Charing Cross tube station

Charing Cross (sometimes informally abbreviated as Charing +, Charing X, CHX or CH+) is a London Underground station at Charing Cross in the City of Westminster. The station is served by the Bakerloo and Northern lines and provides an interchange with Charing Cross mainline station. On the Bakerloo line it is between Embankment and Piccadilly Circus stations and on the Northern line it is between Embankment and Leicester Square stations. The station is in fare zone 1.

Charing Cross was originally two separate stations, known for most of their existence as Trafalgar Square (on the Bakerloo line) and Strand (on the Northern line). The Bakerloo line platforms were opened by the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway in 1906 and the Northern line platforms by the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway in 1907. In the 1970s, in preparation for the opening of the Jubilee line, the two earlier stations were connected together with new below ground passageways. When the Jubilee line platforms opened in 1979, the combined station was given the current name. Jubilee line services ended in 1999 when the line was extended to Stratford.

The station has entrances in Trafalgar Square, Strand, Villiers Street, Adelaide Street, William IV Street and in the mainline station. It is close to the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, Admiralty Arch, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Canada House, South Africa House, the Savoy Hotel, The Mall, Northumberland Avenue and Whitehall.

History

Planning

From the 1860s to the 1900s numerous schemes for underground railways through central London were proposed, often using similar routes. Many of the schemes submitted to Parliament for approval as private bills included proposals for lines through the Charing Cross area with stations serving the South Eastern Railway's (SER's) Charing Cross mainline terminus and the area around Trafalgar Square.

1860s and 1870s

The first proposal came before Parliament in 1864, a year after the opening of the Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground railway, and the year the mainline station opened. The North Western and Charing Cross Railway (NW&CCR) proposed a line in a cut-and-cover tunnel between the London and North Western Railway's terminus at Euston and Charing Cross. The was to have its own station on the north side of Strand before it came to the surface alongside the main line station and connected to the tracks on Hungerford Bridge. The railway was approved in July 1864.

The following year, the Waterloo and Whitehall Railway (W&WR) received permission to construct a short railway between Waterloo station and a station at the western end of Great Scotland Yard at the junction with Whitehall. The line was to be a pneumatic railway with the carriages sucked and pushed through the tunnels like a piston by fans at Waterloo. Construction works began for the ends of the cut and cover tunnels on each side of the River Thames and part of the cast-iron cylinder that was to be sunk into a trench dredged into the bed of the river.

Progress on both railways was halted in the Panic of 1866, a major crash in the London and international stock markets that led to the collapse of a number of banks and prevented funds being raised to continue the works. The was liquidated in 1868, and the plans were abandoned in 1869.

The plans were revived with minor changes by the Euston, St Pancras and Charing Cross Railway in 1870. A station was planned at the same location as the . Parliamentary approval was granted in 1871 and the company changed its name to the London Central Railway, but the scheme was again unable to raise sufficient funds. It was abandoned in 1874.

1880s

In 1881, the Central Metropolitan Railway proposed a cut-and-cover line running from Parliament Square to St Pancras. At the southern end, the line was to run under Whitehall, Trafalgar Square and St Martin's Lane, though the location of the station was not recorded. The section under Whitehall was opposed by the government and it was removed so that the line was to terminate at Charing Cross, but the whole scheme was rejected by Parliament in 1882.

Another proposal in 1881 was the Charing Cross and Waterloo Electric Railway (CC&WER). The proposal was similar to the 17 years earlier; a short line running in iron pipes sunk into the river bed connecting Waterloo station to the north side of the river, this time to a station under Trafalgar Square. The scheme was the first in the UK to propose the use of electric traction for its trains and was supported by Sir William Siemens whose electrical engineering company Siemens Brothers was to provide the electrical equipment. The was approved in August 1882. A proposal to extend the route to the City of London was submitted to Parliament later that year, but was withdrawn the following year as the company struggled to raise funds. In 1883, the London Central Electric Railway, proposed an extension of the ; this time from the Charing Cross end with the line running to the General Post Office at St Martin's Le Grand. The plan was rejected. William Siemens died in 1883 and the plan was abandoned in 1885.

In 1884, proposals were made for two cut-and-cover lines to link Charing Cross with one of the northern terminals. The first proposal, the Charing Cross and Euston Railway, proposed a line between those two stations. At Charing Cross a terminal station was to be provided under Villiers Street which was to be closed to allow a separate branch to rise to the surface to cross the river on a new bridge adjacent to Hungerford bridge before connecting to the tracks south of the river. The bill was withdrawn in February 1885. The second proposal, the London Central Subway), proposed connecting Charing Cross and King's Cross. The station at Charing Cross was to be beneath the south side of Trafalgar Square below ground. The government's Office of Works objected to the proposed alignment on the north side of Trafalgar Square because it believed the tunnels would compromise the foundations of the National Gallery. The bill was withdrawn in April 1885.

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