Liverpool Street station
  | |
|---|---|
| London Liverpool Street | |
 Main station concourse | |
  Liverpool Street Location of Liverpool Street in Central London | |
| Location | Liverpool Street / Bishopsgate |
| Local authority | City of London |
| Managed by | Network Rail |
| Station code | LST |
| Number of platforms | 18 |
| Accessible |
 [1] |
| Fare zone | 1 |
| OSI | Bank; Fenchurch Street [2] |
| National Rail annual entry and exit | |
| 2004–05 | 50.469 million[3] |
| 2005–06 |
 47.271 million[3] |
| 2006–07 |
 55.266 million[3] |
| 2007–08 |
57.790 million[3] |
| 2008–09 |
56.198 million[3] |
| 2009–10 |
51.596 million[3] |
| 2010–11 |
55.769 million[3] |
| 2011-12 |
57.106 million[3] |
| 1874 | Opened |
| Lists of stations |
|
| External links | |
 London Transport portal UK Railways portalCoordinates: 51°31′07″N 0°04′53″W / 51.5186°N 0.0813°W | |
Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street,[4][5] is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London. It is the terminus for the West Anglia Main Line to Cambridge; the busier Great Eastern Main Line to Norwich; many local commuter services to parts of east London, Essex, and Hertfordshire; and the Stansted Express, a fast link to London Stansted Airport.
It was opened in 1874 as a replacement for Bishopsgate station, which was subsequently converted into a goods station. (Bishopsgate (Low Level) opened in 1872 as an additional station to Liverpool Street; it closed in 1916.) In 1917, Liverpool Street was the first site in London to be hit by enemy bomber aircraft in the First World War and in the build-up to the Second World War it served as the terminus for thousands of child refugees arriving in London as part of the Kindertransport rescue mission.
After falling into a state of disrepair, the station underwent extensive improvements and modernisation between 1985 and 1992; Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the modified station in December 1991. In the Bishopsgate bombing of 1993 it sustained minor damage and during the 7 July 2005 terrorist attacks seven passengers were killed when a bomb exploded aboard an Underground train after it had departed Liverpool Street.
With over 57 million passenger entries and exits in 2011-12, Liverpool Street is one of the busiest railway stations in the United Kingdom and is the third busiest in London after Waterloo and Victoria.[6] It is one of 17 stations in the UK directly managed by Network Rail.[7]
It has three main exits: to Liverpool Street, after which the station is named; to Bishopsgate; and to the Broadgate development to the west of the station, on the site of Broad Street station. The Underground station connects the Central, Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines, and is in fare zone 1.
History
A new terminus for the City
Liverpool Street station was opened on 2 February 1874 by the Great Eastern Railway (GER) on the site of the original Bethlem Royal Hospital, the world's oldest psychiatric hospital, widely known as 'Bedlam'. Ten platforms were fully operational by 1 November 1875; from this date the original City terminal at Bishopsgate station closed to passengers. Bishopsgate reopened as a goods station in 1881 and was destroyed by a spectacular fire on 5 December 1964. The London Fire Brigade mobilised 40 fire engines, 12 turntable ladder platforms and over 200 firefighters to the incident but was unable to save the depot; two customs officials were killed in the blaze, which caused millions of pounds of damage and destroyed hundreds of rail wagons. The Bishopsgate site remained derelict for nearly 40 years until part of it was redeveloped as Shoreditch High Street, part of the extension and rebuilding of London Underground's East London line as part of the London Overground network.
The station was designed by the GER's chief engineer Edward Wilson and was built by John Mowlem & Co[8] on a site that was occupied by Bethlem Royal Hospital from the 13th to 17th centuries. A City of London Corporation plaque commemorating the station's construction hangs on the wall of the adjoining former Great Eastern Hotel, rebranded Andaz Liverpool Street in 2008,[9] which was designed by Charles Barry, Jr. (son of Sir Charles Barry) and his brother Edward Middleton Barry, and also built by Mowlem. The station was named after the street on which it stands, which was named in honour of Lord Liverpool, prime minister from 1812 to 1827, having been built as part of an extension of the City towards the end of his term in office.
