Angel tube station

Angel
Entrance on Islington High Street
Angel Location of Angel in Central London
Location	Angel
Local authority	London Borough of Islington
Managed by	London Underground
Number of platforms	2
Fare zone	1
London Underground annual entry and exit
2010	17.82 million[1]
2011	17.78 million[1]
2012	18.58 million[1]
2013	18.93 million[1]
Key dates
1901 (1901)	Opened
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR Underground National Rail Tramlink
London Transport portalCoordinates: 51°31′55″N 0°06′22″W / 51.532°N 0.106°W / 51.532; -0.106

Angel is a London Underground station in Angel of the London Borough of Islington. It is on the Bank branch of the Northern line, between Old Street and King's Cross St. Pancras stations, in Travelcard Zone 1.^[2] The station was originally built by the City & South London Railway (C&SLR) and opened on 17 November 1901. The station served as a terminus until the line was extended to Euston on 12 May 1907.

The station was rebuilt in the early 1990s to accommodate the large number of passengers using the station. This made the station to have an extra-wide southbound platform, the longest escalators on the Underground network and the fourth longest escalators in Western Europe. It is also a proposed station on the Crossrail 2 (Chelsea-Hackney line) project.

Location

Located on Islington High Street, the station serves as a portal to several Off West End, or Fringe theatre venues, including Old Red Lion Theatre, Sadler's Wells Theatre, The King's Head Theatre and Almeida Theatre.^[3] It is also the station for Chapel Market,^[3] a London street market, and the antiques market and dealers of Camden Passage. Between Angel and Old Street stations is the disused City Road station.^[4]

History

Angel station was originally built by the City & South London Railway (C&SLR), and opened on 17 November 1901^{[note 1]} as the northern terminus of a new extension from Moorgate.^[7][8] The station building was designed by Sydney Smith and was located on the corner of City Road and Torrens Street.^[9] On 12 May 1907, the C&SLR opened a further extension from Angel to Euston^[7] and Angel became a through station.^[8]

As with many of the C&SLR's stations, it was originally built with a single central island platform serving two tracks in a single tunnel – an arrangement still seen at Clapham North and Clapham Common (as of 2015). Access to the platforms from street level was via three Euston Anderson electric lifts before the rebuilding of the station. When the C&SLR line was closed for tunnel reconstruction in the early 1920s to accommodate larger trains,^[7] the station façade was reclad with a tiling and the lifts were replaced by new ones from Otis.^[9]

The extra-wide southbound platform occupies the whole of the original station tunnel

Station rebuilding

For years since its opening, the station regularly suffered from overcrowding and had a very narrow island platform (barely 12 feet (3.7 m) in width), which constituted a major safety issue and resulted in justified fear in passengers.^[10] Consequently, the station was comprehensively rebuilt in the early 1990s.^[4] A new section of tunnel was excavated for a new northbound platform and the southbound platform was rebuilt to completely occupy the original 30-foot tunnel, leaving it wider than most deep-level platforms on the system.^{[note 2]} The lifts and the ground level building were closed and a new station entrance was opened on 10 August 1992 around the corner in Islington High Street together with the northbound platform while the southbound platform opened on 17 September 1992.^[4] Because of the distance of the new entrance from the platforms, and their depth, two flights of escalators were required, aligned approximately at a right angle.^[11]

The station today

The Sculpture in the ticket hall

The longest escalators on the Underground

The station contains a sculpture of an Angel by Kevin Boys in the ticket hall. It is also one of the stations to have only escalator access to the platforms.^[12]

Escalators

With a vertical rise of 27 metres (89 ft) and a length of 60 metres (200 ft), Angel station has the longest escalators on the Underground,^[11][13] and the fourth-longest set of escalators in Western Europe (after Náměstí Míru in the Prague Metro at 87 metres (285 ft),^[14] Västra skogen in the Stockholm Metro at 67 metres (220 ft)^[15] and Kamppi station in the Helsinki Metro at 64 metres (210 ft)^[16]).

Station improvements

The station was refurbished and work began on 2 January 2007.^[17] Additional CCTV cameras and Help Points were installed, bringing the total to 77 cameras in the station and 9 Help Points (which were upgraded with new induction loops) to better aid hearing impaired passengers.^[17] As well as these, new communications equipment and damaged signs were replaced with new ones.^[17]

Former siding

When Angel was opened, a long dead-end siding was provided for train stabling, converging from the left onto the northbound line just south of the station.^[4][18] This was retained over the years but eventually it was closed on 23 January 1959 (along with the signal box at the south end of the platform) to simplify through running.^[4] The siding lay derelict and unused until the rebuilding scheme.^[4] Part of the siding was used as the northbound diversion tunnel, which branched off the existing northbound line, cut through into the end of the siding and continued along it until it branched off left to the new northbound platform.^{[4][note 3]}

Services and connections

Train frequencies vary throughout the day, but generally operate every 3-6 minutes between 06:03 and 00:25 in both directions.^{[19][20][note 4]}

London Bus routes 4; 19; 30; 38; 43; 56; 73; 153; 205; 214; 274; 341; 394 and 476, and night routes N19; N38; N41; N73 and N205^[21] serve the station (as of 31 March 2014).^[22] Additionally, bus routes 43, 214 and 341 have a 24-hour bus service (as of 31 March 2014).^[21][22]

In Media

The station's escalators and the southbound platform were featured in Bollywood hit film, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.

Future proposals

Angel is a proposed station on the Crossrail 2 (Chelsea-Hackney line) project.^[23][24] Depending on the route constructed, it would be between King's Cross St. Pancras and Dalston Junction or Hackney Central.^[23] It was officially safeguarded as part of the route in 2007, although there had been proposals for a route for some time previously and safeguarding had been in place since 1991.^[24] This would provide an interchange between a London Underground line and a Crossrail line.

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Rose, Douglas (1999) [1980]. The London Underground, A Diagrammatic History (7th ed.). Douglas Rose/Capital Transport. ISBN 1-85414-219-4. 
• Connor, J.E. (2006) [1999]. London's Disused Underground Stations (2nd ed.). Capital Transport. ISBN 1-85414-250-X. 
• Day, John R; Reed, John (2010) [1963]. The Story of London's Underground (11th ed.). Capital Transport. ISBN 978-1-85414-341-9. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Angel tube station.

• London's Transport Museum Photographic Archive
  • Original Angel station building
  • Station with new façade in 1924
  • Station entrance, 1988
  • The original island platform with tracks each side, 1988
• More photographs of Angel
• BBC 2 "40 Minutes" documentary "Heart of the Angel" (1989)

Preceding station		London Underground		Following station
King's Cross St. Pancras towards Edgware, Mill Hill East or High Barnet		Northern line Bank branch		Old Street towards Morden (via Bank)
	Former route (1901-1922)
Preceding station		London Underground		Following station
King's Cross St. Pancras towards Edgware, Mill Hill East or High Barnet		Northern line Bank branch		City Road towards Morden (via Bank)
	Future Development
Preceding station		Crossrail		Following station
Euston Kings Cross St Pancras towards Hampton Court or Twickenham or Shepperton or Chessington South or Epsom		Crossrail Line 2		Dalston Junction towards Alexandra Palace or Hertford East