Charing Cross tube station


Charing Cross 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 and Strand. 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. The station was served by the Jubilee line between 1979 and 1999, acting as the southern terminus of the line during that period. The two earlier stations were connected together and given the current name when the Jubilee line opened.
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 terminus and the area around Trafalgar Square.

1860s and 1870s

The first proposal came before parliament in 1864, a year after the opening the Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground railway, and the year the mainline station opened. The North Western and Charing Cross Railway 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 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 W&WR 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 on the to construct 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 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 in 1882.
Another proposal in 1881 was the Charing Cross and Waterloo Electric Railway. 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 railway 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.
1884 saw the proposal of two cut-and-cover lines to link Charing Cross with one of the northern terminals. The first, 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.
Also in 1884, the King's Cross, Charing Cross and Waterloo Subway submitted a proposal to construct a line linking the three mainline terminals in its name. Unlike the earlier schemes and those of the and, the planned to construct its line at a deeper level with the tunnels constructed using a tunnelling shield and lined with cast-iron segments. The stations were to be constructed using the cut-and-cover technique with one platform above the other. Two stations were to be provided close to Charing Cross: one to the south at the junction of Northumberland Avenue and Northumberland Street and one to the north in St Martin's Place. The bill was withdrawn in May 1885.
In 1889, the North and South London Subway was proposed. It was to connect Camden Town and Elephant & Castle, and proposed a station north of the National Gallery at the junction of Charing Cross Road and Green Street. The bill was announced, but was not submitted to parliament.

1890s

Following the successful opening in 1890 of the City and South London Railway, the first deep-level tube railway and the first underground railway using electric traction, a number of railways were proposed in London to be constructed and operated by similar means. In 1891, two bills were submitted for tube railways that were to serve Charing Cross: the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway and the Hampstead, St Pancras & Charing Cross Railway.
The was to connect Baker Street and Waterloo station and the was to connect Hampstead with Charing Cross with a branch to Euston, St Pancras and King's Cross. The former company's station was to be under Trafalgar Square and the latter's was to be at the junction of King William Street and Agar Street with a pedestrian subway under Strand to the forecourt of the mainline station. After a committee sat to consider these and the various other railways being proposed, the B&SWR was approved in March 1893 and the, renamed to the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway, was approved in August 1893.
In 1896, the City and West End Railway proposed a route running between Cannon Street in the City of London and Hammersmith via the West End and Knightsbridge. A station for Charing Cross was to be provided at King William Street. The east-west route would have been competition for a number of other lines that had been permitted but which had not yet opened: the under construction Central London Railway, the Metropolitan District Railway's proposed deep level line and the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway's line. Lobbying from these companies led to the bill being rejected in April 1897.
The final new scheme of the 1890s was the Paddington and Charing Cross Railway's proposal in 1897 to link these two mainline stations. Its station at Charing Cross was to be under and parallel with Craven Street on the south side of the main line station. When the bill was first considered in January 1898, the promoters failed to attend parliament to support it and the bill was declared "dead".
Also in 1897, the submitted a bill to change the route of the final section of its line. Instead of turning east at the end of Charing Cross Road to Agar Street and Strand, the route was revised to run south passed Trafalgar Square to end at a station under Craven Street. The change was approved in July 1898 and the previous routing was abandoned.

