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Metro Design Guide
Our Building Design Guide established a unique corporate identity and design approach for the Tyne and Wear Metro, when the idea of a new rail system in Newcastle and Gateshead was first conceived.
Summary
Mass transit design guide
Location
Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Client
Tyne & Wear Passenger Transport Executive
Size
N/A
Completion
1980
Tyne and wear metro design guide sign outside of haymarket station 10x11
Vision
The Tyne and Wear Metro was one of the UK’s most significant post-war infrastructure projects. The modern light rail system tunnelling under the city cost about £265 million to build in the 1980s. Faulkner-Brown Hendy Watkinson Stonor was commissioned to act as the overall architect for this transformative network, designing a guide for all new metro stations.
Tyne and wear metro design guide historic ticket hall g
Tyne and wear metro design guide train travelling over bridge g
60
million passenger journeys in the metro’s first year of full operation
77
kilometres of track across the metro network
1st
light rapid transit system in Britain
11
years of involvement from FaulknerBrowns as overall designers
Tyne and wear metro design guide underground station under construction 3x4
Tyne and wear metro design guide monument station signage 3x2
Tyne and wear metro design guide historic station concourse 3x2
Tyne and wear metro design guide haymarket station from above 3x2
Pragmatic materials
Our Metro Design Guide set out to establish a consistent architectural approach that could be applied to all metro stations. It included features such as inverted, trough-shaped ceilings to reduce noise and neo-brutalist ribbed concrete finishes. Prefabricated, vitreous enamelled panels were used as colourful cladding modules, providing consistency across different platforms and stations.
Tyne and wear metro design guide archive documents and guides g
Iconic graphics

In collaboration with graphic designers Kinneir Calvert and Tuhill, the Metro Design Guide also created a distinctive signage and graphics system, at the heart of which was the Calvert typeface. This graphic identity was integrated across the entire network, with station names in large lettering decorating the platforms and a black and yellow M ‘logo’ signposting entrances. The Calvert typeface and FaulknerBrowns’ colourful ‘kit of parts’ continue to form the recognisable face of Newcastle’s metro system today.

Tyne and wear metro design guide jesmond station signage 3x2
Tyne and wear metro design guide sign outside of monument station 3x2
"With its slab serifs, I felt [the Calvert typeface] complemented the richness of Newcastle’s Georgian architecture."
Margaret Calvert,
Designer of the Metro’s Calvert typeface
Tyne and wear metro design guide sketch of station concourse 10x11
Station design
Original sketches showing the architectural kit of parts applied to Haymarket ticket hall, routes down to the Metro tunnels and the entrance to the station at St. James’ Park Stadium.
Tyne and wear metro design guide sketch of station concourse 3x2
Original sketches showing the architectural kit of parts applied to Haymarket ticket hall, routes down to the Metro tunnels and the entrance to the station at St. James’ Park Stadium.
Tyne and wear metro design guide sketch of station escalator 3x2
Original sketches showing the architectural kit of parts applied to Haymarket ticket hall, routes down to the Metro tunnels and the entrance to the station at St. James’ Park Stadium.
Tyne and wear metro design guide sketch of station exterior 3x2
Original sketches showing the architectural kit of parts applied to Haymarket ticket hall, routes down to the Metro tunnels and the entrance to the station at St. James’ Park Stadium.

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