South Kentish Town tube station is a disused London Underground station which was on the Northern Line between Camden Town and Kentish Town. The surface building still exists on Kentish Town Road, close to the junction with Castle Road, and is currently a retail unit occupied by the Cash Converters chain.
The station was opened on 22 June 1907 by the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR), as part of its branch to Highgate (now Archway) station. The station was to be called Castle Road however this was changed just before the station opened. This name was fired into the original Leslie Green tiles however, after the name was changed, these tiles were just painted over.
The station was temporarily closed following strike action at the Lots Road power station during the afternoon of 5 June 1924, trains having called at the station that morning. In the event it was decided not to re-open the station after the power was restored due to the very low number of passengers using the station. During World War II it was used as an air raid shelter. There have been occasional proposals to rebuild the platforms and the station as part of the redevelopment plans for Camden Town station. The layout of the station is similar to Kentish Town (also CCE&HR); with two 23 ft diameter lift shafts and an 18 ft diameter spiral staircase. The station now serves as an access point for permanent way works and as an emergency egress point for passenger services.
A prose piece called South Kentish Town was written in 1951 by Sir John Betjeman, and told the fictional story of a passenger who became trapped in the disused station. It was based on a true incident where a train stopped at the station by mistake and opened its doors, but in real life no one was trapped.
Famous quotes containing the words south, kentish, town, tube and/or station:
“The South is very beautiful but its beauty makes one sad because the lives that people live here, and have lived here, are so ugly.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)
“The red-eyed scavengers are creeping
From Kentish Town and Golder’s Green.
Where are the eagles and the trumpets?”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“In the County Tyrone, in the town of Dungannon,”
—Unknown. The Old Orange Flute (l. 1)
“The last best hope of earth, two trillion dollars in debt, is spinning out of control, and all we can do is stare at a flickering cathode-ray tube as Ollie “answers” questions on TV while the press, resolutely irrelevant as ever, asks politicians if they have committed adultery. From V-J Day 1945 to this has been, my fellow countrymen, a perfect nightmare.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“To act the part of a true friend requires more conscientious feeling than to fill with credit and complacency any other station or capacity in social life.”
—Sarah Ellis (1812–1872)