A tube line to Croydon, a stop in Chelsea, and a quick train from Angel to Wimbledon would all be some of the ideas at the top of Londoners wish lists if asked to improve the London Underground – and probably finishing Crossrail.
That’s also what planners in 1949 thought when they put together the London Plan Working Party Report to the Minister of Transport, raising the idea of two new routes called C and D.
At the time there was lots of enthusiasm for new routes in order to take the pressure off existing tube services like the District line.
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Route C would have run from Angel Road in north east London to Norbury in South West London, with an extension to Croydon, and Route D would run from Chingford to Victoria.
Today the Victoria line takes Londoners from Walthamstow to Brixton but not to Croydon
(Image: Licensed under Creative Commons)
In 1953 the District line from Victoria to Fulham was getting overcrowded so someone had the idea of an express route that would continue on to Wimbledon and connect to route D.
Despite support for the proposal there was funding issues and they decided instead to make use of the existing District line track.
They planned to run route C from Walthamstow to Victoria after which it would follow the District line to Sloane Square.
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From here it would dive underground to a stop on Chelsea’s Kings Road, after which it would re-join the green line at Fulham Broadway.
Good thing they never built a station in Chelsea, they wanted to put it on a burial site at Dove House Green.
At the time planners were convinced they could pull off the track share by upgrading the signalling and then creating a layby at Southfields but it never came to fruition.
Crossrail 2 could take commuters through Chelsea and into Wimbledon
(Image: Surrey Advertiser)
Though the Victoria line went ahead, funding issues meant the Wimbledon and Croydon extensions were scrapped.
Today Croydon and Chelsea still have no underground stations, though they might be part of Crossrail 2 if that ever gets going.
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