Southgate

 

Southgate station opened on 13 March 1933 with Oakwood on the second phase of the northern extension of the Piccadilly line from Finsbury Park to Cockfosters. Prior to the station's opening, alternative names were suggested including "Chase Side" and "Southgate Central". On opening, local residents were given a free return ticket to Piccadilly Circus. Like Arnos Grove, Oakwood and Cockfosters, Southgate is a listed building in this case at Grade II* (regraded from Grade II in 2009) and retains much of its original decoration. The two escalators have the original column lighting, while bronze panelling is in evidence throughout the station. However; the station is not without change: in the late 1990s, one of the three entrances was filled in to be used as a new ticket office, and due to the design of the automatic barriers, one of the two remaining entrances is exit only.

 

The station is built in the Art Deco/Streamline Moderne design style using brick, reinforced concrete and glass and is one of the best known of the many stations Charles Holden designed for London Underground. The station building is circular with a flat projecting concrete roof. Externally, the flat roof of the raised central section appears, impossibly, to be supported by nothing more than a horizontal band of windows that provide daylight to the ticket hall. The roof is actually supported, umbrella-like, from a central column within the ticket hall. The whole building is topped by an illuminated feature resembling a Tesla coil. The station was developed as a bus/underground interchange and the main building sits on an island between Southgate Circus and Station Parade where a series of bus stops are located. A secondary building containing shops wraps around the other side. It is in travelzone 4. The station has wi-fi and escalators.

 

Connections: London Buses routes 121, 125, 298, 299, 382, W6, 616, 628, 688 and 699 and night route N91 serve the station.

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