When Pimlico underground station opened in September 1972, it caused a stir in the London art world. The new Victoria line, to which it was a late addition, was intended to showcase British design. Stations would be identified by tiled recesses behind benches along their platforms: artists including Edward Bawden were invited to make these. Pimlico was a particular prize, being the stop for what was then the Tate Gallery, now Tate Britain. The commission for its tiles went to Peter Sedgley, who has died aged 94.
Sedgley seemed an odd choice. In 1972, he was at the height of his engagement with op art. Short for “optical”, a term coined by Time magazine in 1964, the aim of this was to disorient the eye; hardly the ideal pedigree for designing what was, in essence, locational signage. The Pimlico tiles, though, turned out to be reassuringly legible. Each of the 150 squares in Sedgley’s niches bore a yellow disc, smaller and paler towards the middle, darker and larger towards the edge. After half a century, they are still in use.
