Highbury & Islington station

London stations
name = Highbury & Islington


manager =London Underground [Transport for London - " [http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/3736.aspx Safety boost as London Underground to take control of 11 Silverlink stations] " - 5 December 2006.]
zone = 2
locale = Highbury & Islington
borough = London Borough of Islington
years= 1872
1904
1968
1975
1976
2010
events= Opened (NLR)
Opened (GN&CR)
Opened (Victoria Line)
Closed (Northern City Line)
Opened (British Rail City Line)
Due to open (East London Railway)
platforms=7
railexits0607=4.809
tubeexits04=10.753
tubeexits07=13.791
railcode= HHY
latitude=51.5458
longitude=-0.1050

Highbury & Islington station is a National Rail, London Overground and London Underground station, in the London Borough of Islington in North London. It serves the suburbs of Highbury and Islington. The name is often shortened to simply Highbury.

The station is on the Underground's Victoria Line, between Finsbury Park and King's Cross St. Pancras. It is also on the National Rail North London Line and Northern City Line. It is in Travelcard Zone 2.

History

The current station is an amalgamation of two older stations. The first stood on the site of the existing station. It was built in 1872 by the North London Railway (NLR) as an impressive Victorian-gothic building with a drive-in forecourt.The second station was on the opposite side of Holloway Road. It was opened on 28 June 1904 by the Great Northern & City Railway (GN&CR) on its line between Finsbury Park and Moorgate. This line and the station was operated by the Metropolitan Railway and its successors from 1913 until 1975, when it was transferred to British Rail, by which time it was known as the Northern City Line. Trains do not serve the Northern City during late evenings and at weekends, being diverted to London Kings Cross instead.

The NLR station was damaged by a V-1 flying bomb that fell on Highbury Corner on 27 June 1944, though the main station building remained in use until demolition in the 1960s, prior to the opening of the Victoria Line. The original platform buildings on the westbound platform remain, and there is a small remnant of the entrance to the original building to the left of the current station entrance.

The current single-storey structure was built in the 1960s for the opening of the Victoria Line on 1 September 1968 and provides a combined entrance for all of the lines serving the station. When the escalators to the deep level platforms were opened the GN&CR station building was closed. This unused entrance still exists, and was refurbished externally in 2006. It is being reused to house upgraded signalling equipment for the Victoria Line. [ [http://www.metronetrail.com/webfiles/Metronet%20Matters/M_M_Issue_8_sm.pdf Metronet News Issue 8 (page 7)] ]

The route of the Victoria Line was planned to provide the maximum number of interchanges with other Underground and British Rail lines and, where possible, these interchanges were designed to be simple cross platform connections between different services heading in the same direction. To facilitate this at Highbury & Islington, the northbound NCL platform was reallocated for use by the southbound Victoria Line giving the new line a direct link to the southbound NCL platform. Two new platforms were constructed for the northbound platforms of the Victoria and NCL. The northbound NCL tunnel was diverted to link to the new platform and the southbound Victoria tunnel connected to the old northbound NCL tunnel a short distance each side of the station.

Future

In 2010 Highbury & Islington will become the new northern terminus of phase one of the East London Railway extension, which will be operated as part of London Overground.

Islington Council is currently considering redeveloping the site of the current station, and Highbury Corner generally, including possibly covering over the North London Line tracks and building an office block above the site.

Gallery

Victoria line (London Underground)

Great Northern (First Capital Connect)

North London Line (London Overground)

References

External links

* [http://web.archive.org/web/20070628130613/http://www.bmh54.freeuk.com/places/islington/highbury_and_islington.jpgA woodcut of the former NLR Highbury Station]
* [http://photos.ltmcollection.org London Transport Museum Photographic Archive]
** ltmcollection|66/9887066.jpg|GN&CR station building, shortly after the Metropolitan Railway's merger into the London Underground, 1933
**ltmcollection|67/9887067.jpg|Side entrance to GN&CR building on to Highbury Crescent, 1934
**ltmcollection|34/9861934.jpg|Ticket hall of GN&CR station, 1935
**ltmcollection|mv/i00002mv.jpg|Combined ticket hall, 1970
**ltmcollection|2x/i000022x.jpg|Northern City Line southbound platform, 1975
**ltmcollection|fb/i0000jfb.jpg|Combined ticket hall, 2005
**ltmcollection|fc/i0000jfc.jpg|Entrance to station (note remnant of original NLR building on left), 2005
* [http://railway-photo-halt.fotopic.net Geoffrey Tribe's Railway Photo Halt]
** [http://railway-photo-halt.fotopic.net/p6063667.html GN&CR station building, June 1968]
** [http://railway-photo-halt.fotopic.net/p6063668.html New station entrance, June 1968]

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