Mansion House 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 counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England.
The ...
station 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 f ...
which takes its name from
Mansion House, the residence of the Lord Mayor of London. It opened in 1871 as the eastern terminus of the
Metropolitan District Railway. Today, Mansion House is served by the
Circle
A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is cons ...
and
District lines. It is between
Blackfriars and
Cannon Street stations and it is in
fare zone 1. The station is located at the junction of
Queen Victoria Street and
Cannon Street.
Mansion House is a sub-surface station with three platforms. The westbound platform, number 1, and the eastbound platform, number 3, are shared by both the Circle and District lines. A third platform was used for terminating eastbound trains, however it is no longer used and the track removed as services continue and terminate at
Tower Hill
Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher gro ...
.
Despite the station's name, it is not the nearest tube station to Mansion House itself, which is in fact directly opposite an entrance to
Bank station. Moreover, two other stations on the same District and Circle lines ( and
Monument
A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...
) are also nearer to Mansion House than its namesake.
History
Mansion House station was opened on 3 July 1871 by the
Metropolitan District Railway (MDR, now the
District line) when the company extended its line eastwards from
St. Paul's station
St Paul's is a London Underground station located in the City of London financial district. The station, which takes its name from the nearby St Paul's Cathedral, is on the Central line, between Bank and Chancery Lane stations, and is in far ...
(which is now named Blackfriars). Mansion House became the new eastern terminus of the MDR.
The MDR connected to the
Metropolitan Railway
The Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex su ...
(MR, now the
Metropolitan line) at
South Kensington
South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with ...
and, although the two companies were rivals, each company operated its trains over the other's tracks in a joint service known as the "Inner Circle".
On 1 February 1872, the MDR opened a northbound branch from its station at
Earl's Court to connect to the
West London Extension Joint Railway (WLEJR, now the West London line) which it connected to at
Addison Road station (now named Kensington (Olympia)). From that date the "
Outer Circle" service began running over the MDR's tracks. The service was run by the
North London Railway (NLR) from its terminus at
Broad Street (now demolished) via the
North London Line to
Willesden Junction
Willesden Junction is a railway station in Harlesden, north-west London, UK. It is served by both London Overground and London Underground services.
History
The station developed on three contiguous sites: the West Coast Main Line (WCML) st ...
, then the West London Line to Addison Road and the MDR to Mansion House.
From 1 August 1872, the "
Middle Circle" service also began operations through Westminster running from
Moorgate along the MR's tracks on the north side of the Inner Circle to
Paddington
Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...
then over the
Hammersmith & City Railway (H&CR) track to
Latimer Road, then, via a now demolished link, to the West London Line to Addison Road and the MDR to Mansion House. The service was operated jointly by the H&CR and the MDR.
From 1 March 1883, the District operated a service between Mansion House and
Windsor, using
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
tracks from a junction installed just east of
Ealing Broadway station, but it was unremunerative and ceased on 30 September 1885.
On 10 October 1884, the MDR and the MR jointly opened the line eastwards to
Mark Lane station (closed 1967), thereby completing the "Inner Circle".
The first penny chocolate
vending machine
A vending machine is an automated machine that provides items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or otherwise made. The fi ...
in the country was installed in the station in July 1886.
In 1897 the MDR obtained parliamentary permission to construct a deep-level railway running between
Gloucester Road and Mansion House, beneath the existing sub-surface line. This new line was to be an express route using electric trains to relieve congestion on the sub-surface tracks. Mansion House was to be the terminus of the express route, with platforms below the sub-surface ones. No immediate work was carried out on the deep-level line, and the subsequent take over of the MDR by the
Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) and the resignalling and electrification of the MDR's routes between 1903 and 1905 meant that congestion was relieved without needing to construct the deep-level line. The plan was dropped in 1908.
On 30 June 1900, the "Middle Circle" service was withdrawn between Earl's Court and Mansion House. On 31 December 1908, the "Outer Circle" service was also withdrawn.
In the 1920s Mansion House station's entrance was rebuilt to a design by
Charles Holden. It featured a tall glazed screen with the Underground roundel similar to his station designs for the extension to
Morden of the
City & 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 ...
(now 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, t ...
) opened between 1924 and 1926.
In 1949, the Metropolitan line-operated "Inner Circle" was given its own identity on the
Tube map as the Circle line.
On 29 October 1989, the station was closed for the construction of a new entrance and for further renovation. It reopened on 11 February 1991.
During the weekend of 8–9 October 2016 the west-facing bay platform number 2 was decommissioned and the track removed; all District line trains now continue to Tower Hill. the hydraulic buffer at the east end of platform 2 is still in place.
Connections
London Buses
London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages most bus services in London, England. It was formed following the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that transferred control of London Regional Transport (LRT) bus s ...
routes
4,
8,
11,
15,
17,
25,
26,
76,
521 and night routes
N8,
N11,
N15,
N21,
N25,
N26,
N199,
N242,
N550 and
N551 serve the station.
References
External links
London Transport Museum Photographic Archive**
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Circle line (London Underground) stations
District line stations
Tube stations in the City of London
London Underground stations located underground
Former Metropolitan District Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1871