Site Records

Site Name: King William Street Station

King William Street
London
EC4
TQ329808

Source: Die Londoner Untergrundbahnen, Troske (1892).

Although there are a number of admirable websites devoted to the King William Street station, this one does not duplicate them. So if you want to find out more (and something new!) about this short-lived and long-forgotten tube station jump aboard now... LOCATION First of all, let's get orientated and see the place we are talking about! The plan (left) shows the relation of the tunnels to the Thames, also the underground platforms at King William Street to the surface buildings. Also shown is the temporary access shaft and working stage built next to the Old Swan landing stage.

The rounded corner block with the entrance to King William Street station is seen clearly (right) in the first of these two aerial views (the second one shows only the rear of the block!). From London Illustrated by Twenty Bird's-Eye Views by Herbert Fry (1894). SIGNIFICANCE The station's claim to fame comes from the railway that built it, the City & South London Railway (originally Subway). This was the world's first electric tube railway (but not the world's first tube railway—that honour goes to London's Tower Subway - nor of course the world's first underground city railway, London's Metropolitan Railway, originally run with steam traction). The other significant issue with King William Street station is that it was in use for only a short time, although it found use as an air raid shelter during World War II.

CONSTRUCTION

The caption for this engraving reads:

THE CITY AND SOUTH LONDON SUBWAY. An underground railway from King William-street, City, passing beneath the Thames to Southwark, and thence to Newington-butts and to Clapham, is now being constructed. One tunnel has been completed from King William-street to St. George's church in Southwark, the first station south of the Thames. The second tunnel is almost completed for the same distance, with the exception of about 100 yards. Both tunnels are being pushed forward towards the Elephant and Castle, and the works for the station there, and the stations at King William-street and Great Dover-street, are in hand. At the terminal station at Stockwell sinking operations will also very shortly commence. The means of access for passengers, between the level of the underground railway and the level of the streets, will be hydraulic lifts, two of which, each to take fifty persons, will be at work at each station. There will also be steps at the stations. As the carriages are to be drawn by wire ropes, working from a stationary engine, the atmosphere should be much fresher than in the tunnels of the Metropolitan Railways north of the Thames. It is hoped that the first section of the line will be opened for traffic in the summer of this year. [Illustrated London News, 3rd March 1888]

The line was originally called a 'subway', probably to avoid the negative connotations of the smoke-ridden atmosphere of underground lines then worked by steam locomotives. The name was picked up in America, where it caught on and is still in use for what we British rapidly went back to calling an underground railway. The notion of using rope haulage was abandoned some time before the line was actually opened.

For further information and pictures of King William Street Station click here

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