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On a recent trip to the city I came across the Mosaics by Eduardo Paolozzi at Tottenham Court Road Station. They were just so unique that I stayed behind everyone to see if I could get any good shots of them. And that is what I love about London, you come across things that you just do not expect to see. Although, I was a bit surprised that the building works were not finished even though they have reopened the station.

Eduardo Paolozzi’s mosaics at Tottenham Court Road underground station, which were removed earlier this year, have been saved from destruction and will be restored at the University of Edinburgh. The images were developed to evoke the essence of Soho, its place as a growing hub of electronics in the early 1980’s and the development of London as a city of machines.

The decorative arches over the escalators were part of Paolozzi’s 1984 design scheme for the station, commissioned by London Regional Transport, the predecessor to Transport for London, in 1980. They were dismantled as part of the £400m Crossrail redevelopment of the site, leading to a public outcry and an online petition that was signed by over eight thousand people. The mosaics in corridors between platforms and sections of the rotunda area of the station have been undisturbed, but are being cleaned, while the large mosaic by the former exit on to Oxford Street will be removed, restored and installed in the lower area of the station by late 2016.