Summary : Hounslow West station opened on 21st July 1884 as Hounslow Barracks on the Houslow and Metropolitan Railway, the District Railway's branch from Mill Hill Park (now Acton Town). It was renamed Hounslow West in 1925. Reconstruction of Hounslow West station became necessary when Piccadilly lines trains were extended to Hounslow. Work on the design by Charles Holden, with Stanley Heaps, was started in 1929 and the new facilities opened at Hounslow on 5th July 1931. However, it was not until 13th March 1933 that the station was first served by Piccadilly trains. The new station was of reinforced concrete construction with Portland stone and granite facing to the front and brick to the rear. The ticket hall is an heptagonal double-height drum flanked by single-storey shops with raking ends. The entrance to the ticket hall is reached via double timber doors with horizontal glazing, flanked by bronze poster boards and sheltered by a long canopy with coffered soffit. The hall has a similarly treated ceiling, the centrepiece being a coved haptagon from which hang seven heptagonal lights on a bronze chandelier - an original feature which is now very unique. The walls of the ticket office have clerestory glazing on each face, that to the front plain with vertical glazing bars, the rest with the Underground roundel in coloured glass. The interior design of the ticket hall was undertaken by Basil Ionides who chose a colour scheme of pink and cream tiles which still survive. Also surviving is the original tiled floor with eight-pointed star. Apart from the ticket hall the rest of the station was rebuilt in 1975 on an adjacent site. The ticket hall is now separate from the rest of the station, reached under a long steel shelter. The station was last served by District Line trains on 9th October 1964, now operating as a sole Piccadilly Line station. |