Mornington Crescent tube station
Encyclopedia
Mornington Crescent is a London Underground
station in Camden Town
in north west London
, named after the nearby street
. The station is on the Charing Cross branch of the Northern Line
, between and . It is in Travelcard Zone 2
.
The station was opened as part of the original route of the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway
(now the Charing Cross branch of the Northern Line
) on 22 June 1907. Prior to the station's opening, the name of "Seymour Street" had been proposed. After opening, it was little used, and for many years it was open only on weekdays, and before 1966 Edgware-bound trains passed through without stopping.
, where it meets Hampstead Road and Eversholt Street. This junction forms the north-western corner of the boundary of Somers Town
, with Camden Town
situated to the north and Regent's Park Estate
to the south of the station.
The station's location on the Northern Line
is unusual due to the dual-branch nature of that line. On the branch, Mornington Crescent is between and . The City branch also runs from Camden Town to Euston, but via tunnels which take an entirely different route to the Charing Cross branch and which do not pass through Mornington Crescent. Although contemporary tube maps show Mornington Crescent to the west of the City branch tunnels, it is in fact to the east of them: the two branches cross over one another at Euston, so that between Euston and Camden Town, the City branch tunnels run to the west of the Charing Cross branch on which Mornington Crescent is situated. Harry Beck
's 1933 tube map
represented this correctly.
However, a concerted campaign to reopen the station was launched, as the station is held in fond regard due to the popular BBC Radio 4 panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue
, which frequently features the game round Mornington Crescent
, a game which takes its name from the station.
The station was reopened on 27 April 1998 by the regular cast of the show (Humphrey Lyttelton
, Barry Cryer
, Tim Brooke-Taylor
and Graeme Garden
) and a memorial plaque
to the late Willie Rushton
, one of the longest-serving panelists, was installed at the station in 2002.
During the station's rebuilding, the original distinctive light blue tiling pattern was restored to the station (though taking into account modern requirements). The ticket hall was reconstructed and the original emergency stairs closed. A second lift shaft was converted (losing the unnecessary extra two lifts) into a staircase on one side and a series of station facilities on the other.
Since its 1998 reopening, the station has been open at the same times as most other stations, including weekends, in an attempt to relieve the pressure on the increasingly busy nearby station.
, 27
, 29
, 46, 88
, 134
, 168, 214
, 253
, 274, C2
and Night routes N5 N20, N28, N29, N253 and N279.
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
station in Camden Town
Camden Town
-Economy:In recent years, entertainment-related businesses and a Holiday Inn have moved into the area. A number of retail and food chain outlets have replaced independent shops driven out by high rents and redevelopment. Restaurants have thrived, with the variety of culinary traditions found in...
in north west London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, named after the nearby street
Mornington Crescent (street)
Mornington Crescent is also a street off the A4 near Heathrow Airport.Mornington Crescent is a street in Camden, London, England. It was built in the 1820s, on a greenfield site just to the north of central London. The crescent was named after the Earl of Mornington, brother of the Duke of Wellington...
. The station is on the Charing Cross branch of the Northern Line
Northern Line
The Northern line is a London Underground line. It is coloured black on the Tube map.For most of its length it is a deep-level tube line. The line carries 206,734,000 passengers per year. This is the highest number of any line on the London Underground system, but the Northern line is unique in...
, between and . It is in Travelcard Zone 2
Travelcard Zone 2
Fare zone 2 is an inner zone of Transport for London's zonal fare system used for calculating the price of tickets for travel on the London Underground, London Overground, Docklands Light Railway and, since 2007, on National Rail services.-Background:...
.
The station was opened as part of the original route of the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway
Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway
The Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway , also known as the Hampstead tube, was a railway company established in 1891 that constructed a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London. Construction of the CCE&HR was delayed for more than a decade whilst funding was sought...
(now the Charing Cross branch of the Northern Line
Northern Line
The Northern line is a London Underground line. It is coloured black on the Tube map.For most of its length it is a deep-level tube line. The line carries 206,734,000 passengers per year. This is the highest number of any line on the London Underground system, but the Northern line is unique in...
) on 22 June 1907. Prior to the station's opening, the name of "Seymour Street" had been proposed. After opening, it was little used, and for many years it was open only on weekdays, and before 1966 Edgware-bound trains passed through without stopping.
