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Bank and Monument are interlinked
London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...
and Docklands Light Railway (DLR) stations that form a public transport complex spanning the length of King William Street in the
City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...
. Bank station, named after the
Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...
, opened in 1900 at Bank junction and is served by the Central, Northern and Waterloo & City lines, and the DLR. Monument station, named after the Monument to the Great Fire of London, opened in 1884 and is served by the
District A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...
and Circle lines. The stations have been linked as an interchange since 1933. The station complex is one of the busiest on the London Underground network, with usage of the station rising by 38% since 2008. Owing to this, the station complex has been rated the Underground's worst station in passenger surveys, and is currently undergoing a substantial upgrade and expansion. The stations are in fare zone 1.


History

The Bank–Monument station complex was created by building links between several nearby stations constructed by different companies. The first station was opened by the Metropolitan Inner Circle Completion Railway.


Metropolitan Inner Circle Completion Railway, 1884

The
Metropolitan Railway The Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex su ...
(MR) and
District Railway The Metropolitan District Railway, also known as the District Railway, was a passenger railway that served London from 1868 to 1933. Established in 1864 to complete an " inner circle" of lines connecting railway termini in London, the first par ...
(DR) had, by 1876, built most of the Inner Circle (now the Circle line), reaching and respectively. The companies were in dispute over the completion of the route as the DR was struggling financially and the MR was concerned that completion would affect its revenues through increased competition from the DR in the City area. City financiers keen to see the line completed established the Metropolitan Inner Circle Completion Railway in 1874 to link Mansion House to Aldgate. Forced into action, the MR bought out the company and with the DR began construction of the final section of the Inner Circle in 1879. The new section of railway included two new stations:
Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separ ...
and another located close to the Monument. The station at Monument opened with the name "Eastcheap" on 6 October 1884, after the nearby street, and was renamed "The Monument" on 1 November 1884. Initially, trains from both companies served the station on the Inner Circle service but other operational patterns have been used. The Inner Circle service achieved a separate identity as the Circle line in 1949 although its trains were still provided by the District or Metropolitan lines.


Waterloo & City Railway, 1898

The
Waterloo & City Railway The Waterloo & City line, colloquially known as The Drain, is a London Underground shuttle line that runs between Waterloo and Bank with no intermediate stops. Its primary traffic consists of commuters from south-west London, Surrey and Hampsh ...
was built by the
London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exete ...
(L&SWR) to link its terminus at Waterloo to the City. The station, with platforms under Queen Victoria Street and close to Mansion House, opened on 8 August 1898 as "City". The Waterloo and City line platforms were renamed "Bank" on 28 October 1940. In September 1960, the steeply sloping passages to the platforms were supplemented with the "Travolator", one of the few sets of
moving walkway A moving walkway, also known as an autowalk, moving pavement, moving sidewalk, people-mover, travolator, or travelator, is a slow-moving conveyor mechanism that transports people across a horizontal or inclined plane over a short to medium distan ...
s on the whole underground system. Advertising at the Waterloo & City line station often takes the form of large painted murals on the walls and ceilings of the sloped exits, forming one of the largest advertisements on the Underground. As the W&CR was owned by the L&SWR, a mainline railway, it became part of
British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British ...
; it was only transferred to Underground operation in 1994.


City & South London Railway, 1900

The first station to be known as Bank opened on 25 February 1900 when the
City & South London Railway The City and South London Railway (C&SLR) was the first successful deep-level underground "tube" railway in the world, and the first major railway to use electric traction. The railway was originally intended for cable-hauled trains, but owing ...
(C&SLR, now part of the Northern line) opened its extension from to . The earlier terminus of the line, , on a different tunnel alignment was closed at the same time. The C&SLR had obtained permission to demolish the 18th-century church of St Mary Woolnoth on the corner of Lombard Street and build a station (originally proposed to be named "Lombard Street") on the site. After public protest, the company changed its plans to build only a sub-surface ticket hall and lift entrance in the
crypt A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' " vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a ch ...
of the church. This necessitated moving the bodies elsewhere, strengthening the crypt with a steel framework and underpinning the church's foundations. Unusually for stations later converted to
escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a Electric motor, motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the st ...
s, the original
lift Lift or LIFT may refer to: Physical devices * Elevator, or lift, a device used for raising and lowering people or goods ** Paternoster lift, a type of lift using a continuous chain of cars which do not stop ** Patient lift, or Hoyer lift, mobile ...
access from the ticket hall is still in use.


