Plaque Wording:
Heritage information Regents Park station
Architect: Leslie Green, 1906
Regents Park station opened on 10 March 1906 on the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway. The line then ran between Baker Street and Kennington Road (now Lambeth North).
The building of the railway began in June 1898, financed by Whitaker Wright, the wealthy owner of an English mining company. In 1900, Wright's finances were called into question and he was arrested for fraud following the collapse of his companies, and the building of the railway stopped. On 26 January 1904, Wright was convicted of fraud at the Royal Courts of Justice and given a seven year prison sentence. He committed suicide by swallowing cyanide tablets in a court anteroom immediately afterward. On 7 March 1902, the American financier Charles Yerkes bought the remains of the unfinished railway for £360,000 and paid for its completion. Sadly, Yerkes died on 29 December 1905, just months before any of the new stations opened. The station was designed with typical Leslie Green architecture using heavy green relief tiles in the ticket hall. These were replaced in 1986 (although some still survive in staff accommodation areas) with a crude white, grey and red tile scheme as part of a project to introduce ticket gates and replacement lifts, but fine replicas have since been reintroduced in the station entrance subways. The spiral stairs down to the platforms retain the original 1906 tile scheme while the lower routeways and platforms received a sensitive replication of the original scheme as part of a station refurbishment in 2007.
The building of the railway began in June 1898, financed by Whitaker Wright, the wealthy owner of an English mining company. In 1900, Wright's finances were called into question and he was arrested for fraud following the collapse of his companies, and the building of the railway stopped. On 26 January 1904, Wright was convicted of fraud at the Royal Courts of Justice and given a seven year prison sentence. He committed suicide by swallowing cyanide tablets in a court anteroom immediately afterward. On 7 March 1902, the American financier Charles Yerkes bought the remains of the unfinished railway for £360,000 and paid for its completion. Sadly, Yerkes died on 29 December 1905, just months before any of the new stations opened. The station was designed with typical Leslie Green architecture using heavy green relief tiles in the ticket hall. These were replaced in 1986 (although some still survive in staff accommodation areas) with a crude white, grey and red tile scheme as part of a project to introduce ticket gates and replacement lifts, but fine replicas have since been reintroduced in the station entrance subways. The spiral stairs down to the platforms retain the original 1906 tile scheme while the lower routeways and platforms received a sensitive replication of the original scheme as part of a station refurbishment in 2007.