1900s

As had the opening of the ten years earlier, the successful opening of the in 1900 spurred another set of proposals for new lines with routes criss-crossing London.
1901
Proposals for the 1901 parliamentary session that planned to serve Charing Cross included three new lines and the extension of one already approved.
The Charing Cross, Hammersmith and District Railway proposed a line from just north of Charing Cross to Hammersmith via Knightsbridge and Kensington. Two stations were planned around Trafalgar Square: one to the north-east at Bedfordbury with its entrance probably to be located at the junction of Agar Street and Strand; the other on the south side of the Square.
The Piccadilly and City Railway proposed a line from Piccadilly Circus to Cannon Street. It planned to connect to other companies' lines at each end: at Piccadilly Circus, to the authorised but not yet constructed, and at Cannon Street to another proposed line, the North East London Railway. The P&CR's station at Charing Cross was to be on the east side of Adelaide Street at the junction with Strand.
The Victoria, City and Southern Electric Railway proposed a line from Pimlico to Peckham Rye connecting Victoria with the City, Southwark and south-east London. Its tunnels would have run between Whitehall and Strand with a station to the south-west of the mainline station. The promoters failed to appear and the bill was declared "dead" in January 1901.
The submitted a bill for an extension of its approved route south from Charing Cross to Westminster and Victoria.
To review all these bills and the others submitted for underground lines in London, parliament established a joint committee under Lord Windsor. By the time the committee had produced its report, the 1901 parliamentary session was almost over so the promoters of the bills were asked to resubmit them for the 1902 session.
1902
The 1902 session saw an increase in the number of bills submitted for tube railways in London. The, and bills from 1901 were resubmitted along with new bills from the, the and the and from a newcomer, the London United Electric Railway. To manage the workload of reviewing all of the bills, two joint committees were established, one under London Windsor and the other under Lord Ribblesdale.
The Ribblesdale Committee considered the bills and rejected the extension to Victoria as being not in compliance with standing orders. The new bill proposed a short extension of the line southwards beneath the station to the Charing Cross station to provide an interchange with that line and the. It was approved.
The other bills affecting Charing Cross were considered by the Windsor Committee. Several of these involved tunnels between Charing Cross and Piccadilly Circus and, either independently or in conjunction with other companies' proposals, formed parts of routes connection Charing Cross to Hammersmith. Although it did not plan a station in the vicinity of Strand or Trafalgar Square, the proposal for a short line to connect its planned station at Piccadilly Circus and the planned deep-level platforms at its Charing Cross station would have required tunnels to run one above the other, south under Adelaide Street and Craven Street on the south-west side of the mainline station before turning east into Northumberland Avenue and north under Victoria Embankment to connect to the planned tunnels. The link was rejected on engineering grounds due to the tight curves and steep gradient needed to pass the tunnels between buildings on the route.
The proposal was for a second line to connect its two existing termini at Shepherds' Bush and Bank via a more southerly route that connected Hammersmith to Bank via Knightsbridge and Piccadilly to form a deep-level loop. At Charing Cross, the new line would have run under Strand, then north-west passed Trafalgar Square towards Piccadilly Circus. The bill reintroduced its Charing Cross to Hammersmith scheme from the previous year and proposed an additional connection to the at Agar Street. The majority of the scheme, including all of the southern loop line, and the entirety of the scheme were rejected by parliament.
The proposal was modified from the previous year and was now intended to run beyond Piccadilly Circus to Hammersmith. This required its platforms at Charing Cross to be deeper than in its previous scheme. The was promoted by the London United Tramways and also planned to run between Hammersmith and Charing Cross. Approaching from the west beneath The Mall, at Charing Cross the line was to form a loop running from the Duke of York Column at the south end of Waterloo Place, under Trafalgar Square to the corner of Duncannon Street and Strand before turning south to run under the mainline station to the junction of Northumberland Avenue and Whitehall Place before running west to complete the loop. Its station would have been located on the loop.
Mergers and amalgamations led to the and the routes being joined into a combined scheme, the London Suburban Railway, funded by J.S. Morgan & Co. The proposals were modified in a number of ways before bills were ready at the end of July 1902 for a third and final reading. At Charing Cross, a station building to be shared with the was to be located on the north side of Strand at the junction with Adelaide Street with a pedestrian subway under Strand connecting to the mainline station. While the bills were awaiting their final readings, the was taken over by Speyer Brothers, the financiers of the rival Underground Electric Railways Company of London. The planned route was similar to that of the -owned. Under Speyer Brothers' control, the withdrew the bill and the remainder of the proposals failed.
1903-1906
Fewer tube railway bills were proposed for the 1903 parliamentary session. Three bills included Charing Cross in their plans and were submitted by the, the and the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway. The bill provided for the purchase of additional land for its station. The resubmitted its previous loop line bill unaltered expecting that the collapse of the plans would improve its chance of success.
The proposed a modification of the previous year's for a branch southwards from Piccadilly Circus. This time the branch would run under Leicester Square with platforms under King William Street and a station building at the junction of Agar Street and Strand. The tunnels would then turn eastwards under Strand to continue to Mansion House in the City of London where it would connect to the deep-level line. Between Piccadilly Circus and Ludgate Circus, the route was similar to the loop line proposal.
Neither of the bills for new lines proceeded as the Royal Commission on London Traffic was established on 10 February 1903 to consider future development of transport in London. During its deliberations consideration of any new proposals was suspended. After the Commission issued its report on 17 July 1905, an attempt was made to revive a bill that had been submitted too late for the 1903 session and had been waiting parliament's consideration since February 1903. The Hammersmith, City & North East London Railway was a re-presentation of the and schemes running from Hammersmith to Palmers Green. A station was planned between Agar Street and Bedford Street. The bill was rejected for not compiling with standing orders in 1905, and resubmitted for the 1906 session with the station moved to the junction of Agar Street and Strand. Again the bill was rejected for procedural reasons and it was not presented again.

