She is best known as a judge on the BBC show Scotland’s Home of the Year, but few will be aware Anna Campbell-Jones started her career designing the very fabric of Glasgow’s transport network.

Anna Campbell-Jones in one of the old Glasgow Subway carriages she helped to design. (Photo by John Devlin/The Scotsman)

Anna Campbell-Jones in one of the new Glasgow Subway carriages. (Photo by John Devlin/The Scotsman)

Detail of the moquette in the old Glasgow Subway carriages. (Photo by John Devlin/The Scotsman)

Anna Campbell-Jones with one of the old Glasgow Subway trains which are all due to be taken out of service by the end of the year. (Photo by John Devlin/The Scotsman)

One of the interior designer’s first jobs was to refurbish the Glasgow Subway’s train carriages, which will shortly be replaced after nearly 45 years’ service.

Ms Campbell-Jones, who regularly uses the circular underground railway from her home in the West End, said there would be sadness at their departure because many Glaswegians had fond memories of travelling in them en-route to “fun times”.

Taking a trip on one of the trains with Scotland on Sunday, she revealed she was put on the design team because she had lived in the city, having graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1991, although all the work was done in London.

She said: "We did the whole interior fit out of the carriages. For the moquette, we worked with a textile designer to create various different options to put to our client.

"It's made from 100 per cent mohair, which I don't think a lot of people know, and that's why it's lasted so well. We had to use real mohair, leather and rubber because of fire [regulations] to avoid toxic fumes. "Obviously, it was very important to include orange in the colour palette, and this being the early ‘90s, grey was a very fashionable colour. So we wanted to have something that made it feel a little bit more up to date with the grey that was introduced."

Ms Campbell-Jones said the wavy, dark red leather pattern at the top of the seats. She said: "The idea is that the wave gently indicates where you should sit without there being too rigid a pattern for the seating.”

She said she had been taken aback by the level of affection for the carriage design after posting pictures to her 23,000 followers on Instagram.

The designer said: "I was on the Subway and I had seen they were changing and took a picture for myself because I didn't have any. Then I thought I'd stick it in my [Instagram] Stories and I got so many messages. "I think a lot of people are going to have a little bit of sadness about these carriages going out of service. Everybody who lives in Glasgow or visits Glasgow has such fond memories - of fun times, whether it's going out or going into town to the shops on these iconic trains.

"I hope a little remnant of the old carriages will be retained somewhere, even if it's in the transport museum.”

A carriage from one of the ten trains still in service has been earmarked for the Riverside Museum in Glasgow, but an uncertain fate faces the others. The other nine trains in the fleet, which have run on the 127-year-old system since 1980, have already been stripped and scrapped.

The first five of 17 new trains are in service following the first one being introduced in December, with the fleet switchover due complete by the end of the year.

Ms Campbell-Jones, who will back with a new series of Scotland’s Home of the Year on Monday, was impressed with the new trains. But she said their moquette design hadn’t improved on the old one.

She said: "They feel very swish, and they're so quiet. I really like the way you can see all the way down. It will really help when the train is really busy and people can move to find space.

"I think the fabric's OK, but our one was iconic. I would have loved to have designed the fabric for the new trains - I might have come up with something a bit more exciting. But I get that it incorporates the circle, which is such a motif.”

Ms Campbell-Jones said she would be happy to use the trains when they were fully automated and looked forward to being able to see out of each end, but would miss the drivers.

She said: "I always like being able to wave at them as you come running down the stairs and they wait for you so you can get on. I don't have an issue with driverless trains apart from the fact I like humans more. But to be able to see down the tunnel will be cool.”

Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), which runs the Glasgow Subway, said installation of the first London Underground-style platform screen doors at stations, ahead of driverless operation, was due by the end of the year.

They may appear first at Ibrox, Govan and Cessnock stations, with all 15 stations completed by the end of 2025.

Drivers on what is the world’s oldest underground rail system after London and Budapest will switch to other roles such as station or control room staff. An SPT spokesperson said: “All 17 new trains are going through various stages of testing before being introduced into passenger service in the summer and then we’ll say a final goodbye to our long-serving legacy fleet.

“Work is also due to begin on platform strengthening works in stations, which must be complete before the introduction of platform screen doors, which will be the next big thing passengers will see. Behind the scenes, we continue to work on the installation of new signalling and communications systems.

“There are still some challenging key milestones to be reached before we can say Subway modernisation is complete, but good progress is being made thanks to the tremendous efforts of our staff and contractors.”

BBC interior design guru Anna Campbell-Jones on revamping classic Glasgow Subway trains

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