Kirovsky Zavod

The Kirovsky Zavod (Kirov Plant) metro station, like all stations of the first stage of the Leningrad metro, has an interesting feature. When the escalator exits to the surface, the escalator handrails do not move along a smooth curve, but along a two-step polyline.

But we're getting a little ahead of ourselves.

The station is named after its location-near the passage of the Kirov plant. It is not as grand and beautiful as Avtovo, but it is confidently included in the top 10 most beautiful stations in Saint-Petersburg. They were able to design and build under Stalin.

This is the first station to the city center, diving deep underground.

The theme of the station's design is the development of the socialist industry. The underground hall of the station is lined with smoky-gray Caucasian marble "Svaneti". In the hall there are 31 pairs of columns in two rows with gentle arches.

The columns are mounted in pairs with 32 pairs of high-relief aluminum cartouches with the emblems of heavy industry: electrification, coal, oil and metallurgical industries. Especially cool steel-making glasses and a hook ;)

The first pair of cartouches from the station entrance is mounted on the edges of the walls. Under the high reliefs, they planned to hang marble plaques with letters from Leningrad residents to the "father of peoples" Stalin.

The hermetic door here is of the "guillotine" type.

In the side (platform) halls, the floor was paved with asphalt (photo on the left). In 2012-2013, asphalt was replaced with granite (central photo). The photo on the right shows a newspaper reproduction of the installation of these grommet lamps.

At the end of the central hall stands our dear Vladimir Lenin (sculptor Dydykin) with a gloomy squint. A path of maroon granite with black and white edging leads to it across the hall. Those who were born in the post-Soviet era are very lucky that this squint is no longer shoved into the brain at every step.

In the near future, when the station opens Putilovskaya (under construction), a crosswalk should appear at this end. Obviously, Lenin will be moved somewhere at the same time.

The station also has a lot of details with a very high depth of study.

There is also a ceiling stucco-with the emblem of the Kirov plant.

Especially beautiful are the details upstairs, in the lobby. There are lamps of amazing beauty.

One of the very few stations in Saint-Petersburg, where the ground lobby is not a shame.

The station building is in a classical style, similar to an ancient Greek temple-like the Parthenon and the Lincoln Memorial. The rectangle of the building is formed by 44 doric columns with flutes and a wide granite staircase. Initially, the estate of Prince Golitsyn was located on the site of the station building.

But let's go back underground. The escalator hall of the lobby does not have a barrier separating passenger traffic on the descent and ascent. Therefore, here you can go up to the surface and go back down again without paying the fare again.

At the Kirovsky Zavod station, grommet-type lighting was used for the first time. In this case, it is a through grating made of strips of organic glass, behind which light sources are placed at a certain distance. To date, the plexiglass has been removed from the grommets.

At the same time, Lenin has a personal illumination of the back wall.

Track wall and doors in the track wall. Behind them, as we remember, is a cable farm running along the station walls.

"The day of the horn calls the Kirov plant..." - from the song by Alexander Rosenbaum.

A great, modest workstation.