Bayswater tube station

Bayswater London Underground

Entrance on Queensway
Bayswater
Location of Bayswater in Central London
Location Queensway
Local authority City of Westminster
Managed by London Underground
Number of platforms 2
Fare zone 1
London Underground annual entry and exit
2010 Decrease 5.52 million[1]
2011 Decrease 5.10 million[1]
2012 Increase 5.54 million[1]
2013 Decrease 5.49 million[1]
Key dates
1868 Opened (MR)
1926 Started (District)
1949 Started (Circle)
Other information
Lists of stations
London Transport portalCoordinates: 51°30′43″N 0°11′17″W / 51.512°N 0.188°W

Bayswater is a London Underground station in the Bayswater area of the City of Westminster. It is served by the Circle and District lines. It is between Notting Hill Gate and Paddington stations, in Travelcard Zone 1. It is less than 100 metres (330 ft) away from the Central line's Queensway station.

History

Ordnance Survey map showing Bayswater station in 1869

The station was opened by the steam-operated Metropolitan Railway (MR) (now the Metropolitan line) on 1 October 1868, as part of the railway's southern extension to South Kensington where it connected to the District Railway (DR).[2] Construction of the railway line, through the already developed Bayswater area required the excavation of a tunnel using the cut and cover method: a trench 42 feet (13 m) deep was excavated between brick retaining walls which was then roofed-over with brick arches to allow building work above. Large compensation payments were made to landowners affected by the excavations and, in Leinster Gardens to the east, the frontages of two houses demolished to make way for the line were reconstructed to restore the appearance of a terrace of houses.[3][note 1]

Station roof under construction
Completed station
Bayswater station, circa 1867

The platforms of Bayswater station were constructed in the trench and provided with a glazed roof. A short section of the trench was left unroofed to the west of the station to allow smoke and steam from the trains to escape from the tunnels. Even before the completion in 1884 of the continuous circuit of tracks which are now the Circle line, the MR and DR operated services through Bayswater as the Inner Circle. The MR originally provided all of the trains, but from 1871, each company operated half of the service.[4]

In 1905, to improve the conditions in the tunnels and stations and increase service frequencies, the MR electrified the tracks through Bayswater and, in conjunction with the DR, around the whole of the Inner Circle and across most of their routes. Electric trains began running on 1 July 1905, but the MR's poor coordination of the installation work with the DR led to disruption for several months.[5]

Exterior view in 1961

On 1 November 1926 the District line began a service between Edgware Road and Putney Bridge. From this date the MR operated all Inner Circle services apart from a few District line operated Sunday services.[6] In 1949, the service was separately identified on the tube map as the Circle line for the first time.[2]

Nearby attractions

The station is located on the busy Queensway tourist street and is only a short walk from Portabello Market. Further north along the street is Whitely shopping centre. Also nearby is Westbourne Grove, Queens ice rink and bowling centre, Kensington Gardens and St Sophia's Greek Orthodox Cathedral.

Connections

London Buses route 70 serves the station heading northbound only.[7]

In Popular Culture

Bayswater tube station is the subject of a painting by Walter Sickert dating from 1916, showing the platform-sign reading ‘Queen’s Road (Bayswater)’ beside a big advertisement for Whiteley’s department store. The station was later re-named Bayswater, to avoid confusion with Queensway station, which was also named ‘Queen’s Road’ until 1946.

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ↑ The dummy frontages at 23 and 24 Leinster Gardens remain and feature blank windows and false front doors and small porticos matching the adjacent buildings.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Multi-year station entry-and-exit figures" (XLS). London Underground station passenger usage data. Transport for London. 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Rose 1999.
  3. ↑ Day & Reed 2008, pp. 20–21.
  4. ↑ Day & Reed 2008, pp. 25–26.
  5. ↑ Wolmar 2005, pp. 125–126.
  6. ↑ Day & Reed 2008, p. 98.
  7. ↑ "Day buses from Bayswater (Queensway)" (PDF). Transport for London. Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 August 2010. Retrieved 3 October 2010.

Bibliography

  • Day, John R; Reed, John (2008) [1963]. The Story of London's Underground. Capital Transport. ISBN 1-85414-316-6.
  • Rose, Douglas (1999) [1980]. The London Underground, A Diagrammatic History. Douglas Rose/Capital Transport. ISBN 1-85414-219-4.
  • Wolmar, Christian (2005) [2004]. The Subterranean Railway: How the London Underground Was Built and How It Changed the City Forever. Atlantic Books. ISBN 1-84354-023-1.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bayswater tube station.
Preceding station   London Underground   Following station
towards Hammersmith (via Tower Hill)
Circle line
towards Edgware Road
towards Wimbledon
District line