File:South Ruislip Underground Station (Central Line and Chiltern Railways).jpg

English: South Ruislip Underground Station, 16 February 2024. In 1903-06 the GWR opened their New North Main Line (NNML) from Old Oak Common West Junction Acton (east of the GWR’s Acton Main Line station and south of the Central Line’s yet-to-be-built North Acton station) to Northolt Junction (to the south of South Ruislip station) to connect with the GWR/GCR joint line to the Midlands. In May 1908 the GWR opened their Northolt Junction station, becoming South Ruislip & Northolt Junction in September 1932 and plain South Ruislip in June 1937.

Included in the London Passenger Transport Board’s 1935-40 New Works Programme was a north-westwards extension of the Central Line from North Acton to Denham paralleling the GWR’s NNML as far as Northolt Junction and thence the GWR/GCR joint line.

Construction had only just begun when WWII broke out when all work was suspended. When it restarted post-war the line to Greenford was opened in June 1947 and to West Ruislip in November 1948 but the onward extension to Denham was abandoned because of the establishment of the London Green Belt which meant that the large housing developments hoped for could not be built. Most of the original GWR stations on its adjoining line (the NNML) were closed on the opening of the Central Line stations, but not South Ruislip.

The Central Line’s South Ruislip platforms were built adjacent to the GWR ones and a combined station building provided. It opened in November 1948 but only the concrete platform ‘butterfly’ canopies, designed by the BR(WR) Chief Engineer A S Quatermaine, had been built. Temporary facilities for the ticket office were provided.

The original design of the station was by Dr. Frederick Curtis, Chief Architect of the GWR and BR(WR) 1947-49 and then BR’s Chief Architect 1949-68. Curtis was assisted in the design by Howard Cavanagh – GWR & BR(WR) Assistant Architect 1946-49 and BR(WR) Chief Architect 1949-60, and R H Jones in the architects’ office. However, because of the poor economic situation, construction was extremely slow and by the time the station buildings were to be constructed Curtis’s design was becoming out-of-date.

The plans had to be revised and simplified by architects John Kennet and Roy Turner who modified Curtis’s design by substituting translucent glass fibre panels over the drum’s frame stanchions instead of the glazing Curtis had planned to be fitted between the stanchions. Otherwise, the finished station was much the same as Curtis’s original design. It was not finally completed until 1960.

Pictured is the ticket office. Note the two broken windows.The cast concrete freize is an abstract work of art by Henry Haig and was intended to represent 'the rythems and patterns of traffic flow throig the ticket hall'. I'm not sure I can see that.