Maiden Lane Station
We answer some questions about the eastern end of the Highline route
What is it?
A disused station and the proposed eastern entrance of the Highline route.
What was it?
Maiden Lane was a station on the North London Railway, and the land immediately to the north was used for agricultural purposes until the mid-nineteenth century. With the development of the King’s Cross railway lands to the south, it became a depot for coal, goods and cattle, until it was redeveloped by Camden Council for residential use as Maiden Lane Estate in the late-twentieth century.
Where is it?
The former station is on York Way, opposite Egg London nightclub, here. The land to the north, now Maiden Lane Estate, is bound by the Midland Mainline to the west, Agar Grove to the north, York Way to the east and the North London Line (Highline) to the south.
When did the station open?
In 1887, but the railway line that served it (running east-west across London), originally built by The East and West India Docks & Birmingham Junction Railway (later to become the North London Railway, now the North London Line, which is part of the London Overground network) opened in 1850 to connect north London to the docks in the east of the city. Various intermediate stations opened at later points including Caledonian Road & Barnsbury in 1870 — and Maiden Lane in 1887.
When did it close?
In 1917, after 30 years use, when the North London Railway electrified the southern pair of the four-track lines for passenger services, the northern pair of tracks, on which the station was built, were used solely for steam-hauled goods traffic following.
Why did it close?
The closure of the station was a war time measure and occurred at the same time as the arrival of electric trams, which combined with local residents gradually switching from working in the city to local industries had caused a decline in passenger numbers.
Despite the closure of passenger services at the station, the railway sidings that were located immediately to the north of the station continued to be used for a further 50 years, including for a short period as a Freightliner terminal, until it closed in the 1970s and the land was sold to Camden Council.
What happened next?
During the 1970s the railway sidings were redeveloped by Camden Council and its architects Gordon Benson & Alan Forsyth (both aged in their 20s at the time!) under the auspices of borough architect Sydney Cook. The final built estate was a fraction of their original proposed scheme though, which included plans to deck over the adjacent (Midland Mainline) railway to the west, as well as compulsory purchase of the strip of industrial land to the north bordering Agar Grove.
After receiving planning permission, and just a few months after Sydney Cook retired from public service, the estate was split into two halves and allocated to two different teams of architects. Benson & Forsyth remained as architects of stage one (the western half), albeit under a new group leader, but stage two was now outside their control. As a result the modernist Maiden Lane estate that was eventually built was very separate from its surroundings, with railway lines on two of the four sides, and the semi-permeable industrial dwellings bordering Agar Grove and York Way on the other two, to the north and east, remaining.
Soon after it opened it was described by the Camden New Journal as ‘Camden’s brightest housing development’, and by Alvin Boyarsky in the Architectural Review as ‘representing the very best in British housing’. Despite the initial positive reviews it soon became notorious for crime and anti-social behaviour and was demonised in the media with many damning reports blaming a myriad of factors, following. The architects, Benson & Forsyth took the same view, apportioning blame to others, and in their words, the estate had transformed an industrial wasteland into an ‘idiosyncratic and uplifting habitat’, which was undermined by ineffectual management, social conflict, and banal architectural intervention.
If there was ever a symbol how far the political and financial landscape of housing has changed since the 1970s — and Sydney Cook’s idealism — Camden recently completed a 273 home development in the south east corner of the estate (immediately north of the proposed Highline entrance, where the former industrial dwellings were located). 71 homes are council-owned, 53 home for shared ownership, and 149 are for sale on the open market to pay for them.
Wasn’t there another Maiden Lane station?
Yes, but on a different railway line. The Great Northern Railway had planned to build a station at King’s Cross ahead of the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park, but there were delays acquiring land. Facing an ever-diminishing timeline, the railway company built a small station as a temporary measure, just to the north of the modern King’s Cross.
Although commonly known as Maiden Lane station, and recorded as such — once it temporarily opened it was referred to as King’s Cross. So the modern day railway station is technically the the second station to bear the King’s Cross name.
There were some suggestions that the site could have become the permanent terminus building at the time , but various factions within the Great Northern Railway concluded that the station should be used for a temporary basis only — largely due to the distance to the main Euston Road.
Does this sound right to you? If you’ve got any historical information about the Camden Highline and would like to share it, please get in touch! info [at] camdenhighline [dot] com
