Even in the 1860s and 70s, the expansion of the Underground created a need to have some cohesion between the different operating companies. From Leslie Green’s architecture and the Arts & Crafts movement, Edward Johnston’s typeface, Charles Holden’s architecture and the Streamline Moderne/Art Deco movement, to post war austerity/design, the creation of TfL and current/future works, including the Elizabeth Line/Northern Line extension to Battersea.
Mark Ovenden is a broadcaster and author who’s sold a quarter of a million books and appeared on many TV
and radio programmes. He specialises in the subjects of industrial design and architecture – especially in the world of public transport. His first book (a New York Times “Bestseller”) was a guide to the maps of Transit systems across the planet and it’s been re-issued many times. His works have been translated by Penguin and others into half a dozen languages.
He’s worked at the BBC producing programmes and recently fronted his own documentary for BBC Four on the subject of typefaces and presented another documentary for BBC Radio 4 on architecture.
He is currently reading as a mature student online for a Masters in Railway Studies.