Kennington is a

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...

station on Kennington Park Road in

Kennington Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between the ...

within the

London Borough of Southwark The London Borough of Southwark ( ) in South London forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London and London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas ...

. The station is at the junction of the

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City; ...

and

Bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

branches 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 ...

to the north and the

Morden Morden is a district and town in south London, England, within the London Borough of Merton, in the ceremonial county of Greater London. It adjoins Merton Park and Wimbledon to the north, Mitcham to the east, Sutton to the south and Worcester Pa ...

and

Battersea Power Station Battersea Power Station is a decommissioned Grade II* listed coal-fired power station, located on the south bank of the River Thames, in Nine Elms, Battersea, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It was built by the London Power Company (LPC) ...

branches to the south. Its neighbouring stations to the north are Waterloo on the Charing Cross branch and

Elephant & Castle The Elephant and Castle is an area around a major road junction in London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark. The name also informally refers to much of Walworth and Newington, due to the proximity of the London Underground stati ...

on the Bank branch; the next stations to the south are

Oval An oval () is a closed curve in a plane which resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.) it is given a more precise definition, which may include either one or ...

and

Nine Elms Nine Elms is an area of south-west London, England, within the London Borough of Wandsworth. It lies on the River Thames, with Battersea to the west, South Lambeth to the south and Vauxhall to the east. The area was formerly mainly industrial bu ...

. The station is in both Travelcard Zones 1 and 2. The station was opened in 1890 as part of the world's first underground electric railway and its surface building remains largely unaltered. In the 1920s, the underground parts of the station were reconstructed so that the line could be extended and larger trains could be used. Two additional platforms and later several cross passages were provided for interchanges between the branches.

History

City and South London Railway

In 1884, the City of London and Southwark Subway (CL&SS) was granted parliamentary approval to construct an underground railway 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 ...

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

. Unlike previous underground railways in London that had been constructed using the

cut and cover A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A Pipeline transport, pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used ...

method, the CL&SS was to be constructed in a pair of deep-level tunnels bored using

tunnelling shield A tunnelling shield is a protective structure used during the excavation of large, man-made tunnels. When excavating through ground that is soft, liquid, or otherwise unstable, there is a potential health and safety hazard to workers and the proj ...

s with circular segmental cast-iron tunnel linings.

James Henry Greathead James Henry Greathead (6 August 1844 – 21 October 1896) was a mechanical and civil engineer renowned for his work on the London Underground railways, Winchester Cathedral, and Liverpool overhead railway, as well as being one of the earliest pr ...

was the engineer for the railway and had used the tunnelling method on the

Tower Subway The Tower Subway is a tunnel beneath the River Thames in central London, between Tower Hill on the north bank of the river and Vine Lane (off Tooley Street) on the south. In 1869 a circular tunnel was dug through the London clay using a cast i ...

bored 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 ...

in 1869. Construction work began in 1886, and in 1887 the railway was granted additional approval for an extension to Kennington,

and

Stockwell Stockwell is a district in south west London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. It is situated south of Charing Cross. Battersea, Brixton, Clapham, South Lambeth, Oval and Kennington all border Stockwell. History The na ...

. The CL&SS was originally designed to be operated using a cabled-hauled system of trains, but the haulage method was changed in January 1899 to use

electric locomotives An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas t ...

, making it the world's first underground electric railway. The CL&SS changed its name to the City and South London Railway (C&SLR) early in 1890. Kennington Underground station map, 1893

Kennington Underground station map, 1893

From Elephant & Castle northwards, the CL&SS's running tunnels were bored to a diameter of ; on the extension through Kennington they were bored to a larger diameter of . Station platform tunnels long and were formed in brick construction with an arched top and flat base. The platforms at Kennington and most of the other intermediate stations were constructed at different levels, with one side wall of the upper platform tunnel supported on the side wall of the lower platform tunnel. Travel between the surface and the platforms was by hydraulic lift or spiral stairs with the lower lift landing being at a level between the two platforms with steps or ramps up and down to the platforms. The station building is a single-storey structure topped by a dome which originally housed the hydraulic equipment for the lifts. It was designed by

T. P. Figgis T. P. (Thomas Phillips) Figgis (1858–1948) was a British architect working in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His work included private houses as well as public buildings. T. Phillips Figgis was the second son of Thomas Gilbert Figgi ...

and occupies the northern corner of the junction of Kennington Park Road and Braganza Street (previously New Street). Before opening, the C&SLR considered naming the station ''New Street''. The station was opened on 18 December 1890 along with the rest of the line.

