Roundel Round We Go

One of largest and the most complicated stations in London, Tottenham Court Road is the interchange between the Central and Northern lines of the London Underground, and the Elizabeth line. The station’s history is one of constant attempts to keep pace with increasing congestion, culminating in the spectacular reconstruction which commenced in 2009 as part of the Crossrail project. Tottenham Court Road may not have finished expanding yet, with provision made within the station’s passageways for access to the future Crossrail 2.

Aside from its sheer size, Tottenham Court Road is famous for the intricate mosaics which cover many of the walls, created by Scottish artist Eduardo Paolozzi in the 1980s.

Soaring above the station is the Centre Point tower, once highly controversial, and which lent its name to the Centrepoint charity.

We explore Woodside Park, a station which has retained many of its picturesque historic details, and talk to Luke Agbaimoni, aka Tubemapper, renowned photographer of the London Underground. 

Woodside Park was opened by the Great Northern Railway in 1872, and became part of the Northern Line in 1940. We've covered the history of this section of railway in full detail in episode 004 - Totteridge and Whetstone.  

Around Woodside Park we discover the disputed etymology of Tally Ho Corner, and the De Dion Bouton factory which may have built some of London's earliest motor buses. 

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For centuries an isolated village, Northolt's first station opened in 1907 as part of the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway, an ambitious project to build a new line from London to the Midlands. London Underground's New Works Programme saw the route transformed into part of the Central line. Today, another ambitious project to build a new railway from London to the Midlands is underway, with HS2 tunnelling directly under Northolt and building a ventilation shaft near the station.

We delve into the ancient history of the village, which was described by a 1920 guidebook as one of the most beautiful in the vicinity of London. We also discover the lost racecourse, experimental social housing, the surreal spiral hills of Northala fields, and a model railway club.

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Our first south London station, Southfields is on London Underground's District Line - but was for many years operated by British Rail, despite none of their trains ever stopping there. We explore how that came about through classic Victorian railway construction shenanigans; the mainline trains which still use Southfields today; and plans for Crossrail 2 to take over the line.

Tennis fans will know Southfields as the closest station to the Wimbledon grounds, so Emily went on a tour to discover their history. We also look at London's oldest mosque and investigate rumours of a legal clause banning pubs in Southfields.

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The station with more platforms than any other on the Underground gets a bumper episode with special guest Geoff Marshall. 

Baker Street has one of the most fascinating and complex stories of any station on the Underground. It was the flagship station of the Metropolitan Railway, its growth driven by their determination to both carry commuters more efficiently and prove they were a real mainline railway company. Above the platforms the Met built their headquarters decorated with carvings of railway equipment, and the luxurious Chiltern Court apartment block from which daring commando raids were planned during the Second World War.

Deep below ground are the platforms of the Bakerloo and Jubilee lines, decorated with images of the street's famous fictitious resident Sherlock Holmes.

Baker Street station has also been home to London Transport's lost property office, their canteen training centre, and the only newsreel cinema that could be found at a London Underground station.

We also discover the history of the nearby Madame Tussaud's and its now-lost Planetarium.

Joining us for this episode is railway YouTube star Geoff Marshall, with whom we discuss tube stations real and fantastical, podcasting and sharing the positivity of railway enthusiasm.

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"Rickmansworth, an ancient township of narrow streets, lies most picturesquely in its valley, where a sharp tongue of Hertfordshire thrusts itself down between Middlesex and Bucks," according to the Metroland brochure produced by the Metropolitan Railway in 1932 to promote the idea of moving out of London to rural areas served by the company's trains. In this episode we look at how the Met came to be extended to Rickmansworth and beyond, and the suburbanisation that it caused. We also discover the long-closed railway to Rickmansworth Church Street station, which used tube trains neither owned nor operated by the Underground.

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One of the original Central London Railway stations opened in 1900, Queensway retains much of its turn-of-the-century appearance today.

In this episode we look in depth at the engineering, construction and operation of the Central London Railway, including its troublesome electric locomotives and their replacement with cutting edge multiple unit trains that pioneered the technology still used throughout London Underground today.

Best known for having the longest escalators on the London Underground (and indeed the whole UK), and a very wide southbound platform - both products of the station's 1990s reconstruction. Angel was the terminus of the City and South London Railway between 1901 and 1907, was upgraded in the 1920s, then entered a long period of decay culminating in the decrepit state beautifully depicted in "Heart of the Angel", the 1989 BBC documentary on the station by Molly Dineen. The 1990s rebuild brought escalators (but sadly not step-free access, lots of red marble and a postmodern office block overhead, which is itself now facing redevelopment.

In this episode we also look at plans for Crossrail 2, the disused City Road station to the south (now the Bunhill 2 district heating project), and the unique disused subterranean signal cabin at Weston Street to the north.

