Kentish Town station

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kentish Town
Kentish Town station building in the CCE&HR style
Location
Place Kentish Town
Local authority London Borough of Camden
Operations
Station code KTN (National Rail), ZKT (London Underground)
Managed by London Underground
Platforms in use 4 (6 total)
(National Rail), ZKT (London Underground)&R=1&A=0 Live departures and (National Rail), ZKT (London Underground) station information from National Rail
Annual Passenger Usage
2004/05 * 0.383 million
2005/06 * 0.444 million
Transport for London
Zone 2
2006 annual usage 5.838 million †
2007 annual usage 6.433 million †
History
1868
1907
Opened (Midland)
Opened (CCE&HR)
Transport for London
List of London stations: Underground | National Rail
† Data from Transport for London [1]
Live departure info from TfL for this station - Northern [2]
* Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Kentish Town from Office of Rail Regulation statistics.
Portal:Kentish Town station
UK Railways Portal

Kentish Town station is a London Underground and National Rail station in the Kentish Town area of the London Borough of Camden. It is located at the junction of Kentish Town Road (A400) and Leighton Road.

The station is served by the Northern Line on the High Barnet branch, and by First Capital Connect Thameslink trains on National Rail's Midland Main Line. It is between Camden Town and Tufnell Park stations on the Northern Line and between West Hampstead and St. Pancras International on the National Rail network. It is in Travelcard Zone 2.

There are four main line platforms on the surface and two deep tube platforms in tunnels below ground. East Midlands Trains InterCity services from Leeds, Sheffield and Leicester run through at high speed, but do not stop.

Contents

[edit] History

The National Rail station was opened by the Midland Railway (MR) in 1868 when it built its extension to its new London terminal at St. Pancras. Before that, MR trains had used the lines of the London and North Western Railway to Euston or the Great Northern Railway to King's Cross. North of the station was the second largest motive power depot and repair facility on the Midland. In 1861, a collision occurred at a sidings near the station site, resulting in 16 fatalities and 317 injured.

For a short period from 1878 and 1880, the MR operated the Super Outer Circle service through the station from St. Pancras to Earl's Court Underground station via tracks through Cricklewood, South Acton and Hammersmith.[1] The mainline station was rebuilt in 1983 and nothing of the original station building remains.

The separate London Underground station was opened on 22 June 1907 by the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR, a precursor of the Northern line).[2] The station was designed by Leslie Green and features the standard ox-blood red glazed terracotta façade with semi-circular windows at first floor level common to the majority of the original stations on the CCE&HR and its sister railways, the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway and Great Northern Piccadilly & Brompton Railway opened the previous year. At opening, the next station south on the CCE&HR was South Kentish Town but this station was closed in 1924 due to low passenger numbers.[3]

[edit] Future

To enable the Thameslink Programme to go ahead some trains from Sevenoaks and even Maidstone East will terminate at Kentish Town from March 2009 until December 2011.[4].

[edit] In popular culture

The 1980 Rumpole of the Bailey special, Rumpole's Return, made extensive use of the Underground station for a scene in which someone is stabbed to death on the northbound platform.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Circle Line, History. Clive's Underground Line Guides. Retrieved on 2008-02-13.
  2. ^ Rose, Douglas (1999). The London Underground, A Diagrammatic History. Douglas Rose/Capital Transport. ISBN 1-85414-219-4. 
  3. ^ Connor, J.E. (1999). "South Kentish Town", London's Disused Underground Stations. Capital Transport, p. 22. ISBN 185414-250-X. 

[edit] External links

[edit] Gallery

Preceding station   London Underground   Following station
Northern line
towards Morden or Kennington
National Rail
West Hampstead Thameslink   First Capital Connect
Thameslink
  London St Pancras
Former Services
Preceding station Disused railways Following station
Haverstock Hill   Midland Railway
Midland Main Line
  Camden Road (Midland)
Tufnell Park   Northern Line
Former Route
(1907-1924)
  South Kentish Town

Coordinates: 51°33′03″N, 0°08′27″W