Location and position on the Northern Line
The station is situated at the southern end of Camden High StreetCamden High Street
Camden High Street is a short stretch of road in Camden Town, in London, England. It is part of the route from central London to Hampstead. It is the local high street and features major music venues at either end...
, where it meets Hampstead Road and Eversholt Street. This junction forms the north-western corner of the boundary of Somers Town
Somers Town, London
Somers Town, was named for Charles Cocks, 1st Baron Somers. The area in St Pancras, London, was originally granted by William III to John Somers, Lord Chancellor and Baron Somers of Evesham. It was to be strongly influenced by the three mainline north London railway termini: Euston , St...
, with Camden Town
Camden Town
-Economy:In recent years, entertainment-related businesses and a Holiday Inn have moved into the area. A number of retail and food chain outlets have replaced independent shops driven out by high rents and redevelopment. Restaurants have thrived, with the variety of culinary traditions found in...
situated to the north and Regent's Park Estate
Regent's Park Estate
Regent's Park Estate is a housing estate in the London Borough of Camden.The estate lies on either side of Robert Street, between Albany Street and Hampstead Road. It is immediately to the east of the Regent's Park estate owned by the Crown Estate...
to the south of the station.
The station's location on the Northern Line
Northern Line
The Northern line is a London Underground line. It is coloured black on the Tube map.For most of its length it is a deep-level tube line. The line carries 206,734,000 passengers per year. This is the highest number of any line on the London Underground system, but the Northern line is unique in...
is unusual due to the dual-branch nature of that line. On the branch, Mornington Crescent is between and . The City branch also runs from Camden Town to Euston, but via tunnels which take an entirely different route to the Charing Cross branch and which do not pass through Mornington Crescent. Although contemporary tube maps show Mornington Crescent to the west of the City branch tunnels, it is in fact to the east of them: the two branches cross over one another at Euston, so that between Euston and Camden Town, the City branch tunnels run to the west of the Charing Cross branch on which Mornington Crescent is situated. Harry Beck
Harry Beck
Henry Charles Beck , known as Harry Beck, was an English engineering draftsman best known for creating the present London Underground Tube map in 1931. Beck drew up the diagram in his spare time while working as an engineering draftsman at the London Underground Signals Office...
's 1933 tube map
Tube map
The Tube map is a schematic transit map representing the lines and stations of London's rapid transit railway systems, namely the London Underground , the Docklands Light Railway and London Overground....
represented this correctly.
Closure and reopening
On 23 October 1992 the station was shut so that the then 85-year-old lifts could be replaced. The intention was to open it within one year. However, the state of neglect that the station had been previously kept in meant other work had to be completed, and the station was closed for most of the 1990s, amidst talk of it closing permanently.However, a concerted campaign to reopen the station was launched, as the station is held in fond regard due to the popular BBC Radio 4 panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, sometimes abbreviated to ISIHAC or Clue, is a BBC radio comedy panel game broadcast since 11 April 1972 at the rate of one or two series each year , transmitted on BBC Radio 4, with occasional repeats on BBC Radio 4 Extra and the BBC's World Service...
, which frequently features the game round Mornington Crescent
Mornington Crescent (game)
Mornington Crescent is a spoof game, featured in the BBC Radio 4 comedy panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, which satirises complicated strategy games....
, a game which takes its name from the station.
The station was reopened on 27 April 1998 by the regular cast of the show (Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton , also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster, and chairman of the BBC radio comedy programme I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue...
, Barry Cryer
Barry Cryer
Barry Charles Cryer OBE is a British writer and comedian. Cryer has written for many noted performers, including Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory Bremner, George Burns, Jasper Carrott, Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson, Dick Emery, Kenny Everett, Bruce Forsyth, David Frost, Bob Hope, Frankie...
, Tim Brooke-Taylor
Tim Brooke-Taylor
Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE is an English comic actor. He became active in performing in comedy sketches while at Cambridge University, and became President of the Footlights club, touring internationally with the Footlights revue in 1964...
and Graeme Garden
Graeme Garden
David Graeme Garden OBE is a Scottish author, actor, comedian, artist and television presenter, who first became known as a member of The Goodies.-Early life and beginnings in comedy:...
