Hi, 

i am a student of the London College of Communication (a design
college in London) and currently doing a project about the central
line, part of the london underground network. I need to get a large 
fabric swatch of the velour material that the use for upholstery in
the central line (it has to be the central line...every other line
uses different upholstery). Do you know where i could get hold of it
(perhaps the orginal fabric manufaturer or some upholstery who
recycle old tube seats).  I did some research on the web but the only
thing I could find was a depot where the refurbish trains of the
central line (its in west ruislip, i havent checked it out)/ a company
called the Design Research Unit that might have played a part in
designing the saet covers (designresaerchunit.com), a article about a
woman who designed seat covers for the tube(i cant find it anymore on
the web or was in the papers?), oh, and there was an exhibition 4
weeks ago which featured contemporary furniture and clothes made out
of interior of tube carriages. I think the exhibition was called 100%
and curated in the design business centre in london.  well you see
everything is a bit vague so I count on your help...there is a
deadline soon! . greetings from london  lars  laemmerzahl
PS: Nicking it from the train is not an option...i'm a rather lousy vandal :-)

Hey Lars, 

I found this website that makes the new seat covers i.e. :

The Metrolyte Seat was developed as a replacement seat for those in
London Underground?s Central Line trains. It addressed many of the
problems that were encountered with the original seat and was designed
to meet more stringent fire test requirements.

You could try getting in touch with them, there must have been some
overlap between putting the new seat covers on and taking the old seat
covers off.

Their website is:http://www.creactive-design.co.uk/Metrolyte-seat.html

Hope this is of some help.

Regards, 
SK

hello hubbertspeaked,

thank you so much for you help. I m gonna call them tommorrow to check
but i think that they are a research-company who developed a concept
for a future refurbishment. The current upholstery hasnīt been changed
yet and as far as i know is fairly new.

Thanks once again

lars

ps: i would like to add another 10$ to the existing price. I
understand that this quite a tricky question.

greetings

lars laemmerzahl