 In November 1896 notice was published that a private bill was to be presented to Parliament for the construction of the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway (B & PCR). The line was planned to run entirely underground between Air Street near Piccadilly Circus and the south end of Exhibition Road, South Kensington. The route was to run beneath Piccadilly, Knightsbridge, Brompton Road and Thurloe Place, with intermediate stations at Dover Street, Down Street, Hyde Park Corner, Knightsbridge and Brompton Road. A short branch to the east of the South Kensington terminus was planned to a depot south of Brompton Road at the end of Yeoman Row. Electricity to operate the trains was to be provided from a generating station to be built about a mile south of the South Kensington terminus on the north bank of the River Thames at Lots Road, West Brompton. Following parliamentary approval, the bill received royal assent as the Brompton & Piccadilly Circus Railway Act, 1897 on 6 August 1897.
