Mornington Crescent tube station
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Mornington Crescent is a station in Camden Town in north London, named after the road it is on. The station is on London Underground's Northern Line Charing Cross branch, between Euston and Camden Town. It is in Travelcard Zone 2.
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The station was opened as part of the original route of the Charing Cross, Euston, and Hampstead Railway (now the Charing Cross branch of the northern line). After opening, it was little used, and for many years it was open only on weekdays, and before 1966 many trains passed through without stopping.
On 23 October 1992 the station was shut so that the lifts could be replaced. The intention was to open it within one year. However, the poor state of neglect that the station had been previously kept in meant other work had to be completed, and the station was closed for most of the 1990s, amidst talk of it closing permanently.
However, a concerted campaign to reopen the station was launched, as the station is held in fond regard due to the popular game Mornington Crescent named after it which forms part of the BBC Radio 4 panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue. The station was reopened on 27 April 1998 by the cast of the show (Humphrey Lyttelton, Barry Cryer, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graeme Garden) and a memorial plaque to the late Willie Rushton, a founder player, was installed at the station in 2002.
During the station's rebuilding, the original distinctive light blue tiling pattern was restored to the station (though taking into account modern requirements). The ticket hall was reconstructed and the original emergency stairs closed. Modern safety requirements are for squared rather than spiral stairs (since an accident at Bethnal Green station which was the worst loss of life on the whole of the Underground), and so the second lift shaft was converted (losing the unnecessary extra two lifts) into a staircase on one side and a series of station facilities on the other.
Since its 1998 reopening, the station has been open at the same times as most other stations, including weekends, in an attempt to relieve the pressure on the increasingly busy nearby Camden Town station.
See also:- Mornington Crescent (street)