Northern City line

The Northern City line was a line, formerly part of the Northern line, running from 1904-1975. It ran from Finsbury Park to Moorgate and was constructed as a deep-level tube line.

First years 1904-circa 1920

This link opened in 1904 and back then, it interestingly wasn’t meant to be a tube line in the first place like the other ones. It ran through stations like Highbury & Islington, Drayton Park and Alexandra Palace, which are nowadays served by National Rail (a.k.a. Capital Connect). It started to make much more success in around the late 1900s, early 1910s, and was accepted by the Metropolitan District Railway in around 1920.

1930s and 1940s

The Second World War delayed proposed London Underground extensions, and during the Blitz, many people used London Underground as a shelter and several travelled around the places they needed to using the Northern City line and at the same time using the railway as a bomb shelter, so the Northern City line was popularly used back then.

1968-1971

On 1 September 1968, the Victoria line was opened and this new railway rapidly started replacing the Northern City line, and the Victoria line served some Northern City line stations such as Finsbury Park and Highbury & Islington. By 1971, the year of the last known Victoria line extension, the Northern City line was so little used it was close to closure.

Moorgate disaster and closure (1975)

Not only the Victoria line led to the line’s closure, it was also the Moorgate disaster of 1975.

On 28 February 1975 at 8:38AM, a Northern City line train was arriving into Moorgate, strangely speedily. It was travelling past 20mph, too fast and the train started to curve and then it fell! Over 30 people were wounded while at least 6 people were killed. TfL officially closed the line later that year.