Baker Street station opened in 1863, one of the
original stations on the world’s first metro line.
It was designed by Sir John Fowler, engineer for
the Metropolitan Railway.
The station was built using a ‘cut-and-cover’ system. Workers dug a trench, laid down the track and platforms, and then covered over the station. Because the trains were powered by steam, there were frequent open-air sections along the track.
Platforms 5 and 6, now used for the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines, were renovated in the 1980s to reflect the appearance of the station when it originally opened.
In 1868, a single-track branch line station opened next to the existing station. Constructed by the Midland and Southwest
Junction Railway, here trains ran between Moorgate and Swiss Cottage. The station, known as ‘Baker Street East’, was situated next to Madame Tussauds.
In 1906, the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway opened a deep tube line – now known as the Bakerloo line – that ran from Baker Street to Lambeth North. A footbridge was built to facilitate transfers between the Bakerloo, Metropolitan and Circle lines.
In the 1930s, part of the Metropolitan Railway was transferred to the Bakerloo line. This meant that the Bakerloo line now ran north from Baker Street in two directions: one branch heading to Harrow & Wealdstone, and the other to Stanmore.
In 1911, Metropolitan Railway architect Charles W. Clark created a single ticket hall for Baker Street station, and then built railway offices connected to the station.
Clark also designed Chiltern Court, the block of flats constructed above the station in the 1920s. It contained (when it opened) 180 flats, which were occupied by famous residents such as the writer H.G. Wells. This block was underwritten by the Metropolitan Railway, which profited from the property development.
The station is so linked with the identity of the Metropolitan Railway that it houses a memorial to the company’s employees who died in the First World War.
By the 1920s, the station’s platforms had largely fallen into their current alignment. The station was renovated mid-decade to forestall potential congestion from the crowds expected to attend the 1924-1925 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley.
In the 1970s, the Stanmore branch of the Bakerloo line became the Jubilee line, with new tunnels constructed from Baker Street to its then-terminus, Charing Cross. (The Jubilee line was re-routed from Charing Cross when the line was extended in 1999.) The platforms at Baker Street were renovated around this time to reflect the most famous (albeit fictional) local resident – Sherlock Holmes.