British Museum (London Underground)

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British museum tube stn map.png
Building the Nationwide Building Society , site of the former subway station British Museum

British Museum is a closed station on the London Underground . It is on the Central Line between what is now Holborn and Tottenham Court Road . The entrance to the station, named after the British Museum , was at the intersection of High Holborn and New Oxford Street.

history

The Central London Railway (predecessor company of the Central Line) opened the station on June 30, 1900 as part of the commissioning of the Bank - Shepherd's Bush line . The station building was designed by Harry Bell Measures . During this time, the individual lines were still operated by competing companies and so it turned out that the various lines had stations in the immediate vicinity, but they were not connected to each other. To change trains, you basically had to go to street level.

Even before the individual companies were merged to form the London Passenger Transport Board , the British Museum station had to be converted. The possibility of an underground connecting tunnel was considered, but the idea failed due to the complexity of the tunnel construction between the two stations and the long walkway (at that time no one thought of conveyor belts). The Holborn station was better positioned than the British Museum because there were better options for changing to the tram . So the decision was made to build additional platforms on the Central Line at Holborn. The British Museum station was closed on September 24, 1933, and the new platforms at Holborn began operating the following day.

The British Ministry of Defense used the station, which is now closed to passenger traffic, for administrative purposes and as an emergency command post until the 1960s. Today it can no longer be entered after the aboveground station building was demolished in 1989. The platforms, which are still visible from passing trains, are used as storage space for sleepers.

literature

  • JE Connor: London's Disused Underground Stations . Capital Transport, London 1999, ISBN 1-85414-250-X , pp. 40-44 .

Web links

Commons : British Museum (London Underground)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
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Tottenham Court Road Central line flag box.svg Holborn

Coordinates: 51 ° 31 ′ 3 ″  N , 0 ° 7 ′ 22 ″  W.