) and a memorial plaque
Blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person or event, serving as a historical marker....
to the late Willie Rushton
Willie Rushton
William George Rushton, commonly known as Willie Rushton was an English cartoonist, satirist, comedian, actor and performer who co-founded the Private Eye satirical magazine.- School and army :William George Rushton was born 18 August 1937 in the family home at Scarsdale Villas,...
, one of the longest-serving panelists, was installed at the station in 2002.
During the station's rebuilding, the original distinctive light blue tiling pattern was restored to the station (though taking into account modern requirements). The ticket hall was reconstructed and the original emergency stairs closed. A second lift shaft was converted (losing the unnecessary extra two lifts) into a staircase on one side and a series of station facilities on the other.
Since its 1998 reopening, the station has been open at the same times as most other stations, including weekends, in an attempt to relieve the pressure on the increasingly busy nearby station.
In popular culture
- The station was used as a location for the 1999 anthology film Tube TalesTube TalesTube Tales is a collection of nine short films based on the true-life experiences of London Underground passengers as submitted to Time Out magazine. The stories were scripted and filmed independently of each other...
. It was also portrayed in the 2000 film Honest, although the station actually used was AldwychAldwych tube stationAldwych is a closed London Underground station in the City of Westminster, originally opened as Strand in 1907. It was the terminus and only station on the short Piccadilly line branch from Holborn that was a relic of the merger of two railway schemes. The disused station building is close to the...
. - Belle & SebastianBelle & SebastianBelle and Sebastian are an indie pop band formed in Glasgow in January 1996. Belle and Sebastian are often compared with influential indie bands such as The Smiths, as well as classic acts such as Love, Bob Dylan and Nick Drake. The name Belle & Sebastian comes from Belle et Sébastien, a 1965...
released a song entitled "Mornington Crescent" on their 2006 album, The Life PursuitThe Life PursuitThe Life Pursuit is an album by Belle & Sebastian. It was released in Europe on 6 February 2006 by Rough Trade Records and in North America on February 7, 2006 by Matador Records....
. Frontman Stuart MurdochStuart Murdoch (musician)Stuart Lee Murdoch is a Scottish musician, and the lead singer and songwriter for the indie pop band Belle & Sebastian. The majority of his childhood was spent a stone's throw from the birthplace of Robert Burns in Alloway, Ayr until he left school and attended university in...
claimed he had fallen in love with the romance of this former closed station when passing it once. - My Life StoryMy Life StoryMy Life Story are a British indie pop group who peaked in the mid to late 1990s, when they were regarded as part of the Britpop movement. Fronted by singer/songwriter Jake Shillingford, the group was formed in London around 1991, and inherited their name from an earlier group in which Shillingford...
's 1995 album Mornington Crescent takes its name from the station, featuring photos in its sleeve notes. - Mornington Crescent is used by Robert RankinRobert RankinRobert Fleming Rankin is a prolific British humorous novelist. Born in Parsons Green, London, he started writing in the late 1970s, and first entered the bestsellers lists with Snuff Fiction in 1999, by which time his previous eighteen books had sold around one million copies...
in many of his novels as the home of the Ministry Of Serendipity, a fictional agency whose main activity is to ensure the British Empire rules the globe, via dealings with Alien activity and suchlike. The Top SecretTop SecretTop Secret generally refers to the highest acknowledged level of classified information.Top Secret may also refer to:- Film and television :* Top Secret , a British comedy directed by Mario Zampi...
nature of the Ministry being the main reason why the station was only open on weekdays and closed for "repairs" for much of the 1990s. - The promotional video for "Be There" by UNKLEUNKLEUnkle are a British musical outfit founded in 1994 by school friends James Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy. Originally categorized as trip-hop, the group once included producer DJ Shadow and have employed a variety of guest artists and producers.-First incarnation :Lavelle and Goldsworthy were joined...
was filmed in this station. - China MiévilleChina MiévilleChina Tom Miéville is an award-winning English fantasy fiction writer. He is fond of describing his work as "weird fiction" , and belongs to a loose group of writers sometimes called New Weird. He is also active in left-wing politics as a member of the Socialist Workers Party...
mentions this station and its long state of disuse during the 1990s in his novel King RatKing Rat (1998 novel)King Rat is the debut novel by China Miéville. Unlike his Bas-Lag novels, it is not a New Weird story but an Urban Fantasy, set in London during the late 1990's. It follows the life of Saul Garamond after the death of his father and his meeting with King Rat...
