Brompton Road, Down Street & others

Piccadilly Line

BROMPTON ROAD / DOWN STREET

Both these stations fell victim to bad planning i.e. putting stations where they weren't needed.
They were both closed during the early 1930's and bricked up at platform level, so there is
very little to see from passing trains.

1930s map showing the station's ideal location for access to the Victoria & Albert Museum. That South Kensington station has close proximity to the museum also, as well as the Natural History and Science Museums, not to mention interchange with the District Line, probably didn't help Brompton Road's case for continued existence.

The remains of Brompton Road (1906-1934) between South Kensington and Knightsbridge. The surface building was originally L-shaped - the passenger entrance/exit was on Brompton Road itself. After closure, the front was demolished for road widening works leaving only the side portion in Cottage Place. Unlike Aldwych, the side entrance was not designed for passenger access.

Dr. James Fox has an excellent web page about the below ground aspects. Click here for it.

1) Hyde Park Corner station
2) Down Street station
3) Dover Street station (now Green Park)

The surface remains of the eponymous Down Street (1907-1932). The underground passages were converted to office use during the war for the Railway Executive Committee and for the War Cabinet.

A posting on the london.transport NewsGroup stated that there are some 3,000 people on the waiting list to visit this station. If that is the case, then surely it would be financially viable for LUL to employ a full-time guide to cope with the backlog. And why stop at this abandoned station? Providing regular visits to other ones would provide a (small) source of previously untapped revenue.

The London Underground is a public transport system, surely therefore responsible members of the public should have access to it. Those stations are after all "...monuments to changes in urban demographics, architecture and social history." (to gratefully quote John Daley)

For Nick Catford's site on Down Street station, click here.

This is the original surface building of Hyde Park Corner station. Replacing lift shafts with escalators caused the street level locations of many stations to alter slightly. This one is now the Pizza On The Park restaurant. At least it still survives: Dover Street, further up the line, lost its name (it's now Green Park) and its surface building (only recently demolished).

(All photos taken in 2000)

Holloway Road (Piccadilly Line)