Elephant & Castle London Underground (ZEL)

Elephant & Castle is a stop on the Bank branch of the Northern Line and also the Southern terminus of the Bakerloo Line. It is next to the National Rail station of the same name.

Information
Type:	Transport for London (Bakerloo & Northern Lines)
Station code:	ZEL
Opened:	1890
Platforms:	4

The station was first opened by the City & South London Railway in 1890, later to become part of the Northern Line. The station was one of six original stations on the first tube line between Stockwell and King William Street [1].

The Baker Street & Waterloo Railway (later Bakerloo Line) arrived in 1906. The station had a separate surface station building designed by Leslie Green (though there is interchange between the two sets of platforms below ground). Originally the Bakerloo had wanted a subsurface ticket office but this was blocked by the local council [2]. The station is the Bakerloo's Southern terminus, the line running on a short distance after the platforms for stabling. Southern extensions have been planned for the Bakerloo since the 1930s [3] and the current proposals are to extend the line to Lewisham.

The station was used as an air raid shelter in the First World War [4]. The first baby to be born on the underground was at Elephant & Castle in 1924. A major upgrade and rebuild of the station is being planned with a new ticket hall for the Northern and improved escalators and lifts.

A Bakerloo Line train prepares to return North

Bakerloo Line platform

Platform roundel

Northern Line platform

[1] Jason Cross, London Underground Guide 2017 (Train Crazy, 2017) p. 120
[2] Mike Horne, The Bakerloo Line (Capital Transport, 2001) p. 22
[3] Ibid. p. 40
[4] Paul Moss, London Underground (Haynes, 2014) p. 55