Renowned for its fantastically complex junction, Camden Town station is where the Charing Cross, Bank, Edgware and High Barnet branches of the Northern line come together. Opened in 1907 on the Hampstead Tube, the famous junction was added in 1924 to integrate the City and South London Railway into what is now the Northern Line. Ongoing efforts to increase capacity have lead to recent proposals for the Northern line to be split apart again, requiring another rebuild at Camden.

The area surrounding the station also has a rich railway history, as well as the famous markets, and plans for a Camden High Line linear park.

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Gunnersbury is a station with a glorious past, once served by five different railway companies, and a spectacular unrealised future on a 1919 predecessor of Crossrail. It is also the only station on the London Underground to have been struck by a tornado! 

Once home to the Rothschild family, part of nearby Gunnersbury Park is now the Kensington Cemetery, including a memorial to the 1940 massacre of Polish soldiers by the Soviet Union at Katyn.

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Paul has created two maps showing the route of the "Crossrail 1919" proposal for an east-west railway which would have run through Gunnersbury.

When it opened in 1887 on an extension of the Metropolitan Railway, Northwood was out in the open countryside. Housing was quickly built around the station by Frank Murray Maxwell Hallowell Carew, a man with a name and life worthy of an adventure novel - it turns out developing Northwood was probably the least interesting thing he ever did. 

The Metropolitan Railway themselves lead later housing developments around their stations, creating the suburbs still known as Metroland, which we examine the origins of in this episode. 

We also feature the story of the "A stock" trains used on the Metropolitan line between 1961 and 2012, most of which were removed for scrapping via a siding at Northwood.

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Opened by the Eastern Counties Railway in 1856, the London Underground's Central line was extended through Leytonstone in 1947 under the expansion of the network known as the New Works Programme. Today the entrance to the station is perhaps best know for its mosaics depicting the life and films of Alfred Hitchcock. We've been given the full story of the mosaics and their creation by the artists who made them at the Greenwich Mural Workshop.

Leytonstone was also the closest station to the birthplace of renowned tube map designer Harry Beck, so we take a detailed look at his life, work, and complicated relationship with London Transport.

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Best known as the station for visitors to the Victoria and Albert, Natural History and Science museums, South Kensington was the focus of a bitter rivalry between the Metropolitan and District railway companies culminating in a tug of war between two trains. The station has also been the subject of many uncompleted plans including the deep level District line, numerous proposals for railways on the route of what's now the pedestrian subway to the museums, and commercial redevelopments of the station building. 

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Built on an extension of the world's second underground railway (the Metropolitan and St John's Wood Railway), Finchley Road has been at the centre of a struggle for track capacity that has seen it served by the Metropolitan, Bakerloo and Jubilee lines. There was even a little-known 1920s plan to for a deep-level Metropolitan line bypass the station altogether!

In this episode we'll also look at Swiss Cottage, Marlborough Road and Lords, the three Metropolitan line stations between Finchley Road and Baker Street which closed in 1939 and 1949.

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In this episode, we're joined by Daniel Fox of the Signals to Danger podcast to discuss the tragic Harrow and Wealdstone rail disaster of 1952.

We'll also examine the claim that Harrow and Wealdstone is the oldest station on the London Underground, discover why the Bakerloo now terminates here instead of stretching all the way to Watford, and explore the lost branchline to Stanmore Village.

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A quaint country station, but in zone six and with a tube train into town every few minutes, Theydon Bois is the penultimate stop at the eastern end of the Central line. We look at how the London Underground came to serve this rural outpost, a village which to this day remains without streetlighting! (and there's an annual Donkey Derby!)

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References - owing to the number of sources referenced for this episode, we have listed them in a PDF document linked below.

Boston Manor is considered one of architect Charles Holden's masterpieces, so in this episode we discuss his career in tube station design. At Boston Manor, Holden created a station with an elegant tower soaring above the flat roof - which upon visiting the station we discovered looks more impressive in photographs than reality! 

We also look at the history of the station dating back to its origin on the District Railway, as well as Brunel's nearby marvel of bridge engineering, the factory that built the underframes of the famous Routemaster buses, and the grand home of a distant ancestor of Princess Diana.

