Charing Cross tube station

Charing Cross
Entrance at Villiers Street/The Strand
Charing Cross Location of Charing Cross in Central London
Location	Charing Cross
Local authority	City of Westminster
Managed by	London Underground
Owner	London Underground
Number of platforms	6 (4 in use)
Fare zone	1
OSI	Charing Cross [1]
London Underground annual entry and exit
2011	19.51 million[2]
2012	18.52 million[2]
2013	18.63 million[2]
2014	21.30 million[2]
Railway companies
Original company	Baker Street and Waterloo Railway Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway
Key dates
10 March 1906	BS&WR station opened as Trafalgar Square
22 June 1907	CCE&HR station opened as Charing Cross
6 April 1914	CCE&HR station renamed Charing Cross (Strand)
9 May 1915	CCE&HR station renamed Strand
16 June 1973	Northern line service suspended
1 May 1979	Jubilee line service introduced, Northern line service resumed, interchange with Bakerloo line opened and whole station renamed Charing Cross
19 November 1999	Jubilee line service withdrawn
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR Underground National Rail Tramlink
London Transport portalCoordinates: 51°30′29″N 0°07′29″W / 51.508°N 0.12475°W

Charing Cross (sometimes informally abbreviated as Charing X) is a London Underground station at Charing Cross in the City of Westminster with entrances located in Trafalgar Square and The Strand. The station is served by the Northern and Bakerloo lines and provides an interchange with the National Rail network at Charing Cross station. On the Northern line it is between Embankment and Leicester Square stations on the Charing Cross branch, and on the Bakerloo line it is between Embankment and Piccadilly Circus stations. The station is in Travelcard Zone 1. The station was served by the Jubilee line between 1979 and 1999, acting as the southern terminus of the line during that period.

For most of the history of the Underground the name Charing Cross was associated not with this station but with the station now known as Embankment.

History

Early history

Northern line southbound platform at Charing Cross, looking north

The Northern line and Bakerloo line parts of the station were originally opened as two separate stations and were combined when the now defunct Jubilee line platforms were opened. The constituent stations also underwent a number of name changes during their history.

The first part of the complex, the Bakerloo line platforms, was opened as Trafalgar Square by the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway (BS&WR) on 10 March 1906. The Northern line platforms were opened a year later, as Charing Cross, by the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR, now the Charing Cross branch of the Northern line) on 22 June 1907. At its opening this station was the southern terminus of the CCE&HR which ran to two northern termini at Golders Green and Highgate (now Archway) tube stations.

Although both lines were owned and operated by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL), there was no direct connection below ground and passengers interchanging between the lines had to do so via two sets of lifts and the surface. In an effort to improve interchange capabilities, the CCE&HR was extended the short distance south under Charing Cross main line station to connect with the BS&WR and the District Railway (another UERL line), opening as such on 6 April 1914.

Renaming and connection

The interchange station between the BS&WR and District had been known hitherto as Charing Cross (District) and Embankment (BS&WR). The original CCE&HR terminus to the north of Charing Cross main line station was renamed Charing Cross (Strand) and the new station and the BS&WR station to the south of the main line station was named Charing Cross (Embankment). These names lasted only a short time: on 9 May 1915, Charing Cross (Strand) was renamed Strand and for Charing Cross (Embankment) the tube lines adopted the District Railway name of Charing Cross. At the same time, the separate Strand station on the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway was also renamed Aldwych to avoid confusion.

The Northern line Strand station was closed on 4 June 1973 to enable the construction of the new Jubilee line platforms. These platforms were constructed between the Bakerloo line and Northern line platforms together with the long-missing below-ground interchange between those two lines. In anticipation of the new interchange station, from 4 August 1974 Charing Cross was renamed Charing Cross Embankment. The Jubilee line platforms and the refurbished Northern line platforms opened on 1 May 1979 from which date the combined station including Trafalgar Square was given its current name; simultaneously Charing Cross Embankment reverted to the original BS&WR name of Embankment, ending 109 years of association with the name Charing Cross. The West End branch of the Northern line has been known as the Charing Cross branch since before the 1979 renaming, and this name has continued despite the change of station to which it refers.

History of station names related to Charing Cross

	Main line	District	Northern	Bakerloo		Northern	Jubilee
1870	Charing Cross	Charing Cross
1906				Embankment	Trafalgar Square
1907						Charing Cross
1914			Charing Cross (Embankment)			Charing Cross (Strand)
1915		Charing Cross				Strand
1973						Strand (Closed)
1974		Charing Cross Embankment
1976		Embankment
1979					Charing Cross
1999					Charing Cross

Former Jubilee line platforms

One of the entrances to Charing Cross tube station from Trafalgar Square.

