Holborn Tube and Tram

[Basil Jet]

While watching Jago Hazzard's recent video about the tram subway, it occurred to me that Holborn is the only interchange inside the Circle Line (not including Warren Street) which only has a single entrance and a single exit, but the video mentioned that there was a direct link from the tube station to the tram station. So it seems that there is probably a pedestrian route available from the tube station to the tram station, and from there to a staircase on the west side of Kingsway which must now be covered up at street level. Obviously it couldn't be opened now without making it wheelchair-accessible, but does anyone know if a staircase route under the street is there or mostly there?

 

[Turtle]

While watching Jago Hazzard's recent video about the tram subway, it occurred to me that Holborn is the only interchange inside the Circle Line (not including Warren Street) which only has a single entrance and a single exit, but the video mentioned that there was a direct link from the tube station to the tram station. So it seems that there is probably a pedestrian route available from the tube station to the tram station, and from there to a staircase on the west side of Kingsway which must now be covered up at street level. Obviously it couldn't be opened now without making it wheelchair-accessible, but does anyone know if a staircase route under the street is there or mostly there?

I used Holborn station regularly for 3 years and occasionally up to 2007 and never saw any sign of such a connection. Mind you, the station entrance and exit was always so congested that one tended to be hurried through without much time to take in any details.

 

[whoosh]

There's no link. The tram station is just below the road surface, and was an island platform. The only entrances were from staircases from traffic islands in the road above. These are still there below metal grates.

There may be some confusion, as Crossrail plans in the 1990s were going to have a station at Holborn and interchange with the Piccadilly and Central lines. I believe the underground passageways for that project would need to have been built, would've encroached on the tram station, (effectively destroying it) and so maybe that's where this idea has come from and got muddled.

If there had been an underground link, then there would have to have been an additional ticket barrier (manned in those days). There was no joined up fare structure or all-encompassing ticket or pass between the different modes back then.

Instead, anyone changing from tram to tube would've climbed the staircase at the north end of the tram station, crossed the road, and entered the tube station - which is very straightforward.

The attached photo from Google Maps shows the street view of the tube station on the left, and the metal grills over the tram station's north staircase in the traffic islands on the right of the picture in the middle of the road.

 

[Dstock7080]

I understand there wasn't a connection between the two stations and that the stairs from the tram station went directly up to the islands in the centre of the carriageway.

 

[edwin_m]

There's no link. The tram station is just below the road surface, and was an island platform. The only entrances were from staircases from traffic islands in the road above. These are still there below metal grates.

There may be some confusion, as Crossrail plans in the 1990s were going to have a station at Holborn and interchange with the Piccadilly and Central lines. I believe the underground passageways for that project would need to have been built, would've encroached on the tram station, (effectively destroying it) and so maybe that's where this idea has come from and got muddled.

If there had been an underground link, then there would have to have been an additional ticket barrier (manned in those days). There was no joined up fare structure or all-encompassing ticket or pass between the different modes back then.

Instead, anyone changing from tram to tube would've climbed the staircase at the north end of the tram station, crossed the road, and entered the tube station - which is very straightforward.

The attached photo from Google Maps shows the street view of the tube station on the left, and the metal grills over the tram station's north staircase in the traffic islands on the right of the picture in the middle of the road.

The tram tracks probably weren't deep enough to provide an underground connection, which would have had to be below the street but above the trams, unless it cane off one of the deeper levels and accessed the tram platform from below. Crossing the street would have been much easier in that era than it is today.

Incidentally the Cross-River Tram proposed a couple of decades ago would have run along Kingsway, but I don't think there was ever a serious suggestion to re-use the subway. Some of the Crossrail work did affect the tram tunnel but they had to reinstate it afterwards.

 

[Roger1973]

There's a photo of Kingsway, showing underground and tram stations (must be c. 1950/52, as destinations for service 31, which became bus 170 in October 1950, have been blanked out) on Flickr (not my photo or account) here.

As others have said, the staircases from ground to platform level are still there under gratings, but the railings round them have gone.

I have never seen anything to suggest that there was a direct link between the tram and underground stations - that would have needed something below the level of the tram rails and staircases up to (tram) platform level. something coming out at platform level would not have been practical, as the trams served an island platform (passengers had to get on and off at the driver's end.)

There's more on the Kingsway Subway including stations on the 'abandoned stations' website here.

 

[Joe Paxton]

I went on one of the LT Museum's Hidden London tours of the Kingsway tram subway, and there was no suggestion during that of any such link at Holborn - nor did I see anything that looked like it could be such a thing. Of course that's not definitive.

One odd thing I learnt from the tour - during Crossrail works, a works shaft was dug right next to the north end of the subway entrance, through the old tram subway trackbed. The deal was that the contractors had to restore it to its original condition (i.e. before the works) - apparently their first effort wasn't good enough so they had to go back and do it again. So counduit tram track - or at least a vague simulacrum of it - has been laid in central London within the past few years... track that will never see a tram!

 

[AlbertBeale]

The tram tracks probably weren't deep enough to provide an underground connection, which would have had to be below the street but above the trams, unless it cane off one of the deeper levels and accessed the tram platform from below. Crossing the street would have been much easier in that era than it is today.

Incidentally the Cross-River Tram proposed a couple of decades ago would have run along Kingsway, but I don't think there was ever a serious suggestion to re-use the subway. Some of the Crossrail work did affect the tram tunnel but they had to reinstate it afterwards.

That's right - there wasn't.