Reconstruction and connection to Hampstead Tube

The small diameter of the running tunnels meant that the train carriages were cramped compared to the deep-level tube railways that were constructed with larger diameter tunnels. In 1913, the C&SLR obtained permission to enlarge the tunnels to enable it to use new modern rolling stock, but

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

delayed the works. After the war, the C&SLR obtained renewed permission for the enlargement works. These were undertaken as part of a programme of works including an extension of the Hampstead Tube from

Embankment Embankment may refer to: Geology and geography * A levee, an artificial bank raised above the immediately surrounding land to redirect or prevent flooding by a river, lake or sea * Embankment (earthworks), a raised bank to carry a road, railwa ...

to Kennington. Kennington Station and Loop

The UERL planned to enlarge most of the C&SLR's tunnels whilst the railway remained in operation, with enlargement taking place at night and trains running during the day. Special tunnelling shields were constructed with openings that trains could run through. To facilitate the enlargement works, Kennington station was closed on 1 June 1923 and used as a depot for the construction works. The platforms were removed and sidings installed for spoil wagons. A new shaft was sunk from the garden of an adjacent house to provide access to the tunnels and the passenger lifts were used to transfer the wagons between the tunnels and the surface. To achieve a convenient arrangement for the interchange between the existing tunnels and the new ones to Embankment, several changes were made to the organisation of the station below ground. Two new platform tunnels were constructed parallel with and at the same level as the corresponding existing tunnels with the new tunnels on the outside of the existing ones. Linking passages were constructed between each pair of platforms to enable cross-platform interchanges. Both of the existing platforms had been accessed from the east, so, to make the link to the new northbound tunnel, the platform in the existing northbound tunnel was reconstructed on the other side, and the tracks were repositioned. The existing passage between the platforms and the lifts was severed by the new southbound platform so each pair of platforms was connected to new entrance and exit passages leading to and from the lifts. These passages were at a higher level than before, so the bottom landings of the lifts and the emergency stairs were raised by to match them. Along with the construction of the new tunnels, the existing station tunnels were increased in length to by enlarging the running tunnels. The enlargement was done with standard segmental iron linings, rather than the original brick. At the lower levels of the station, the platform walls and passages were decorated with a new tiling scheme by

Charles Holden Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

, matching that used on new stations on the Morden extension and the new stations from Embankment. Other C&SLR stations were rebuilt during the 1920s modernisation (including the replacement of lifts with escalators at some), but the surface building at Kennington station was left largely unaltered. It is therefore the only station of the C&SLR's original section still in a condition close to its original design and the only one to be a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. To enable trains from Waterloo to reverse, a loop tunnel was constructed connecting the new southbound and northbound platforms. A siding constructed between the two existing tunnels provided a reversing facility for trains coming from Elephant & Castle. Because the original southbound running tunnel was lower than the original northbound tunnel, a section of the siding was constructed at a 1:40 gradient to bring trains up to the level of the northbound tunnel before the reversing siding, which can accommodate two trains. Following the completion of the extension and reconstruction works, the C&SLR and the Hampstead Tube operated as a single line, although they retained their own identities into the 1930s. A variety of names were used before "Northern line" was adopted in 1937.

