Comments on: Harold Stabler’s Tiles At Bethnal Green

By: Q2 2018 – JennJ – Medium – RE-WORK

Q2 2018 – JennJ – Medium – RE-WORK — Tue, 26 Jun 2018 14:01:47 +0000

[…] The Stories Behind the Tiles in Swiss Cottage & Bethnal Green (and other) Stations (left): “ Born in 1872, [Harold] Stabler was a skilled designer working in a number of materials… He was involved in the creation of Poole Pottery who manufactured the tiles for the Underground… his eighteen tile designs were executed in the thirties…” [source] […]

By: Moquette

Moquette — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 11:33:36 +0000

Fascinating stuff and as the LU manager responsible for the re-tiling I can tell you that apart from the deliberate retention of four panels (two per platform) every tile in the station including the name friezes (and the faience blocks in the ticket hall and subways) were replaced. This included the field tiles, borders and replicas of the Stabler tiles. This decision was made after serious conservation and aesthetic issues with the partial replacement of 1930s tiles at Turnpike Lane made us work very closely with English Heritage (as it was at the time) to review conservation guidelines for 20th century ceramic tiles. The care and skill to make the new tiles, undertaken by Craven Dunnill Jackfield, was immense as matching the varigated glazes and original firing temperatures, was complex in the extreme; modern materials and techniques are different! For example, the original burnt sienna orange colour was made using, we think, uranium dioxide. Great skill was needed to ‘match up’ old and new, and make sure the setting out of tiling (so as to match tile numbers, widths and grouting) worked across the whole of the elevations. We also had to allow for subtle changes to the dimensions of advertising panels (to allow for metric not imperial poster sizes) and to ensure we got additional timber benches in. From memory, the lovely station thermometer niche on the westbound platform survives, minus a thermometer! For an unListed site it was quite an achievement.

By: Carolyn Badcock

Carolyn Badcock — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 03:04:49 +0000

What a delightful interlude this piece brought! Wonderful work both by the tile designer and the blogger.

By: Kim Rennie

Kim Rennie — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 16:24:53 +0000

The complete set are : London Transport bullseye (roundel), London Transport griffin symbol, 55 Broadway; Counties of Kent, Essex, Berkshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex, London, Kent, Surrey, Hertfordshire (Note that there is no representation of Sussex – but the tile with five martlets [birds] could be a misrepresentation of this as the though the Westminster Abbey banner contains five the country crest bears six); Houses of Parliament, River Thames, St Paul’s Cathedral, Thomas Lord, and the Crystal Palace. 18 different variations but no station had a full set. Also, the tiles came in two colour finishes – yellow (as per Bethnal Green) and biscuit beige (as per St. John’s Wood).

By: Vicky

Vicky — Mon, 16 Apr 2018 07:40:58 +0000

I knew I had seen the tiles somewhere and now know it was at Aldgate East. The Victorian Society says the armorial bearings are of the counties served by London Passenger Transport Board with ‘Aldgate East being the station with probably the best, if incomplete, set of Stabler tiles today’.

By: Kim Rennie

Kim Rennie — Sun, 15 Apr 2018 18:19:51 +0000

The heraldic symbols represented counties served by London Transport, not London Underground, as the former covered much more of the Home Counties with their Country Buses and Green Line Coaches than does LU today.

By: Jo Amey

Jo Amey — Sun, 15 Apr 2018 15:18:59 +0000

Good to see these tiles being featured. In an article in Poole Pottery Collector’s Club magazine, Autumn 2014, it was stated that the St Paul’s tiles were destroyed when the station was re-tiled in the 1980’s. It would be more accurate to say that the tiles were made by Carter and Co rather than Poole Pottery as Carter’s were the tile manufacturers. Harold Stabler worked for Carter’s as well as Carter, Stabler and Adams, the firm which later became known as Poole Pottery.

By: Paul Loften

Paul Loften — Sun, 15 Apr 2018 14:19:26 +0000

Chris H thanks for the google history lesson. I must admit I didnt know that it was not in use as a station until 1946 . I always assumed it was a station that was in use at the time . Having gone to school in Bethnal Green in the 60’s and being a Hackney resident, it was just common knowledge what occured at the station so I never thought to google it . The station’s tiles are very nice but if you mention the history of Bethnal Green Station it is lacking something without mentioning this terrible event and the 173 people that died there.

By: Helen Breen

Helen Breen — Sun, 15 Apr 2018 11:15:24 +0000

Greetings from Boston,

GA, very interesting piece by the student in your blog class – giving life to an everyday environment. I particularly liked the Palace of Westminster tile with “two crowns and a bowler hat representing the Monarch, the Lords and the Commons.” Clever.

I also had to look up “marlett” defined in heraldry as a “representation of a bird without feet, used as a crest or bearing to indicate a fourth son.” Who knew?

By: Terry Freestone

Terry Freestone — Sun, 15 Apr 2018 11:13:32 +0000

Those are not five kings but five maidens’ heads. (They are on the arms of the Borough of Reading.)

The five martlets in this case belong to Sussex, not Westminster. The City of Westminster has five martlets but they are taken from the arms of Westmimster Abbey which in turn took them from the “arms” of Edward the Confessor (heraldry did not exist at the time of Edward so someone invented his arms much, much later).

The same set of tiles are also at St John’s Wood and these were listed by English Heritage (now Historic England) a while ago. The description and meaning of the tiles can be found on their website.