The London Underground station so useless that drivers sometimes didn't bother to stop there

Abandoned Brompton Road Tube station
-Credit:Mike Quinn


Brompton Road station, despite its proximity to Harrods, was a hardly used stop and closed after just 28 years.

Located at the junction between Brompton Road and Cottage Place, the now abandoned station first opened its doors in 1906.

But the new station proved a bit of a dud - and in a bid to be more efficient, drivers were known to sometimes just skip the stop altogether.

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This was largely down to the proximity of both South Kensington and Knightsbridge stations, around a two-minute walk to each.

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By 1929, trains only stopped at Brompton Road on weekends, and even then, only during the day.

South Kensington Tube station
With the much more popular South Kensington and Knightsbridge stations just around the corner, Brompton Road station fell flat -Credit:Getty Images

The scorn for Brompton Road even inspired a West End show.

Passing Brompton Road, written by Jevan Brandon-Thomas, featured a girl who blamed her lack of friends on the fact that the station's use was so unpredictable.

During the 1926 general strike, the stop was closed for six months and then permanently closed when neighbouring station Knightsbridge opened a new entrance in 1934.

During World War two the building was used as a command centre by the Ministry of Defence, the building was then sold in 2014 for £53 million but still remains empty to this day.

Brompton Road was one of three stations on the Piccadilly line to close that year along with Down Street and York Road.

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