The City and Brixton Railway (C&BR) was an authorised underground railway line in London planned to run from King William Street in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

under the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

Brixton Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th ce ...

via The Borough,

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...

and

The Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...

. The company was unable to raise funds and the railway was never constructed.

Plans

In November 1897, notice was published of a

private parliamentary bill Proposed bills are often categorized into public bills and private bills. A public bill is a proposed law which would apply to everyone within its jurisdiction. This is unlike a private bill which is a proposal for a law affecting only a single p ...

for an underground railway from the City of London to Brixton. The C&BR plan would have partially utilised the soon-to-be-abandoned tunnels of the

City and South London Railway The City and South London Railway (C&SLR) was the first successful deep-level underground "tube" railway in the world, and the first major railway to use electric traction. The railway was originally intended for cable-hauled trains, but owing ...

(C&SLR, now the Bank branch of the

Northern line The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs from North London to South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. The Northern line is unique on the Underground network in having two different routes through central London, two ...

) between its northern terminus at King William Street and a point north of Borough station. The C&SLR was planning a new northern extension to

Moorgate Moorgate was one of the City of London's northern gates in its defensive wall, the last to be built. The gate took its name from the Moorfields, an area of marshy land that lay immediately north of the wall. The gate was demolished in 1762, b ...

and was going to close the poorly sited King William Street station and sections of its two running tunnels under the

, replacing them with a new pair of tunnels on a better alignment. The C&BR's plan was to use the C&SLR's tunnels to a point just south of a new station at

London Bridge Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...

(in direct competition with a station planned there by the C&SLR). South of the C&BR's London Bridge station, the C&BR's route was planned to run in new tunnels parallel with the C&SLR past Borough station, but without a station there. The line was then to diverge westwards to provide stations at St George's Circus and

Lambeth Road Lambeth Road is a road in Lambeth (to the west) and Southwark (to the east), London running between Lambeth Bridge over the River Thames at the western end and St George's Circus at the eastern end. The road is designated the A3203. The boro ...

, then south to

Kennington Cross Kennington Cross is a locality in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is at the junction of two major roads, Kennington Lane that links Vauxhall Cross with the Elephant and Castle and Kennington Road that runs from Waterloo to Kennington Park. At ...

, before reaching an interchange at

with the C&SLR. The line would then have headed south with a station at Lorn Road before reaching its destination at

. The proposals received

Royal Assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in other ...

on 1 July 1898 as the ''City & Brixton Railway Act, 1898'' The details of the route north of London Bridge changed over the course of the next ten years, as did the financial arrangements with the C&SLR. In 1898, the depot was planned to be adjacent to New Camberwell Road just south of the Oval station but this was removed in 1899 from the plans and replaced with a plan for a link to the C&SLR's depot at Stockwell. Despite a series of new bills to revise the scheme, the C&BR was never able to raise enough finance to start construction. In 1902, two bills were presented to Parliament for the complete or partial abandonment of the railway. Both were dropped before completing their passage through Parliament. Instead, in 1902, the C&SLR took over the company with the intention of modifying the plans but the powers remained unused and eventually lapsed. It was not until almost 70 years later that the Underground reached Brixton with the opening of the final section of the

Victoria line The Victoria line is a London Underground line that runs between in south London and in the north-east, via the West End. It is printed in light blue on the Tube map and is one of the only two lines on the network to run completely undergr ...

in 1971.

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:City And Brixton Railway Transport in the City of London Transport in the London Borough of Southwark Transport in the London Borough of Lambeth Abandoned underground railway projects in London Railway companies established in 1898 Railway companies disestablished in 1902 British companies established in 1898