File:Morden Underground Station (Northern Line).jpg

English: Morden Underground Station (Northern Line), 1 May 2023. The station was opened by the City and South London Railway (C&SLR) in September 1926 as the terminus of an extension southwards from the C&SLR’s Camden Town/Euston – Clapham Common line, first proposed before WWI. When built, the station was in a very rural area but after its opening housing and commercial development grew rapidly. The population of Morden increased from 1,355 in 1921 to 35,417 in 1951.

The Chief Architect of the Underground Electric Railways of London (the umbrella company for the C&SLR) was the experienced Charles Heap who presented his designs of the proposed stations to the General Manager of the UERL, Frank Pick. But Pick did not like them, thinking them too conservative. Unusually, he commissioned the Architect Charles Holden of the practice Adams, Holden & Pearson to design the stations which must have been a real snub to Heaps. Nonetheless, there seems to have developed a good working relationship between the two notwithstanding Holden holding the predominant position with Pick.

Morden station is typical of Holden’s first work for the UERL being in Modernist style and clad in Portland Stone and a three part glazed screen in the centre of the double height façade divided by two columns with capitals which are a three-dimensional depiction of the Underground roundel, whilst the central part of the glazed screen contains a large roundel. The station was built with a ticket hall and entrance vestibule with shops both sides whilst the structure was designed strong enough to carry commercial or residential development above and eventually offices were built above – but not until 1960. The station has two island platforms and a single-faced one (beneath an overall roof) and the tracks continue to Morden Depot.

One of the pre-WWI proposals was to continue the line southwards from Morden to link with the planned Wimbledon & Sutton Railway which was controlled by the District Railway, which also fell under the UERL umbrella. Both the District and C&SLR would therefore run to Sutton. In the event, objections by the Southern Railway led to the abandonment of this scheme. In 1946 there was a further proposal to continue the line to North Cheam but this was not proceeded with, presumably because of lack of available finances.

The station is not statutorily listed but Merton Council have ‘locally listed’ it as being of local historical and/or architectural importance.

Pictured is the station frontage, now surrounded by 1960 office development.