Tower Hill is one of those places where you'd think they'd really have their stations sorted
out. It's on the edge of the financial district. It serves some of London's biggest tourist
attractions. Yet the stations here are a bit of a mess. There are three unconnected stations - Tower
Hill, Tower Gateway and Fenchurch Street. Go back a wee bit further and you have Minories,
Mark Lane and the Tower Subway. But there's one station that often gets overlooked. It lasted just
over two years and nothing remains to show where it was, but in some ways it's the station with
the strangest story of all. This is the story of Tower of London, the station built out of spite.
Tower of London was... here. Yes, exactly where Tower Hill station is now,and there's a reason for
that, which i'll come to later. As to how it came to be here, well it's a story that involves broken
promises, petty rivalries and all those other things that we love about Victorian railways.
The station was built by the Metropolitan Railway, which might raise an eyebrow or
two. Tower Hill is not on the Metropolitan line. It's on the District and Circle lines.
History time! So, I've talked a few times recently about the whole situation with
the District Railway and the building of the Circle line, so I will keep it brief. In 1863,
the first section of the Metropolitan Railway was opened from Paddington to Farringdon.
Or Bishop's Road to Farringdon Street, as they were known back then. The engineer John Fowler,
who had built the Metropolitan Railway, recommended extending this at either end to
form a big circle - what we now know as the Circle line. To get this built, a new company was formed
named the Metropolitan District Railway. This was supposed to build the southern part of the Circle
line, or Inner Circle as it was known then, and then be absorbed into the Metropolitan Railway.
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Railway would extend its own line down to... somewhere around Tower
Hill... where the two railways would connect. But the Circle line proved very expensive to
construct. The District had trouble raising money. The first section of the Inner Circle opened in
1868 and it wouldn't be completed until 1884. As a result, the Metropolitan Railway decided they
didn't want to absorb the District after all. The two companies became bitter rivals to an
insane degree. This was at least in part because the chairman of the companies,
Edward Watkin of the Metropolitan and James Staats Forbes of the District, were archenemies.
There were disputes. There were court cases. There was even an instance where the District Railway
illegally built track in South Kensington so they wouldn't have to use the Metropolitan's line and,
in a bizarre move that is the focus of our tale today, they decided to block the completion of
the Circle line. This line was their baby. They were supposed to run trains over it. It was
supposed to connect some of the busiest stations in London together. The potential was enormous,
but the Metropolitan decided they'd rather stiff the District Railway than complete the project.
It really was the proverbial cutting-your-nose-off-to-spite-your-face,
but that was the kind of man that Edward Watkin was. The Metropolitan Railway was authorised to
extend their line from Moorgate to Tower Hill, and they actually applied to Parliament to revoke
that permission. Every move the District made, the Metropolitan challenged them. The District
got held up so badly that they had to reapply for permission to extend beyond Mansion House.
But it wasn't just the District Railway that the Metropolitan were messing with.
The whole point of the Inner Circle was to provide better transport in the City. The wealthy and
influential folk of the City decided that they were fed up with the company's shenanigans. They
formed a third company, the Metropolitan Inner Circle Completion Railway Company, in 1874. The
District were actually fine with this. They were more than happy to let someone else take on the
financial and legal burden, as well as deal with the Metropolitan Railway's tomfoolery.
Now, you'd think that when you've upset your customers so much that they literally
form their own company to do your job for you, that's a sign that maybe you should chill out.
But that was not the Watkin way, and so he went about stymieing the Completion company's efforts
to raise money. Successfully. But the tide was turning. The shareholders of the Metropolitan
Railway were starting to get annoyed with these endless monkeyshines and told the directors, "If
you don't knock it off, it's ring-a-ding-ding for you bozos," or words to that effect. In 1879, a
new Act of Parliament was passed. The Metropolitan and District Circle Lines and Extensions Act. This
forced the two companies to work together on completing and running the Inner Circle,
and to add insult to injury, to pay compensation to the now-dissolved Completion company.
Oh, but even this wasn't enough to stop Edward Watkin's jiggery-pokery. The District Railway
route ran under Cannon Street station. The South Eastern Railway were the company who owned the
main line station, and they raised significant objections to the District's tunnelling works.
Sitting on the South Eastern's board of directors, one Edward Watkin. But
as Watkin waged his war against the District, the Metropolitan was planning one final strike.
They'd build their part of the line all right. Oh yes. They still had the right to build a line to
Tower Hill, and that's exactly what they did. On the 23rd of September 1882, they started building
a new station, to be called Tower of London. And on the 25th of September 1882, they opened it.
As you might imagine from the fact that it was built in, you know, two days,
this was not a very substantial station. The whole thing was made of wood. The aim was
not to build a long-lasting station, just to build a station. The original plan was
to build a station slightly to the west that would be jointly operated by both companies,
but the Metropolitan knew that the District would take a while to actually get their section built.
So Tower of London was built basically so that the Metropolitan Railway could make all the money,
to get one over on the District. Normally here, Id go into the station's history, but,
well, it didn't really have one. On the 6th of October 1884, the joint station slightly to the
west was opened - Mark Lane. The two stations were so close together that even Edward Watkin wouldn't
have been able to make a case for keeping both. So just six days later, Tower of London closed.
Somewhat incredibly, the timber station building on the surface stayed in place until 1940. Yet
this is not quite the end of the history of Tower of London. Mark Lane was the station for
Tower Hill for many years, and in fact was renamed Tower Hill in 1946. But as the 20th century went
on and trains became longer and more frequent, it proved inadequate. It had been built on the cheap
and it showed. Also struggling was Mansion House, three stops down the line. The District line is a
line that's quite busy in the west, very busy in the middle, much less busy in the east. So
they like to terminate some of their underground trains in the City. Mansion House was the only
station with the space, but it was right in the middle of the busiest section. If only, thought
London Transport, they could build a station that would solve all their problems. Something further
east with space enough to terminate trains. But how expensive that would be! What a shame, they
thought, that there wasn't a large hollowed-out section on the eastern edge of the city exactly
the size of a terminus that was totally out of use. Well, there was. On the 4th of February 1967,
Tower Hill station opened on the site and remains an important District line station to this day.
No doubt Edward Watkins stirred in his grave and muttered, "See? I told you my line was better."
Well, I do hope you enjoyed this antagonistic Tale from the Tube. If you did, please do leave a like
and perhaps consider subscribing for more on the tube and other such subjects that take my fancy.
I'll admit that this was one of those videos where there was more on the background than
on the actual subject, but I do find the background really interesting. I don't know,
I just think it's funny that you have one of the best-known public transport systems in the world
and so much of it was shaped by petty rivalry. Anyway, now is the time when i thank my donors on
Ko-Fi and Patreon for their generous support. You are the convenient space for my necessary station.
And I'll see you all again very soon for another Tale from the Tube.