The construction of the station was driven by the desire of the company to have a terminal closer to the City than the one opened by its predecessor Eastern Counties Railway at Shoreditch on 1 July 1840, renamed Bishopsgate in 1846. Construction proved extremely expensive due to the cost of acquiring property and many people were displaced due to the large scale demolition. The desire to link the GER lines with the sub-surface Metropolitan Railway, a link seldom used and soon abandoned, meant that the GER had to drop below ground level from the viaduct east of Bishopsgate. This means that there are considerable gradients leaving the station. Lord Salisbury, who was chairman of Great Eastern in 1870, described the Liverpool Street extension as "one of the greatest mistakes ever committed in connection with a railway." By 1894, an additional eight platforms had been constructed beneath a new roof of simpler design than the original.
War-time events
The station was the first place in London to be hit by German Gotha G.V bomber aircraft during the First World War. The May 1917 bombing, in which the station took a direct hit from 1,000 lb (454 kg) of explosive, killed 162 people. In 1922, the employees of GER who died during the War were honoured on a large marble memorial installed on the concourse, unveiled by Sir Henry Wilson. On his return home from the unveiling ceremony, Wilson was assassinated by two IRA volunteers. Wilson was commemorated by a memorial plaque adjoining the GER monument.[10][11]
Thousands of Jewish refugee children arrived at Liverpool Street in the late 1930s as part of the Kindertransport rescue mission. In September 2003 the Für Das Kind Kindertransport Memorial sculpture by artist Flor Kent, who conceived the project, was installed at the station. It consisted of a specialised glass case with original objects and a bronze sculpture of a girl, a direct descendant of a child rescued by Nicholas Winton, who unveiled the work.[12] The objects included in the sculpture began to suffer deterioration due to weather, and in 2006 a replacement bronze memorial by Frank Meisler, depicting a group of children and a railway track, was installed at the main entrance on Liverpool Street.[13] The statue of the child from the Kent memorial was re-erected separately on the concourse.
During the Second World War the station's structure sustained damage, particularly the Gothic tower at the main entrance on Liverpool Street and its glass roof, which was damaged by a bomb that landed nearby on Bishopsgate.
Post-War deterioration and redevelopment
By the 1970s the station had become dark, dilapidated and dank, whilst evocative of another age. It was extensively modified between 1985 and 1992, including bringing all the platforms in the main shed up to the same end point and constructing a new underground booking office, but its façade, Victorian cast-iron pillars, and the GER memorial were retained. The refurbishment coincided with the closure and demolition of the neighbouring Broad Street station and the construction of the Broadgate development in its place. The redeveloped Liverpool Street was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 5 December 1991. At this time a giant departures board, suspended above the station concourse, was installed at great expense, but due to technical difficulties there was a long delay before it became operational. It was one of the last remaining mechanical 'flapper' display boards at a British railway station and the largest, but was removed from service in September 2007 and replaced by electronic boards. In 1992, an additional entrance was constructed from the east side of Bishopsgate with a subway under the thoroughfare.
May2003.jpg)
The new station roof was built largely in the style of the western part of the station, which survived the War. The original roofing was painted brown at this time, with smoked plexiglass, while the new roofing was painted blue with clear glass so that people could differentiate between new and old. All the platforms now end in a uniform line, and can accommodate 12-carriage trains, except platforms 16 to 18, which can only accommodate eight carriages).
The station was twinned with Amsterdam Centraal railway station in 1993, with a plaque marking this close to the entrance to the Underground station. Also in 1993, a truck bomb in Bishopsgate, planted by the Provisional IRA, exploded and caused some damage to the station despite it being over 200 metres away.
Recent events
In 2005, during the 7/7 attacks, a bomb exploded on a Circle line train as it left Liverpool Street towards Aldgate, killing seven passengers.
In 2013, during excavation work for the Crossrail project, the skeletal remains of several hundred people were uncovered beneath the station. The two-acre burial pit was reportedly dug in the mid-17th century after parish graveyards became vastly overfilled and it was described by archaeologists as "one of the most diverse burial grounds in London", with the remains believed to be those of the rich, poor, young, and old, including plague victims, mental health patients, and people whose corpses were never claimed.[14] Also discovered at the site were a number of Roman horseshoes and a 16th-century gold coin that may have once been used as a sequin or pendant, similar to those worn by wealthy aristocrats and royalty.[15]
National Rail destinations
Liverpool Street serves many destinations in the East of England including Stansted Airport and Southend Airport, Cambridge, Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth, Norwich, Ipswich, Clacton-on-Sea, Colchester, Braintree, Southend Victoria, Harwich, and many suburban stations in north-eastern London, Essex and Hertfordshire. It is one of the busiest commuter stations in London. A small number of daily express trains to Harwich International provides connection with the Dutchflyer ferry to Hoek van Holland.
