When the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway opened in 1906, with the very first journey between Baker Street and Kennington Road stations.
Kennington Road was the original but all be it short-lived name of what we now call Lambeth North.
Lambeth North was originally opened on the 10th March 1906 as Kennington Road. Then just 5 months later, on the 5th August 1906, it was renamed as Westminster Bridge Road, when the line was extended to Elephant & Castle. It finally settled on the name of Lambeth North on 15th April 1917.
Tube Map
The above map is a geographical one with the tube network added on to it (Beck’s non-geographic diagrams were still 25 years away) and it was likely intended to show just how useful the new link was, allowing access between the north and south-central London.
The Bakerloo route has been added on top in a translucent manner, showing how closely it follows the road network above it. The railway lines that have been added to the map at a later stage as an overprint. You can see Kennington Road can be seen at the end of the line.
A pocket Map version is also available to view at the London Transport Museum. This includes the following details – In the border around the map, there is an overprint with details for the opening of the Railway between Kennington Road and Baker Street at 1 pm on 10th March 1906. There is also a red overprint on the map which gives details about the first and last trains from Kennington Road and Baker Street.
First death on the line
The railway suffered its first fatality only two weeks after its opening when the conductor John Creagh was crushed between a train and the tunnel wall at Kennington Road station on 26 March 1906.
You see from the picture that the central shop unit space has not yet been occupied, a ‘To be Let’ notice and UERL posters are on display. In the road outside the station, a gang of workmen sit in a circle having lunch, their tool cart stands nearby.
Necropolis Railway – end of the line(Opens in a new browser tab)
