Aldwych (London Underground)

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Entrance to the station (labeled with the original name Beach )

Aldwych [ ˈɔːldwɪtʃ ] is a closed station on the London Underground . It is located in the London borough of City of Westminster and was the terminus of a short branch line of the Piccadilly Line , which branched off at Holborn station in the south. This route was a holdover from the merging of two different subway projects. The station building, which is no longer in use, is near the intersection of Strand and Surrey Street.

The station opened in 1907 and was named Strand until 1915 . A shuttle train used the branch line for almost its entire service life. The passenger frequencies were consistently low, and the station was repeatedly threatened with closure. In the end it was only open Monday to Friday during rush hour until it was finally closed in 1994, as the costs incurred for the necessary replacement of the elevators could not be justified. Previously there had been several attempts to develop Aldwych into a through station or even a transfer point; ultimately nothing came of it.

During the Second World War , parts of the station and the adjoining tunnel tube served as a warehouse to protect works of art from air raids. In addition, the station is still a popular location for film productions today . Due to its historical importance, it is classified as a Grade II building and is therefore a listed building.

history

planning

Closed Aldwych (red) station on the Piccadilly Line
The east end of the beach in 1900, before construction began on Kingsway and Aldwych Streets. Planned station locations are marked in red:
1. Corner Holles Street / Stanhope Street
2. Future crossing Kingsway / Aldwych
3. Corner Strand / Surrey Street

In November 1898 the Great Northern and Strand Railway (GN&SR) published a notice in the London Gazette that it would present a private legislative initiative (by law the British Parliament had to approve all privately financed rail projects). The GN&SR planned an underground railway line from Strand via King's Cross St. Pancras and Finsbury Park to Wood Green (near Alexandra Palace ). The southern terminus of Strand should be a little north of the street of the same name on the corner of Stanhope Street and Holles Street. A little later, the London County Council announced that these two narrow streets would be disappearing in order to make way for the new thoroughfares Kingsway and Aldwych as part of a district redevelopment project. The GN&SR changed their request to move the station building to the intersection of the new streets. Royal approval of the Great Northern and Strand Railway Act 1899 was finally given on August 1, 1899.

The GN&SR was taken over in November 1901 by the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway (B & PCR), which planned the construction of a subway line from South Kensington to Piccadilly Circus . Both companies were under the control of the Metropolitan District Electric Traction Company, led by Charles Tyson Yerkes , and went into Yerkes' new holding company Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) in June 1902 . Neither company had carried out any construction work by then, but the UERL received approval for new tunnels between Piccadilly Circus and Holborn to connect the two routes. After approval by Parliament, the companies were formally merged in November 1902 to form the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP & BR). Prior to the confirmation of the merger, the GN&SR had requested permission to extend its route south under Norfolk Street to Temple Station of the Metropolitan District Railway . Due to a complaint from the Duke of Norfolk , under whose property the last section of the planned tunnel tubes would have come to lie, the extension did not come about.

In 1903 the GNP & BR asked for permission to build a branch line from Piccadilly Circus via Leicester Square , Strand and Fleet Street to the City of London . The Strand station, which has already been approved, would have become a transfer hub. The deliberations of a commission, which had been set up to assess the numerous subway projects submitted at the time, dragged on so that parliament could not decide on them and the GNP & BR withdrew their project. Just before the commission published its report in 1905, the GNP & BR submitted two new legislative initiatives to parliament. The first revisited the 1903 project, the second proposed moving Strand Station to the intersection of Strand and Surrey Streets. From there, the route should be led under the Thames to Waterloo station. The first initiative was again delayed and withdrawn. In the second initiative, Parliament only approved the relocation of the Strand station .

Construction work

Plan of the station at platform level:
Yellow: Platforms
Brown: Entrances
Blue: Unused parts

The linking of the lines of GN&SR and B & PCR meant that the GN & SR section south of Holborn would become a branch of the main line. The UERL began construction work on the main line in July 1902. These progressed rapidly and were largely completed in autumn 1906. The construction of the Holborn – Strand branch was delayed because the London County Council first built the Kingsway and the tram tunnel below . In the meantime, the UERL made project changes at the Holborn station. This was to ensure that the branch line would not interfere with the operation of the main line.

