Aldgate East tube station

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Location
Place	Aldgate
Local authority	Tower Hamlets
Operations
Managed by	London Underground
Platforms in use	2
Transport for London
Zone	1
Annual entry/exit	7.238 million †
History
Key dates	Opened 1884
Transport for London List of London stations: Underground \| National Rail
† Data from Transport for London [1]
Tube Portal

Aldgate East tube station as it was around 1895

Aldgate East is a London Underground station located between Aldgate and Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

The station is in Travelcard Zone 1. It is on the Hammersmith & City Line between Liverpool Street and Whitechapel, and the District Line between Tower Hill and Whitechapel.

The original Aldgate East station was opened on 6 October 1884 as part of an eastern extension to the Metropolitan District Railway (now the District Line), some way to the west of the current station, close to the Metropolitan Railway's Aldgate station. However, when the curve to join the Metropolitan Railway from Liverpool Street was built, the curve had to be particularly sharp due to the presence of Aldgate East station, at which it needed to be straight.

As part of London Transport's "New Works Programme 1935 - 1940" the triangular junction at Aldgate was enlarged, to allow for a much less sharp curve and so as to ensure that trains held on any leg of the triangle did not foul the signals and points at other places. Aldgate East was re-sited some distance eastwards to its current location, with an exit facing west toward the original location. The next station to the east, St Mary's (Whitechapel Road) was now so close to Aldgate East as to be unnecessary, so it was closed and an additional exit placed at the east end of the nearby new Aldgate East station.

The new station, opened on 31 October 1938 (the earlier station closing permanently the previous night), was designed to be completely subterranean, providing a much needed pedestrian underpass to the road above. However, in order to accommodate the space needed for this, and the platforms below, the existing track required lowering by more than seven feet. To achieve this task, whilst still keeping the track open during the day, the bed underneath the track was excavated, and the track held up by a timber trestle work. Then, once excavation was complete and the new station constructed around the site, an army of over 100 workmen lowered the whole track simultaneously in one night, utilising overhead hooks to suspend the track when necessary. The hooks still remain.

Since the station was built completely under a widened road, and was built after concrete had started to be used as a construction material, the platforms have a particularly high headroom. Combined with the typical late 1930s style of tiling, typical of the stations of the then London Passenger Transport Board, the platform area of the station presents a particularly airy and welcoming appearance, unusual on the underground at the time of construction. The tiling contains relief tiles, showing devices pertinent to London Transport and the area it served, were designed by Harold Stabler and made by the Poole Pottery.

Nearby places of interest to Aldgate East include the Whitechapel Art Gallery, the East London Mosque, Petticoat Lane Market and Brick Lane.

Aldgate East was near the location of one of the 7 July 2005 London bombings, on a Circle Line train travelling between Liverpool Street and Aldgate.