In an extract from the new, expanded edition of his wonderful book, Seats of London: A Field Guide to London Transport Moquette Patterns, Andrew Martin opens up a very special cupboard that any transport geek would love to glimpse inside.
Where moquette that hasn't made the cut goes to live out its days.
On the eighth floor of TfL's offices in Stratford is a metal-doored cupboard, of the kind you'd expect to be stuffed with old ring binders. But this one is full of moquette.
Each sample is about the size of a towel, and most were stowed away here soon after being delivered from the weaver. These are the lost moquettes: never applied to a train or sat on by a single bottom even for the shortest hop between Covent Garden and Leicester Square.
"TfL's design team habitually refer to their 'colour blanket': a long, multicoloured strip that is a sort of moquette equivalent of a Pantone swatch."