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References

London's District Railway Volume 1: Nineteenth Century by Mike Horne (Capital Transport Publishing 2018)

London's District Railway Volume 2: Twentieth Century by Mike Horne (Capital Transport Publishing 2019)

The Piccadilly Tube: The First Hundred Years by Mike Horne (Capital Transport Publishing 2007)

London Underground by Design by Mark Ovenden (Penguin 2013)

London Underground Stations in Colour for the Modeller and Historian by John Glover (Ian Allan Publishing 2009)

London's Underground Stations A Social and Architectural Study by Laurence Menear (Midas Books 1983)

Bright Underground Spaces: The Railway Stations of Charles Holden by David Lawrence (Capital Transport Publishing 2008)

Underground Architecture by David Lawrence (Capital Transport Publishing 1994)

A Guide to Modernism in Metro-Land by Joshua Abbott (Unbound Publishing 2020)

The Tube  - Station to Station on the London Underground by Oliver Green (Shire Publications 2012)

The London Underground by Andrew Emmerson (Shire Publications 2013)

The Little Book of the London Underground by David Long (The History Press 2009)

London Underground Stations by David Leboff (Ian Allan Publishing 1994)

Tube Station Trivia by Geoff Marshall (Capital Transport Publishing 2018)

Labyrinth: A Journey Through London's Underground by Tamsin Dillon, Will Self, Mark Wallinger, Marina Warner, Christian Wolmar, and Louise Coysh (Art/Books 2014)

Why Do Shepherds Need a Bush?: London's Underground History of Tube Station Names by David Hilliam (The History Press 2015)

What's in a Name?: Origins of Station Names on the London Underground by Cyril M Harris (Capital Transport Publishing 2001)

Opened with a classic Leslie Green station building in 1906, the 1932 rebuilding of the station rendered the original entrance disused in favour of a subsurface booking hall featuring a display of model buses.

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Our first Bakerloo line station, Kensal Green has an unusual partly timber clad station building. The local area includes the spectacular Kensal Green cemetery, and is set to be transformed in the near future with the construction nearby of Old Oak Common station on HS2.

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References

London Underground Stations in Colour for the Modeller and Historian by John Glover (Ian Allan Publishing 2009)

Building London's Underground by Antony Badsey-Ellis (Capital Transport Publishing 2016)

The History of the Bakerloo Line by Clive D W Feather (The Crowood Press Ltd 2020)

The Bakerloo Line: An Illustrated History by Mike Horne (Capital Transport Publishing 2001)

Labyrinth: A Journey Through London's Underground by Tamsin Dillon, Will Self, Mark Wallinger, Marina Warner, Christian Wolmar, and Louise Coysh (Art/Books 2014)

Why Do Shepherds Need a Bush?: London's Underground History of Tube Station Names by David Hilliam (The History Press 2015)

What's in a Name?: Origins of Station Names on the London Underground by Cyril M Harris (Capital Transport Publishing; 4th edition 2001)

Middlesex by John Betjemen (1954)

Upney station was opened in 1932, on a mainline railway that had been running since the 1880s. The station has only ever been served by District line trains, but it was built by the London Midland and Scottish Railway who owned the mainline at the time, and was run by LMS and then British Railways staff until 1969.

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References

Steam to Silver. A History of London Transport Surface Rolling Stock by J. Graeme Bruce (London Transport 1970)

London's Underground Stations A Social and Architectural Study by Laurence Menear (Midas Books 1983)

London Underground Stations by David Leboff (Ian Allan Publishing 1994)

Labyrinth: A Journey Through London's Underground by Tamsin Dillon, Will Self, Mark Wallinger, Marina Warner, Christian Wolmar, and Louise Coysh (Art/Books 2014)

Why Do Shepherds Need a Bush?: London's Underground History of Tube Station Names by David Hilliam (The History Press 2015)

What's in a Name?: Origins of Station Names on the London Underground by Cyril M Harris (Capital Transport Publishing; 4th edition 2001)

Post Memories: The Mystery of Matchstick Island by Zoah Hedges-Stocks (Barking and Dagenham Post, August 15, 2016)

Totteridge and Whetstone station can be found one stop short of the end of the High Barnet branch of the Northern line - not on the Bakerloo line as we may have once thought. Once we realised where the station was, we discovered it had an unexpectedly fascinating history, including uncompleted 1930s tube extension plans, social housing, lizards, a hospital for the railway company's horses, Soviet spies, and possibly a captive Nazi!

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References - owing to the number of sources referenced for this episode, we have listed them in a PDF document linked below.

There are two stations at Hammersmith - in this episode we discuss the older of the two, which today serves the Circle and Hammersmith and City lines, discovering a history of corporate rivalry and alliances, multiple reconstructions, state of the art signalling, and a barbershop open since 1911.

Note - We recorded this episode in March 2021, while London was still under lockdown due to Covid-19, so we make a few references to not being allowed out and plans for when lockdown ends.

