Tubeticking (270): Eastcote ✅
I had somehow never been to Eastcote station. I liked it.
Eastcote opened in 1906 as a halt on the line to Uxbridge, triggering quintessential Metroland sprawl. The resulting parade now has well over 100 shops, and nice ones too, including more family businesses than Londoners would normally expect. Outlets range from Aldi to a fireplace showroom and from Imran's Deli to a chocolate and macaroon cafe, via the delights of Wenzels and Wimpy. I liked it.
The station was designed by Charles Holden, and characteristically so, with a brick'n'glass cuboid facing the street flanked by roundels atop two protruding curved kiosks. This pair weren't always occupied by a cab company and a phone repair shop, but the Eastcote Cafe alongside looks like it's been cooking up breakfasts and burgers for decades. I liked it (the architecture, that is, I never tried the caff).
Eastcote's ticket hall has a high flat roof and is lit by clerestory windows giving it churchlike qualities. One side has the ticket machines and the other a coffee kiosk brewing hand roasted beans from El Salvador. This hideyhole also doubles as a tiny newsagent, with a single rack that somehow manages to include all the daily papers and copies of two dozen still-popular magazines. They're still ten years behind zone 2 in Eastcote. I liked it.
A brief tiled corridor leads to two sets of brick-enclosed stairwells, all with Holdenesque attention to detail. Left for London and right for Ruislip. And the platforms are lovely too, blessed with two tropical mini gardens halfway down. The half nearest the stairs has a flat canopy to shield you from the elements and a long thin waiting room with an elegantly curved end. I fear this is permanently padlocked these days. I liked it anyway.
The far end of the platforms has been polluted with cameras and loudspeakers on stalks as part of infraco despoliation in the 2000s. They did at lease use droopy stalks to echo the original concrete lamp supports but the end result is no visual triumph. Look out for the staff letterbox and the fake owl if you're waiting any length of time. I see the eastbound Next Train Indicator doesn't bother with destinations, it just tells you 'Metropolitan line' or 'Piccadilly line' because that's all you need to know out here.
Tubeticking (270): Eastcote ✅
