Tooting Broadway London Underground
Station entrance and statue of Edward VII
Tooting Broadway is located in Greater London
Tooting Broadway
Tooting Broadway
Location of Tooting Broadway in Greater London
LocationTooting
Local authorityLondon Borough of Wandsworth
Managed byLondon Underground
OwnerLondon Underground
Number of platforms2
Fare zone3
London Underground annual entry and exit
2018Decrease 15.30 million[1]
2019Increase 15.43 million[2]
2020Decrease 8.10 million[3]
2021Decrease 6.89 million[4]
2022Increase 11.62 million[5]
Railway companies
Original companyCity and South London Railway
Key dates
13 September 1926Opened (C&SLR)
Listed status
Listing gradeII
Entry number1065478[6]
Added to list16 June 1987; 36 years ago (1987-06-16)
Other information
External links
WGS8451°25′40″N 0°10′05″W / 51.427778°N 0.168°W / 51.427778; -0.168
 London transport portal

Tooting Broadway is a London Underground station in Tooting in the London Borough of Wandsworth, South London. The station is on the Northern line, between Tooting Bec and Colliers Wood stations and is in Travelcard Zone 3.[7]

It is located on the corner of Tooting High Street (A24) and Mitcham Road (A217).[8]

Location

The station building is a corner lot, located at the junction of two major roads, which are A24 Tooting High Street and A217 Garratt Lane. South Thames College is just outside the station, while St. George's Hospital is a few minutes' walk away. Other attractions nearby include Tooting Market, Tooting Methodist Church and Tooting Primary School. The station is located in the centre of a busy district and serves a dense residential area.[9] The area is commonly referred to as Tooting Graveney.[10]

History

In the period following the end of First World War, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) began reviving a series of prewar plans for line extensions and improvements that had been postponed during the hostilities. Finance for the works was made possible by the government's Trade Facilities Act 1921, which, as a means of alleviating unemployment, provided for the Treasury to underwrite the value of loans raised by companies for public works.[11]

One of the projects that had been postponed was the Wimbledon and Sutton Railway (W&SR), a plan for a new surface line from Wimbledon to Sutton over which the UERL's District Railway had control. The UERL wished to maximise its use of the government's time-limited financial backing,[12] and, in November 1922, presented bills to parliament to construct the W&SR in conjunction with an extension of the UERL's City and South London Railway (C&SLR) south from Clapham Common through Balham, Tooting and Merton.[13][14][15][note 1]

The C&SLR would connect to the W&SR route south of Morden station and run trains to Sutton and the District Railway would run trains between Wimbledon and Sutton.[17] Under these proposals, the station on the C&SLR extension would have been named "North Morden" and the station on the W&SR route would have been called "South Morden" (the current Morden South station is in a different location).[18][19]

The Southern Railway objected to this encroachment into its area of operation and the anticipated loss of its passenger traffic to the C&SLR's more direct route to central London. The UERL and SR reached an agreement in July 1923 that enabled the C&SLR to extend as far as Morden in exchange for the UERL giving up its rights over the W&SR route.[17][note 2] Construction of the C&SLR extension was rapidly carried out and Tooting Broadway station opened on 13 September 1926.[21][22]

Former proposals

A post-war review of rail transport in the London area produced a report in 1946 that proposed many new lines and identified the Morden branch as being the most overcrowded section of the London Underground, needing additional capacity.[23] To relieve the congestion, the report recommended construction of a second pair of tunnels beneath the Northern line's tunnels from Tooting Broadway to Kennington.[24][note 3] Trains using the existing tunnels would start and end at Tooting Broadway with the service in the new tunnels joining the existing tunnels to Morden.[24] Designated as route 10, the proposal was not developed by the London Passenger Transport Board or its successor organisations.[note 4]

In 2013, it was announced that Transport for London's plans for Crossrail 2 included consideration of a station at Tooting Broadway. In October 2015, the plan was changed in favour of a route via Balham due to difficult soil conditions at the proposed site.[27][28]

