The Metropolitan Railway (MR, now the Metropolitan line) opened in 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon as the world's first underground railway line. The railway was mostly constructed using cut and cover techniques under existing roads, though the section through Clerkenwell under Mount Pleasant hill was constructed using traditional tunnelling methods because of the depth of the tracks beneath the surface. Because of the depth, and the lack of development in the immediate area (until the 1880s the hill was the site of Coldbath Fields Prison), no station was constructed at Clerkenwell, leaving a greater distance between King's Cross (since replaced by King's Cross St Pancras further to the west) and Farringdon stations than between others on the railway.
In November 1910, the MR submitted a private bill to parliament that included plans to construct a new station at Mount Pleasant.[1] The station would have been 60 feet (18 m) below ground. Parliamentary approval for the station was granted in the Metropolitan Railway Act 1911; however, the powers were not used and they lapsed in 1932.[2]
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