In Which Tube Station Can You See The Hubble Space Telescope?

M@
By M@ Last edited 72 months ago
In Which Tube Station Can You See The Hubble Space Telescope?

If Tottenham Court Road tube station is famous for anything it's the colourful mosaics*. Installed in 1984, these were the work of celebrity sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi.

Everyone's seen these vibrant murals. To know them is to love them. Witness the fury when just 5% were removed for engineering works.

Typical of Paolozzi's work, the numerous panels offer a mix of the mechanical and biological. Much of it is tricky to interpret, but one object stands out in clarity.

This is the Hubble Space Telescope. You'll find it in the drum-shaped chamber at the foot of the main escalators.

Curiously, the mosaic dates from 1984, while Hubble was not launched until 1990. Paolozzi hadn't exactly foreseen the future, though. Hubble was supposed to have launched in 1983. Repeated delays compounded by the 1986 Challenger Disaster put it on hiatus for many years.

A scale model of the telescope can also be seen in the Science Museum's space gallery.

The Tottenham Court Road telescope was long trained on Mercury... until his statue was removed from the nearby Dominion Theatre.


*Oh, and also for being the scene of a lupine mauling in An American Werewolf in London.

Last Updated 12 March 2018