William Morris takes the Tube!

Dan Maier was commissioned by TfL to design a series of artworks inspired by the heritage of the station and local area. The brief was to brighten up the station, celebrate its history and improve the customer experience for the 21 million people who pass through it.

Dan’s artwork spans nearly 100 metres around the station over six locations, covering 1361 glass bricks and took three months from brief to completion. You can see her artwork in the main ticket hall, corridors at both entrances, bridge windows and platform waiting rooms.

Hammersmith Station was opened on 9 September 1874 by the District Railway (now the District Line). In the early 1990s, the station buildings and neighbouring bus garage were demolished and incorporated into a modern shopping centre, incorporating the underground station and bus interchange.

During the redevelopment, parts of the original Harry W Ford (architect to the District Railway 1900-11) facade were salvaged showing the station name and the lines serving it. The beautiful Arts & Crafts font and architectural features were preserved and now form a frame to a decorative mosaic of Hammersmith bridge in the station’s main ticket hall. These sit within the current post-modernist building.

As well as taking inspiration from the steam trains that used to run through the station, Dan also drew upon Hammersmith’s rich printing heritage and chose to depict William Morris’s Kelmscott Press in one set of windows, also tracing the original Arts & Crafts font to pay homage to it.

The artwork is intended to be on show for a year if anyone would like to see it in the flesh!