Incidents

On 6 October 1960, a train crashed into the end wall at the reversing siding. The driver was seriously injured.[29]

On 4 May 1971, in a similar incident to the Moorgate disaster, another train had smashed into the end wall at the reversing siding at around 30mph. Unlike the incident in 1960, this incident ended up killing the driver.[30]

Design

The station is a Grade II listed building.[6][note 5] Along with the other stations on the Morden extension, the building was designed by architect Charles Holden. They were Holden's first major project for the Underground.[33] He was selected by Frank Pick, general manager of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL), to design the stations after he was dissatisfied with designs produced by the UERL's own architect, Stanley Heaps.[34] Built with shops to each side, the modernist design takes the form of a double-height curving screen clad in white Portland stone with a three-part glazed screen in the centre of the façade divided by columns of which the capitals are three-dimensional versions of the Underground roundel. The central panel of the screen contains a large version of the roundel.[6] The station only has access to the platforms via escalators.[35]

Services and connections

Services

Tooting Broadway is between Tooting Bec and Colliers Wood stations on the London Underground Northern line, in Travelcard Zone 3.[7] Train frequencies vary throughout the day, but generally operate every 2–4 minutes between 06:17 and 00:01 in both directions.[36][37] The typical off-peak service, in trains per hour (tph) is:[38]

Southbound trains can terminate at Tooting Broadway on occasion rather than continue on to the end of the line at Morden, which is three stations to the south. To return north, out of service trains run south from the southbound platform into a reversing siding between the two running tunnels before reversing and running north through points on to the northbound platform where they return into service.[39]

Connections

London Bus routes 44, 57, 77, 127, 131, 155, 219, 264, 270, 280, 333, 355, 493 and G1 and night routes N44 and N155 serve the station.[40][41] In addition, bus routes 57 and 264 provide a 24-hour bus service.[40] Tooting, the nearest railway station, is an 18-minute walk away along the A217 Mitcham Road.[9]

In popular culture

Tooting Broadway station features in the opening credits of the BBC comedy Citizen Smith and again in the closing sequence of the very last episode.[42]

The station is referenced in the title of the Kitchens of Distinction's song "On Tooting Broadway Station" from their third album The Death of Cool.[43]

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ^ The C&SLR extension was to be "6 miles, 1 furlong and 7.2 chains" (6.215 miles or 10.00 kilometres) long and mostly in tunnel.[15] Originally opened in 1890, the C&SLR's original tunnels were smaller than the standard diameter used on the Underground's later deep-level lines and the C&SLR was already undergoing reconstruction to enlarge its tunnels to take larger, modern rolling stock.[16]
  2. ^ The Southern Railway subsequently built the W&SR line, one of the last main line routes to be built in the London area. The first section from Wimbledon to South Merton opened on 7 July 1929, with the line being opened in full on 5 January 1930.[20]
  3. ^ A duplication of parts of the Northern line's tunnels had first been considered in 1935 when new tunnels were proposed between Camden Town and Waterloo and between Balham and Kennington.[25] During the war, deep-level shelters were constructed beneath a number of Northern line stations so that they could be converted for use as part of the duplicate tunnels after the war.[26]
  4. ^ Of the twelve proposed routes, only Route 8, "A South to North Link – East Croydon to Finsbury Park" was developed, eventually becoming the Victoria line.
  5. ^ Holden's other stations on the Morden extension at Clapham South, Balham, Tooting Bec, Colliers Wood and South Wimbledon are also listed as Grade II.[31][32]