Central London Railway, 1900

The opening of the eastern terminus of the
Central London Railway The Central London Railway (CLR), also known as the Twopenny Tube, was a deep-level, underground "tube" railwayA "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a cylindrical tunnel by the use of a tunnelling shield, usually deep below gr ...
(CLR, now the Central line) at Bank followed on 30 July 1900. As with the C&SLR, the high cost of property in the City, coupled with the presence of the Royal Exchange, the Bank of England, and Mansion House, meant that the station had to be built entirely underground. Permission was granted by the
City of London Corporation The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United King ...
for the station to be sited beneath the busy junction of roads meeting at this point on condition that public subways were provided to act as pedestrian road crossings. To avoid undermining the road above, the station's lifts were installed in separate lift shafts rather than paired two-per-shaft as usual. To avoid
wayleave An easement is a nonpossessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is "best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another, B". An easement is a property ...
payments to property owners and to lessen possible claims for damage during construction and operation, the CLR tunnels were directly under public streets. This caused the platforms under
Threadneedle Street Threadneedle Street is a street in the City of London, England, between Bishopsgate at its northeast end and Bank junction in the southwest. It is one of nine streets that converge at Bank. It lies in the ward of Cornhill. History The stree ...
and
Poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails, a ...
to be so curved that one end of the platform cannot be seen from the other. East of Bank station the Central line tunnels have sharp curves to avoid the vaults of the Bank of England itself. Due to the close proximity of the CLR, W&CR and C&SLR stations, and the non-competing directions of their services, their ticket halls were soon connected, but connection between the CLR and C&SLR platforms were made only when escalators were installed in 1924. The Central London Railway station itself was reconstructed during the major rebuilding of the
Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...
in 1925. The booking hall underneath Bank junction was redecorated and a new subway entrance built into the corner of the Bank itself.


Monument link, 1933

The southern end of the C&SLR (by then part of the Edgware-Highgate-Morden line) platforms was close to those of Monument station and, on 18 September 1933, a connecting escalator link was opened, connecting the two stations directly for the first time.


World War II

During the Blitz, the station was used as a bomb shelter. On 11 January 1941 during World War II the Central line ticket hall of Bank station suffered a direct hit from a German bomb. The roadway collapsed into the subways and station concourse, killing 56 people.


Docklands Light Railway and station refurbishment, 1990s

In 1991, the
Docklands Light Railway The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is an automated light metro system serving the redeveloped Docklands area of London, England and provides a direct connection between London's two major financial districts, Canary Wharf and the City of Lond ...
was extended to Bank station, following criticism of the original, poorly connected terminus at Tower Gateway. The new platforms were built parallel to but deeper than those of the Northern line, with connections at one end to the Central line and Monument Station at the other. As part of the construction of the extension, a new link between the Waterloo & City and the Central line was excavated – uncovering part of one of the Greathead
tunnelling shield A tunnelling shield is a protective structure used during the excavation of large, man-made tunnels. When excavating through ground that is soft, liquid, or otherwise unstable, there is a potential health and safety hazard to workers and the pro ...
s used for the Waterloo and City line. This shield forms part of the new passageway, and passengers pass through when transferring between the two lines. As with all other DLR stations, the DLR platforms are accessible, however the route is indirect with the use of three different passenger lifts required to reach the DLR. In January 1994, a statue of
James Henry Greathead James Henry Greathead (6 August 1844 – 21 October 1896) was a mechanical and civil engineer renowned for his work on the London Underground railways, Winchester Cathedral, and Liverpool overhead railway, as well as being one of the earliest pr ...
was erected outside the station, next to the Royal Exchange. It was unveiled by the
Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional pow ...
and is positioned on a plinth which hides a ventilation shaft for the Underground. The rest of the station was comprehensively refurbished, with decorative tiling panels based on the City's
coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
, new lighting and replacement of escalators. This work was completed in 1997, partially funded by the
City of London Corporation The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United King ...
.