Construction work on the Strand station began on October 21, 1905. The Royal Strand Theater , which was closed on May 13, 1905 and then demolished , previously stood on the construction site . The architect of the station building was Leslie Green , who used the typical UERL “house style”: a two-story building with a structural steel frame and large semicircular windows on the upper floor, clad with red glazed terracotta bricks. The station building is L-shaped, with two facades separated by the building on the corner of Strand and Surrey Street. The beach facade is narrow and has a single semicircular window above the entrance. In contrast, the facade on Surrey Street is wider, with separate entrances and exits and a shop. Since it was assumed that the routes to Waterloo and the City of London would later be realized, the station was provided with three round elevator shafts in which six trapezoidal elevators would find space. Only one of the shafts was actually used, with two elevators. The other two shafts reached from the basement to the platform level, but could have been extended up into the shop if necessary. A fourth, smaller-diameter shaft contained a spiral staircase for emergencies.

The platforms are 92½ feet (28.19 meters) below the surface and are 250 feet (76.2 meters) long. This makes them considerably shorter than the GNP & BR standard length of 350 feet (106.68 meters). As with other stations on UERL routes, the platform walls were clad with tiles that had an unmistakable pattern, in this case cream-colored and dark green. Only part of the platform walls was decorated, as shorter trains were planned to be used on the branch line. Due to the lower number of elevators, a second pedestrian tunnel between the platform and the elevator shafts was never given its intended purpose and remained in an undecorated state without tiles.

business

Eastern platform, closed in 1917
Use of the station as an air raid shelter during World War II

The opening of the GNP & BR main line took place on December 15, 1906, while the branch line was only opened almost a year later, on November 30, 1907. At the beginning, shuttle trains ran from the eastern platform of the Strand station to through platform 5 in the Holborn station. During rush hour (HVZ), an additional train alternated between the western platform and head platform 6 in Holborn. During the first year of operation, a late evening train for theatergoers ran Monday through Saturday from Strand via Holborn to Finsbury Park. These additional trips were offered until October 1908.

Schematic representation of the Aldwych branch line

From March 1908, the shuttle train used the western platform in Strand and through platform 5 in Holborn during off- peak hours, passing through the transfer point in front of the Holborn station. In 1914, due to the low number of passengers, the second HVZ shuttle train was withdrawn and the eastern tunnel was taken out of service. On May 9, 1915, three underground stations in this part of the city were given a new name, the Strand station was now called Aldwych. The service of the station on Sundays ended in April 1917 and in August of the same year the eastern tunnel, the eastern platform in Aldwych and the head platform 6 in Holborn were formally closed. German air raids in September 1917 caused the National Gallery to store 300 of its paintings on the closed platform by December 1918.

The ticket office was closed in October 1922, with ticket machines in the elevators serving as replacement . The number of passengers remained low: when various station closings were up for debate in 1929, 1,069,650 passengers used the Aldwych station annually, and the income was 4,500  pounds . Closing intentions existed again in 1933 after the merger of all transport companies in London by the new joint transport authority London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB under the label London Transport ), but the station continued to operate.

During the Second World War , shortly after the start of German air raids on London (" The Blitz "), measures to increase efficiency during the war led to the branch line being temporarily closed on September 22, 1940. The borough council of the City of Westminster also set up air raid shelters . The tunnel tubes between Aldwych and Holborn were used to store art objects from the British Museum , including the Elgin Marbles . After the war, the branch line was reopened on July 1, 1946, but the number of passengers did not increase, even after the shutdown of the parallel tram. In 1958, Aldwych was one of three stations that the London Transport Executive (LTE) announced to close . The station remained open, but operations were severely restricted: Monday to Friday during rush hour and Saturday morning and early afternoon. From June 1962 the station was also closed on Saturdays.

After more than 30 years with unchanged operating times, the transport authority London Regional Transport announced on January 4, 1993 the imminent closure of Aldwych station. The 1907 elevators had to be replaced at a cost of three million pounds. This move was financially unjustifiable, given only 450 passengers a day and an annual operating deficit of £ 150,000. Transport Secretary Brian Mawhinney approved the closure on September 1, 1994; the last day of operation was September 30, 1994.

Suggestions for route extensions and new connections

Station entrance before closing

While the project of the branch line Piccadilly Circus – City of London was never taken up again after his withdrawal from 1905, the project to extend the branch line Holborn – Aldwych south to Waterloo station was repeated several times. There were specific proposals in 1919 and 1948, but further project planning work was not carried out.

In the years after the Second World War, there were a number of preliminary plans with the aim of relieving the London Underground. Various east-west routes through the Aldwych area were up for debate, but these were never followed up as other points in the subway network had priority. A joint planning committee of British Rail and the London Transport Board published the study A Railway Plan for London in March 1965, which proposed a new underground line, the Fleet Line (later the Jubilee Line ). It was to lead from Baker Street via Bond Street , Green Park , Charing Cross , Aldwych and Cannon Street to the City of London and from there to the south-eastern suburbs. A transfer hub was planned at Aldwych. The report's second recommendation was to extend the Holborn – Aldwych branch to Waterloo station. The London Transport Board had already asked for parliamentary approval in November 1964 to build tunnels between Aldwych and Waterloo. Parliament approved this in August 1965. Detailed planning followed, but budget cuts in 1967 meant that the project was postponed before the public tender.