References

  1. ^ "Station Usage Data" (CSV). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2018. Transport for London. 23 September 2020. Archived from the original on 14 January 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  2. ^ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2019. Transport for London. 23 September 2020. Archived from the original on 9 November 2020. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
  3. ^ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2020. Transport for London. 16 April 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  4. ^ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2021. Transport for London. 12 July 2022. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  5. ^ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2022. Transport for London. 4 October 2023. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
  6. ^ a b c Historic England. "Tooting Broadway Station (Including Above Ground Building and Sub Surface Platforms and Passages) (1065478)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 29 March 2015.
  7. ^ a b Standard Tube Map (PDF) (Map). Not to scale. Transport for London. November 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 November 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
  8. ^ Google Maps – Tooting Broadway Underground Station
  9. ^ a b "Tooting Broadway tube station" (Map). Google Maps. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  10. ^ Lysons, Daniel; T Cadell; W Davies (1792). "Tooting". The Environs of London: Volume 1, County of Surrey (British History Online). pp. 497–501. Archived from the original on 4 February 2019. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  11. ^ Day & Reed 2010, p. 90.
  12. ^ Barman 1979, pp. 78–79.
  13. ^ "No. 32769". The London Gazette. 21 November 1922. pp. 8233–8234.
  14. ^ "No. 32769". The London Gazette. 21 November 1922. pp. 8230–8233.
  15. ^ a b "No. 32770". The London Gazette. 24 November 1922. pp. 8314–8315.
  16. ^ Day & Reed 2010, pp. 90–1.
  17. ^ a b Jackson 1966, p. 678.
  18. ^ Harris 2006, p. 49.
  19. ^ "Diagram of new works in hand". London Transport Museum. 1922. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
  20. ^ Jackson 1966, p. 679.
  21. ^ Rose 1999.
  22. ^ Day & Reed 2010, p. 96.
  23. ^ Inglis 1946, p. 16.
  24. ^ a b Inglis 1946, p. 17.
  25. ^ Emmerson & Beard 2004, p. 16.
  26. ^ Emmerson & Beard 2004, pp. 30–37.
  27. ^ "Crossrail Route-October 2015". Archived from the original on 1 August 2017. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
  28. ^ "Crossrail 2 factsheet: Wimbledon to Clapham Junction" (PDF). TfL. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 March 2016.
  29. ^ "Accident at Tooting Broadway on 6th October 1960". Department of the Environment (Railways Archive). 12 November 1971. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  30. ^ "Report on the Accident that occurred on 4th May 1971 at Tooting Broadway on the Northern Line London Transport Railways". Department of the Environment (Railways Archive). 12 November 1971. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  31. ^ "Listed buildings and borough history". Wandsworth London Borough Council. Archived from the original on 26 October 2014. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  32. ^ Listed Buildings: A Guide for Owners (PDF) (Report). Merton London Borough Council. p. 11. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  33. ^ Martin 2013, p. 186.
  34. ^ Orsini 2010.
  35. ^ Marshall, Geoff. "Tube Stations that only have escalators". Tube Facts & Figures. Archived from the original on 4 February 2019. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  36. ^ "Northern line timetable: From Tooting Broadway Underground Station to Tooting Bec Underground Station". Transport for London. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  37. ^ "Northern line timetable: From Tooting Broadway Underground Station to Colliers Wood Underground Station". Transport for London. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  38. ^ Clive, Feather (18 September 2018). "Northern line". Clive's Underground Line Guides. Archived from the original on 4 February 2019. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  39. ^ Jarrier, Franklin. "Greater London Transport Tracks Map" (PDF) (Map). CartoMetro London Edition. 3.7. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 November 2018.
  40. ^ a b "Buses from Tooting Broadway" (PDF). Transport for London. 26 September 2014. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  41. ^ Tooting Broadway Underground Station – Bus
  42. ^ Citizen Smith (BBC1 – title sequence)
  43. ^ Allmusic review. Retrieved 28 March 2015.

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tooting Broadway tube station.
Preceding station London Underground Following station
Tooting Bec
towards Edgware, High Barnet or Mill Hill East
 Northern line
 Colliers Wood
towards Morden
Northern line
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