Shoreditch High Street railway station

London stations
name = Shoreditch High Street


manager = London Overground
zone = 2
locale = Shoreditch, London, UK
borough = Hackney and Tower Hamlets
starting = June 2010
platforms= 2

Shoreditch High Street railway station is currently under construction in London, England. The station will be located on Bethnal Green Road near the junction with Shoreditch High Street in the Shoreditch district and will form part of the extended East London Line under the control of the London Overground division of Transport for London.

The station is due to be opened in June 2010 and replaces nearby Shoreditch tube station, which closed on 9 June 2006. The station is being built on the former site of the Eastern Counties Railway's Shoreditch terminus, built in 1840, and will be fully enclosed in order that future building works on the rest of the Bishopsgate site can be accomplished without requiring the line to close in the future. The original station was later renamed Bishopsgate and converted for use as a goods yard. It was destroyed by fire in 1964 and remained derelict until its demolition in 2005.

The next station to the south will be Whitechapel and that to the north will be Hoxton on the currently disused Broad Street branch of the North London Line. Shoreditch High Street station will link to the disused trackbed via a new bridge over Shoreditch High Street and will link to Whitechapel via a bridge over Brick Lane and a ramp on the site of the former Shoreditch Tube station.

As of mid-April 2008, the main structure of the adjacent bridge over Shoreditch High Street is complete. The ground on the approaches to the bridge has been largely cleared and significant sections of the approach viaducts have been built. The building of the station itself is at a very early stage only.

Proposed name change

In May 2008 a Tower Hamlets councillor called for the new station to be re-named Banglatown, claiming this would better reflect the area in which it will stand, being a centre of the Bangladeshi community. However Transport for London noted that changing the name would cost £2million and "cause confusion". [cite news
title = Calls to rename East End station
publisher =bbc.co.uk
work = BBC News
date = 2008-05-20
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7411512.stm
accessdate = 2008-06-10
quote = Tower Hamlets councillor Abdal Ullah said the new station should be called "Banglatown" to reflect the strong Bangladeshi community. But a TfL spokesman said "It is important that a station name takes into account the street or the official name of its area, as recorded on official maps." ] Mr Ullah has previously campaigned to change the name of Aldgate East tube station station to "Brick Lane". [cite news
title = Bid to name Tube stop Brick Lane
publisher =bbc.co.uk
work = BBC News
date = 2006-12-15
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6183977.stm
accessdate = 2007-01-10
quote = Tower Hamlets councillor Abdul Ullah wants the Tube station to be renamed in time for the 2012 summer Olympics. He told BBC London: "I think it will truly reflect the character of the area by renaming Aldgate East... people get it confused with Aldgate." He said the area's tourist trade was being affected because, while people had heard of Brick Lane and its reputation for curry restaurants, they could not find it on a Tube map. ]

Connection with the Central Line

The East London Line extension crosses the Central Line near to this station, north of Liverpool Street station and long before that of Bethnal Green (one of the longest gaps between two stations in inner London); Shoreditch High Street is about 1 km from each. It was expected by some (and originally published in provisional plans, which remained active up until December 1998) that an interchange would be provided here. However, this is not currently part of the existing published plans. Some have been vociferous in demanding a link, but Transport for London (TfL) is believed to be unhappy about the potential connection, on grounds of cost and of loading of (and disruption to) the Central Line.

However, TfL has stated that if the Chelsea-Hackney line (a new proposed London Underground line) gets the go-ahead and takes over the Epping Branch of the Central line until Leytonstone, then the plans may be revived as the new line would relieve congestion of the Central Line and therefore the new station wouldn't cause as much disruption.

References

External links

* [http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/b/bishopsgate_goods_station/index.shtml Bishopsgate Goods Station (Goodsyard)] from Subterrranea Britannica
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7320304.stm Giant bridge fitted for rail line]
* [http://www.alwaystouchout.com/project/3]
* [http://www.skyscrapercity.com/archive/index.php/index.php?t-337050.html]

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