Although Charing Cross was constructed as the southern terminus of the Jubilee line, plans already existed to continue the line to the east towards Lewisham in south-east London. The tunnels were therefore constructed beyond the station beneath the Strand as far as 143 Strand, almost as far as Aldwych which would have been the next stop on the line. The subsequent regeneration of the Docklands in London's East End during the 1980s and 1990s required additional transport infrastructure and the eventual route of the extension took the new tunnels south from Green Park to provide new interchanges at Westminster, Waterloo and London Bridge stations and then on to the Greenwich Peninsula and Stratford.

The new tunnels branch away from the original south of Green Park station and, on the opening of the final section of the line between Green Park and Waterloo stations on 20 November 1999, the Jubilee line platforms at Charing Cross were closed to the travelling public. For several years, the escalators continuing down to the closed platforms could still be seen through closed doors at the bottom of the escalators from the ticket hall; however, the windows have since been boarded up.

The Jubilee line platforms are still used by Jubilee line trains as a sidings to reverse trains from south to north; to do so southbound trains terminate and detrain at Green Park Station and are worked empty to one of the Charing Cross platforms. The tunnels also extend beyond the platforms into the "Overrun". Each overrun has the capacity to stable a further two trains each.

As the Jubilee line platforms and track are still maintained by TfL for operation reasons, they can can also be used by film and television makers requiring a modern Underground station location. While still open they were used in the 1987 film The Fourth Protocol, and after closure in numerous productions, including different episodes of the television series Spooks, the films Creep (2004), 28 Weeks Later (2007), The Deaths of Ian Stone (2007), Skyfall (2012)^[3][4] and the video for Alex Parks's single "Cry".

In 2006, it was proposed that an extension to the Docklands Light Railway from Bank station would take over the platforms. Intermediate stations at Aldwych and City Thameslink would be opened, mirroring the planned route of the old Fleet line.

In 2010, the concourse serving the platforms was used for London Underground's licensed busking auditions.^[5]

Mural

A 100-metre-long (330-foot) mural along the Northern line platforms was designed by David Gentleman. It shows scenes from the construction of the original Charing Cross, memorial of Eleanor of Castile, the wife of Edward I.

Connections

• London Buses routes 6, 9, 13, 15, 23, 87, 139, 176 and heritage routes 15H and night routes N9, N13, N15, N21, N26, N44, N87, N155, N199 and N343.
• Green Line Coaches 748

Nearby places of interest

• Trafalgar Square
• National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery
• South Africa House
• Canada House
• St Martin-in-the-Fields
• Nelson's Column
• Admiralty Arch
• Savoy Hotel
• The Mall
• Whitehall
• Covent Garden

References

1. "Out of Station Interchanges" (XLS). Transport for London. May 2011. Archived from the original on 20 October 2012.
2. "Multi-year station entry-and-exit figures" (XLS). London Underground station passenger usage data. Transport for London. June 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
3. "James Bond News :: MI6 :: 'Skyfall' night shoot at Charing Cross tube station (photos)". MI6-HQ.COM.
4. "James Bond News :: MI6 :: More explosive 'Skyfall' filming to take place in London today". MI6-HQ.COM.
5. Sound of the Underground, BBC News, accessed 28 May 2010

Further reading

• Demuth, Tim (2004). The Spread of London's Underground, 2nd ed. Published by Capital Transport, in co-operation with London Transport Museum. ISBN 1-85414-277-1.
• Harris, Cyril M (2004). What's in a name?, 4th ed. (reprint). Published by Capital Transport, in co-operation with London Transport Museum. ISBN 1-85414-241-0.

External links

• The Charing Cross-Embankment-Strand conundrum explains the various names of the tube stations in this area.
• London's Abandoned Tube Stations – Charing Cross
• London Transport Museum Photographic Archive
  • Subway entrance to Trafalgar Square station, 1906
  • Stairway entrance to Charing Cross station from Craven Street, 1909
  • Trafalgar Square station booking hall, 1922
  • Strand station booking hall, 1927
  • Craven Street entrance to Strand station, 1937. Note sign pointing way to Bakerloo line.
  • Strand station booking hall, 1973, two weeks after closure for reconstruction
  • New Charing Cross station booking hall, 1979
  • Platform Murals
    • Northern line – Construction of Charing Cross
    • Bakerloo line – Pictures from the National Gallery
    • Jubilee line – Images of Nelson's Column