Arnos Grove tube station

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Arnos Grove
Location
Place	New Southgate/Arnos Grove
Local authority	Enfield
Operations
Managed by	London Underground
Platforms in use	4 (3 tracks)
Annual entry/exit	3.459 million
Transport for London
Zone	4
History
1932 1933	Opened (as terminus) Became through station
Transport for London List of London stations: Underground \| National Rail

Arnos Grove is a London Underground station on the Piccadilly line between Bounds Green and Southgate. The station is in Travelcard Zone 4 and is located in New Southgate near Arnos Park on Bowes Road, London N11 1AN. Arnos Grove, the road from which the station and the adjacent neighbourhood of Arnos Grove take their names is, at its closest point, about 500 m north of the station on the far side of Arnos Park.

1 History
2 Trivia
3 Nearby places
4 Transport connections
5 External links

[edit] History

The station was opened on 19 September 1932 as the most northerly station on the first section of the Piccadilly Line extension from Finsbury Park to Cockfosters. The station acted as the interim terminus of the line until services were further extended to Oakwood on 13 March 1933. The station's name was chosen after public deliberation: alternatives were "Arnos Park", "Bowes Road" and "Southgate".

Like the other stations Charles Holden designed for the extension, Arnos Grove was built in a modern European style using brick, glass and reinforced concrete and basic geometric shapes. A circular drum-like ticket hall of brick and glass panels rises from a low single storey structure and is capped by a flat concrete roof. A similar design was employed by Holden for the rebuilding of Chiswick Park on the District Line (also in 1932), although the drum there is supplemented with an adjacent brick tower. The centre of the ticket hall is occupied by a disused ticket office (a passimeter in London Underground parlance) which houses an exhibition on the station and the line. Like Holden's other stations on the extension, Arnos Grove is a Grade II listed building.

Three parallel train tracks pass through the station, with two double-sided platforms positioned between the central track and the outer tracks. The edges of the platforms are labelled platform 1 and 2, and platform 3 and 4, respectively, in such a way that the two outer tracks are accessible by platforms 1 and 4, and the central track, usually used by trains that terminate and reverse at Arnos Grove station, is accessible via platforms 2 and 3. Platforms 1 and 2 are designated for trains to Cockfosters, platforms 3 and 4 for trains to Central London. When operational problems occur on the line, Arnos Grove station may act as a temporary terminus of a reduced service - either a shuttle service between Arnos Grove and Cockfosters or a truncated service from central London. The station has a set of seven sidings to its south for stabling trains.

The station has recently undergone a refurbishment including improvements to signage, security and train information systems.

[edit] Trivia

Some signs are in a 'petit-serif' adaptation of the London Underground typeface, Johnston Sans. This type-face was designed by Charles Holden and Percy Delf Smith.
The current (2006) Piccadilly Line train announcements were recorded by an Arnos Grove driver.
Arnos Grove had a station cat (which was apparently called Spooky).