Construction and opening

Construction of the began in August 1898, with the boring of the tunnels under the River Thames beginning in February 1899. The northbound tunnel began first and was underway when, at the end of 1900, the collapse of the parent company, London & Globe Finance Corporation, put the railway company in financial difficulties. Tunnelling stopped in May 1901 with most of the running tunnels complete between Waterloo and the south end of Regent Street. At Trafalgar Square, the station tunnels had been excavated. In March 1902, the was taken over by a consortium of investors led by Charles Yerkes. Works restarted under the new owners and 80 per cent of the tunnels were complete by March 1903.
Construction of the began in September 1903. Tunnelling under the mainline station was done in compressed air to prevent any damage from ground movements. The railway had permission to construct the underground station's ticket hall under part of the station's forecourt, but it was to be done from below to avoid disrupting the station. In December 1905, the roof of the mainline station collapsed and the station closed for three months for rebuilding. During this period, the was given permission to excavate the forecourt for six weeks. Works to construct a lift shaft and form the walls around the ticket hall were carried out with a grid of steel beams placed across the site on to which the forecourt surface was reconstructed. Excavation of the ticket hall and a second lift shaft were carried out from the roofed-over space.
Trafalgar Square station was provided with two long platforms. There was nowhere to place a surface building, so the station had a sub-surface ticket hall under the square. The ticket hall had three entrances: one at the south-east corner of the central area of the square, one on the corner of Strand and one on the east side of the square. Lifts manufactured by the Otis Elevator Company and a spiral stair connected the platforms and ticket hall. Platform tiling at Trafalgar Square station was started in early 1904. The station had two long platforms with the lifts again provided by Otis.
Trafalgar Square station opened when the opened between Baker Street and Kennington Road on 10 March 1906. Charing Cross station opened as the southern terminus of the on 22 June 1907.

Extension and modifications

The two stations were not connected below ground and to make interchanging between the lines easier, on 6 April 1914, the was extended south under the mainline station to provide an interchange with the and the. For the opening of the extension, the station was renamed Charing Cross with the new station to the south being named Charing Cross . On 9 May 1915, these were changed again with the former Charing Cross station becoming Strand and the other becoming Charing Cross.
Beginning in 1924, a number of central London stations were modernised with escalators being provided to replace lifts. At Trafalgar Square, two Otis escalators came into use on 13 April 1926, doubling the capacity of the station. The ticket hall was modernised and extended to use the space previously occupied by the lifts and a passage was constructed to a new entrance in Cockspur Street on the south side of the square. The improvements to the ticket hall included the installation of automatic ticket machines. Strand station retained its lifts.

