Oval Underground Station

Story

Oval is a London Underground station in Kennington of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is on the Northern line between Stockwell and Kennington stations and is in Travelcard Zone 2. It opened on 18 December 1890 as part of the City & South London Railway. It is named after The Oval cricket ground, which it serves.LocationThe station is located at the junction of Kennington Park Road, Camberwell New Road, Clapham Road and Harleyford Street and is about 500 yards from the Oval cricket ground. Also close by are Kennington Park and the imposing St Mark's Church. The station has cricket-themed decorations, with murals, statues and banners all celebrating the illustrious game.HistoryThe City and South London railway opened to passengers between Stockwell and King William Street on 18 December 1890, and was both the first standard gauge tube and the first railway to employ electric traction in London. To avoid disturbance of surface buildings the tube was shield-driven at deep level, and much of the work was done via shafts at station sites which later contained the passenger lifts.Oval tube station was the intended site of one of the attempted London bombings on 21 July 2005.Station buildingThe Oval station, opened as Kennington Oval, was designed by Thomas Phillips Figgis with elements of early Arts and Crafts and neo-classical detailing. The structure was made distinctive by a lead-covered dome with cupola lantern and weathervane which housed some of the lift equipment; the main part of the building was of red brick. The station building was rebuilt in the early 1920s when the line was modernised and was refurbished during late 2007/early 2008 at street level with a modern tiling scheme inside and out, giving the station a more modern look. Reflecting its proximity to the cricket ground, the internal decorative tiling features large images of cricketers in various stances.