Summary
Underground railway station. The station opened in 1880, and the trainshed is of that date. Entrance building, comprising ticket hall, shopping arcade and offices, rebuilt 1910 to the design of Harry W Ford, Architect to the District Railway.
Reasons for Designation
The former ticket hall and trainshed, Fulham Broadway Underground Station, are listed for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: an ornate and well-preserved Edwardian Underground station, retaining the trainshed from the original 1880 station;
* Interior: the former ticket hall is a notable survival on the Underground.
History
Originally named Walham Green, the station was opened on 1 March 1880 as part of the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR) extension from West Brompton to Putney Bridge of 1879-80 which was carried out under the supervision of the MDR Engineer John Wolfe-Barry. In 1901 the near-bankrupt MDR was acquired by the American transport entrepreneur, Charles Tyson Yerkes, becoming a subsidiary of Yerkes’s Underground Electric Railways Co of London Ltd (UERL). The entrance building was rebuilt in 1910 to the design of Harry W Ford. The shop unit to the east of the entrance was originally a Lyons tea room.
The station name changed from Walham Green to Fulham Broadway in 1952. In 2003 the entrance building was closed and sold to a private developer, and subsequently converted to a restaurant and then a food market. The present station entrance is in the Fulham Broadway shopping centre adjacent.
Harry Wharton Ford (1875-1947) was architect to the District Railway from 1900-11. Ford designed a number of stations for the District Railway, including Earl’s Court and Baron’s Court, both listed Grade II.
Details
MATERIALS: steel frame clad in brick; façade clad in brown faience.
PLAN: the 1905 entrance building faces south to Fulham Road while the 1880 trainshed is aligned NE-SW, the latter reflecting the original station’s orientation. This results in an irregular cranked plan. The two-storey frontage block comprises a central entrance lobby flanked by shop units, and first-floor offices; behind is a long single-storey ticket hall which had further shop units to either side; a single-storey wing to the right was originally the station exit. A narrow two-storey rear wing connects the frontage block to the train shed, with offices at first floor level.
EXTERIOR: the symmetrical frontage is designed in the Edwardian Baroque style and consists of three bays arranged 2:3:2, the central bay breaking forward slightly, plus a lower set-back wing to the right. The ground floor has channelled rustication and a central entrance with a keyed segmental arch; the flanking shop openings are original but the shop fronts are modern and not of special interest. The central first-floor bay is framed with Ionic pilasters. Windows have moulded architraves with a pulvinated frieze and cornice and 9-over-9 pane wooden sashes; the central window is accentuated by a pediment with a fruit festoon above. Above is a dentil cornice and stepped blocking course above the central bay with a sunken panel from which the station name was erased in the 1950s. The side wing has a keyed segmental arch and geometrical-pattern wrought-iron gate, and an EXIT sign above in raised lettering with festoon decoration.
INTERIOR: the interior, also clad in brown faience, has six pilastered bays to either side of the lobby and ticket hall; the former ticket office occupying the rear three bays on the left (west) side. The booking hall has a glazed monitor roof with steel trusses and white glazed brick gable-ends; the faience cladding of the walls is more ornate than that of the lobby, with a modillion cornice and DR monograms on the ticket office capitals. At the end is the three bay former entrance to the platforms, with Doric columns, wrought-iron grilles, and a large segmental Diocletian window above. Shop fronts are 2003 reinstatements based on the original designs; that to the first bay to the west of the entrance lobby may incorporate reused original components. The timber ticket office frontage was restored in 1987 retaining original elements; this has segmental pedimented windows, bronze downlighters, illuminated box signs, leaded glazing and a green glazed tile dado; the enamel ‘TO THE TRAINS’ sign dating from the 1920s was originally fixed above the platform entrance. The shops and ticket office have no interior features of interest. The first-floor offices have egg-and-dart plasterwork to cornices and beams; the rear wing has windows with coloured art-nouveau glazing.
TRAINSHED AND PLATFORMS: brick walls of eight blind arcaded bays, now rendered. The pitched glazed roof has longitudinal wrought-iron trusses with lattice spandrels. The platforms retain a series of 1920s timber sign boards with enamelled bar-and-roundel signs, the station name modified to Fulham Broadway. At the south-west end are stairs with a metal balustrade connected by a landing.
Pursuant to s1(5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the part of the station beyond the north-east end of the 1880 trainshed is not of special architectural or historic interest.