War and new plans

In September 1938 during the Sudeten Crisis, when it appeared that war with Germany was imminent, the tunnels of the Bakerloo and Northern lines under the River Thames were closed and sealed with concrete to protect the system from flooding caused by a bomb falling in the river that might breach the tunnels. As a consequence, between 27 September 1928 and 8 October 1938 both Trafalgar Square and Strand stations were closed. The concrete seals were removed after the crisis had been resolved. Works began on installing flood gates to protect the lines each side of the river. Following Germany's ultimatum to Poland on the Polish Corridor, the Northern line tunnels were again plugged on 1 September 1939 and were not reopened until 17 December 1939, once the flood gates had been installed.
On 12 October 1940, a German bomb fell on Trafalgar Square station killing seven people sheltering from the Blitz.
In 1944, The County of London Plan recommended replacing the mainline station with one below ground served by two routes: Route A, running between Clapham and New Cross via Victoria station, Blackfriars, Cannon Street and Wapping and Route B, a loop line linking Waterloo, Charing Cross, Blackfriars, Cannon Street and London Bridge. The location of the station was not specified.
A post-war report in 1946 rejected the idea of moving the mainline station entirely underground, but did propose several new lines running in tunnels within the central area including two serving Charing Cross. Route 5 and Route 9 were mainline routes proposed to connect to existing surface lines to allow main line trains to cross London without using the terminals. A third route, Route 12A, was a London Underground route running between Golders Green and Waterloo. It was to run beneath the existing Northern line tunnels to relieve congestion on the line.
None of these proposals were developed by the mainline railway companies, the London Passenger Transport Board or their successor organisations.
In 1956, the London County Council planned to construct pedestrian subways from the ticket hall of Strand station under Strand to Duncannon Street and Adelaide Street with a travelator in the main passage from the station and escalators from the subways to street level. A separate subway from the north side of Strand to the ticket hall and another to connect to the subways from Trafalgar Square station were also proposed. The works were not carried-out.

Reconstruction and integration for the Jubilee line

Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s consideration was given to various routes connecting north-west and south-east London via the West End and the City of London including proposals to extend the Bakerloo line south-east from Elephant & Castle to Camberwell and beyond. Planning of the Victoria line had the greater priority and it was not until after construction of that line started that detailed planning began for the new line, first called the Fleet line in 1965 as it was planned to run in an east-west direction along Fleet Street. Lack of funding meant that only the first stage of the proposed line, from Baker Street to Charing Cross, received royal assent in July 1969; funding was agreed in August 1971.
Tunnelling began in February 1972 and was completed by the end of 1974. In 1977, during construction of the stations, the name of the line was changed to the Jubilee line, to mark the Queen's Silver Jubilee that year.
At Charing Cross, the tunnels for the Jubilee line were aligned east-west beneath Strand with the running tunnels passing under the Bakerloo line and Northern line tunnels and the new Jubilee line platforms between the two. A cross-over junction to the west of the platforms enabled trains to terminate and start from both platforms. In preparation of the second stage of the line continuing to Aldwych and beyond, the running tunnels were continued east of the new platforms at Charing Cross, running beneath Strand to end at Wellington Street. The original Strand station ticket hall beneath the forecourt of the mainline station was enlarged under the forecourt and under Strand itself. To enable this, piles were installed in the forecourt in January 1973 to support a steel umbrella structure erected over the area during the Easter weekend in 1973. The foundations of the Eleanor cross in the station forecourt also needed to be underpinned to avoid it being damaged during the excavations. With the enlargement of the ticket hall linking subways were constructed to new entrances in Villiers Street, on the north side of Strand, in Adelaide Street and in William IV Street.
Strand station closed on 16 June 1973 so that an escalator shaft could be constructed diagonally through the original lift shafts down to an intermediate concourse. From here passages to and from the Northern line platforms branch off and a second set of three escalators descend to the eastern end of the Jubilee line platforms, which are below street level. At Trafalgar Square station, the existing concourse at the bottom of the 1926 escalator shaft was enlarged to connect to a new passage which ran eastwards towards another concourse at the top of a second set of two escalators and a fixed stair down to the western end of the Jubilee line platforms. To carry out the works on the station and the running tunnels, a site on the north-western corner of Trafalgar Square at Whitcomb Street was used to construct a pair of access shafts deep from which long passages were excavated beneath Trafalgar Square to the existing below ground concourses. Although not originally intended for passenger use, part of one of these became the interchange passage between the Bakerloo and Northern lines. A new electrical sub-station to supply the line was installed at the bottom of one of Strand station's redundant escalator shafts. Once the structural work to enlarge the ticket hall was completed, the umbrella structure was removed in October 1975.
Works on fitting out the tunnels and stations began at the end of 1975, but serious delays in the progress of the works prevented the line from opening in 1978 as intended. Tracks and signals were commissioned and trial running of trains on the line began on 14 August 1978, but works on the station was delayed by industrial action at the escalator contractor.
The official opening of the line by Prince Charles took place on 30 April 1979, starting with a train journey from Green Park to Charing Cross. The Jubilee line opened to the public on 1 May 1979. On the same day the Northern line service was reinstated and the combined station was named Charing Cross.
The new Northern line and Jubilee line ticket hall was decorated in lime green and blue moulded plastic panels with black tiles. Lime green was also used for the wall tiling of the Jubilee line platforms which was combined with decorative panels featuring images of Lord Nelson and Trafalgar Square by David Gentleman. Gentleman also designed the decorative scheme for the Northern line platforms. These have panels featuring a continuous mural illustrating, in the style of black and white woodcuts, the construction of the Eleanor Cross. The Bakerloo line platforms and ticket hall were not redecorated at the same time as those of the other two lines. This was carried out in 1983 when decorative panels for the platforms featuring artwork from the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery were installed.

