Northern line upgrade could bring a new train depot to a former horse hospital

"Transport for London ( TfL) aspires to increase the number of trains on the Northern line at peak times to 36 per hour, but doing so would require 45 additional berths to accommodate the extra trains required for the more intensive service. TfL has worked out that this would require at least two new depots, one on each branch of the Northern line, and a possible site has been identified at Totteridge & Whetstone station on the High Barnet branch of the Northern line."

"The Great Northern owned around 1,000 horses when the hospital opened in 1884, which, at the average price of the time, represented an investment of around £60,000, so looking after them was sensible. The horses were used for carting luggage to and from stations, for small freight movements within station yards, and for the railway company's horse-drawn buses in central London."

Transport for London aims to run up to 36 trains per hour on the Northern line at peak times, which would require 45 additional berths and at least two new depots, one on each branch. A potential depot site has been identified next to Totteridge & Whetstone station on the High Barnet branch, occupying disused land that formerly hosted a Great Northern Railway horse hospital. Totteridge & Whetstone opened in 1872 under the Great Northern Railway, later operated by LNER and transferred to London Underground in 1940. The horse hospital opened in 1884 to care for working horses used for luggage, freight and horse-drawn buses.

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