The future of Leslie Green. Three case studies for a stategic reuse of London's abandoned Tube stations : Aldwych scenographies, Brompton Road temporary museum, Down Street for gentlemen

London possesses the most important Underground of the World. It was the first and still remains the largest today. During its 150 years long history it has truly become part of Londoners, their lifestyle, it has entered their history, culture and tradition. Amazing architectures were designed for the Tube creating landmarks through the city as beautiful maps and posters were drawn to publicize it. The fact many people do not know about the Tube is that, beside the 270 stations operating today, 63 more stations were abandoned. Since the 1910s some stations were closed due to low usage by passengers, some were bombed, some were resited or demolished. Among this large number of ghost stations only five buildings survive: Aldwych, Brompton Road, Down Street, York Road and South Kentish Town stations. These stations were all designed by the hand of architect Leslie Green, well-known to have “painted London red” due to his Libertian Style made of red-ox tiles in facade. To better understand this phenomenon of abandoning and to develop a proper urban strategy of reuse a deep research on the Tube’s spread, on its relationship between architecture, urbanism, society and graphic issues was conducted. Liberty style of maps described the city for its features that today still preserved. Districts of theatres, museums and clubs described in the Wonderground of London were untouched through the 20th century and yet characterize the surroundings of the choosen case studies. This thesis proposes the reuse of 3 stations (among the 5 mentioned above), sited in central London to demonstrate a urban strategy based on the amplification of the functional vocation of the context. Focus of the strategy is the maximization of the dominating function of the district. The generation of new - circular - flows in the surroundings emphasize the project and justify the decision to do not reactivate these iconic buildings as Tube stations. This dissertation contains analytical and theoretical material as well as proposed design on reuse of abandoned Underground stations that can possibly be applied on real structures in London or in other cities with similar potential.