Tubewatch (5)I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for North Cheam
It's time for another Tale from the Tube, today brought to you from the depths of southwest London. This is Morden high street, or London Road as the Ordnance Survey insist on calling it, and definitely not to be mistaken for the Middle Earth kingdom of Mordor. Today it's the southernmost terminus of the Northern line, but this was not always the case and was not intended to be the case, but I'll get to that part presently.
Morden station was designed by the great architect Charles Holden. It's a pretty thing, at least once you step inside, with an octagonal ticket hall lit by an eight-sided roof light in the ceiling. I don't think the electric chandelier is available at your local IKEA, but if it was I for one would definitely consider buying one. Head down to the platforms and you'll see that Northern line trains do in fact continue through a short tunnel underneath the main road, but only as far as the depot because this is not a passenger service. The depot is quite a sight but I didn't walk that far, so here's a skewiff shot of a Northern line train at a different station.
In 1946 the London Passenger Transport Board undertook a post-war review of rail transport in the London area and proposed many new lines. Line 8 on their master map reached Raynes Park and line 9 would have served Streatham - these are of course comprehensively documented in my other Tales from the Tube. Line 10 was intended to double capacity on the Northern line as far as Tooting because this was then the busiest branch on the Underground. But we're most interested in line 11, an extension which would have continued the Northern line beyond Morden to North Cheam. It stretched so far into unknown territory that the red circle for North Cheam is actually off the edge of the map. Here be dragons, they might well have added.
The first stop on the extension would have been Morden South, a station on the Wimbledon and Sutton Railway currently served by Thameslink trains. Today Morden South is one of the least used stations in London, overshadowed by much better tube services from Morden, but this could all have been so very different. The only other station shown on the extension is the terminus at North Cheam, but that's two miles away across a rail desert so I like to think an intermediate station would have been built, perhaps in place of the petrol station on Stonecot Hill. As I often say, it could all have looked very different.
North Cheam station would undoubtedly have been an architectural marvel, as well as a lifeline for local residents. Instead if you head to the site today all you'll find is a sports ground and a very large Sainsbury's, which I guess is a lifeline for local residents anyway. How sad to stand here and think of what might have been, whereas the reality today is a 20 minute walk to Worcester Park, Stoneleigh or West Sutton stations instead. How amazing it would have been for the Northern line to have terminated at North Cheam, paradoxically the southernmost point on the Underground network. And so my story is done, but while I'm here I should probably buy some sandwiches for the bus ride home - Cheam cheese perhaps, plus a packet of custard Cheams and maybe an ice Cheam sundae for afters.
Well I hope you enjoyed this Tale from the Tube. If you did please leave a nice comment or mayhap subscribe to my shonky RSS feed. I'd like to thank all my regular readers, you are the sparkle to my diamond, and I'll see you all again very soon for another Tale from the Tube.
Tubewatch (5) I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for North Cheam
