Swiss Cottage tube station (1868–1940)
Swiss Cottage | |
---|---|
![]() Station on a 1915 Ordnance Survey map | |
Location | Swiss Cottage |
Owner | Metropolitan Railway |
Number of platforms | 2 |
Key dates | |
13 April 1868 | Opened |
18 August 1940[1] | Closed |
Replaced by | Swiss Cottage |
Other information | |
Coordinates | 51°32′37″N 0°10′36″W / 51.54361°N 0.17667°W |
![]() |
Swiss Cottage is a disused London Underground station in Swiss Cottage, northwest London. It was opened in 1868 as the northern terminus of the Metropolitan and St. John's Wood Railway, the first northward branch extension from Baker Street of the Metropolitan Railway (now the Metropolitan line). Starting in 1879, the line was extended from here to Watford, Amersham, Chesham and Uxbridge.
Subsequent to the opening of a new Swiss Cottage station next door, which was served initially by the Bakerloo line and is now on the Jubilee line, this Metropolitan line Swiss Cottage station was closed in 1940.
History
The Metropolitan Railway opened Swiss Cottage on 13 April 1868 as the northern terminus of a new branch line, the Metropolitan and St. John's Wood Railway.[2]
On 26 April 1868, two trains collided head-on at the station. This was the result of a signaller's error, which caused an arriving train to be misrouted to the platform where another train stood awaiting departure. Three people were injured.[3]
In the 1920s the Metropolitan Railway demolished the street-level station building on the west side of Finchley Road, and replaced it with a shopping arcade and three entrances down to the station. The structure was built to the designs of C. W. Clark.[4]
By the mid-1930s the Metropolitan line was suffering congestion at the south end of its main route, where trains from its many branches were struggling to share the limited capacity of its tracks between Finchley Road and Baker Street. To ease this congestion, a new section of deep-level tunnel was constructed between Finchley Road station and the Bakerloo line tunnels at Baker Street. The Metropolitan line's Stanmore branch services were then transferred to the Bakerloo line, with effect from 20 November 1939, and diverted to run into Baker Street in the new tunnels, thus reducing the number of trains using the Metropolitan line's tracks.
With the new deep-level route, a new Bakerloo line station named Swiss Cottage was opened adjacent to the existing Metropolitan line station. For a time, they operated as a single station (platforms 1 and 2 were for the Metropolitan line, and platforms 3 and 4 were for the Bakerloo line). This arrangement was short-lived, however, and the Metropolitan line Swiss Cottage station was closed after the last train on 17 August 1940 as a wartime economy. With the opening of the Jubilee line in 1979, the Stanmore branch of the Bakerloo line, including the new Swiss Cottage station, was transferred again, to the new Jubilee line.
The station building was demolished in the 1960s to allow the widening of Finchley Road, but the former platform area still exists in part.
Unbuilt line to Hampstead
The original intention of the Metropolitan & St. John's Wood Railway was to run underground north-east to Hampstead Village, and this appeared on some maps.[5] Although this project did not proceed and the line was built in a north-western direction instead, a short heading of tunnel was built north of Swiss Cottage station.[6] This is still visible today when traveling on a southbound Metropolitan line service.
See also
Other Metropolitan line stations closed with the opening of the deep tunnel section:
References
- ^ Forgotten Stations of Greater London by J.E.Connor and B.Halford [page needed]
- ^ "Swiss Cottage". London's Abandoned Tube Stations. Archived from the original on 2008-08-20.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "Accident at Swiss Cottage on 26th April 1868". The Railways Archive. Retrieved 14 July 2017.
- ^ Historic England. "Monument No. 1379008". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 5 October 2015.
- ^ Leboff, David; Demuth, Tim (1999). No Need To Ask. Harrow Weald: Capital Transport. p. 9. ISBN 185414 215 1.
- ^ Jackson, Alan (1986). London's Metropolitan Railway. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. p. 374. ISBN 0-7153-8839-8.
- London Transport Museum Photographic Archive Station building in 1933 after rebuilding.