50 years ago today, on Friday 23rd July 1971, the final section of the Victoria line slipped into service. The first section from Walthamstow Central to Highbury & Islington had opened in September 1968, extending to Warren Street in December and Victoria in March 1969. But it took two more years to finally reach the southern terminus at Brixton, and even then Pimlico got skipped because it wasn't ready yet.
So today I'm continuing my journey down the line, station by station, to see how this cutting-edge forward-thinking initiative is looking fifty years on. If nothing else, it'll be a useful reminder that major transport projects delivered way behind schedule are nothing new, and generally come good in the end.
VAUXHALL
Opened: 23 July 1971 Originally opened: 11 July 1848 Previously known as:Vauxhall Bridge Station (until 1868) Interchange with: South Western Railway trains to Clapham Junction and beyond, including Windsor, Weybridge and Woking. Eight platforms are available to whisk you away, atop a viaduct entirely separate from the tube station.
Tile pattern: Every Victoria line station has its own bespoke mural in the alcoves on the platforms above the benches. Vauxhall's design is a representation of Vauxhall Gardens (London's first and most significant Pleasure Gardens, where Georgian society enjoyed arboreal promenades, outdoor culture and later a tad of debauchery) and was designed by George Smith. Entrances: The main entrance is at the tip of the iconic forked bus station beneath the information window. Four other subways feed in, including one outside the National Rail station and another on the approach to Vauxhall Bridge. The ramp down from Wandsworth Road has two rather nice enamel nameplates embedded in the brickwork. Architecture: Nothing above ground... the 2004-vintage bus station is doing all the heavy lifting. Nearby development: Riverside Vauxhall shot upwards early courtesy of Saint George Wharf, and continues to suffer from a virulent plague of residential skyscrapers of assorted giddying heights, mostly to the southwest. The latest masterplan is to replace the bus station and associated triangle of waste ground with a Zaha Hadid concoction called Vauxhall Cross Island, bookended by a 42 storey tower beside the station and a 53 storey tower to the south, and to remove the gyratory, and to make the bus station less focused, and basically to squeeze every last commercial dollar out of a vastly under-realised site.
Nearest station: Is Pimlico. Will be Nine Elms, a ten minute walk down the road. Station layout: 3D diagram here. Ticket hall: Efficient rather than appealing. A grey-tiled concourse for funnelling down and funnelling up, plus a gaggle of barrier staff, plus a little shop for the purchase of travel comestibles. I would have taken a photo but it was swarming with transport police yesterday morning so this seemed unwise. Lower concourse: At the foot of the escalators are two colourful mostly-blue panels called Design Work Leisure, designed by Giles Round in 2017. The passageway beyond looks a lot more 1970s, and bends a bit. Veer right for Brixton and left for central London.
Platforms: Even though these were built two years after those further up the line they look very familiar. Grey tiles with recessed benches, again, joined by interconnecting passageways should you suddenly want to switch between northbound and southbound. Some hoops of the roof covering are currently missing. The northbound platform has a pride roundel and a trans roundel. Trains arrive with impressive regularity. Step-free access: A lift from the ticket hall to the platforms opened in 2016, emerging into a crosspassage that's much wider than anyone would have bothered to build in the 1970s. Inconveniently it's at the end of the platform but the raised hump with level access to the trains is in the centre. Factnugget: The clock at the end of the northbound platform is working but the southbound clock is stuck at 7.24. Some photos: Eight, here.
STOCKWELL
Opened: 23 July 1971 Originally opened: 4 November 1890 Originally terminus of: The City and South London Railway, London's first deep-level tube. Interchange with: Northern line, at south London's most useful tube switchover.
Tile pattern: This is the one everybody likes once they've worked out (or been told) what it is. Abram Games' blue and white zigzag conceals a swan with an orange beak, in honour of The Swan public house opposite the station. There's been a Swan on this street corner for at least 400 years, and for the last 40 it's been a full-on Irish venue with late-night craic (even music pumping out on a Friday morning, to be sure). Also nearby: a) One of eight deep-level air-raid shelters, brightly-painted (since 1942). b) The inimitable Stockwell bus garage (since 1952). c) A British Transport Police Station (since 1987). Immediately outside: A memorial to Jean Charles de Menezes, shot by an undercover police officer on a Northern line train after being mistaken for a terrorist during an appallingly-bungled operation during the heady days of July 2005.
Architecture: Undistinguished mid 20th century brick box. Nearby development: Mostly resistant so far. Station layout: 3D diagram here. Ticket hall: A bit like Vauxhall but at ground level so brighter, and part-blocked by two big pillars. Retail opportunities include a Costa, a keycutting/watchrepair hideaway and good old reliable Station News, which still sells newspapers. Station layout: A bit complex, as befits a Northern/Victoria hybrid. From the ticket hall you take the left hand escalator to the northbound platforms and the right hand staircase to the southbound platforms (though there is an escalator back up again). A separate subterranean trek connects the two. To optimise interchange the new platforms were added alongside the old, with short interconnecting passageways southbound and a bigger intermediate concourse northbound. The downside of the arrangement is that the Victoria line had to follow an indirect S-shaped route between Vauxhall to Brixton to align properly at Stockwell, lengthening journeys. Uniformity: The Northern line platforms were also given a grey-tiled Victoria-style makeover in 1971, but without the recessed tiled benches.
Special instructions: Those heading for the northbound Victoria line pass several signs saying 'Please pass along the platform'. This is despite most passengers one stop up the line at Brixton also boarding at the rear of the train, leaving more seats at the front. The message is somewhat rammed home, however, using extra big text on the new posters in the concourse and with the final exhortation just three adverts from the far end of the platform. Factnugget: Until 1923 the Northern line had a single island platform, slightly to the north, accessed down a staircase where Costa Coffee is now. Some photos: Ten, here.
