Southfields tube station

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Location
Southfields
Place	Southfields
Local authority	London Borough of Wandsworth
Operations
Managed by	London Underground
Platforms in use	2
Transport for London
Zone	3
Annual entry/exit	4.986 million †
History
1889 1889 1941	Opened (MDR) Started (L&SWR) Ended (SR)
Transport for London List of London stations: Underground \| National Rail
† Data from Transport for London [1]
Tube Portal

Southfields is a London Underground station in Southfields in the London Borough of Wandsworth. The station is on the District Line and is between East Putney and Wimbledon Park stations. The station is located on Wimbledon Park Road at the junction with Augustus Road and Replingham Road. It is in Travelcard Zone 3.

Southfields is the easiest station from which to reach the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, venue of the Wimbledon tennis Championships, although Wimbledon Park station is slightly closer, geographically.

[edit] History

The station was opened by the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR, now the District Line) on 3 June 1889 on an extension from Putney Bridge station to Wimbledon. The extension was built by the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) which, starting on 1 July 1889, ran its own trains over the line from a connection at East Putney to its Clapham Junction to Barnes line.

The section of the District Line from Putney Bridge to Wimbledon was the last part of the line to be converted from steam operation to electric. Electric trains began running on 27 August 1905.

Mainline services through Southfields were ended by the Southern Railway (SR, successor to the L&SWR) on 4 May 1941, although the line remained in British Rail ownership until 1 April 1994 when it was transferred to London Underground. Until the transfer, the station was branded as a British Rail station.

[edit] Trivia

The station platform undergoes a makeover each year to coincide with the tournament, funded by a particular company for advertising purposes. For instance, in 2006, the station platform was covered in red flooring, as were the benches, because of American Express's advertising campaign for a credit card that supports an AIDS charity. In 2005, Televisions were installed and played non-stop adverts, also for American Express.