Tooting Broadway 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

Tooting Tooting is a district in South London, forming part of the London Borough of Wandsworth and partly in the London Borough of Merton. It is located south south-west of Charing Cross. History Tooting has been settled since pre-Saxon times. Th ...

in the

London Borough of Wandsworth Wandsworth () is a London borough in southwest London; it forms part of Inner London and has an estimated population of 329,677 inhabitants. Its main named areas are Battersea, Balham, Putney, Tooting and Wandsworth Town. The borough border ...

South London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the boroughs, in whole or in part, of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond, Southwark, Sut ...

. The station is on 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 ...

, between and stations and is in Travelcard Zone 3. It is located on the corner of Tooting High Street ( A24) and Mitcham Road (

A217 The A217 is a road in London and Surrey in England. It runs north–south. It runs from Kings Road in Fulham, London, crosses the Thames at Wandsworth Bridge, then passes through Wandsworth, Earlsfield, Summerstown, Tooting, Mitcham, ...

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. The area is commonly referred to as Tooting Graveney.

History

In the period following the end of

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, the

Underground Electric Railways Company of London The Underground Electric Railways Company of London Limited (UERL), known operationally as the Underground for much of its existence, was established in 1902. It was the holding company for the three deep-level "tube"A "tube" railway is an und ...

(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 The Trade Facilities Acts were a series of Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that were designed to alleviate the problem of large scale unemployment in the aftermath of the First World War. Acts were passed in 1921, 1922, 1924, 19 ...

, which, as a means of alleviating unemployment, provided for the

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or i ...

underwrite Underwriting (UW) services are provided by some large financial institutions, such as banks, insurance companies and investment houses, whereby they guarantee payment in case of damage or financial loss and accept the financial risk for liabilit ...

the value of loans raised by companies for public works. One of the projects that had been postponed was the

Wimbledon and Sutton Railway The Wimbledon and Sutton Railway (W&SR) was a railway company established by an Act of Parliament in 1910 to build a railway line in Surrey (now south-west London) from Wimbledon to Sutton via Merton and Morden in the United Kingdom. The rail ...

(W&SR), a plan for a new surface line from Wimbledon to

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a location * Sutton-in-the-Isle, Ely, Cambridgeshire * ...

over which the UERL's

District Railway The Metropolitan District Railway, also known as the District Railway, was a passenger railway that served London from 1868 to 1933. Established in 1864 to complete an " inner circle" of lines connecting railway termini in London, the first par ...

had control. The UERL wished to maximise its use of the government's time-limited financial backing, 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 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) south from through

Balham Balham () is an area in south London, England, mostly within the London Borough of Wandsworth with small parts within the neighbouring London Borough of Lambeth. The area has been settled since Saxon times and appears in the Domesday Book as B ...

and Merton. 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. 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). 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. Construction of the C&SLR extension was rapidly carried out and Tooting Broadway station opened on 13 September 1926.

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. 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 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 ...

. 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. Designated as route 10, the 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. In 2013, it was announced that Transport for London's plans for

Crossrail 2 Crossrail 2 is a proposed hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit route in South East England, running from nine stations in Surrey to three in Hertfordshire, providing a new North–South rail link across Greater London. It would connect the ...

included consideration of a station at Tooting Broadway. In October 2015, the plan was changed in favour of a route via Balham.

Incidents

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

Design

The station is a Grade II listed building. Along with the other stations on the Morden extension, the building was designed by architect

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 " ...

. They were Holden's first major project for the Underground. He was selected by

Frank Pick Frank Pick Hon. RIBA (23 November 1878 – 7 November 1941) was a British transport administrator. After qualifying as a solicitor in 1902, he worked at the North Eastern Railway, before moving to the Underground Electric Railways Compan ...

, general manager of the

(UERL), to design the stations after he was dissatisfied with designs produced by the UERL's own architect,

Stanley Heaps Stanley A. Heaps (1880–1962) was an English architect responsible for the design of a number of stations on the London Underground system as well as the design of train depots and bus and trolleybus garages for London Transport. Works ...

. Built with shops to each side, the modernist design takes the form of a double-height curving screen clad in white

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building ...

with a three-part glazed screen in the centre of the façade divided by columns of which the

capitals Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

are three-dimensional versions of the Underground roundel. The central panel of the screen contains a large version of the roundel. The station only has access to the platforms via escalators.

Services and connections

Services

Tooting Broadway is between

Tooting Bec Tooting Bec is in the London Borough of Wandsworth, south London, England. History Tooting Bec appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as "Totinges". It was held partly by St Mary de Bec-Hellouin Abbey and partly by Westminster Abbey. Its domesday ass ...

and

Colliers Wood Colliers Wood is an area in south west London, England, in the London Borough of Merton. It is a mostly residential area, but has a busy high street around Colliers Wood tube station on London Underground's Northern line. The high street is p ...

stations on the

, in Travelcard Zone 3. Train frequencies vary throughout the day, but generally operate every 2–4 minutes between 06:17 and 00:01 in both directions. The typical off-peak service, in trains per hour (tph) is: *5 tph northbound to Edgware via Bank *5 tph northbound to High Barnet via Bank *10 tph southbound to Morden Southbound trains can terminate at Tooting Broadway on occasion rather than continue on to the end of the line at

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 ...

, 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.

Connections

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 ...

routes 44, 57, 77, 127,

131 131 may refer to: *131 (number) *AD 131 *131 BC *131 (album), the album by Emarosa *131 (MBTA bus), the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority bus. For the MBTA bus, see 131 (MBTA bus). *131 (New Jersey bus) 131 may refer to: *131 (number) *AD ...

, 155,

219 __NOTOC__ Year 219 ( CCXIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Antonius and Sacerdos (or, less frequently, year 972 ''Ab ...

264 __NOTOC__ Year 264 ( CCLXIV) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Gallienus and Saturninus (or, less frequently, year 1017 '' ...

270 __NOTOC__ Year 270 ( CCLXX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Antiochianus and Orfitus (or, less frequently, year 102 ...

, 280,

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 10 ...

, 355, 493 and G1 and night routes N44 and N155 serve the station. In addition, bus routes 57 and 264 provide a 24-hour bus service.

, the nearest railway station, is an 18-minute walk away along the A217 Mitcham Road.

In popular culture

Tooting Broadway station features in the opening credits of the BBC comedy ''

Citizen Smith ''Citizen Smith'' is a British television sitcom written by John Sullivan, first broadcast from 1977 to 1980. It starred Robert Lindsay as Walter Henry "Wolfie" Smith, a young Marxist "urban guerrilla" in Tooting, south London, who is attempti ...

'' and again in the closing sequence of the very last episode. The station is referenced in the title of the

Kitchens of Distinction Kitchens of Distinction (sometimes shortened colloquially to KOD) are an English three-person alternative rock band formed in Tooting, South London, in 1986. They released four studio albums and a handful of singles and EPs before disbanding i ...

's song "On Tooting Broadway Station" from their third album ''

The Death of Cool ''The Death of Cool'' is the third studio album from British alternative rock band Kitchens of Distinction, released on 3 August 1992 in the UK by One Little Indian Records and a day later in the US by A&M Records. The album is the follow-up t ...

''. Allmusic review. Retrieved 28 March 2015./ref>

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 Wandsworth Former City and South London Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1926 London Underground stations located underground Charles Holden railway stations Art Deco architecture in London Tooting London Underground Night Tube stations Art Deco railway stations