Northern line
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007) |
| Northern | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colour on map | Black | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Year opened | 1890 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Line type | Deep Tube | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rolling stock | 1995 Tube Stock | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Stations served | 50 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length (km) | 58 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length (miles) | 36 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Depots | Golders Green Morden East Finchley Edgware High Barnet |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Journeys made | 206,734,000 (per annum) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rail lines of Transport for London |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Northern line is a deep-level tube line on the London Underground, coloured black on the Tube map. It carries more passengers per year than any other Underground line; 206,734,000 passengers per annum. The Northern line has two routes through Central London and two to the north, making it one of the more complex lines on the system.
Despite its name, the Northern line does not serve the northernmost stations on the Underground network (e.g. Epping on the Central line is farther north than any Northern line station). Somewhat ironically, it is the Underground line that extends farthest south, running through 16 of the 29 stations south of the River Thames: a proportion higher than any other line.
Out of the 50 stations on the Northern line, 36 are underground.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Formation
The Northern line evolved from two separate railway companies - the City & South London Railway (C&SLR) and the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR).
The C&SLR, London's first deep-level tube railway, was built under the supervision of James Henry Greathead, who had been responsible, with Peter W. Barlow, for the Tower Subway. It was the first of the Underground's lines to be constructed by boring deep below the surface and the first to be operated by electric traction. The railway opened in November 1890 from Stockwell to a now-disused station at King William Street; this was inconveniently placed and unable to cope with the traffic, so in 1900 a new route to Moorgate via Bank was opened. By 1907 the C&SLR had been further extended at both ends to run from Clapham Common to Euston.
The CCE&HR (commonly known as the "Hampstead Tube") was opened in 1907 and ran from Charing Cross (known for many years as Strand) via Euston and Camden Town (where there was a junction) to Golders Green and Highgate (now known as Archway). It was extended south by one stop to Embankment in 1914 to form a connection with the Bakerloo line and the District line. In 1913 the two railways came into the common ownership of the London Electric Railway Company (LER) although they remained separate companies.
[edit] Pre LPTB developments
[edit] Integration
During the early 1920s, a series of works were carried out to connect the C&SLR and CCE&HR tunnels to enable an integrated service to be operated. The first of these, new tunnels between the C&SLR's Euston station and the CCE&HR's station at Camden Town, had originally been planned in 1912[1] but had been delayed by World War I. The second connection linked the CCE&HR's Embankment and C&SLR's Kennington stations and provided a new intermediate station at Waterloo to connect to the Mainline station and Bakerloo line. The smaller diameter tunnels of the C&SLR were also expanded to match the standard diameter of the CCE&HR and the other deep tube lines.
In conjunction with the works to integrate the two lines, two major extensions were undertaken; northwards to Edgware in Middlesex (now in the London Borough of Barnet) and southwards to Morden in Surrey (now in the London Borough of Merton).
[edit] Edgware extension
The Edgware extension utilised unused plans dating back to 1901 for the Edgware and Hampstead Railway (E&HR)[2] and extended the CCE&HR line from its terminus at Golders Green to Edgware in two stages - to Hendon Central station in 1923 and to Edgware station in 1924. The line crossed undeveloped open countryside and, apart from a short tunnel north of Hendon Central, was on the surface. Five new stations were constructed to pavilion-style designs by Stanley Heaps, stimulating the rapid northward expansion of suburban developments in the following years.
[edit] Morden extension
The engineering of the Morden extension of the C&SLR from Clapham Common to Morden was more demanding, running in tunnel to a point just north of Morden station which was constructed in a cutting. The extension was initially planned to continue to Sutton[3] over part of the route for the unbuilt Wimbledon and Sutton Railway in which the LER held a stake but agreements were made with the Southern Railway to end the extension at Morden. The extension opened in 1926 with seven new stations, all designed by Charles Holden in a modern style. With the exception of Morden and Clapham South, where more land was available, the new stations were built on confined corner sites at main road junctions in already developed areas. Holden made good use of this limited space and designed impressive buildings. The street-level structures are of white Portland stone with tall double-height ticket halls, with the famous London Underground roundel made up in coloured glass panels in large glazed screens. The stone columns framing the glass screens are surmounted by a capital formed as a three-dimensional version of the roundel. The large expanses of glass ensure that the ticket halls are bright and, lit from within at night, welcoming. The first and last new stations on the extension, Morden and Clapham South, include a parade of shops and were designed with structures capable of being built above (like many of the earlier central London stations). Clapham South was extended upwards soon after its construction with a block of apartments; Morden was extended upwards in the 1960s with a block of offices. All the stations on the extension, except Morden itself, are Grade II listed buildings.
[edit] Post LPTB formation developments
[edit] Naming
The resulting line became known as the Morden–Edgware line, although a number of alternative names were also mooted in the fashion of the contraction of Baker Street & Waterloo Railway to "Bakerloo", such as "Edgmorden" and "Medgware". It was eventually named the Northern line in 1937.
[edit] Great Northern & City Railway
After the LER and the Metropolitan Railway (MR) were brought under public control in the form of the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) in 1933, the MR's subsidiary, the Great Northern & City Railway, which ran from Moorgate to Finsbury Park, became part of the Underground as the Northern City Line. It was operated as part of the Northern line, although it was never connected to it.
[edit] Barnet extension
Looking at the map above and comparing it with the present-day tube map of the Northern line, it might have seemed entirely logical to extend the Highgate branch to match the extenstion of the Golders Green branch to the outer suburbs; on the other hand the short stub to Mill Hill East seems an odd appendage.
