Following the grand opening in October, another phase of Bricket Wood station’s restoration has been completed, with the installation of some beautiful replica signage and poster display cases.
The signs and poster cases, designed and manufactured by Transport Signs Ltd, have been recreated following meticulous research between the company and the Trust. There were no original drawings to work from, so the only reference source had to be original photos of Edwardian-era Bricket Wood (and hardly any of them show the signage) as well as other LNWR stations from the period, in particular Rugby station, to try and recreate the correct font, kerning (character spacing) and architrave (border). For those that like to know, the eventual font chosen was Neue Montreal Bold.
Funding has been very kindly provided, once again, from the Railway Heritage Trust, to whom the Trust is most grateful.
Adorning the car park side of the station are two poster cases, each with a ‘London & North Western Railway’ header above them. If you look in original photos, you will see that the station originally had two poster boards on the car park side which looked somewhat like this, the only concession to modernity is that the new poster cases are weatherproof and lockable and are of a commercial off-the-shelf design, unlike the originals where the ‘bills’ would just have been pasted straight on to a wooden backing board, no protection from the weather other than a ‘cap’ at the top of the board to try and keep the rain off (which ours also have). On this side of the building are also a ‘Step Free Access’ and ‘Blue Badge Holders Only’ sign.
On the platform side are another two poster cases, two ‘Bricket Wood’ name boards (the modern versions having been removed), plus a ‘Way Out’ and ‘Tea Room’ sign which hang from the canopy. We are particularly proud of the ‘pointy fingers’!
All of the signs feature 5mm raised letters, again just like the originals.
The poster cases now contain interesting photos and information about the history of the station and surrounding area, as well as information about the Tea Room, thus further enhancing the environment for users of the station.
