Kennington tube station

Kennington station stands on Kennington Park Road in the London Borough of Southwark. It is a deep-level London Underground station on the Northern line where the Charing Cross and Bank branches meet the Morden and Battersea Power Station branches. The next stations north are Waterloo and Elephant & Castle, while Oval and Nine Elms lie to the south. It occupies both fare zones one and two. The station opened in 1890 as part of the world’s first underground electric railway. Its surface building, designed by T. P. Figgis, remains largely unchanged and is now a listed structure. In the 1920s the underground parts were rebuilt to allow larger trains and new cross-platform links. Two extra platforms were added and connecting passages installed for easier interchange. Visitors find a single-storey building topped by a dome that once housed lift machinery. Inside, lifts descend to platforms arranged at different levels, connected by stairs and passages. The walls display Charles Holden’s tiling scheme from the 1920s modernisation. Below ground, loop tunnels and sidings allow trains to reverse before heading north or south.