Putting York Road Tube Station Back on the Map

Ever wondered why there’s such a long gap between Kings Cross and Caledonian Road tube stations on the Piccadilly Line?

York Road Station - Reinstated on the Tube Map

If you look closely as you fly past underground, through the accumulated grime of many years, you might spot the distinctive purple and cream tiling of York Road station. York Road station is just one of 28 abandoned underground stations that lie scattered across London’s tube network.

York Road station opened on 15 December 1906 on what was then the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway but, being in a mainly industrial area, it suffered from low passenger demand from the outset. It held on for more than 25 years until finally, in September 1932, it was closed and the station was left deserted. The site of the station is still easy to spot from York Road as the entrance façade with its striking Leslie Green designed tiling has survived intact.

A quick history lesson is all well and good, but what makes York Road station particularly interesting is that this mothballed station is just across the road from the new Kings Cross Central redevelopment project. At 67 acres, Kings Cross Central is the largest regeneration scheme currently underway in Europe, but there don’t appear to be any plans to reopen the station to accommodate the dramatic increase that’ll be seen in the area as a result.

And given the comments made by Sir Simon Milton yesterday in reference to the proposed extension to the Northern Line to Battersea, it looks as if the onus for any changes to the tube network will be on the private sector. Milton said that the Transport for London budget is fully expended until 2018 and “given the state of the public finances we cannot put any more pressure on it".

The current York Road station is just a smidgen outside the confines of the mammoth regeneration project, but surely the chance to bring the station back to life to serve the 2,000 new homes, 500,000 sq ft of shops and 4.8million sq ft of office space is too good an opportunity to miss?

Perhaps we need to start a campaign to put York Road station back on the map…