Sections of lost tiling at Belsize Park

THE old nursery rhyme song goes London Bridge is falling down – but is it time to swap any other station on the Northern Line into the lyrics?

In the latest illustration of problems at the classic but ageing stations on the network, Transport for London has cleared away rows of cream tiles, leaving exposed dirty grey walls.

It had previously taken them down in “dribs and drabs”, according to the Belsize Society’s planning expert Alan Selwyn, adding: “ informed Camden planning enforcement team that damage was being done to a listed building without consent – and TfL has now put in an application to remove tiles.

“The station was particularly pleasant and smart until this gradual destruction began. It is now a bit of a mess.”

Over the past year, there have been similar issues at Hampstead, power failures and more broken tiles at Mornington Crescent, and flooding at Camden Town, a problem which has been treated with sandbags at Euston.

Work is needed at Hampstead tube station

Plans for a complete redevelopment of Camden Town underground, notorious for its overcrowding and where new audio messages are urging people to walk up the escalators if they can, is gathering dust after Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan and TfL said the budget did not work.

At Belsize Park, TfL has made an official application to remove more tiles and paint the render.

Mr Selwyn, who has lodged an objection, said: “Over the past two or three years small sections of these tiles have been chipped off and no enquiry to TfL or station staff has explained why.

“We do not know if any tiles have actually fallen and how serious this risk is.”

TfL’s application for listed building consent said tiles had already been removed from the station after “routine testing” and revealed “large patches of tiles had de-bonded from the ceiling and walls and were not safe to leave in place”.

It added: “The cause of this issue was investigated and it was found that the tiles had failed primarily due to adhesion failures, structural movement and poor quality material specification during previous refurbishment schemes.”

The 1907 Leslie Green designed station at Belsize Park is part of a series of the oxblood and cream Northern Line stops. It is covered by Grade-II listing protection and is one of eight London underground stations which have deep-level air-raid shelters underneath them ­­– constructed in the Second World War. It still has many of its original features, including the ticket hall.

Transport chiefs said that a major overhaul in 1980 introduced new upper tiers of tiles on both platforms that were not there before, and so are not part of the original classics. Even these newer ones, however, are starting to give away.

Transport for London said it wanted to return Belsize Park station to how it was originally designed, while replacing the 1980s tiling with a “rendered surface”.