The plans for the Fleet Line were pursued and in July 1969 Parliament gave approval for the first phase, from Baker Street to Charing Cross. Tunnel construction on the £ 35 million section began in February 1972 and the Jubilee Line opened on May 1, 1979. The tunnels east of the approved section continued under the beach to almost Aldwych station, but no construction work was done in the station area itself and the ends of the tunnel only served as a storage facility. The financing of the second section was delayed further and further in the 1970s, while the route beyond Charing Cross was examined for options as to how the likely structural development in the Docklands could be developed. In 1979 the cost was estimated at £ 325 million, more than a six-fold increase from the initial estimate of £ 51 million in 1970. In 1980 there was a further evaluation of alternatives to the Jubilee Line, which resulted in a change in priorities and the postponement of any further planning effort for the Jubilee Line. When the extension was built in the 1990s, it took a completely different route south of the Thames via Westminster , Waterloo and London Bridge . As a result, the tunnel section between Green Park and Aldwych was no longer necessary.

In July 2005, the engineering office Ove Arup & Partners published a report on behalf of Docklands Light Railway (DLR) called the DLR Horizon 2020 Study , which contained suggestions on how the DLR network should be expanded and improved between 2012 and 2020. One of the proposals is to extend the DLR from Bank via the City Thameslink and Aldwych train stations to Charing Cross. The tunnel section of the Jubilee Line, which is no longer used, would be widened to accommodate the larger DLR trains. The closed station would form the basis for a new station on this route, although considerable renovation work would be necessary to accommodate escalators . Infrastructure costs were estimated at £ 232 million in 2005 and Ove Arup & Partners described the project as "extremely beneficial". It could attract passengers on already existing east-west underground lines and local bus routes, which would relieve the overcrowded Bank station. The assessment of the business case concluded that the project had a high level of benefit. Ove Arup & Partners suggested doing more detailed studies.

Location for film productions

As a self-contained part of the London Underground, which was out of order on weekends and for longer periods of time on weekdays, the branch line and Aldwych station proved to be popular film sets for underground scenes. Since it was closed in 1994, it has been used by film production companies, although other parts of the underground network are also shown in the station with correspondingly changed signage. Despite the closure, the tracks and infrastructure will be kept in working order. A railcar from the 1972 Tube Stock series , which previously operated on the Northern Line , is permanently parked on the branch line. The railcar can be moved back and forth for filming. There is still a rail link to the Piccadilly Line heading north, but manual operation is required.

The western platform before it closed on September 30, 1994

The film productions that were made in the Aldwych station include:

The prewar station operations are part of a pivotal scene in Geoffrey Household's thriller novel Rogue Male . A significantly changed and expanded version of the station appears as a level in the computer game Tomb Raider III - Adventures of Lara Croft . In addition, the music video for the song Firestarter by The Prodigy was filmed in the unused eastern tunnel and in one of the elevator shafts . For the film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian of Narnia (2008), the Strand station was recreated in the studio. In contrast to the original, however, the platform is straight there and the wall decoration is on both tunnel walls.

See also

literature

  • Anthony Badsey-Ellis: London's Lost Tube Schemes . Capital Transport, London 2005, ISBN 1-85414-293-3 .
  • Anthony Badsey-Ellis, Mike Horne: The Aldwych Branch . Capital Transport, London 2009, ISBN 978-1-85414-321-1 .
  • JE Connor: London's Disused Underground Stations . Capital Transport, London 2001, ISBN 1-85414-250-X .
  • Mike Horne: The Jubilee Line . Capital Transport, London 2000, ISBN 1-85414-220-8 .
  • Douglas Rose: The London Underground, A Diagramatic History . Capital Transport, London 1999, ISBN 1-85414-219-4 .
  • Christian Wolmar : The Subterranean Railway: How the London Underground Was Built and How It Changed the City Foreve . Atlantic Books, London 2005, ISBN 1-84354-023-1 .

