Covent Garden tube station

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Covent Garden
Location
Place	Covent Garden
Local authority	Westminster
Operations
Managed by	London Underground
Platforms in use	2
Annual entry/exit	16.907 million
Transport for London
Zone	1
History
Key dates	Opened 1907
Transport for London List of London stations: Underground \| National Rail

Covent Garden is a London Underground station in Covent Garden. It is on the Piccadilly Line between Leicester Square and Holborn. The station is on the corner of Long Acre and James Street. It is in Travelcard Zone 1.

Covent Garden station is one of the few stations in Central London for which platform access is only by lift or stairs. It was previously "exit only" on Saturday afternoons, when the surrounding shopping areas are at their busiest, since so many people visit the station and there is the risk of dangerous overcrowding of the platforms. It is reportedly the busiest station on the network at which access to the platforms is primarily by lift. The "exit only" rule has now been lifted although all tube maps and station posters indicate that it becomes extremely busy, mainly at weekends and gives details of the alternative methods of getting to Covent Garden using surrounding stations.

Covent Garden is only 260 metres (290 yards) from Leicester Square station, the shortest distance between two adjacent stations on the Underground network.^[1]

The station is unusual in being tiled in a light colour pattern, as it has always been, making its passageways appear light, airy, and welcoming.

Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway (GNP&BR) services first ran on 15 December 1906, and the station opened on 11 April 1907.

Transport for London have committed themselves to easing the congestion at the station, which may involve the creation of a new exit further north along Long Acre (i.e. away from Covent Garden Piazza and nearer the eclectic shopping district which surrounds Neal's Yard), and the provision of escalator access.

There are four lifts which give access to street level, alternatively there are narrow and steep stairs and many of them. During the lift journey a recorded announcement is played asking passengers to have their tickets/passes ready as they exit the lifts and where to turn for Covent Garden's market.