Closure of Jubilee line platforms

Although permission had been granted, work on the Fleet line's stages 2 and 3 did not proceed and it was not until 1992 that an alternative route was approved. The Jubilee line extension took the line south of the River Thames via Waterloo. Due to the tightness of the curves required and speed restrictions that would have been needed it was impractical to reach Waterloo from Charing Cross. New tunnels branching from the original route south of Green Park were to be constructed, and the line to Charing Cross was to be closed. Tunnelling began in May 1994 and the new extension opened in stages starting at Stratford in the east, with services to Charing Cross ending on 19 November 1999 and the final section between Green Park and Waterloo opening the following day. The Jubilee line platforms were closed and walls constructed to across the intermediate concourses at the top of the two banks of escalators.
The Jubilee line platforms are still used by Jubilee line trains as sidings to reverse trains from southbound to northbound. To do so southbound trains terminate and disembark passengers at Green Park station and are worked empty to one of the Charing Cross platforms.

Recent developments

In 2016 and 2017, the two ticket halls were separately closed for refurbishment with interior finishes and lighting being replaced and new ticket barriers being installed. The Northern line ticket hall closed in September 2016 and was scheduled to reopen in July 2017, but reopened a month earlier. Following its reopening, Northern line Night Tube services began stopping at the station on 30 June 2017. They had been introduced on the line in November 2016, but had not served Charing Cross whilst the ticket hall was closed.
In August 2019 a planning application was submitted to close the subways to Adelaide Street, William IV Street and the north side of Strand and convert the space to office and retail use linked to the building above.

Proposal for new connection

In July 2005, a report, DLR Horizon 2020 Study, for the Docklands Light Railway examined "pragmatic development schemes" to expand and improve the DLR network between 2012 and 2020. One of the proposals was an extension of the DLR from Bank to Charing Cross. The unused tunnels under Strand would be enlarged to accommodate the larger DLR trains. In 2011, the DLR published a proposal to continue the extension to Victoria via Green Park. No further work has been done on these proposals.

COVID-19

On Wednesday 18 March 2020, TfL a number of changes to its services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the closure of a number of London Underground stations. As part of these measures, Charing Cross Underground station was closed "until further notice" from Thursday 19 March 2020. As of Thursday 9 July 2020, the station remains closed. No date for the station's reopening has been announced.

Use in media

As the Jubilee line platforms and track are still maintained by TfL for operational reasons, they can also be used by film and television makers requiring a modern Underground station location.
Films and television productions that have been shot at Charing Cross include:
Parts of the music video for Alex Parks' 2004 single "Cry" were filmed on a Jubilee line platform.

Services and connections

Services

The station is in Travelcard Zone 1, between Piccadilly Circus and Embankment on the Bakerloo line and Leicester Square and Embankment on the Northern line. On weekdays, Bakerloo line trains typically run every 2–2½ minutes between 05:43 and 00:29 northbound and 05:57 and 00:34 southbound; on the Northern line trains typically run every 2½–3½ minutes between 05:42 and 00:38 northbound and 05:56 00:34 southbound.
As of Charing Cross is the station on the London Underground with million passengers using it per year.

Connections