Aldwych tube station
Aldwych is a closed station on the London Underground, located in the City of Westminster in Central London. It was opened in 1907 with the name Strand, after the street on which it is located, and was the terminus of the short Piccadilly line branch from Holborn. During its lifetime, the branch was the subject of a number of unrealised extension proposals that would have seen the tunnels through the station extended southwards. Service was offered only during weekday peak hours from 1962 and discontinued in 1994.
About Aldwych tube station in brief
Aldwych is a closed station on the London Underground, located in the City of Westminster in Central London. It was opened in 1907 with the name Strand, after the street on which it is located, and was the terminus of the short Piccadilly line branch from Holborn. The station building is close to the Strand’s junction with Surrey Street, near Aldwych. During its lifetime, the branch was the subject of a number of unrealised extension proposals that would have seen the tunnels through the station extended southwards, usually to Waterloo. Service was offered only during weekday peak hours from 1962 and discontinued in 1994, when the cost of replacing the lifts was considered too high for the income generated. Disused parts of the station and the running tunnels were used during both world wars to shelter artworks from London’s public galleries and museums from bombing. In recognition of its historical significance, the station is a Grade II listed building. The Great Northern and Strand Railway first proposed a station in the Str and area in a private bill presented to Parliament in November 1898. The GN&SR had sought permission to extend its line southwards from the future junction of Kingsway and Ald Wych, under Norfolk Street to a new interchange under the Metropolitan District Railway’s station at Temple. The extension was rejected following objections from the Duke of Norfolk under whose land the last part of the proposed tunnels would have run. In 1903, the GNP&BR sought permission for a branch from PicCadilly Circus to run under Leicester Square, Strand and Fleet Street.
The branch would have passed and interchanged with the already approved Strand station, allowing travel from Strand in three directions. Construction of the Holborn to Strand Strand branch began in 1905 and the station was built on the site of the Royal Theatre, which had closed on 13 May 1905 and been demolished on May 13, 1905. The UERL arranged for the branch to be arranged at a junction between the main route and the branch, which would be arranged to be at Strand on October 21, 1905 by a design by the U.S. architectural firm, D.C. Moulson and Co. The line was to run from Wood Green station via Finsbury Park and King’s Cross to Waterloo, from where it would continue as a single tunnel under the River Thames under the Thames to the city. The railway companies were formally merged as the Great Northern, PiccADilly and Brompton Railway following parliamentary approval in November 1902. Neither of the railways had carried out any construction, but the U ERL obtained permission for new tunnels between PiccAdilly Circus and Hol born to connect the two routes. The linking of the B&PC and B&SR routes meant that the section of the GN&PC branch south of Holborn became a main route in July 1902, so that it was largely complete by the Autumn of that year. In June 1902, the company obtained permission to build a new station at the junction.
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This page is based on the article Aldwych tube station published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 02, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
