King's Cross St. Pancras tube station

King's Cross St. Pancras London Underground

Entrance on Euston Road outside King's Cross station concourse.
King's Cross St. Pancras
Location of King's Cross St. Pancras in Central London
Location King's Cross / St Pancras
Local authority London Borough of Camden
Managed by London Underground
Owner London Underground
Number of platforms 8
Accessible Yes
Fare zone 1
OSI London King's Cross National Rail and
London St Pancras Int'l National Rail
London Underground annual entry and exit
2013 Increase 84.87 million[1]
2014 Increase 91.98 million[1]
2015 Increase 93.41 million[1]
2016 Increase 95.03 million[1]
Key dates
1863 Opened (MR)
1906 Opened (GNP&BR)
1907 Opened (C&SLR)
1968 Opened (Victoria line)
1987 King's Cross fire
Other information
Lists of stations
External links
WGS84 51°31′49″N 0°07′27″W / 51.5302°N 0.1241°W / 51.5302; -0.1241Coordinates: 51°31′49″N 0°07′27″W / 51.5302°N 0.1241°W / 51.5302; -0.1241
London Transport portal

King's Cross St. Pancras is a London Underground station located within the London Borough of Camden. It serves King's Cross and St Pancras main line stations and falls within fare zone 1. Being an interchange station between six lines, (the Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines) it is the second busiest station on the network, second only to Waterloo.

Interchange

King's Cross St Pancras is the biggest interchange station on the London Underground, serving six lines on four pairs of tracks as well as two National Rail stations:

Ticket halls

Ticket office in 2006

The underground part of the station underwent extensive remodelling works to increase throughflow of passengers resulting from the opening of High Speed 1. The expanded station has four entrances, and was opened to the public in November 2009.

History

A tunnel leading to the Pentonville Road entrance (formerly a connection to the Thameslink platforms)

The first underground station at King's Cross opened as part of the original section of the Metropolitan Railway in 1863 and was rearranged in 1868 and 1926. New platforms for the sub-surface lines of the Underground were opened about 400 m (440 yd) to the west in 1941 to make interchanging between the sub-surface lines and the tube lines easier; the 1868 platforms later became the former King's Cross Thameslink station, which closed on 9 December 2007 when the Thameslink service moved to St Pancras International. One of the platforms may be seen from Underground trains between the present station and Farringdon.

The Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR, now part of the Piccadilly line) platforms opened with the rest of the line in December 1906, while the City & South London Railway (C&SLR, now part of the Northern line) arrived in May 1907. The Victoria line platforms came into use on 1 December 1968 with the opening of the second phase of the line. The Victoria line escalators cut through the location of the original Piccadilly line lifts.

Memorial plaque to the 1987 fire in the station

On 18 November 1987 the station was the scene of a devastating fire that killed 31 people. The cause was attributed to a lit match falling into the space under the escalator, setting fire to the grease and rubbish present there, then to the wooden parts of the escalator. The then-unknown fire phenomenon of the trench effect made the fire develop upwards and finally caused it to explode into the station.[2] As a result, fire safety procedures on the Underground were tightened, staff training was improved and wooden steps on escalators were replaced with metal ones. The existing prohibition of smoking throughout the London Underground network was tightened. Due to the extensive damage caused by the fire, it took over a year to repair and reopen the station; the Northern line platforms and the escalators from the ticket hall to the Piccadilly line remained closed until 5 March 1989.

On 7 July 2005, as part of a co-ordinated bomb attack, an explosion in a Piccadilly line train travelling between King's Cross St Pancras and Russell Square resulted in the deaths of 26 people.

Platform level tiling

A platform on the London Underground.
Although most of the platform tilework has been redone, the Piccadilly line platform in this photo shows the tile rings that each station along the central part of that line had at opening.

The stations along the central part of the Piccadilly line, as well as some sections of the Northern line, were financed by Charles Yerkes,[3] and are famous for the Leslie Green designed red station buildings and distinctive platform tiling. Each station had its own unique tile pattern and colours.

Future proposals

Crossrail 2

Since 1991, a route for a potential Crossrail 2 has been safeguarded, including a connection at King's Cross St Pancras and Euston, forming the station Euston King's Cross St Pancras.[4] The proposed scheme would offer a second rail link between King's Cross and Victoria in addition to the Victoria line. The locations for any new stations on the route will depend on the loading gauge of the final scheme. In the 2007 safeguarded route, the next stations would be Tottenham Court Road and Angel.

York Road

In 2005 a business case was prepared to re-open the disused York Road tube station on the Piccadilly line, to serve the Kings Cross Central development and help relieve congestion at King's Cross St Pancras.[5] York Road station closed in 1932 and was about 600 m (660 yd) north of King's Cross St Pancras.

Connections

London Buses routes 10, 17, 30, 45, 46, 59, 63, 73, 91, 205, 214, 259, 390 and 476 and night routes N63, N73, N91 and N205 serve the station.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Multi-year station entry-and-exit figures" (XLS). London Underground station passenger usage data. Transport for London. March 2017. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
  2. ↑ Paul Channon (12 April 1989). "King's Cross Fire (Fennell Report)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons. col. 915–917.
  3. ↑ "The Man Who Painted London Red". londonreconnections.com. 1 January 2010.
  4. ↑ "Crossrail 2: Scheme description". London Borough Islington. Archived from the original on 2004-11-10.
  5. ↑ "York Road Station Re-opening - Business Case Analysis" (PDF). Halcrow Group Limited. 2005. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-26. The objective would be to ensure that public transport users travelling from the KCC development would benefit from travelling via York Road Station rather than using King’s Cross St Pancras Station. This in turn leads to the subobjective of providing congestion relief for King’s Cross St Pancras Station.
Preceding station   London Underground   Following station
towards Hammersmith
Circle line
towards Edgware Road (via Aldgate)
Hammersmith & City line
towards Barking
Metropolitan line
towards Aldgate
Northern line
towards Morden (via Bank)
Piccadilly line
towards Cockfosters
towards Brixton
Victoria line
  Former services  
towards Hammersmith
Metropolitan line
Hammersmith branch (1864-1990)
towards Barking
towards South Harrow
Piccadilly line
(1906–32)
towards Finsbury Park
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