Down Street (London Underground)
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Down Street is a closed station on the London Underground . It is on the Piccadilly Line between Hyde Park Corner and Dover Street (now Green Park ) stations. It opened in 1907 and was in operation until 1932.
history
The station opened on March 15, 1907, three months after the opening of the first section of the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (predecessor of the Piccadilly Line). Access to the platforms was ensured by two elevators . The entrance was on a small side street off Piccadilly . The station was never used very much for two reasons: First, the Hyde Park Corner and Dover Street stations were relatively close. Second, the immediate area, Mayfair , is an affluent residential area, and the subway was not an adequate means of transport for the residents there.
Down Street was finally closed on May 21, 1932 after the renovation of Dover Street Station. During this work Dover Street received escalators that moved the entrance closer to Down Street Station. In addition, after the renovation, there was no longer an entrance on Dover Street, and the station was renamed Green Park . Immediately after the closure, the western ends of the platforms were torn down to make room for a new siding.
Until the beginning of the Second World War , the station remained unchanged and unused, until an air raid shelter near the center appeared necessary for the Emergency Railway Committee (responsible for organizing railway activities during the war). A closed underground station was the first choice. In mid-1939, the platforms leading to the tunnel were walled up and some development work was carried out in the other tunnel structures at the station. In order to be protected against gas attacks, the elevator shaft was given a concrete cover and gas locks with filter systems were built. At the beginning of the war, before the completion of their own shelter, Winston Churchill and his war cabinet also used the space created here.
There were three ways of access:
- In both directions, short platforms were kept open where a train could stop and where passengers could enter or exit the train via the driver's cab door. In addition, signals were attached with which a train could be brought to a stop. These platforms have not existed since the bunker became obsolete.
- A spiral staircase with a small elevator in the middle ensured surface access. There was always an armed guard at the entrance.
- If both routes could not be used, the station could still be reached on foot from the Green Park or Hyde Park Corner stations.
Because of the secrecy of the place, people usually only used the first option. The use of the station was also secret. The official address was in a completely different location in London. Interestingly, Down Street Station never appeared on a subway network map designed by Harry Beck , even though the first test edition was published in 1931. This is taken as a sign that the closure had been planned for some time.
Todays use
Today most of the war equipment has been removed. Only remnants of the communication lines and decaying sanitary facilities are evidence of the former use. The elevator drive was removed after 1975, but its (now sealed) access doors and controls are still there. The station is only held as an emergency exit, which is why the spiral staircase was renewed for safety reasons in the 1970s. The access structure on the surface can still be recognized as designed by the architect Leslie Green because of the typical brick architecture of the Piccadilly Line stations of this era . But apart from the emergency exit, it is only used by a newspaper kiosk.
See also
literature
- JE Connor: London's disused Underground stations . Capital Transport, London 2001, ISBN 1-85414-250-X , pp. 28-33 .
Web links
- Underground History - Down Street Underground Station
- Subterranea Britannica: Down Street Station
- Station building shortly after opening
| Previous station | Transport for London | Next station |
|---|---|---|
| Hyde Park Corner |
|
Green Park |
Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 16 ″ N , 0 ° 8 ′ 51 ″ W.