New Bloomberg entrance, 2010s

In the late 2010s, a new entrance was constructed at Bloomberg's new London headquarters on Walbrook, near station, providing direct access to the
Waterloo & City line The Waterloo & City line, colloquially known as The Drain, is a London Underground shuttle line that runs between Waterloo and Bank with no intermediate stops. Its primary traffic consists of commuters from south-west London, Surrey and Ham ...
via four new escalators and two lifts – providing step free access to that line for the first time. First announced in 2008, construction began in November 2015 following delays due to the financial crisis. The new entrance was opened on 30 November 2018, and was officially opened by Mayor of London
Sadiq Khan Sadiq Aman Khan (; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016. A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's soft ...
and former Mayor of New York
Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ...
in December 2018. The new entrance incorporates etched glass panels by artist John Hutton, depicting 66 figures based on the ancient Roman history of the area, including the Roman Temple of Mithras. The artwork was originally completed in 1962 on Bucklersbury House, the post war office building previously located on the site.


Station upgrade and expansion

Since 2003, demand at the Bank–Monument station complex has risen by over 50% to 337,000 customers per day. According to Transport for London (TfL), "areas of the station are close to 'saturation' point, where day to day demand overwhelms capacity". Unlike other congested stations such as
Oxford Circus Oxford Circus is a road junction connecting Oxford Street and Regent Street in the West End of London. It is also the entrance to Oxford Circus tube station. The junction opened in 1819 as part of the Regent Street development under John Nash ...
, passengers cannot be held back at station entrances during peak times to avoid overwhelming the station, as around half of passengers are interchanging between lines. The high demand on the station is exacerbated by the narrow passageways, pinch points, spiral staircases and indirect routes between lines. Some parts of the station operate "one way", with staff directing passengers on longer routes to increase the capacity of the station. Given these issues, the station complex is currently under construction to substantially upgrade the station and increase capacity by 40%, at a cost of around £700m. The overall project – incorporating twelve new escalators, two new lifts and two moving walkways – includes: * A new southbound platform for the
Northern line The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs from North London to South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. The Northern line is unique on the Underground network in having two different routes through central London, two ...
and conversion of the existing southbound platform to passenger circulation space. * New direct passenger tunnel with
moving walkway A moving walkway, also known as an autowalk, moving pavement, moving sidewalk, people-mover, travolator, or travelator, is a slow-moving conveyor mechanism that transports people across a horizontal or inclined plane over a short to medium distan ...
s connecting the Northern line and Central line. * New escalators between the Northern line and the
Docklands Light Railway The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is an automated light metro system serving the redeveloped Docklands area of London, England and provides a direct connection between London's two major financial districts, Canary Wharf and the City of Lond ...
(DLR) * A new station entrance and ticket hall on
Cannon Street Cannon Street is a road in the City of London, the historic nucleus of London and its modern financial centre. It runs roughly parallel with the River Thames, about north of it, in the south of the City. It is the site of the ancient London ...
, with new escalators and step free access to the Northern line and DLR. * Modernising the station to comply with contemporary fire and evacuation standards. Owing to the severe curvature of the Central line platforms, there is a substantial gap between the train and the platform. Because of this, no step-free access is currently proposed for the Central line, as the cost would be prohibitive and it would be difficult for passengers to use. TfL have described the construction of the project as "intricate and complicated", with over 30
listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...
in the historic City of London located above the tunnels. The new southbound Northern line tunnel was dug from a worksite on King William Street, using the underground spaces left over from the closed King William Street tube station. Former running tunnels have previously been used as circulation space at
Angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles includ ...
and
London Bridge Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It rep ...
stations. As part of the development of the scheme, TfL worked with potential bidders to improve the design of the station from TfL's original design. The design proposed in the winning bid by Dragados was 9.7% cheaper than the original design (saving TfL £60m), took 10 months less time to construct than the original design (the proposed closure of the Northern line was also 5 weeks shorter), and the layout of the station was more efficient. This substantially improved the
benefit–cost ratio A benefit–cost ratio (BCR) is an indicator, used in cost–benefit analysis, that attempts to summarize the overall value for money of a project or proposal. A BCR is the ratio of the benefits of a project or proposal, expressed in monetary terms, ...
by 45% to 3:5:1.


