Blackhorse Road

Blackhorse Road station is a London Overground and London Underground station located at the junction of Blackhorse Road/Blackhorse Lane with Forest Road in the Walthamstow neighbourhood of the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The station is the penultimate stop on the Victoria line in the east. The station is in Travelcard Zone 3 and is the least used station on the Victoria line with 6.44 million passengers per year.

The name Blackhorse is a corruption of Black House, a mansion house that once stood nearby.

Walthamstow has a wide variety of housing stock, but the vast majority of residential property was built in the early 20th century. In the area around Blackhore Road, there are scores of terraced streets dating to the Edwardian era and the 1920s. The area along Markhouse Road and St James Street has many examples of Warner properties. These were developed as affordable housing for the working classes in the early part of the 20th century. Bombing raids in World War II and urban redevelopment projects in the 1960s and 1970s have left areas with more modern housing, mostly in the shape of low-rise concrete blocks.

The northern continuation of Markhouse Road is St James's Street to which Blackhorse Road follows, which in turn becomes Blackhorse Lane. This is bound on its western side by industrial units and warehouses. The London Borough of Waltham Forest has proposed developing the area around Blackhorse Road station to become a gateway to the town.

The northern continuation of Markhouse Road is St James's Street to which Blackhorse Road follows, served by underground and railway stations, which in turn becomes Blackhorse Lane. This is bound on its western side by industrial units and warehouses. The London Borough of Waltham Forest has proposed developing the area around Blackhorse Road station to become a gateway to the town.

The London General Omnibus Company or LGOC, principal bus operator in London between 1855 and 1933, made the X-type and B-type common sights on London's roads and were built at Blackhorse Lane from October 1908 onwards. The B-type is considered one of the first mass-production buses. The manufacturing operation later became AEC, famous as the manufacturer of many of London's buses.

On 13 June 1909, pioneer English pilot and aircraft manufacturer Alliott Verdon (A. V.) Roe's aircraft took to the air from Walthamstow Marshes. His aircraft, Avroplane, a triplane, is preserved in London's Science Museum. It was the first all-British aircraft and was given the ominous nickname of the "Yellow Terror". Roe later founded the Avro aircraft company, which later built the acclaimed Avro Lancaster bomber.

Motifs & Shying Horses

There are two distinct works of art at the station, both depicting black horses, in reference to the station's name. One is in the form of a tile motif depicting a black horse on a white cameo against a light blue background (identical to the colour of the Victoria line). It was done by Hans Unger, who also did the tile motif at Seven Sisters tube station, the original platform mural at Green Park and the ticket hall at Oxford Circus. 

Hans Unger (1915 - 1975) was born in Prenzlau, Germany, and went on to study graphic art with the poster designer Jupp Wiertz in Berlin, before emigrating to South Africa in 1936. He fought for the South African army in the Second World War broke out, and was briefly captured - and then escaped from - the Italian army in North Africa. After the war he settled in London and co-founded the Unger Mosaic Workshop. He designed many posters and artworks for London Transport (1950-74). His other works include mural mosaics for Lewisham Town Hall and the Royal Free Hospital, London, as well as the stained glass windows of many English churches.

Sadly, as noted by Gerald Cinamon at German Designers:

Although a sense of humor pervades Unger’s work, he committed suicide in London in 1975.

The other mural (by David McFall) is outside the station's entrance, of a black stallion titled Shying Horse, 1968. David McFall (1919 – 1988) was a Glaswegian sculptor.

Notable works include Bull Calf, which was selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and bought for the Tate in 1942 while McFall was still a student; Boy & Foal, which featured in the Dome of Discovery at the Festival of Britain; and a major statue of Winston Churchill in Woodford Green.