Almost all passenger services are operated by Greater Anglia, but there are two late-evening weekday shuttle services to Barking, calling only at Stratford operated by c2c.[16] All other c2c services depart from Fenchurch Street: c2c also operates from Liverpool Street during engineering works between Barking and Fenchurch Street.
Underground station
 Entrance from the main concourse at Liverpool Street | |
| Location | Liverpool Street |
|---|---|
| Local authority | City of London |
| Managed by | London Underground |
| Number of platforms | 4 |
| Fare zone | 1 |
| London Underground annual entry and exit | |
| 2009 |
60.908 million[17] |
| 2010 |
62.720 million[18] |
| 2011 |
63.65 million[19] |
| 1 February 1875 | Opened (using mainline) |
| 12 July 1875 | Opened (as Bishopsgate) |
| 1 November 1909 | Renamed Liverpool Street) |
| 28 July 1912 | Central line opened (terminus) |
| 4 December 1946 | Central line extended (through) |
| Lists of stations |
|
|
London Transport portal | |
Liverpool Street tube station is the fifth busiest station on the London Underground, served by the Central, Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines.
The station has sub-surface platforms 1 and 2 (opened by the Metropolitan Railway on 12 July 1875 as Bishopsgate) on the Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines. The Metropolitan had served mainline platforms in the GER station from 1 February 1875, but this link had only a short life. The station was renamed Liverpool Street from 1 November 1909. A disused west-facing bay platform 3 was used by terminating Metropolitan and occasional District line trains running via Edgware Road is still visible.
The deep-level Central line platforms 4 and 5 opened on 28 July 1912, as the eastern terminus of the Central London Railway. The line was extended eastwards, as part of the Second World War-delayed London Passenger Transport Board's "New Works Programme 1935–1940", on 4 December 1946.
Only the eastbound/clockwise (Aldgate/Barking) platform of the Circle line is wheelchair accessible. Wheelchair users wishing to travel in the Hammersmith/Uxbridge direction must take a train to Aldgate or Whitechapel and stay on it as it starts its westbound journey; when coming from Aldgate/Barking, they must continue to King's Cross St Pancras to change direction. Some stations on the eastern section of the Central line are wheelchair accessible from here by changing at Mile End.
Future developments
Crossrail
From 2018, Liverpool Street will be served by underground Crossrail platforms for services westwards to Paddington, Heathrow and Maidenhead via the City and the West End. Abbey Wood and Shenfield will be served by trains to the east.
A new ticket hall with step-free access will be built next to the Broadgate development, with a pedestrian link via the new platforms to the ticket hall of Moorgate, providing direct access to the Northern line and the Northern City Line.
The six trains per hour that run a stopping service between Liverpool Street and Shenfield will be doubled and diverted into the Crossrail tunnel between Liverpool Street and Stratford via Whitechapel.
A temporary shaft in Finsbury Circus allows for construction of the platforms; this will be removed once the station is complete.
Mainline services
The following off-peak weekday services depart from Liverpool Street:
| Preceding station | National Rail |
Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greater Anglia | Terminus | |||
| Greater Anglia | Terminus | |||
Stratford
|
Greater Anglia | Terminus | ||
| Terminus | Greater Anglia | Tottenham Hale
|
||
| Greater Anglia | ||||
| Greater Anglia | ||||
Stratford
|
c2c Grays to Liverpool Street Limited Service |
Terminus | ||
| Dutchflyer London-Amsterdam |
||||
| Preceding station | London Underground |
Following station | ||
| Central line | ||||
| Circle line | ||||
| Hammersmith & City line | towards Barking |
|||
| Metropolitan line | Terminus |
|||
| Future Development | ||||
Farringdon
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Crossrail Line 1 |
|||
| Disused railways | ||||
| Terminus | Eastern Region of British Railways | |||
Service levels
The Monday to Friday off-peak service is 31 trains per hour departing and arriving.
Great Eastern Main Line
- 1 train per hour to Braintree, calling at Stratford, Shenfield, Ingatestone, Chelmsford, Witham and all stations to Braintree.
- 2 trains per hour to Norwich, of which:
- 1 calls at Colchester, Manningtree, Ipswich, Diss and Norwich.
