South Kentish Town tube station

South Kentish Town
The station building in 2005
South Kentish Town Location of South Kentish Town in United Kingdom London Camden
Location	Kentish Town
Local authority	Camden
Number of platforms	2
Railway companies
Original company	Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway
Key dates
22 June 1907	Opened
5 June 1924	Closed
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR Underground National Rail Tramlink
WGS84	51°32′43″N 0°08′30″W / 51.5453°N 0.1417°WCoordinates: 51°32′43″N 0°08′30″W / 51.5453°N 0.1417°W
London Transport portal

South Kentish Town is a disused London Underground station located in Kentish Town, north London.

It was opened in 1907 by the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway and remained for just 17 years until it was closed in 1924 due to low passenger usage. Latterly, it was on the Northern line between Camden Town and Kentish Town stations. The surface building survives on Kentish Town Road and is currently a retail unit.

History

South Kentish Town station was opened on 22 June 1907 by the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR) on its branch to Highgate (now Archway).^[1] The station was planned to be called Castle Road, however this was changed just before it opened. The Castle Road name had already been fired into the original Leslie Green tiles inside the station, so after the name change they were painted over with the revised name.

The station was temporarily closed following unofficial strike action at Lots Road Power Station during the afternoon of 5 June 1924. It was decided not to re-open the station after the power was restored, due to the very low number of passengers using it; in fact, since as early as 1908 some trains did not stop there.^[2] During the Blitz of the Second World War it was adapted for use as an air-raid shelter.

There have been occasional proposals to rebuild the platforms and the station as part of the redevelopment plans for Camden Town. The layout of South Kentish Town is similar to Kentish Town (also originally a CCE&HR station); with two 23 ft diameter lift-shafts and an 18 ft diameter spiral staircase. South Kentish Town now serves as an access point for permanent way works and as an emergency egress point for passenger services.

A prose piece called South Kentish Town was written in 1951 by John Betjeman which tells the fictional story of a passenger who became trapped in the disused station. It was based on a true incident where a train stopped at the station and mistakenly opened its doors, but in reality nobody became trapped.^[2]

External links

• London's Abandoned Tube Stations - South Kentish Town Includes platform level photos.
• London Transport Museum Photographic Archive. South Kentish Town Station, circa 1909.

References

1. Rose, Douglas (1999). The London Underground, A Diagrammatic History. Douglas Rose/Capital Transport. ISBN 1-85414-219-4.
2. Connor, J.E. (1999). "South Kentish Town". London's Disused Underground Stations. Capital Transport. pp. 22–25. ISBN 1-85414-250-X.