Bakerloo line extension London has no immediate rail or tube links: the nearest stations are , , , and . Before the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway (now the Bakerloo line) opened between Baker Street and Elephant & Castle in 1906, several alternative schemes were proposed for extending the line at both ends. One failed scheme, the New Cross & Waterloo Railway Bill of 1898, had proposed the construction of a line as far south as , but it was not considered by parliament before it was dropped. The possibility of building a line through Camberwell first emerged in 1913, when the Lord
Charing Cross tube station opened. The constituent stations also underwent a number of name changes during their history. The first part of the complex, the Bakerloo line platforms, was opened as "Trafalgar Square" by the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway (BS&WR) on 10 March 1906. The Northern line platforms were opened a year later, as "Charing Cross", by the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR, now the Charing Cross branch of the Northern line) on 22 June 1907. At its opening this station was the southern terminus of the CCE&HR which ran to two northern termini at and Highgate (now ) tube stations.