London's Forgotten Underground: The Northern City Line (Part 1 of 2)

By Sam
The Crossrail project has long hailed itself as a great leap forward for London's rail network - a national rail service running at high frequency, right through the heart of London to far doing destinations. Sounds great doesn't it? Well, let me introduce Thameslink, The Northern City Line and Widened Lines. Thameslink I'm sure you've heard of and is basically the "Crossrail 1" that no one talks about and has been for decades. The other two however might need a little more explaining...

The Northern City Line

This is probably my favourite railway in London - "the tube that's not a tube" as one might call it, it's easily the creepiest. It was once renowned for its almost complete Network SouthEast signage that once adorned the entire route and largely original Class 313 stock - a true step back into the past as one would use it. These days, much of the NSE era signage and tiling is gone, and the trains replaced with the new Class 717 - bring a very similar style of service to Thameslink, which we'll look at later. However, it's not just the present day British Rail like stations and creepily low passenger numbers outside of the peak that make the line interesting (Essex Road being the best for this - lift only access with an abandoned lift shaft and emergency exit, Network SouthEast maps and some signage, very few passengers and trains that look out of place) - the line has changed much over the years. What's even weirder, is that it was part of the London Underground - the Northern Line to be precise!
Looking north - the station as quiet and desolate as usual. You could hear a pin drop as you wait some 20 minutes for the next train to arrive.
The station sign still bares its Network SouthEast "flashes". Again, an odd
sight for a deep level in London to bare the National Rail logo.
These NSE platform signs unfortunately no longer exist on the platform side - they can still be seen on the far side however.
Even the station's Network SoutheEast route map still exists (and a rather pointless one at that!). If you look closely, you can see that the sign references the Metropolitan Line at Moorgate - the sign pre-dating the Hammersmith and City Line. It also references another mainline service - the "Bedford Line". Imagine that! Trains to Bedford from Moorgate, we'll be looking at that later.
And on the northbound platform, a much more extensive map.
An abandoned lift shaft and staircase at Essex Road. Spooky, eh?


Enough of how it is today though, here's some history.

The line was built by the Great Northern and City Railway in 1904, to link the East Coast mainline at Finsbury park, right into the City of London at Moorgate. It was built just like a tube line, but with dimensions to accommodate full, mainline trains. At opening, the line terminated in tunnels at Finsbury Park to the North without any electrification. The Great Northern and City Railway was bought by the Metropolitan Railway in 1913 and subsequently wanted to link it to their Circle and Waterloo & City Lines, but this was never to happen. It then came under the jurisdiction, just as the rest of London Underground of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933, earning its name, the "Northern City Line" in the following year. Several proposals then took place to extend and connect the line to the North and the South - however, WWII stopped these firmly in their tracks along with the famous "Northern Heights" plans. Nothing came about however, so Edgware, Alexandra Palace and the high level Crystal Palace branches were all closed and the NCL remained cut off from the rest of the rail network.

The line was renamed the Northern Line (Highbury Branch) in 1970. The thing was though, the line just didn't make sense to be run by the Northern Line - the trains didn't fit the tunnels (1938 tube stock just weren't up to the job) and it was confusing that the "Norther Line" here was physically separate from the rest of the Northern Line! In 1971 then, it was agreed for British Rail to takeover the line, connecting the line as it had originally been intended to the ECML at Finsbury Park to coincide with electrification of King's Cross suburban routes. Moorgate would therefore be an alternative route to take the pressure off King's Cross' congestion. In October 1975, the last London Underground train ran on the NCL's rails, and the following year British Rail commenced their new service under the brand "Great Northern Electrics". These replaced services to Broad Street via the city branch of the North London Line. Finally, the line got mainline size trains (Class 313) and a proper connection to the rest of the network - excellent!

The line has remained as a mainline service ever since (for good and for bad!), although there are plenty of clues to its Northern Line past - the track in the tunnel section to Moorgate has a 4th rail. For London Underground trains, a 4th rail is used for the return current (it's one of the few systems in the world to do so), yet the trains, being mainline trains, use the running rails for return current. This 4th rail therefore rusts away, as no part of any train on the line ever makes contact with it.

Source: Superbfc
This sign is at the London Transport Musesum, one of the line's old London Underground signs from its Northern Line days.
Following on from this, things arguable got worse for the line however. It was rather neglected by British Rail, who were frequently asked to improve safety and security at Great Northern underground stations. The line was originally on the tube map too, but this didn't last - the line therefore disappearing out of public view. It's a shame, as it would probably see a lot more use if people knew it was there and didn't instead take long alternative journeys that would be made so much easier by using the service.

Tube Map from 1990 shows the service - but by the end of the decade, it was gone.
https://www.clarksbury.com/cdl/maps.html
The Northern City Line is therefore is a railway with tube tunnels that runs right into the city centre, that almost nobody knows about.

TfL, if you're reading this, please put the line back on the map where it belongs!

See my other blog in this two-part series, as we find out more about London's Forgotten Underground.

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