Progress

Following consultations in the early 2010s and a Transport and Works Act Order in 2015, construction of the new Northern line tunnel began in April 2016, and was estimated to take 6 years. By July 2019, the project had reached the halfway stage. By October 2020, the majority of tunnelling work, around , had been completed, with around 200,000 tonnes of material excavated from beneath the City. By July 2021, installation of escalators was underway, as well as preparation work to connect to the new Northern line tunnels in 2022. From January until mid May 2022, the
Northern line The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs from North London to South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. The Northern line is unique on the Underground network in having two different routes through central London, two ...
through Bank was closed - this was required to allow the existing line to be connected to the new running tunnels, convert the previous southbound platform to a new passenger concourse, as well as final fit-out and integration works throughout the expanded station complex. On 15 May 2022, the new Northern line southbound platform and concourse was opened, the first part of the station expansion open to the public. On 13 October 2022, new escalators connecting the DLR and the Northern line opened. On 28 October 2022, a
moving walkway A moving walkway, also known as an autowalk, moving pavement, moving sidewalk, people-mover, travolator, or travelator, is a slow-moving conveyor mechanism that transports people across a horizontal or inclined plane over a short to medium distan ...
between the Central and Northern lines was opened. These new connections cut the time taken to interchange between lines, as well as expanding the capacity of the station. The final part of the project include the opening of the new Cannon Street entrance, planned to open in late 2022 - as well as the commissioning of lifts for step free access. When complete, the station will have 27 escalators, the most of any station on the Underground.


Ticket halls and entrances

Following the opening of the Bloomberg entrance in 2018, the station complex has sixteen entrances and four ticket halls, the most of any station on the Underground. * Bullring (Central line) ticket hall, located underneath Bank Junction. * Lombard Street (Northern line) ticket hall, under Lombard Street. * Monument ticket hall, located under Monument Street adjacent to the Monument to the Great Fire of London, serving the
District A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...
&
Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is con ...
lines. * Walbrook ticket hall, at Bloomberg London, serving the
Waterloo & City line The Waterloo & City line, colloquially known as The Drain, is a London Underground shuttle line that runs between Waterloo and Bank with no intermediate stops. Its primary traffic consists of commuters from south-west London, Surrey and Ham ...
.


Notable events

On 11 January 1941, during
the Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...
, 56 people were killed and 69 were seriously injured when a German bomb hit the booking hall, with the blast travelling down the stairs and escalators to the platforms. The crater, measuring , was covered with a
Bailey bridge A Bailey bridge is a type of portable, pre-fabricated, truss bridge. It was developed in 1940–1941 by the British for military use during the Second World War and saw extensive use by British, Canadian and American military engineering unit ...
for the traffic to pass over. The station itself was closed for two months. On 7 September 2003, Bank station was used for a disaster training exercise, ''Exercise Osiris'', billed as "the most realistic live disaster exercise of its kind". The event, lasting several hours and involving about 500 police, fire brigade, ambulance and London Underground personnel, was intended to prepare the emergency services for
mass decontamination Mass decontamination (abbreviated mass decon) is the decontamination of large numbers of people, in the event of industrial, accidental, or intentional contamination by toxic, infective, caustic, polluted, or otherwise unhealthful or damaging su ...
in the event of a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear attack.


Connections

A large number of London Bus routes serve the station complex day and night.


References


External links

* *
Bank Station
from the Open Guide to London *
London Transport Museum Photographic Archive
** ** ** ** ** ** **



{{DEFAULTSORT:Bank-Monument station Central line (London Underground) stations Northern line stations Circle line (London Underground) stations District line stations Docklands Light Railway stations in the City of London London Underground stations located underground Waterloo & City line stations Bank station Tube stations in the City of London Former Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Joint Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1884 Former City and South London Railway stations Former Central London Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1900