Tooting Broadway is a London Underground station in Tooting in the London Borough of Wandsworth, south London. It is on the Morden branch of the Northern line, between Tooting Bec and Colliers Wood stations. It is in London fare zone 3. The station is located on the corner of Tooting High Street (A24) and Mitcham Road (A217).

Location

The station building is a corner lot, located at the junction of two major roads, which are A24 Tooting High Street and A217 Garratt Lane. South Thames College is just outside the station, while St. George's Hospital is a few minutes' walk away. Other attractions nearby include Tooting Market, Tooting Methodist Church and Tooting Primary School. The station is located in the centre of a busy district and serves a dense residential area. The area is commonly referred to as Tooting Graveney.

History

In the period following the end of First World War, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) began reviving a series of prewar plans for line extensions and improvements that had been postponed during the hostilities. Finance for the works was made possible by the government's Trade Facilities Act 1921, which, as a means of alleviating unemployment, provided for the Treasury to underwrite the value of loans raised by companies for public works.

One of the projects that had been postponed was the Wimbledon and Sutton Railway (W&SR), a plan for a new surface line from Wimbledon to Sutton over which the UERL's District Railway had control. The UERL wished to maximise its use of the government's time-limited financial backing, and, in November 1922, presented bills to parliament to construct the W&SR in conjunction with an extension of the UERL's City and South London Railway (C&SLR) south from through Balham, Tooting and Merton. Along with the other stations on the Morden extension, the building was designed by architect Charles Holden. They were Holden's first major project for the Underground. He was selected by Frank Pick, general manager of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL), to design the stations after he was dissatisfied with designs produced by the UERL's own architect, Stanley Heaps. Built with shops to each side, the modernist design takes the form of a double-height curving screen clad in white Portland stone with a three-part glazed screen in the centre of the façade divided by columns of which the capitals are three-dimensional versions of the Underground roundel. The central panel of the screen contains a large version of the roundel.

Services

Tooting Broadway station is on the Morden branch of the Northern line in London fare zone 3. It is between Tooting Bec to the north and Colliers Wood to the south. The typical off-peak service, in trains per hour (tph) is:

  • 10 tph northbound to Edgware via Bank
  • 8 tph northbound to High Barnet via Bank
  • 2 tph northbound to Mill Hill East via Bank
  • 20 tph southbound to Morden

Southbound trains can terminate at Tooting Broadway on occasion rather than continue on to the end of the line at Morden, which is three stations to the south. To return north, out of service trains run south from the southbound platform into a reversing siding between the two running tunnels before reversing and running north through points on to the northbound platform where they return into service.

Connections

Various day and nighttime London Bus routes serve the station. Tooting, the nearest railway station, is an 18-minute walk away along the A217 Mitcham Road.

The station is referenced in the title of the Kitchens of Distinction's song "On Tooting Broadway Station" from their third album The Death of Cool.

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

  • London Transport Museum Photographic Archive