Photograph details

© Transport for London
Collection of London Transport Museum
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Golders Green Underground station, Northern line. Interior of booking office, showing two booking clerks wearing smart suits and wing collar shirts standing at the ticket windows. Ticket racks, swan-neck light fittings and a primitive telephone/intercom system are visible in the ticket office.

Unknown photographer, 1912

Location: Golders Green Underground station, Barnet, NW11

Image no: Ukn

Inventory no: 1998/88607

20th Century London caption: This is the booking office at Golders Green Underground station on the Northern line. Two booking clerks with neatly brushed shiny hair, smart suits and wing-collar shirts, stand at the ticket windows. Ticket racks, swan-neck light fittings and a primitive telephone or intercom system are visible in the office. The Underground was one of the companies that pioneered telephone technology in these early days. In 1912, when this photo was taken, the post office became the monopoly supplier of telephone services throughout Great Britain, excepting Hull, Portsmouth and Guernsey. It was the first time there had been a unified supplier throughout the country, and it prompted a period of rapid expansion in areas where previously there had been no exchanges.

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