- 1 calls at Stratford, Chelmsford, Colchester, Manningtree, Ipswich, Stowmarket, Diss and Norwich.
- 6 trains per hour to Shenfield, calling at all stations.
- 1 train per hour to Ipswich, calling at Stratford, Shenfield, Chelmsford, Hatfield Peverel, Witham, Kelvedon, Marks Tey, Colchester, Manningtree and Ipswich.
- 3 trains to Southend Victoria, of which:
- 2 call at Stratford, Shenfield and all stations to Southend Victoria.
- 1 calls at Stratford, Romford, Shenfield and all stations to Southend Victoria.
- 1 train per hour to Colchester Town, calling at Stratford, Romford, Shenfield, Chelmsford, Witham, Kelvedon, Marks Tey, Colchester and Colchester Town.
- 1 train per hour to Clacton-on-Sea, calling at Stratford, Shenfield, Ingatestone, Chelmsford, Witham, Colchester, Wivenhoe, Thorpe-le-Soken and Clacton-on-Sea.
- There is a limited number of services to Witham, calling at Stratford, Shenfield, Ingatestone, Chelmsford and Witham.
West Anglia Main Line
- 4 trains per hour to Chingford, calling at all stations except Cambridge Heath and London Fields.
- 2 train per hour to Enfield Town, calling at all stations via Seven Sisters and Edmonton
- 4 trains per hour to Stansted Airport, of which:
- 2 call at Tottenham Hale, Bishops Stortford and Stansted Airport.
- 2 call at Tottenham Hale, Harlow Town and Stansted Airport.
- 2 trains per hour to Hertford East, calling at Hackney Downs, Tottenham Hale then all stations to Hertford East.
- 2 trains per hour to Cheshunt, calling at all stations via Seven Sisters and Turkey Street
- 2 trains per hour to Cambridge, of which:
- 1 calls at Tottenham Hale, Cheshunt, Broxbourne, Harlow Town, Sawbridgeworth, Bishops Stortford, Audley End, Whittlesford Parkway and Cambridge.
- 1 calls at Tottenham Hale, Cheshunt and then all stations to Cambridge.
Buses
The station is served by bus routes 8, 11, 23, 26, 35, 42, 47, 48, 78, 100, 133, 135, 149, 153, 205, 214, 242, 344 and 388, and night routes N8, N11, N26, N35, N133 and N205.
In popular culture
Liverpool Street is one of the four railway stations on the UK version of Monopoly, introduced in the early 20th century.
- Novels
- Andy McNab's novel Dark Winter makes the station the target of an attack.
- In the 1988 children's book Groosham Grange the main character is sent there from Liverpool Street.
- In Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series, the headquarters of MI6 is near Liverpool Street.
- In W.G. Sebald's novel Austerlitz Liverpool Street is mentioned in connection with the Great Eastern Hotel.
- H. G. Wells' 1898 novel The War of The Worlds included a chaotic rush to board trains at Liverpool Street as the Martian machines overran military defences in the West End, and described the crushing of people under the wheels of the steam engines.
- Film
- In 2009, the cast of St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold and hundreds of extras were filmed during a flash mob type scene where the girls danced in the middle of the station.
- In the film Mission: Impossible a CIA safe house features above the Old Broad Street entrance to Liverpool Street tube station. The lead character played by Tom Cruise leaves the safe house and enters the concourse to use a payphone under the double staircase (since removed, with cash machines now at this spot).
- In the film Stormbreaker, the lead character runs through the station to find a photo booth, whereupon he is then transported to MI6.
- Television
- In 2011, an episode of BBC drama The Shadow Line included a scene in which a man was attempting to evade both the police and a criminal via the London Underground, eventually losing them by alighting at Liverpool Street.
- London Under Attack, first shown by the BBC One Panorama programme in May 2004 included a fictional docu-drama portrayal of how a terrorist organisation might seek to attack London using Liverpool Street as a specific target.[20] In the programme had a lorry containing chlorine gas explodes at the junction of Shoreditch High Street and Commercial Street, just north of Liverpool Street. The gas cloud hung over the station and killed 3,000 people. The British government denounced the programme as "irresponsible and alarmist".[21] The BBC said that Liverpool Street was used because of its position on the border between the City of London and the East End of London.
