Manor House tube station

Manor House is a London Underground station on the Piccadilly line, positioned between Finsbury Park and Turnpike Lane. It sits where Seven Sisters Road meets Green Lanes, straddling the border between the London Boroughs of Hackney and Haringey. The station’s name comes from a former public house that once stood at the crossroads. Charles Holden designed the building, and it opened in 1932 as part of the Piccadilly line’s Cockfosters extension. The sub-surface areas feature biscuit-coloured tiles with blue friezes, restored in 2005. The station once had nine street-level entrances, two of which connected to tram routes serving Tottenham, Edmonton and Stamford Hill. These tram services ended in 1938, replaced by trolleybuses, and the exits were removed in 1951. The tunnels here are wider than those at some nearby stations, measuring seven metres in diameter to handle greater passenger volumes. Innovative safety features included ‘suicide pits’ between the rails and passageways beneath the platforms. Next to the northern exit stands the former Metropolitan Electric Tramways Headquarters, later used by London Transport Buses. Visitors can still hear Victoria line trains passing beneath the eastbound platform, a reminder of plans to transfer the station to that line. Day and night buses serve the area, linking it to other parts of London. The station’s design reflects the high standards set for the Piccadilly line’s extension in the 1930s. Its tiled interiors and functional layout remain a notable example of early 20th-century Underground architecture. The surrounding streets offer a mix of local shops and residential streets, providing a glimpse of everyday life in north London.