Design Changes
Southfields Station and Wimbledon Park station are of almost identical original design, although a mirror image of one another, but both stations have since been altered. Southfields Station has changed the most due to high passenger traffic during Wimbledon Tennis. The left side of the staircase at Southfields was widened (with the extension being built out of wood rather than brick construction) the pillar in the left side of the staircase was originally an external feature. A second doorway was opened up to the west of the original doorway into the ticket office area and a short footbridge was built from the top of the staircase over the railway to Wimbledon Park Road. (In recent times the footbridge had been closed and used as a storage area but after London Underground took over the station they reopened it as an exit.) The southern end of the waiting room on the platform has been converted into a kiosk and the rest of the building is used for LUL staff accommodation. There is therefore no enclosed public waiting facility on the platform.
When Southfields Station was transferred from British Rail to London Underground a temporary ticket office was built to the west of the station above the track and the parapet wall of the bridge was removed. This temporary ticket office and the floor it was on have now been removed, but the supporting steelwork that held them up is still there and was used to support a number of temporary structures in connection with the station refurbishment works.
The station platform undergoes a makeover each year to coincide with the tournament, funded by a particular company for advertising purposes. For instance, in 2006, the station platform was covered in red flooring, as were the benches, because of American Express's advertising campaign for a credit card that supports an AIDS charity. In 2005, Televisions were installed and played non-stop adverts, also for American Express. In 2009, the makeover was funded by HSBC. In 2010 it was funded by Asda and advertised their strawberries.
Read more about this topic: Southfields Tube Station
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