“Thanks Dan, it looks stunning, I’m so impressed with it, but not surprised as you are superb at what you do.”
Gareth Leslie, Customer Experience Manager (Design, Heritage & Planning), TfL / London Underground
As part of the 160-year celebration of the tube network, I was commissioned by TfL and Energy Garden to design an artwork to complement the green space transformation at the station.
Hatton Cross station was built in 1975 and is a listed Brutalist building. The brief was to brighten up the station, celebrate its history and improve the customer experience for the thousands of travellers who pass through it.
With the proximity to Heathrow, flight naturally became one of the themes with a nod to the well-known “Speedbird” logo. The Speedbird is the stylised emblem of a bird in flight, designed in 1932 by Theyre Lee-Elliott as the corporate logo for Imperial Airways. It became a design classic which was used by the airline and its successors (BOAC and British Airways) for over 52 years. It is immortalised in the blue and orange mosaic tiling on the station platform.
The overall design consists of graphic interlocking shapes which pay homage to Tom Eckersley, one of the best-known mid-century graphic designers who designed numerous posters for the Underground and who designed the Concorde tailfin mural at Heathrow Terminal 2,3 Station.
I also depicted plants discovered and collected by botanist and explorer Frank Kingdon-Ward OBE who established a nursery in Hatton in the 1920s. The Himalayan blue poppy (Meconopsis betonicitolia), Rhododendron wardi and Lilium (lily) mackliniae are featured.
It’s worth drawing attention to the decorative concrete frieze at the top of the station by renowned sculptor William Mitchell. Always pushing the boundaries, his reputation within the UK construction industry was as a “Designer, Craftsman, Genius”. Many of his concrete works are listed.
