Shoreditch tube station

Shoreditch tube station is a former London Underground station in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It was in Travelcard Zone 2. Despite its name, it was not in Shoreditch; the district of that name is nearby, in the London Borough of Hackney. The station closed permanently at the end of traffic on 9 June 2006.

It was the northern terminus of the East London Line, with latterly a single platform alongside a single track that ran next to the disused Bishopsgate Goods Yard. Until the late 1960s the East London Line connected with the main line railway to Liverpool Street (and Bishopsgate until 1916) just north of Shoreditch station. The site of the link is still visible from the end of the platform and from National Express East Anglia main line trains between Stratford and Liverpool Street. The station was one of only a handful on the network with a single platform and a single track layout, though it originally had two tracks and platforms. The preceding station was Whitechapel, which is the northern terminus of the East London Line until the extension opens in 2010.

History

Shoreditch station opened in 1869 as a stop on the main line East London Railway from Liverpool Street to points south. The passenger service between Shoreditch and Liverpool Street was withdrawn 16 years later, in 1885. The station joined the Underground network on 31 March 1913 as part of the Metropolitan Railway in conjunction with an electrification of the line.

Goods services from Liverpool Street continued to pass through Shoreditch until April 1966, following which the track connection was severed in order to improve access to Liverpool Street for other trains. The station was closed from March 1995 to September 1998 during the renovation of the East London Line, reopening six months after the rest of the line.

There was also another Shoreditch railway station, some distance further north on the North London Railway.

Usage

Before its closure, the station was one of the less used stations on the network, with only about 1,130 passengers a day. On Mondays-Fridays it was open at rush hours, closed on Saturdays, and open on Sunday mornings or afternoons for the nearby Brick Lane Market. Prior to the 1990s the station was closed on Sundays.

Total annual passenger entries and exits

*2005: 748,000
*2004: 415,000
*2003: 380,000

Future plans

Shoreditch tube station closed permanently on 9 June 2006, to allow work to begin on the East London Line extension. A new station, provisionally called Shoreditch High Street, will replace it when the extended line is opened. The new line and station will form part of the London Overground network, a suburban rail service operated by Transport for London but separate from the Tube network.

Unlike other closed stations, London Rail is continuing to provide a service to Shoreditch - until the new station opens in 2010, a non-stop rail replacement bus connects Shoreditch with Whitechapel using the station's previous limited opening hours.

Some commentators have suggested that it might be possible to reinstate the Shoreditch link to Liverpool Street to provide mainline services from there to south London, but this seems an unlikely prospect. Liverpool Street station is already heavily congested and would require major modifications to take third rail trains such as those used on the East London Line and south London railways. Transport for London has stated that the Shoreditch cutting will be filled inFact|date=August 2008, presumably so that the land can be reused for buildings. [http://ellp.tfl.gov.uk/UserFiles/File/Movies/East%2520London%2520Line.zip] Dead link|date=August 2008

Gallery

ee also

* Shoreditch railway station

External links

* [http://www.tfl.gov.uk/unlinked/tube-posters/TR060959_Shoreditch.pdf LU's information leaflet about Shoreditch station closure and East London Line extension]
* [http://www.jhlpictures.fpic.co.uk/c978036.html Some photos from around the time the station faced closure.]
* [http://www.shoreditch.de.vu/ A informative website about Shoreditch station]
* [http://www.abandonedstations.org.uk/Shoreditch_station.html London's Abandoned Tube Stations - Shoreditch]
* [http://photos.ltmcollection.org London's Transport Museum Photographic Archive]
** ltmcollection|lu/i00002lu.jpg|Shoreditch station platform, 1955
** ltmcollection|12/9865112.jpg|Station booking hall, 1955