Down Street tube station
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| Down Street | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Location | |
| Place | Mayfair |
| History | |
| Opened by | Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway |
| Platforms | 2 |
| Key dates | Opened 1907 Closed 1932 |
| Replaced by | None |
Down Street, also known as Down Street (Mayfair), was a station of the London Underground's Piccadilly Line which closed in 1932. During World War II it was used as an air-raid shelter, notably by Winston Churchill and his War Cabinet. It is now disused.
Down Street station lies between Green Park and Hyde Park Corner on the Piccadilly Line. Evidence of its presence can still be identified through the train windows between these stations by a change in the tunnel surface from black to a section of beige brickwork. It came into service on 15 March 1907, a few months after the rest of the line. The surface building was on Down Street, just off Piccadilly in Mayfair. It was never a busy station, as the surrounding area was largely residential and its residents were too wealthy to be regular tube passengers. The neighbouring stations were also fairly close by.
Like Brompton Road, Down Street was often skipped by trains. In 1929 it was one of the stations mooted for closure in connection with the extension of the Piccadilly Line: the elimination of less-busy stations in the central area would improve both reliability and journey times for long-distance commuters. Additionally, the neighbouring stations were being rebuilt with escalators in place of lifts, and their new entrances were nearer to Down Street, further squeezing its small catchment area. The station closed on May 21, 1932.
After the station was closed it was immediately modified, with part of one platform tunnel becoming a junction providing access to a new siding between Down Street and Hyde Park Corner. In 1939 the platform faces were bricked up and the resulting space used as an underground bunker. The main wartime occupants of the station were the Emergency Railway Committee, but it was also used by Churchill and the war cabinet until the Cabinet War Rooms were ready for use. Since the end of the war the station has only been used as an emergency access point to the tube. The surface building is still standing.
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[edit] Film & TV appearances
Part of the 2004 British horror film Creep was set in the Down Street tube station, although the scenes were actually shot at the disused Aldwych tube station and on studio sets.
A sequence in the James Bond film Die Another Day is set in an 'abandoned' Tube station called Vauxhall Cross. The station is supposedly used as a neutral ground for MI6 illegals (officially nonexistent agents) to be given missions by M. A visible track-side line diagram places the station north/east of Hyde Park Corner, which suggests that it is actually Down Street, but for the fact that the real station is some 2.6km (1.6 miles) away from the real Vauxhall Cross, and trains still run through Down Street.
The TV series and novel Neverwhere are mostly set in a medieval-fantasy world with locations named after tube stations such as Blackfriars and Knightsbridge; the finale is located in an area known as Down Street, and one scene of the TV series was filmed on the remaining open section of platform at Down Street, with real trains passing by in the background.
[edit] References
- J. E. Connor, London's Disused Underground Stations, Capital Transport, 2001, pp. 28-33.
[edit] Trivia
- The British band Hefner released a song titled 'Down Street' on their 2006 album Catfight. According to the album's sleeve notes the song is set in the early 1930s and tells the story of two lovers who meet at the station.
[edit] External links
- Down Street on Hywel Williams's Underground History site.
- Pictures from a tour of Down Street.
- More pictures plus video from the same tour.
- London's Transport Museum Photographic Archive Down Street station shortly after opening
- The London Underground in Films & Television