Post-war plans

Extract from Report to the Minister of War Transport 21 January 1946 Map 2 - Route 10

After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, a 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. To relieve the congestion, the report recommended construction of a second pair of tunnels beneath the Northern line's tunnels between Kennington and Tooting Broadway to provide an express service. Charing Cross branch trains would use the express tunnels and run to Morden. Trains using the existing tunnels would start and end at Tooting Broadway. Designated as routes 10, this proposal was not developed by the

London Passenger Transport Board The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for local public transport in London and its environs from 1933 to 1948. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and brand was Lond ...

or its successor organisations.

Refurbishment

Refurbishment work at Kennington was completed in 2005. This included replacement of the 1920s tiles on platform and passage walls with matching tiles. Travel between surface and platform level continues to be via passenger lifts or stairs.

Extension to Battersea Power Station

In 2014, Transport for London (TfL) was granted parliamentary approval to construct an extension of the Charing Cross branch from Kennington to

via

. The new extension tunnels connect to the reversing loop tunnel in step plate junctions constructed from temporary construction shafts in Radcot Street and Harmsworth Street. Two chambers were constructed on the line of the new tunnels at Kennington Green and

Kennington Park Kennington Park is a public park in Kennington, south London and lies between Kennington Park Road and St. Agnes Place. It was opened in 1854 on the site of what had been Kennington Common, where the Chartists gathered for their biggest "mons ...

for ventilation and emergency access. TfL assessed that the Battersea extension will not significantly impact the number of passengers entering and exiting the station, but, to accommodate additional interchanges between the branches, additional cross-platform passageways were constructed between each pair of platforms. The -long extension opened on 20 September 2021.

Services and connections

Southeast View of Kennington Underground Station

The station is in Travelcard zones 1 and 2, between Nine Elms and Waterloo or Oval and Elephant & Castle stations. Train frequencies vary throughout the day but generally operate every 3–6 minutes between 05:37 and 00:33 northbound to

Edgware Edgware () is a suburban town in northern Greater London, mostly in the London Borough of Barnet but with small parts falling in the London Borough of Harrow and in the London Borough of Brent. Edgware is centred north-northwest of Charing Cros ...

High Barnet Chipping Barnet or High Barnet is a suburban market town in north London, forming part of the London Borough of Barnet, England. It is a suburban development built around a 12th-century settlement, and is located north-northwest of Charing Cr ...

Mill Hill East Mill Hill is a suburb in the London Borough of Barnet, England. It is situated around northwest of Charing Cross. Mill Hill was in the historic county of Middlesex until 1965, when it became part of Greater London. Its population counted 18, ...

via the Charing Cross or Bank branches and every 2–5 minutes between 06:01 and 00:46 southbound. For most of the day, Charing Cross Branch trains generally run to or from Battersea Power station, or start or terminate at Kennington, using the Kennington loop, while Bank Branch trains all run to or from

. During Peak hours, there are some limited Charing Cross Branch trains that also run to or from Morden. During

Night Tube The Night Tube and London Overground Night Service, often referred to simply as Night Tube, is a service pattern on the London Underground ("Tube") and London Overground systems which provides through-the-night services on Friday and Saturday ni ...

operations, all Charing Cross Branch trains run to Morden, while the Bank and Battersea Branches lack night tube services.

London Bus Buses have been used as a mode of public transport in London since 1829, when George Shillibeer started operating a horse-drawn ''omnibus'' service from Paddington to the City of London. In the decades since their introduction, the red London b ...

routes

133 133 may refer to: *133 (number) * AD 133 *133 BC *133 (song) *133 (New Jersey bus) 133 may refer to: *133 (number) * AD 133 *133 BC *133 (song) 133 may refer to: *133 (number) *AD 133 *133 BC *133 (song) *133 (New Jersey bus) 133 may refer to: * ...

, 155,

333 __NOTOC__ Year 333 ( CCCXXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Dalmatius and Zenophilus (or, less frequently, year 108 ...

and 415 with night routes N133 and N155 serve the station.

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * *

External links

*London Transport Museum Photographic Archive ** ** {{Northern line navbox Northern line stations Tube stations in the London Borough of Southwark Former City and South London Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1890 London Underground stations located underground Domes

Tube station The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Und ...

London Underground Night Tube stations