Osterley tube station

Osterley is a London Underground station in west London’s Borough of Hounslow. It sits on the Piccadilly line’s Heathrow branch between Hounslow East and Boston Manor. The station stands beside the Great West Road, a short walk from Osterley Park, which belongs to the National Trust. Built in the 1930s, it replaced an earlier station half a kilometre to the east on Thornbury Road. The old buildings and platforms of that first stop still survive beside the new site. The station’s design came from Stanley Heaps, working to preliminary plans by Charles Holden. Holden had studied modern European architecture, including Amsterdam’s De Telegraaf Building, and the result uses brick, reinforced concrete and large glass panels. A tall brick tower capped by a concrete obelisk rises above the entrance. In 1987 the building was recognised as a Grade II listed structure. Frank Pick, then Chief Executive of London Transport, insisted that later Piccadilly-line stations should match Holden’s careful detail, calling them ‘Holdenesque’. Inside, the ticket hall opens to wide platforms served by Piccadilly-line trains. Two lifts installed in 2021 give step-free access, making the station the 89th step-free Tube stop. Outside, London bus route H91 stops nearby, and Sky’s offices lie a short shuttle ride away. The old station site on Thornbury Road remains visible, with its platforms and buildings preserved beside the new station.