, also using it as scene of a brutal murder by dismemberment via a passing train. - In The Atrocity ArchivesThe Atrocity ArchivesThe Atrocity Archives contains two stories by British author Charles Stross, consisting of the short novel The Atrocity Archive and The Concrete Jungle, which won the 2005 Hugo Award for Best Novella.The stories are Lovecraftian spy thrillers involving a secret history of the 20th century,...
by Charles StrossCharles StrossCharles David George "Charlie" Stross is a British writer of science fiction, Lovecraftian horror and fantasy. He was born in Leeds.Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera...
, the secret main entrance to the extremely secret Government establishment (the "Laundry") which the protagonist Bob Howard works for is situated in the gentlemen's toilets of Mornington Crescent tube station. - In Christopher FowlerChristopher FowlerChristopher Fowler is an English thriller writer. In addition to his numerous horror, satire and crime novels, he has also written a Sherlock Holmes audio drama for BBC 7 entitled The Lady Downstairs...
's "Bryant & May" mysteries, the offices of the Peculiar Crimes Unit are above Mornington Crescent tube station. - In Allt flyterAllt flyterAllt flyter is a 2008 Swedish film directed by Måns Herngren.- Plot summary :...
, Sara meets her mother (who's moved there from Sweden for a sportscasting job) outside the station during a Christmas trip to London. - Mornington Crescent (game)Mornington Crescent (game)Mornington Crescent is a spoof game, featured in the BBC Radio 4 comedy panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, which satirises complicated strategy games....
is a spoof game, featured in the BBC Radio 4 comedy panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't a ClueI'm Sorry I Haven't a ClueI'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, sometimes abbreviated to ISIHAC or Clue, is a BBC radio comedy panel game broadcast since 11 April 1972 at the rate of one or two series each year , transmitted on BBC Radio 4, with occasional repeats on BBC Radio 4 Extra and the BBC's World Service...
, which satirises complicated strategy games.
Transport links
London Bus routes 24London Buses route 24
London Buses route 24 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Go-Ahead London.-History:This route dates back to 1910, when it ran between Hampstead Heath and Victoria...
, 27
London Buses route 27
London Buses route 27 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London. The service is currently contracted to London United.-History:...
, 29
London Buses route 29
London Buses route 29 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Arriva London.-History:...
, 46, 88
London Buses route 88
London Buses route 88 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Go-Ahead London.-History:...
, 134
London Buses route 134
London Buses route 134 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Metroline.-History:...
, 168, 214
London Buses route 214
London Buses route 214 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Metroline.-History:...
, 253
London Buses route 253
London Buses route 253 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Arriva London.-History:Route 253 was introduced in 1961 to replace replace Trolleybus 653....
, 274, C2
London Buses route C2
London Buses route C2 is a Transport for London contracted bus route in London, United Kingdom. The service is currently contracted to Metroline.-History:...
and Night routes N5 N20, N28, N29, N253 and N279.
See also
- Mornington Crescent (game)Mornington Crescent (game)Mornington Crescent is a spoof game, featured in the BBC Radio 4 comedy panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, which satirises complicated strategy games....
, from the BBC Radio 4 programme I'm Sorry I Haven't A ClueI'm Sorry I Haven't a ClueI'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, sometimes abbreviated to ISIHAC or Clue, is a BBC radio comedy panel game broadcast since 11 April 1972 at the rate of one or two series each year , transmitted on BBC Radio 4, with occasional repeats on BBC Radio 4 Extra and the BBC's World Service...
. The commemorative blue plaqueBlue plaqueA blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person or event, serving as a historical marker....
for satirist Willie RushtonWillie RushtonWilliam George Rushton, commonly known as Willie Rushton was an English cartoonist, satirist, comedian, actor and performer who co-founded the Private Eye satirical magazine.- School and army :William George Rushton was born 18 August 1937 in the family home at Scarsdale Villas,...
is located at the station as a result. - Mornington Crescent (street)Mornington Crescent (street)Mornington Crescent is also a street off the A4 near Heathrow Airport.Mornington Crescent is a street in Camden, London, England. It was built in the 1820s, on a greenfield site just to the north of central London. The crescent was named after the Earl of Mornington, brother of the Duke of Wellington...
, the 1820s terrace after which the tube station is named.