Swiss Cottage (Metropolitan Line) is a disused London Underground station. It was opened in 1868 as the northern terminus of the Metropolitan and St John's Wood Railway, the first northward branch extension from Baker Street of the Metropolitan Railway (now the Metropolitan line). From here (starting in 1879) the line was later extended north into Middlesex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire reaching Watford, Aylesbury, Chesham and Uxbridge.
In the mid 1930s the Metropolitan line was suffering congestion at the south end of its main route where trains from its many branches were struggling to share the limited capacity of its tracks between Finchley Road and Baker Street stations. To ease this congestion a new section of deep-level tunnel was constructed between Finchley Road and the Bakerloo line tunnels at Baker Street station. The Metropolitan line's Stanmore branch services were then transferred to the Bakerloo line on 20 November 1939 and diverted to run into Baker Street in the new tunnels, thus reducing the number of trains using the Metropolitan line's tracks.
With the new deep tunnel route, a new Swiss Cottage Bakerloo line station was opened adjacent to the existing Metropolitan line's station and, for a time, these operated as a single station (platforms 1 and 2 were Metropolitan line, platforms 3 and 4 were Bakerloo line). This arrangement was short-lived, however, and the Metropolitan Line station was closed on 17 August 1940 as a wartime economy. With the opening of the Jubilee line in 1979, the Stanmore branch of the Bakerloo line, including the replacement Swiss Cottage station, was transferred to be part of the new Jubilee line.
Famous quotes containing the words swiss, cottage, tube and/or station:
““Which is more important to you, your field or your children?” the department head asked. She replied, “That’s like asking me if I could walk better if you amputated my right leg or my left leg.””
—Anonymous Parent. As quoted in Women and the Work Family Dilemma, by Deborah J. Swiss and Judith P. Walker, ch. 2 (1993)
“The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail—its roof may shake—the wind may blow through it—the storm may enter—the rain may enter—but the King of England cannot enter!—all his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement!”
—William Pitt, The Elder, Lord Chatham (1708–1778)
“One of the great natural phenomena is the way in which a tube of toothpaste suddenly empties itself when it hears that you are planning a trip, so that when you come to pack it is just a twisted shell of its former self, with not even a cubic millimeter left to be squeezed out.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“How soon country people forget. When they fall in love with a city it is forever, and it is like forever. As though there never was a time when they didn’t love it. The minute they arrive at the train station or get off the ferry and glimpse the wide streets and the wasteful lamps lighting them, they know they are born for it. There, in a city, they are not so much new as themselves: their stronger, riskier selves.”
—Toni Morrison (b. 1931)