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Art on the Underground celebrates its 25th year

GG Archard A surrealist art exhibit on a disused Tube platform featuring two giant cardboard eggs, one cracked open with a yellow yolk and the other with a nail sticking out of it. There are oversized ladders, megaphones and large chicken's legs as part of the exhibit. GG Archard
The artwork - my name is lettie eggsrub - by Heather Philipson was displayed at Gloucester Road in 2018

Art on the Underground "continues to be at the forefront of ideas around art and public space", Transport for London has said, as the programme celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

Here's a look back at some of the art showcased in and around London's underground stations over the past quarter of a century.

Kendra Haste, 2000. Courtesy of the artist Life-like rhino and gazelle sculptures on an unused London Underground platform at Gloucester Road station. Kendra Haste, 2000. Courtesy of the artist
Kendra Haste's Underground Safari, the first Underground art installation

In 2000 the first commission from Platform for Art, as it was then known, was Kendra Haste's Underground Safari.

It was displayed on the disused platform next to the Circle and District line in Gloucester Road station.

Gloucester Road station was the venue for Cindy Sherman's Billboard Commission, in collaboration with Serpentine Gallery.

It ran from June to September 2003 and was regarded as an early highlight of the programme.

Cindy Sherman, 2003. Courtesy of the artist A row of six portraits of women in a row along a Tube platform and lit from below. Cindy Sherman, 2003. Courtesy of the artist
Leading American artist Cindy Sherman's commission was seen in 2003

In 2005, Gloucester Road was once again the venue for Peace and Love by Beatriz Milhazes which occupied an entire side of the station platform.

It created "a visual dialogue with both the architecture and the constant movement of trains and travellers within".

Steven White A multi-coloured series of panels run the length of a tube platform, with geometric shapes and motifs. Some represent plants and others represent circles. Steven White
Milhazes' work referenced natural forms, folk art and Brazilian baroque decoration

A series commissioned to celebrate 100 years of the Piccadilly line included the first ever work of art to cover an entire Tube train.

The piece was designed by artist Jim Isermann and wrapped the full length of one Piccadilly line train.

The train travelled along the Piccadilly line throughout the summer of 2007.

Jim Isermann, ‘Tube Wrap’, 2006. Courtesy of the artist A man in a light grey jacket and white trousers leans against a tube train at a platform. The exterior of the train is wrapped in a blue and red geometric design. Jim Isermann, ‘Tube Wrap’, 2006. Courtesy of the artist
Artist Jim Isermann wrapped a Piccadilly line train in 2007

In 2008, Platform for Art was renamed Art on the Underground, to acknowledge its spread across the network.

The following year, British artist Jeremy Deller worked with Tube drivers on the Piccadilly line to produce artwork which included a booklet of quotes that drivers used in their daily communications, along with standard operational announcements.

Daisy Hutchinson A Tube train pulling into a platform is slightly blurred at the left of the image, while on the right is a poster on the wall of the platform that has a photo of Mahatma Gandhi. There is a Gandhi quote on the poster "there is more to life than increasing its speed". Daisy Hutchinson
Jeremy Deller's 2009 art project involved quoting common phrases used by Tube drivers

From 2010, the Art on the Underground programme started commissioning major permanent works, including Wrapper by artist Jacqui Poncelet.

Described as "a vast work in vitreous enamel that combines pattern and references to the local area", it was completed at Edgware Road in 2012.

Thierry Bal The outside of a Tube station with large rooftop blocks wrapped in an enamel covering with various patterns reminiscent of Middle Eastern designs, in blue, black, white and yellow. Thierry Bal
The vitreous enamel artwork was installed at Edgware Road station in 2012

To mark 150 years of the London Underground in 2013, British artist Mark Wallinger made an artwork for every station.

Each labyrinth plaque is a unique, permanent artwork and enthusiasts continue to seek them out across the network.

Thierry Bal A small plaque is attached to the grey concrete wall of a modern Tube station. It has a black and white image that resembles a labyrinth on it. A person walks past, his image is blurred. Thierry Bal
Every Tube station has its own unique Labyrinth artwork

In 2016, in response to the result of the EU referendum,10 artists made new artwork for sites across the Tube network.

The #LondonIsOpen campaign aimed to "send a message across London of openness, internationalism, diversity and commonality".

