Borough Tube Station - History

History

The station was opened on 18 December 1890 as part of the first deep-level tube railway, the City and South London Railway (C&SLR), and was rebuilt in the 1920s when the tunnels were enlarged.

Although little of the original surface building remains at Borough, it originally bore a close resemblance to Kennington station. These similarities continued into the layout below ground, although here it is Kennington that no longer retains the original design. Borough station has level access to the northbound platform from the lifts, making this platform accessible to those with mobility restrictions. The southbound platform is a floor lower down, accessible only by narrow stairs; the original architectural finishes to this have been obscured by modern station infrastructure, but the original appearance would have been comparable with those still visible on the southbound platform at Kennington.

Borough is the most northerly of the original C&SLR stations. North of here the railway initially followed a different route from the present one, with the tunnels running to the original terminus at King William Street. This route was abandoned in 1900 when new tunnels on a different alignment to London Bridge and Moorgate were opened. Nevertheless, the original tunnels passed close enough to the location of London Bridge station for them to still be visible through a vent, immediately above the middle of the current southbound platform there.

During the Second World War, parts of the disused tunnels between Borough and the south side of the River Thames were adapted into a large public air-raid shelter by Southwark Borough Council. The shelter had six entrances along Borough High Street; it opened on 24 June 1940 and closed on 7 May 1945. A plaque at the station records this.