4 January 1957 Twenty minutes after an automatic lift jammed at Hampstead tube station during the evening rush hour, women trapped inside were screaming with fear while men kicked the doors amid a rising tide of panic. Nearly 25 minutes passed before stat

4 January 1957

Twenty minutes after an automatic lift jammed at Hampstead tube station during the evening rush hour, women trapped inside were screaming with fear while men kicked the doors amid a rising tide of panic.

Nearly 25 minutes passed before station staff gave any indication to the passengers that their call for help had been heard. "What's all the fuss about?" demanded a porter afterwards, "the lift was not stuck for long."

For hundreds of years an oak tree stood on the boundary between the parishes of St Pancras boundary between the parishes of St Pancras and Hampstead. It was called the Gospel Oak.

The Gospel Oak was a parish boundary and it served as a pulpit and was the meeting place for villagers from Hampstead and Highgate for certain celebrations. Nearby the River Fleet ran at the side of a path that became Mansfield Road.