Web links

Commons : Aldwych (London Underground)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Aldwych Underground Station (1,401,034). In: National Heritage List for England. English Heritage , accessed January 26, 2012 .
  2. ↑ London Gazette . No. 27025, HMSO, London, November 22, 1898, p. 7040 ( PDF , accessed October 1, 2013, English).
  3. ^ Badsey-Ellis: London's Lost Tube Schemes . P. 77.
  4. ↑ London Gazette . No. 27105, HMSO, London, November 4, 1899, pp. 4833-4834 ( PDF , accessed October 1, 2013, English).
  5. ^ Badsey-Ellis: London's Lost Tube Schemes . P. 118.
  6. ^ Badsey-Ellis: London's Lost Tube Schemes . Pp. 152-153.
  7. ↑ London Gazette . No. 27464, HMSO, London, August 12, 1902, pp. 5247-5248 ( PDF , accessed October 1, 2013, English).
  8. ↑ London Gazette . No. 27497, HMSO, London, November 21, 1902, p. 7533 ( PDF , accessed October 1, 2013, English).
  9. ^ Badsey-Ellis: London's Lost Tube Schemes . P. 138.
  10. ^ Badsey-Ellis: London's Lost Tube Schemes . P. 215.
  11. ^ Badsey-Ellis: London's Lost Tube Schemes . P. 222.
  12. ^ Badsey-Ellis: London's Lost Tube Schemes . Pp. 241-242.
  13. ^ Wolmar: The Subterranean Railway . P. 181.
  14. ^ Badsey-Ellis: London's Lost Tube Schemes . Pp. 239-241.
  15. ↑ a b c d Connor: London's Disused Underground Stations. P. 94.
  16. ↑ Wolmar: The Subterranean Railway . P. 175.
  17. ^ Badsey-Ellis: London's Lost Tube Schemes . Pp. 242-243.
  18. ↑ a b Connor: London's Disused Underground Stations. P. 95.
  19. ^ Badsey-Ellis: London's Lost Tube Schemes . P. 238.
  20. ^ Badsey-Ellis: London's Lost Tube Schemes . P. 243.
  21. ^ A b Rose: The London Underground, A Diagramatic History .
  22. ^ Aldwych Underground Station Open Day. London Transport Museum / Transport for London , 2011, p. 5.
  23. ↑ a b Connor: London's Disused Underground Stations. P. 98.
  24. ^ Wolmar: The Subterranean Railway. Pp. 212 and 214.
  25. ↑ Connor: London's Disused Underground Stations. P. 31.
  26. ↑ a b c Connor: London's Disused Underground Stations. P. 98/99.
  27. ↑ a b c d e f Connor: London's Disused Underground Stations. P. 99.
  28. ↑ Connor: London's Disused Underground Stations. Pp. 100-101.
  29. ^ Horne: The Jubilee Line. Pp. 31-33.
  30. ↑ DLR Horizon 2020 Study. (PDF; 2.52 MB) British Railways / London Transport Board , March 1965, p. 23 , accessed on January 26, 2012 (English).
  31. ^ Horne: The Jubilee Line. Pp. 34-35, 38, 45.
  32. ^ Horne: The Jubilee Line. Pp. 35, 52.
  33. ^ Horne: The Jubilee Line. P. 53.
  34. ^ Horne: The Jubilee Line. P. 57.
  35. ↑ DLR Horizon 2020 Study. (PDF; 1.58 MB) Ove Arup & Partners , July 2005, pp. 34–38, 66 , accessed on January 26, 2012 (English).
  36. ^ Filming At Aldwych July 2002. Cravens Heritage Trains, December 6, 2006, accessed January 26, 2012 .
  37. ↑ Exclusive areas for filming & photography on TfL. TfL, accessed on September 3, 2018 .
  38. ↑ a b c d e f g London Underground Film Office. Transport for London , archived from the original ; accessed on September 3, 2018 (English).
  39. ^ Badsey-Ellis, Horne: The Aldwych Branch. P. 104.
  40. ↑ The Hour of the Patriots in the Internet Movie Database , accessed on January 26, 2012.
  41. ↑ Mr Selfridge - production notes. (PDF) ITV Studios, accessed June 30, 2014 (English).
  42. ^ The allure of abandoned tube stations. BBC News, January 3, 2014, accessed June 30, 2014 .
  43. ↑ Geoffrey Household: Rogue Male . Penguin Books, London 1977, ISBN 0-14-000695-8 (first edition: 1939).
  44. ↑ Aldwych. Underground History - Disused stations on London's Underground, accessed January 26, 2012 .
  45. ↑ Site name: Aldwych - Holborn branch (Piccadilly Line). Subterranea Britannica, accessed January 26, 2012 .
  46. ↑ Nick Cooper's Random Blog: It's always Aldwych! Retrieved January 22, 2014 .
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former terminus Piccadilly line flag box.svg Holborn
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on February 5, 2012 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 44 ″  N , 0 ° 6 ′ 57 ″  W.