Old Street station

Old Street station is a central London National Rail and London Underground station located at the junction of Old Street and City Road just north of the City of London. It lies close to the border between the boroughs of Islington and Hackney. The station is in Travelcard Zone 1.

The station is on the Bank branch of London Underground's Northern Line, between Moorgate and Angel stations. It is also between Moorgate and Essex Road stations on National Rail's Northern City Line, operated by First Capital Connect. Although a through station on this route, for ticketing purposes it is considered a central London railway terminus.^[3]

At the surface, the station is situated under the eastern edge of the busy Old Street roundabout, where Old Street crosses City Road. There is no ground-level station building, access being by ramps and stairs to a modern station entrance which is part of a small shopping parade beneath the roundabout. The original ground-level buildings were removed when the roundabout was constructed. The station has toilets, but they are not open late into the evening. On the Northern Line between Old Street and Angel stations is the disused tube station City Road.

History

The station was originally opened in November 1901 by the first deep-level tube railway, the City & South London Railway, as part of an extension of its line from Moorgate to Angel. The Northern City Line platforms were opened in February 1904 by the Great Northern & City Railway which built its tunnels to a larger diameter capable of accommodating main line trains in the hope of carrying trains from its northern terminus at the Great Northern Railway's Finsbury Park station to Moorgate. This eventually happened in the 1970s, with the line becoming a BR route, with through services to Hertford and Welwyn Garden City. During the 1920s the station was rebuilt when escalators (1 & 2) replaced the lift shaft in accessing the platform tunnels. Between 1967 and 1969 the station was once again modified, the surface building was replaced with the current sub-surface structure situated in the centre of the roundabout and an additional escalator shaft (3) was added. During the 1990s the effects of corrosion caused by excessive soil acidity required a section of the cast iron running tunnel lining in the Northern Line, south of Old Street, to be re-lined with stainless steel tunnel segments.

Gallery

References

Transport links

London bus routes 21, 43, 55, 76, 135, 141, 205, 214, 243, 271 and 394 Night routes N35, N55, N76.

External links

• Train times for Old Street station from National Rail
• London Transport Museum Photographic Archive
  • Original Old Street station building
  • Redesigned station building in 1929
• Map sources