Benedict Johnson Two large boards sit above a busy Tube station concourse. They both read "No them only us" in white capital letters against a stained glass effect background of mostly blues and purples. Benedict Johnson
Mark Titchner was one of 10 artists who created the London is Open artworks

In 2017 architectural collective Assemble with Matthew Raw worked on the first ever Art on the Underground remodelling of a derelict commercial unit.

More than 1,000 handmade tiles clad the renovated unit near the entrance at Seven Sisters station. The unit is now used as a coffee kiosk.

GG Archard People walk past a coffee shop inside a commercial unit at a tube station. It is covered in yellow and marble effect tiles. A woman inside serves a coffee to a customer. GG Archard
Hand-made tiles clad the renovated unit near the entrance at Seven Sisters

Art on the Underground's "most ambitious artwork commission to date" was displayed at Gloucester Road from June 2018 to June 2019.

Heather Philipson's creation, my name is lettie eggsyrub, was described as "a sculptural and video installation, using video game-style aesthetics to magnify eggs and avian body-parts".

GG Archard Two people with their backs to the camera, one sitting on a bench and one standing, look across the platform to a surreal art exhibit featuring two giant cardboard cracked eggs with yellow yolks, there are ladders, megaphones and signs indicating wind coming out of the eggs and the megaphones. GG Archard
Heather Philipson's creation was on the theme of eggs

In 2019 the British Ghanaian artist Larry Achiampong re-imagined London Underground's roundel at Westminster Underground station with a series of eight designs in the Pan-African colours, installed to replace every roundel at the station for three months.

GG Archard A Westminster tube station roundel in the Pan-African colours, with a lady in a faux fur coat standing in front of the roundel looking at her phone and another person out of focus walking along the platform. GG Archard
Westminster station was the focus of Larry Achiampong's art project

Sudbury Town station, a listed building, was the venue for a 2020 Art on the Underground installation - two permanent hand-painted ceiling murals by Scottish artist Lucy McKenzie.

The work is entitled Pleasure's Inaccuracies.

GG Archard A detailed map of the area around Sudbury Town with calligraphed writing and representations of roads, churches, green spaces and other landmarks. GG Archard
The detailed ceiling murals are called Pleasure's Inaccuracies

Art on the Underground's first kinetic sculpture, from artist Alexandre da Cunha at Battersea Power Station was unveiled in 2021.

Sunset, Sunrise, Sunset stretches across two friezes, 328ft (100m) and (197ft) 60m in length.

The permanent artwork "reflects on daily cycles, as the colours of sunsets and sunrises rotate through the ticket hall seemingly at random".

GG Archard An artwork sited near the ceiling runs the length of a Tube station more than 320 feet, at one end it is deep orange and it turns yellow and then blue further down. GG Archard
Battersea Power Station has the first kinetic sculpture on the Tube network

Brixton station has recently hosted a series of artworks that reflect the local area during the 1980s, with eight artists featured in one of Art on the Underground's most prominent sites.

Shanti Panchal's 2022 work, Endurance, centres the history of mural making in London.

Angus Mill A large mural is installed over the entrance to Brixton Tube station. It features figures in three panels, in various poses including on a bike; some are wearing face masks. There is a windmill in the background of one panel. Angus Mill
Shanti Panchal's 2022 commission at Brixton continues his murals work

Art on the Underground's most recent commission features historic artworks from the 1920s, "a series of mosaic panels featuring two androgynous, angelic figures, whose ambivalent gazes fall over the commuters passing beneath them".

The work by Rosie Hastings and Hannah Quinlan, entitled Angels of History, was unveiled in St James's Park station in 2024.

GG Archard Above the entrance to the platforms at St James' station, two artworks of three panels each on either side of the information boards. GG Archard
Angels of History is composed of six panels mounted above the platform entrances
GG Archard Three panels: the first shows a tree, the second an androgynous figure with black hair in a black jacket and white t-shirt and the third shows three tall buildings. All three are in a brown rural landscape. GG Archard
The work features androgynous, angelic figures with ambivalent gazes
GG Archard Three panels: the first shows the side of a building and a tree, the second an androgynous figure in tennis whites and the third an art deco skyscraper. GG Archard
The paintings depict various power dynamics and positions of authority playing out in public space

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