In fact these extensions were part of a much more extensive scheme which went under the name of the Northern Heights plan. This was based on the electrification of the existing steam mini-network based on LNER services north-west of Finsbury Park. A key aspect of that plan was for a link northwards from the existing Highgate station (later renamed Archway) to the LNER line just south of East Finchley. A new deep-level interchange station named Highgate was to be provided at about the mid-way point beneath the existing surface LNER station of the same name. Another aspect was the doubling and electrification of the existing single track line from Finchley Central to Edgware. Underground trains were to take over these and other services.
Work began in the late 1930s. The tunneling northwards from the original Highgate station (now Archway) was completed and the service to the rebuilt surface station at East Finchley started on 3 July 1939, but without the opening of the intermediate (new) Highgate Station, at the site of the LNER's station of the same name. Further progress was disrupted by the start of World War II, though enough had been made to complete the electrification of the High Barnet branch onwards from East Finchley over which tube services started on 14 April 1940; the new (deep-level) Highgate station finally opened on 19 January 1941. The single track LNER line to Edgware was electrified as far as Mill Hill East, opening as a tube service on 18 May 1941 to serve the barracks there, thus forming the Northern line as it is today, as the rest of the Northern Heights plan was postponed and eventually abandoned.
[edit] The Northern Heights plan
In June 1935, the LPTB announced the New Works Programme, an ambitious plan to expand the Underground network which included the integration of a complex of existing London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) lines north of Highgate through the "Northern Heights". These lines, built in the 1860s and 1870s by the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway (EH&LR) and its successors, ran from Finsbury Park to Edgware via Highgate, with branches to Alexandra Palace and High Barnet. The line taken over would be extended beyond Edgware to Brockley Hill, Elstree South and Bushey Heath with a new depot at Aldenham. The extension's route was that planned for the unbuilt Watford and Edgware Railway (W&ER), using rights obtained from the earlier purchase of the W&ER (which had long-intended an extension of the EH&LR Edgware route towards Watford). This also provided the potential for further extension in the future if required; indeed, Bushey's town planners reserved space in Bushey village for a future station and Bushey Heath Station's design was revised several times to ensure this option would remain available in the future.
The project involved electrification of the surface lines (operated by steam trains at the time), the doubling of the original single-line section between Finchley Central and the proposed junction with the Edgware branch of the Northern line, and the construction of three new linking sections of track: a connection between Northern City line and Finsbury Park station on the surface; an extension from Archway to the LNER line near East Finchley via new deep-level platforms below Highgate station; and a short diversion from just before the LNER's station at Edgware to the Underground's station of the same name.
[edit] Intended service levels
The peak hours service levels would have seen 21 trains per hour each way on the Barnet branch north of Camden Town, 14 via Leicester Square branch and 7 via Bank branch. Of those 14 would have continued on beyond Finchley Central, 7 each on the High Barnet and Edgware branches. An additional 7 trains per hour would have served the Barnet branch, but continued via Highgate High-Level and Finsbury Park to Moorgate, a slightly shorter route to the City. It does not seem to have been intended to run through trains to the ex-Northern City branch from Edgware via Finchley Central. 7 trains per hour would have served the Alexandra Palace branch, to/from Moorgate via Highgate High-level. In addition to the 14 through trains described, the ex-Northern City branch would have 14 4-car shuttles per hour.
[edit] Progress of works
Work began in the late 1930s, and were in active progress on all fronts by the outbreak of the World War II. The tunneling northwards from the original Highgate station (now Archway) had been completed and the service to the rebuilt surface station at East Finchley started on 3 July 1939, but without the opening of the intermediate (new) Highgate Station, at the site of the LNER's station of the same name. Further progress was disrupted by the start of the war, though enough had been made to complete the electrification of the High Barnet branch onwards from East Finchley over which tube services started on 14 April 1940; the new (deep-level) Highgate station finally opened on 19 January 1941. The single track LNER line to Edgware was electrified as far as Mill Hill East, opening as a tube service on 18 May 1941 to serve the barracks there, thus forming the Northern line as it is today. The new depot at Aldenham had already been built and was used to build Halifax bombers. Work on the other elements of the plan was suspended late in 1939.
Preparatory work including viaducts and a tunnel had been completed on the Bushey extension pre-war. After the war, however, the area beyond Edgware was made part of the Green Belt largely preventing the anticipated residential development in the area and the potential demand for services from Bushey Heath thus vanished. Available funds were directed towards completing the eastern extension of the Central line instead, and the Northern Heights plan was dropped on 9 February 1954. Aldenham depot was converted into an overhaul facility for buses.
The implemented service from High Barnet branch gave good access both to the West End and the City. This appears to have undermined traffic on the Alexandra Palace branch still run with steam locomotion to Kings Cross via Finsbury Park, as Highgate (Low-level) was but a short bus ride away and car traffic was much lighter than it would become later. Consequently, the line from Finsbury Park to Muswell Hill and Alexandra Palace via the surface platforms at Highgate was closed altogether to passenger traffic in 1954. This contrasts with the decision to electrify the Epping-Ongar branch of the Central line, another remnant of the New Works programme, run as a tube train shuttle from 1957. A local pressure group, the Muswell Hill Metro Group, campaigns to reopen this route as a light rail service. So far there is no sign of movement on this issue; the route, now the Parkland Walk, is highly valued by walkers and cyclists and suggestions in the 1990s that it could, in part, become a road were met with fierce opposition.
The rural railway heritage of the High Barnet branch beyond Highgate can be seen in the design of many of the stations.
[edit] Map
The TFL line diagram is available online.