- The drama Dirty War, also produced by the BBC and first shown in October 2004 features a suicide terrorists detonate a "dirty bomb" just outside the Underground station, killing 200 people and rendering the area uninhabitable for 30 years. Since the programme aired, the spot at which the fictional bomb-carrying vehicle parked has become pedestrianised.
- On 15 January 2009 around 350 people took part in a staged three-minute guerrilla-style dance for a new T-Mobile advert.
Gallery
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Bishopsgate entrance to the station.
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Memorial to the men of East Anglia who died in World War I.
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The station roof, with a Class 90 locomotive in the foreground.
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A view over the station from Exchange Square.
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Entrance from Liverpool Street.
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Platforms at Liverpool Street station.
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Eastbound Central line platform.
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Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City line platforms.
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Roundel on a Central line platform.
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A train arrives in January 1979.
-
.jpg)
Trains at Liverpool Street c. 1980
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Liverpool Street station in 1984.
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Reconstruction of the station in 1989.
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1948 view of locomotive yard at Liverpool Street
See also
References
- ↑ "London and South East" (pdf). National Rail Enquiries. National Rail. September 2006. Archived from the original on 2009-03-06.
- ↑ "Out of Station Interchanges" (Microsoft Excel). Transport for London. May 2011. Archived from the original on 2012-10-20.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 "Station usage". Rail statistics. Office of Rail Regulation. 30 April 2010. Retrieved 17 January 2011. Please note: Some methodology may vary year on year.
- ↑ "Stations Run by Network Rail". Network Rail. Retrieved 23 August 2009.
- ↑ "Station facilities for London Liverpool Street". National Rail Enquiries. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
- ↑ Pigott, Nick, ed. (June 2012). "Waterloo still London's busiest station". The Railway Magazine (Horncastle, Lincs: Mortons Media Group) 158 (1334): 6.
- ↑ "Commercial information". Complete National Rail Timetable. London: Network Rail. May 2013. p. 43. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
- ↑ Mowlem 1822 - 1972, p.4
- ↑ "Andaz London Hotel".
- ↑ "Sir H. Wilson murdered. Shot on his doorstep. Two Irishmen captured. Running fight in London.". The Times (London). 23 June 1922. p. 10.
- ↑ Winn, Christopher (2007). I Never Knew That About London. Ebury Press. ISBN 978-0-09-191857-6.
- ↑ Rothenberg, Ruth (19 September 2003). "Kindertransport statue unveiled". The Jewish Chronicle (London). Retrieved 1 March 2012.
- ↑ Frank Meisler, personal website. Retrieved 23 May 2011
- ↑ Crossrail dig unearths ancient burial site under Liverpool Street station - London - News - London Evening Standard
- ↑ Evidence of 9,000 year old Londoners discovered - Crossrail
- ↑ "Changes to late evening and Liverpool Street services". c2c. 2007. Archived from the original on 8 October 2007.
- ↑ "Customer metrics: entries and exits: 2009". London Underground performance update. Transport for London. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
- ↑ "Customer metrics: entries and exits: 2010". London Underground performance update. Transport for London. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
- ↑ "Multi-year station entry-and-exit figures" (XLS). London Underground station passenger usage data. Transport for London. 2013. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
- ↑ "London under attack". BBC News Online (London). 6 May 2004. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
- ↑ "Terror programme 'irresponsible'". BBC News Online (London). 15 May 2004. Retrieved 16 June 2007. "'We are disappointed to learn that the BBC appears to have adopted an irresponsible and alarmist approach over what is understandably an emotive and frightening subject for the public,' a Home Office spokesman told BBC News Online. He said the programme depicted a situation that was 'simply not realistic'."
- David Stevenson (2004). 1914-1918 The History of the First World War. Allen Lane. ISBN 0-7139-9208-5.
- Alan A Jackson (1969). London's Termini. David & Charles. ISBN 0-330-02747-6.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Liverpool Street station. |
- Station information on Liverpool Street station from Network Rail
- Old Liverpool Street Tribute to the old decor.
- Liverpool Street 1977 photos from 1977
- BBC Panorama programme featuring Liverpool Street station
- Daily Telegraph article about the furor following the "Dirty War" documentary featuring Liverpool St.
- David Blunkett condemns docudrama
- London Landscape TV episode (7 mins) about Liverpool Street station
- Alternative view of the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan line platforms
- Cut away diagram showing the London Underground station layout in 3d post CrossRail.
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