page_title: Morden Depot
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Morden Depot / History
caption_attribution_description: April 1988 1956 and 1959 Stock
context_page_description: Morden Depot is a British rolling stock depot on the London Underground Northern line, and is located to the south of Morden Underground station. It was opened in 1926, when the City and South London Railway was extended from Clapham Common to Morden.
context_section_description: In 1913, the City and South London Railway (C&SLR) and the London Electric Railway (LER) were granted authorisation by separate Acts of Parliament to carry out works on their underground routes. The City and South London Railway needed to enlarge its tunnels to accommodate larger rolling stock and the London Electric Railway obtained permission to construct tunnels to connect the C&SLR at Euston to its Hampstead Tube station at Camden Town. The work was delayed by the onset of the First World War and both companies obtained further Acts of Parliament to extend the time limits allowed for the works. Increases in the costs of materials and labour following the war meant that building and maintaining underground railways was no longer economic, and by 1921 the country was in recession, with nearly two million workers unemployed. In order to ease the situation, the government passed the Trade Facilities Act 1921, which enabled companies involved in projects that would create employment to borrow money, with the treasury guaranteeing both the capital amounts and the interest payments. Lord Ashfield, the chairman of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, which owned both the City and South London Railway and the London Electric Railway, applied for and was granted powers to borrow £5 million under the scheme, which allowed the two projects to proceed.
  The Trade Facilities Act 1921 had allowed the treasury to guarantee a total of £25 million, and the scheme was extended by the passing of the Trade Facilities and Loans Guarantee Act 1922, which increased the amounts of funding to £50 million, while extending the time limits by a year. With the prospect of being able to borrow more money, the London Electric Railway obtained an act that authorised an extension of the Hampstead Tube from Charing Cross (now Embankment) to Kennington in 1923, while the City and South London Railway obtained an act for an extension southwards from Clapham Common to Morden, where a new depot would be constructed. The extension was funded by issuing 4.5 percent debenture stock, backed by a government guarantee. Work on the extension started on 31 December 1923 at Clapham, and the line and the depot were opened on 13 September 1926.
  In order to run the extended service, the first trains of what became known as Standard Stock were ordered. 191 cars were ordered in 1923 from three manufacturers, with a further 127 in 1924 and 120 in 1925. All of the cars were delivered by road, the 1923 Stock going to Golders Green Depot, the 1924 batch going to both Golders Green and the newly constructed Morden Depot, while all of the 1925 build was delivered to Morden.  Stock delivered to Morden was stored until the line to Clapham was opened. The cars were towed to Morden by traction engines, mounted on road bogies. Two tall gantries were erected, which enabled the cars to be lifted, for the road bogies to be removed. A railway steam crane was then used to place the railway bogies onto the tracks, and once mounted on them, the City and South London's diminutive steam locomotive was used to move the cars to the stabling sidings.
  The line southwards from Clapham runs almost entirely in tunnel, emerging into the open air just to the north of Morden station. Tracks continue southwards beyond the station, passing under the A24 road to reach the depot, which is only accessible from the northern end. At its southern end, the depot is hemmed in by Morden South station and the tracks of the Sutton Loop Line. Within the depot there is a large car shed, with open-air sidings to either side of it. A long footbridge crosses the depot tracks, providing good views of the facility.
  Morden Depot is thought to be the first such facility on the London Underground where the term "depot" was applied to a site for stabling and maintenance of trains. It was probably borrowed from army stores served by railways after the end of the First World War, which were also known as depots. Prior to this, the various underground lines all had "works" where trains were stabled and maintai
caption: Trains of 1956 Stock (left) and 1959 Stock (centre and right) stabled at Morden in 1988
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