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References

The Hammersmith & City Railway 150 Years by Mike Horne (London Underground & Nebulous Books 2014)

The Circle Line: An Illustrated History by Desmond F. Croome (Capital Transport Publishing 2003)

London's Underground Stations - A Social and Architectural Study by Laurence Menear (Midas Books 1983)

Underground Architecture by David Lawrence (Capital Transport Publishing 1994)

Tube Station Trivia by Geoff Marshall (Capital Transport Publishing 2018)

Labyrinth: A Journey Through London's Underground by Tamsin Dillon, Will Self, Mark Wallinger, Marina Warner, Christian Wolmar, and Louise Coysh (Art/Books 2014)

Why Do Shepherds Need a Bush?: London's Underground History of Tube Station Names by David Hilliam (The History Press 2015)

What's in a Name?: Origins of Station Names on the London Underground by Cyril M Harris (Capital Transport Publishing; 4th edition 2001)

The London Underground - A Diagrammatic History by Douglas Rose (Capital Transport Publishing; 2nd edition 2007, latest edition 2016)

Earl's Court station on the District and Piccadilly lines is notable for many "firsts", with the Underground's first escalator, its first automatic lifts, the first electric trains on the cut-and-cover lines, and the first Ferris Wheel in Britain having once stood nearby. We'll visit all these historic occasions using the TARDIS which stands outside the station! 

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References

Going Green: The Story of the District Line by Piers Connor (Capital Transport Publishing 1993)

The District Line: An Illustrated History by Mike Horne (Capital Transport Publishing; First Edition 2006)

The Northern Line: An Illustrated History by Mike Horne and Bob Bayman (Capital Transport Publishing; New edition 1999)

History of the Metropolitan District Railway to June 1908 by Alexander Edmonds (London Regional Transport 1974)

Underground: How the Tube Shaped London by David Bownes, Oliver Green, Sam Mullins (Allen Lane 2012)

Amazing and Extraordinary London Underground Facts by Stephen Halliday (David & Charles 2009)

The Moving Metropolis: A History of London's Transport Since 1800 by David Lawrence (Laurence King Publishing; second edition 2015)

The Subterranean Railway: How the London Underground Was Built and How it Changed the City Forever by Christian Wolmar (Atlantic Books 2004)

Building London's Underground by Antony Badsey-Ellis (Capital Transport Publishing 2016)

Underground Architecture by David Lawrence (Capital Transport Publishing 1994)

Rails Through the Clay: A History of London's Tube Railways by Alan Arthur Jackson and Desmond F. Croome (Capital Transport Publishing; 2nd edition 1993)

London Underground at War by Nick Cooper (Amberley Publishing 2014)

The London Underground Electric Train by Piers Connor (The Crowood Press Ltd 2015)

Charles Tyson Yerkes - Traction King of London by Tim Sherwood (The History Press 2008)

Labyrinth: A Journey Through London's Underground by Tamsin Dillon, Will Self, Mark Wallinger, Marina Warner, Christian Wolmar and Louise Coysh  (Art/Books 2014)

Why Do Shepherds Need a Bush?: London's Underground History of Tube Station Names by David Hilliam (The History Press 2015)

What's in a Name?: Origins of Station Names on the London Underground by Cyril M Harris (Capital Transport Publishing; 4th Revised edition 2001)

In our first episode, we’ve opened our bag of London Underground station names and drawn out Hatton Cross. Opened in 1975 on the Piccadilly line extension towards Heathrow Airport, it was at the time the 279th station on the Underground, the highest number ever on the network. 

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References

The Piccadilly Line - A Brief History by Charles Edward Lee (London Regional Transport 1973)

The Piccadilly Tube: The First Hundred Years by Mike Horne (Capital Transport Publishing 2007)

The Piccadilly Line an Illustrated History by Desmond Croome (Capital Transport Publishing 1998)

Rails Through the Clay: A History of London's Tube Railways by Alan Arthur Jackson and Desmond F. Croome (Capital Transport Publishing; 2nd edition 1993)

A Guide to Modernism in Metro-Land by Joshua Abbott (Unbound Publishing 2020)

Underground Movement by Paul Moss (Capital Transport Publishing 2000)

Building London's Underground by Antony Badsey-Ellis (Capital Transport Publishing 2016)

Underground Architecture by David Lawrence (Capital Transport Publishing 1994)

Tube Station Trivia by Geoff Marshall (Capital Transport Publishing 2018)

The Moving Metropolis: A History of London's Transport Since 1800 by David Lawrence (Laurence King Publishing; second edition 2015)

Labyrinth: A Journey Through London's Underground by Tamsin Dillon, Will Self, Mark Wallinger, Marina Warner, Christian Wolmar, and Louise Coysh (Art/Books 2014)

Why Do Shepherds Need a Bush?: London's Underground History of Tube Station Names by David Hilliam (The History Press 2015)

What's in a Name?: Origins of Station Names on the London Underground by Cyril M Harris (Capital Transport Publishing; 4th edition 2001)

The London Underground - A Diagrammatic History by Douglas Rose (Capital Transport Publishing; 2nd edition 2007, latest edition 2016) 

Extension of the Piccadilly Line from Hounslow West to Heathrow Central by D.G.Jobling and A.C.Lyons (Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers May 1976)