MORDEN TUBE STATION

'Morden station' is a London Underground station in Morden in the London Borough of Merton. The station is the southern terminus for the Northern Line, is the most southerly station on the Underground and is in Travelcard Zone 4. The next station north is South Wimbledon. The station is located on London Road (A24).

Contents

History and structure

Layout

Transport connections

External links

History and structure

Morden station first came into use on 13 September, 1926 with the opening of the new extension of the City & South London Railway from Clapham South. Morden in 1926 was a rural area and the station was built on open farmland giving its designer, Charles Holden, more space than had been available for the majority of the stations on the new extension. A parade of shops was incorporated into the design each side of the imposing station entrance and the structure was designed from the beginning with the intention of enabling upward development, however this did not come until the 1960s when an office building was added.
As the southern most point on the system, Morden station served from its beginning as the collection and departure point for numerous bus routes heading further into the depths of suburban south London and northern Surrey. In its early days it was a main starting point for buses heading to Epsom on Derby Day excursions and today many bus services start from the bus station in front of the station.

For a time before the extension to Morden was constructed, the Underground Group wanted to continue the line to Sutton using part of a surface route from Wimbledon to Sutton that had been planned by the Wimbledon and Sutton Railway (W&SR) in 1910. One of the supporters of the scheme weas the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR, now London Underground's District Line) which held shares in the company and had rights to run trains over the line when built.
World War I had prevented any work taking place and by the early 1920s continuing financial support from the MDR meant that it had effectively taken control of the company. Through its ownership of the MDR, the London Electric Railway (LER, precursor of London Underground) was able to obtain approval to use part of the route for its C&SLR extension The route would have seen Underground Northern Line trains running on surface tracks from Morden past the nearby Underground depot and on to the Network Rail alignment close to the station.
The Southern Railway (SR) objected to this encroachment into its area of operation and the loss of its passenger traffic to a more direct route. The LER and SR reached an agreement that enabled the C&SLR to extend as far as Morden in exchange for the LER giving up its rights over the W&SR route. The SR subsequently built the line, one of the last mainline routes to be built in the London area. It opened on 5 January 1930.
It has been said that there was originally an arrow here to complement the archer statue at East Finchley station, and that this was stolen shortly after the station opened; however images of the station at its opening do not show this and East Finchley was not served by the Underground until 1939.

Layout

Unlike other stations on the southern branch of the Northern Line, Morden station is not constructed in tunnel but is built in a wide cutting with the tunnel portals a short distance to the north. The tunnel north of here has the distinction of being at the end (or the start) of one of the longest tunnels in the world (17.25 miles - about 28 km) running via the City between Morden and East Finchley.
Morden Depot is one of the three main depots on the Northern Line (The others are at Golders Green and Finchley) and is where most of the maintenance work is carried out. Trains reach the depot by continuing south through the station platforms and passing under the road.

Transport connections

London Buses routes that serve the station are (as of 11 June 2006)

★ 80 (Belmont-Hackbridge) every 12 minutes

★ 93 (North Cheam-Putney Bridge) every 7-8 minutes

★ 118 (Morden-Brixton) every 12 minutes

★ 154 (Morden-West Croydon) every 12 minutes

★ 157 (Morden-Crystal Palace) every 12 minutes

★ 163 (Morden-Wimbledon) every 8 minutes

★ 164 (Sutton Station-Wimbledon) every 10 minutes

★ 201 (Morden-Herne Hill) every 12 minutes

★ 293 (Morden-Epsom General) every 20 minutes

★ 413 (Morden-Sutton) every 15 minutes

★ 470 (Epsom-Colliers Wood) every 30 minutes

★ K5 (Morden-Ham) every hour
Night buses:

★ N155 (Morden-Aldwych) every 15 minutes from 0015-0515

★ 93 (24 hour service, as route above) every 30 minutes from 0056-0426

External links

★ Morden Station at CharlesHolden.com Early photograph of the station.

★ London's Transport Museum Photographic Archive

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★ The first roads have been laid out but the area is still mostly fields.

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★ ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>sform=search_form&_IXSPFX_=summary%2Fb&_IXFPFX_=full%2Ft&_IXMAXHITS_=15&IXsearch=morden+station&IXfromdate=&IXtodate=&_IXx_.x=9&_IXx_.y=9&_IXx_=search&IXlocation=&IXsort=sort+select%28lcase%28production_role%29%3D%3D%22photographer%22%2Cproduction_date_from%29 Other images of station

★ British Pathe News Archive - 1926 silent newsreel footage of Lt-Col. John Moore-Brabazon junior Transport Minister opening the Morden extension (download - select low resolution free preview)