Line tube train.