19 November 1939 (1939-11-19) Closed Number of platforms 2 | 11 June 1939 Renamed Lord's | |
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13 April 1868 (1868-04-13) Opened as St. John's Wood Road 1 April 1925 Rebuilt; renamed St. John's Wood Lists of stations DLRUndergroundNational RailTramlink Replaced by St. John's Wood tube station Similar Marlborough Road tube station, Mark Lane tube station, St Mary's (Whitechapel Road) tub, Granborough Road railway st, Wood Siding railway st | ||
Lord's was a London Underground station located in St John's Wood, north-west London.
It was opened in 1868 by the Metropolitan Railway on its Metropolitan and St John's Wood Railway line, which is now part of the Underground's Metropolitan line. It was known by a number of different names throughout its history, but its name upon closure in 1939 was taken from the nearby Lord's Cricket Ground.
History
The station was opened on 13 April 1868 as St. John's Wood Road. It was on the Metropolitan and St John's Wood Railway, the first northward branch extension from Baker Street to Swiss Cottage of the Metropolitan Railway (MR), the precursor to today's Metropolitan line. The station was located at the junction of St. John's Wood Road, Wellington Road and Park Road.
The original station building was cramped and unable to cope with peak demand during matches at the nearby Lord's Cricket Ground. It was demolished and reconstructed in 1924–25 to a design by the MR's architect Charles W. Clark with a larger building that enclosed the space above the platforms with a concrete slab to form a parking garage under the original glazed platform roof. Upon reopening, the station's name was shortened to St. John's Wood on 1 April 1925. It was renamed again on 11 June 1939 to Lord's.
In the mid-1930s the Metropolitan line was suffering congestion at the south end of its main route where trains from its many branches shared the limited capacity between Finchley Road and Baker Street. To ease this congestion, deep-level tunnels were built between Finchley Road station and the Bakerloo line tunnels at Baker Street station. On 20 November 1939, the Metropolitan line's service to Stanmore was transferred to the Bakerloo line and diverted to Baker Street via the new tunnels. A new Bakerloo line station named St. John's Wood was opened to replace Lord's station. It had been the intention of the Underground's management to close Lord's station to normal services, but retain it for temporary use during top-class cricket matches, but the advent of World War II meant that this plan was abandoned and the station closed permanently on 19 November 1939.
The surface building survived until the late 1960s, when it was demolished. The site is now occupied by a hotel.