List of former and unopened London Underground stations

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File:Closed tube station.jpg
St Mary's (Whitechapel Road) tube station shortly after its closure in 1938

There are several dozen permanently closed London Underground stations across the London Underground ("tube") network. Some were simply built too near to other stations to be useful; others experienced too little use to make their retention worthwhile, or became redundant after lines were rerouted. Some of the closed stations retain their original station façades, while others have been demolished to make way for shops. At least one is now used for filming and exhibition purposes. A number of other stations, Charing Cross for example, while still open, have closed platforms or sections.

Permanently closed stations

These stations of the London Underground and its predecessor companies (such as the Metropolitan Railway, the City and South London Railway and Underground Electric Railways of London) are now closed and, for the most part, abandoned:

Station Name Line Details
Aldwych Piccadilly Terminus of (Piccadilly) branch line from Holborn
Blake Hall Central Between Epping and Ongar
British Museum Central Between Tottenham Court Road and Holborn
Brompton Road Piccadilly Between Knightsbridge and South Kensington
City Road Northern
(Bank Branch)
Between Angel and Old Street
Down Street Piccadilly Between Green Park and Hyde Park Corner
Grove Road (Hammersmith)   On a closed loop connecting the Hammersmith & City Line, south of Goldhawk Road, to the District Line, east of Ravenscourt Park
Hounslow Town   A now-closed branch of the District Railway, from what is now the Piccadilly Line near Hounslow Central
King William Street   The original terminus of the City & South London Railway, a predecessor of the Northern Line
Lord's Metropolitan North of Baker Street
Mark Lane District and Circle Lines Near Tower Hill
Marlborough Road Metropolitan Between closed stations Lord's and Swiss Cottage
North Weald Central Between Epping and Ongar
Ongar Central Terminus of section from Epping. Furthest extent (eastwards) of Central Line.
Park Royal & Twyford Abbey Piccadilly North of Park Royal
St Mary's (Whitechapel Road) District Between Aldgate East and Whitechapel
Shoreditch East London North-west of Whitechapel. To be replaced with a new station further west called Shoreditch High Street, due to open in 2010.
South Acton   On a short branch of the District Line
South Kentish Town Northern Between Camden Town and Kentish Town
Swiss Cottage
(Metropolitan Line)
  South of Finchley Road
Tower of London   On the site of the present Tower Hill station
Wood Lane Central Between Shepherds Bush and White City, which replaced it.
Wood Lane (aka White City)   On what is now the Hammersmith & City Line between Latimer Road and Shepherd's Bush
Uxbridge Road   On a closed branch linking the Metropolitan Line to Olympia
York Road Piccadilly North of King's Cross

The following stations were all located at the far end of the Metropolitan Line:

It is possible however that some of these stations may reopen eventually with the rebuilding of the Varsity Line on the National Rail network.

Open stations with closed sections

Station Name Line Details
Highgate Highgate is an active underground station, but has a closed overground section (see below).
Charing Cross Jubilee Two closed platforms
Euston Northern
(City Branch)
The northbound Northern Line City branch platform was moved when the Victoria Line was opened but part of the abandoned running tunnel remains)
Gloucester Road   (one unused platform originally used by the Metropolitan Railway)
Holborn Piccadilly Two platforms that served the Aldwych branch
South Kensington   One unused platform originally used by the Metropolitan Railway and one removed platform originally used by the District Railway. There was also an unused westbound platform at deep level constructed for the District Line Deep Level route that became part of the Piccadilly Line)
  District A number of stations on the eastern end of the District Line were formerly served by trains out of Fenchurch Street Station, the platforms of which remain.

Stations formerly served by London Underground

Stations beyond Amersham, formerly served by the Metropolitan Line now served by Chiltern Railways:

Station Name Details
Great Missenden  
Wendover  
Stoke Mandeville  
Aylesbury  

Stations beyond Ealing Broadway, formerly served by the District Line between 1883 and 1885, now served by First Great Western:

Station Name Details
West Ealing Has a decommissioned platform once used by the District Line.
Hanwell  
Southall  
Hayes & Harlington  
West Drayton  
Langley  
Slough  
Windsor & Eton Central  

Some stations beyond Upminster, formerly served by the District Line when it had a through service to Southend, now served by c2c.

Station Name Details
   


Note: Moorgate, Old Street, Highbury & Islington and Finsbury Park were also served by Underground trains on this line and are still served by other Underground Lines.

Stations beyond Harrow & Wealdstone, formerly served by the Bakerloo Line, now served by Silverlink. It is expected that these stations will transfer back to the Bakerloo line when management of the North London Railways franchise is transferred from the Department for Transport to Transport for London.

Station Name Details
Headstone Lane  
Hatch End  
Carpenders Park  
Bushey and Oxhey  
Watford High Street  
Watford Junction  

Stations part-built but never opened

Some tube stations were only partially constructed and never opened:

Stations planned to become part of the Underground

Northern Line developments

The above-Northern Line extension to Bushey was part of the Northern Heights plan of the 1930s. Part of this plan was for the Northern Line to take over existing LNER lines in north London. This was completed from East Finchley to High Barnet and Mill Hill East but the project was halted by the outbreak of the Second World War and financial cutbacks after the war meant that the project was not restarted and a number of stations were never incorporated:

Note: The original surface part of Highgate station between Crouch End and Cranley Gardens also closed although the newer Underground section remains open.

Central Line developments

Denham station was to have been the original terminus of the western extension of the Central Line but the introduction of Green Belt legislation caused the extension to be cut back to West Ruislip. The intermediate stop, Harefield Road was similarly planned but not built.

Fictitious stations

The following closed stations are fictitious:

  • The second episode of the 1979 LWT comedy series End of Part One includes the main characters watching a film called "The Life of Christopher Columbus". In the film, Columbus goes to a tube station and asks for a train to America but is told he can go only as far as Catford. Part of a modified tube map is shown which shows the fictitious tube stations Lewisham, Ladywell, Edge of the World and Catford on the East London Section of the Metropolitan Line south from New Cross tube station. There is an actual part of the mainline Mid-Kent Railway that interchanges with New Cross tube station, and the stations are, southwards in order: St. John's, Lewisham, Ladywell and Catford Bridge (Catford on a different line interchanges with the latter).
  • A deleted scene from the film Shaun of the Dead, included on its DVD release, sees the title character (played by Simon Pegg) attempting to catch a tube to work from the fictitious Crouch End tube station, only to find it closed. While in reality, the nearest operational Underground stations are Highgate and Finsbury Park, there had been plans before World War II to amalgamate the former LNER surface line between the two into the Underground system under the Northern Heights plan, with one of the two intermediate stations being 'Crouch End. A special 'Crouch End' tube station sign was made for the film scene and, according to Pegg's DVD commentary, is now mounted in his own bedroom. Crouch End is a district well known for the number of actors living there.
  • An episode of the BBC series Spooks (broadcast 23 October 2006) featured a fictional disused Underground station called Wells Lane.

See also

External links

Further reading

  • J. E. Connor, London's Disused Underground Stations, Capital Transport, 2001 (2nd edition)
  • J. E. Connor, Abandoned Stations on London's Underground (A photographic record), Colchester, Connor and Butler Ltd., 2000. ISBN 0-947699-30-9
  • Douglas Rose, The London Underground: A Diagrammatic History (Capital Transport, 2005): ISBN 1-85414-219-4