Brompton Road tube station
 |
|
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Place | Brompton |
| History | |
| Opened by | Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway |
| Platforms | 2 |
| Key dates | Opened 1906 Closed 1934 |
| Replaced by | None |
Brompton Road tube station is a disused station on the Piccadilly Line of the London Underground. It is located between Knightsbridge and South Kensington.
Contents |
[edit] History
It was opened on 15 December 1906 by the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR).[1] The station was located at the junction of Brompton Road and Cottage Place. Although it was convenient for both the Brompton Oratory and the Victoria and Albert Museum, it saw little traffic and, by October 1909, some services passed it without stopping.[2]
The station closed on 4 May 1926 due to the General Strike, and did not reopen until 4 October of that year with services only calling there on weekdays initially. Sunday services were finally restored on 2 January 1927.[2] As before, it was little used, to the extent that two of its lifts were removed and relocated elsewhere and the ticket office was closed.[2]
When the adjacent Knightsbridge station was modernised with escalators replacing lifts, it was provided with a new southern entrance that was built closer to Brompton Road station, reducing its catchment area. When the new entrance for Knightsbridge station opened on 30 July 1934 Brompton Road station closed.[1]
Just prior to the outbreak of World War II the street level building together with the lift shafts and lower western passages were sold to the War Office for use by the 1st Anti-Aircraft Division. During the war, it was the Royal Artillery's Anti-Aircraft Operations Room for central London. This use was discontinued in the 1950s. It is currently used as the Town Headquarters (THQ) of the University of London Air Squadron, the University of London Royal Naval Unit and 46F (Kensington) Squadron Air Training Corps.
[edit] Station building
Like the others on the GNP&BR, the station building was designed by Leslie Green. The surface building occupied a L-shaped site built on two adjacent sides of a public house which occupied the corner of Brompton Road and Cottage Place. The façades were of Green's standard red-glazed terracotta design with semi-circular arches at first floor level. The entrance and exits to the lifts were on Brompton Road with the Cottage Place elevation providing staff access. The Brompton Road elevation was demolished in 1972,[2] but the Cottage Place elevation remains, now partly incorporated into a larger building.
Although the platforms have long since been removed, their original location can be seen from passing trains by the brick walls that stand in their place. The original tiling remains on the tunnel walls, although soot and dirt now obscures them.
[edit] Future plans
The Old London Underground Company has proposed turning the above-ground buildings into a restaurant and make the underground space available to the London Fire Brigade Museum.[3][4] As the buildings were also used by the British Government for war-planning purposes during World War II, there are plans to open these up to the public. It is hoped that the project will be finished by the 2012 Summer Olympics.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Rose, Douglas (1999). The London Underground, A Diagrammatic History. Douglas Rose/Capital Transport. ISBN 1-85414-219-4.
- ^ a b c d Connor, J.E. (2001) [1999]. "Brompton Road". London's Disused Underground Stations. Capital Transport. pp. 48. ISBN 185414-250-X.
- ^ "Tourist attraction plan for disused Tube stations". BBC. 7 September 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14825236.
- ^ Spillane, Chris (8 September 2011). "London Entrepreneur Sees Gold Mine in Unused Subway Stations". Bloomberg. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-08/london-entrepreneur-sees-a-gold-mine-in-developing-unused-subway-stations.html.
- ^ Bolton, Matt. "Reawakening the Underground". BBC Travel. BBC. http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20111104-reawakening-the-underground. Retrieved 2011-01-21.
[edit] External links
- Brompton Road Station - once upon a time
- Subterranea Britannica - Brompton Road (includes photos of station as it is today)
- London Transport Museum Photographic Archive Original station building shortly after opening
- Photos of the MoD side of the station taken in 2011
[edit] See also
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brompton Road Underground Station |
| Former Route | ||||
| Preceding station |  London Underground |
Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piccadilly line
1906-1934
|
towards Cockfosters
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
Coordinates: 51°29′49.6″N 0°10′8″W / 51.497111°N 0.16889°W
