Nestled right next to Monument station lies a forgotten piece of London’s commuting history – the site of an ancient Underground station named King William Street. Despite only being in operation for a decade, this historic Tube station holds a fascinating story.
Now home to a Waitrose, the station was named after King William IV, whose reign was even shorter than the station’s lifespan. King William, who has a host of illegitimate descendants including ex-PM David Cameron, saw significant societal changes during his reign, including restrictions on child labour, the abolition of slavery across most of the British Empire, and an expansion of voting rights.
Despite these achievements, his namesake station was plagued with problems from its opening day in December 1890.
You won’t catch Tube trains passing through this station
(Image: Getty Images)
The design of the station was far from ideal, with just a single platform for trains and the track alignment causing severe limitations to the station’s capacity. In 1895, a second platform was added at King William Street tube station in an attempt to alleviate these issues, but the problem of limited capacity persisted.
Despite refurbishments, the station was closed just five years later and completely demolished three decades after that. However, that wasn’t the end of the station altogether.
Like many other disused underground stations, King William Street was repurposed as an air-raid shelter during the Blitz, with access via a nearby office building. It became a nightly refuge for dozens, sometimes hundreds, of Londoners. Today, commuters can pop into the Waitrose that now stands on this spot to pick up their shopping essentials before walking a mere minute up the street to Monument station.
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