Bayswater is a

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 counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

station in the Bayswater area of the City of Westminster. The station is on the

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 ...

and

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 county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

lines, between

Notting Hill Gate Notting Hill Gate is one of the main thoroughfares of Notting Hill, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically the street was a location for toll gates, from which it derives its modern name. Location At Ossington Street/Ke ...

and

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...

stations and is in

Travelcard Zone 1 Fare zone 1 is the central zone of Transport for London's zonal fare system used by the London Underground, London Overground, Docklands Light Railway and National Rail. For most tickets, travel through Zone 1 is more expensive than journeys ...

. It is less than away from the Central line's Queensway station.

Location

The station is located on the busy Queensway tourist street and is only a few metres from Bayswater Road. It is a short walk from Portobello Market. Further north along the street is the site of the former Whiteleys shopping centre, which is currently under redevelopment. Also nearby is

Westbourne Grove Westbourne Grove is a retail road running across Notting Hill, an area of west London. Its western end is in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and its eastern end is in the City of Westminster; it runs from Kensington Park Road in th ...

, Queens ice rink and bowling centre, Kensington Gardens and St Sophia's Greek Orthodox Cathedral. It is less than away from Queensway station on the Central line.

History

The station was opened by the steam-operated Metropolitan Railway (MR) (now the Metropolitan line) on 1 October 1868 as Bayswater, as part of the railway's southern extension to

South Kensington South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with ...

where it connected to the District Railway (DR). Construction of the railway line, through the already developed Bayswater area required the excavation of a tunnel using the cut and cover method: a trench deep was excavated between brick

retaining wall Retaining walls are relatively rigid walls used for supporting soil laterally so that it can be retained at different levels on the two sides. Retaining walls are structures designed to restrain soil to a slope that it would not naturally keep to ...

s which was then roofed-over with brick arches to allow building work above. Large compensation payments were made to landowners affected by the excavations and, in

Leinster Gardens Leinster Gardens is a street in Bayswater, London. It is lined with tall, ornate, mid-Victorian terraced houses, many of which are listed buildings. Layout Leinster Gardens is mostly made up of a half-lined avenue lined with tall, ornate, ...

to the east, the frontages of two houses demolished to make way for the line were reconstructed to restore the appearance of a terrace of houses.The dummy frontages at 23 and 24 Leinster Gardens remain and feature blank windows and false front doors and small porticos matching the adjacent buildings. The platforms of Bayswater station were constructed in the trench and provided with a glazed roof. A short section of the trench was left unroofed to the west of the station to allow smoke and steam from the trains to escape from the tunnels. Even before the completion in 1884 of the continuous circuit of tracks which are now the Circle line, the MR and DR operated services through Bayswater as the ''Inner Circle''. The MR originally provided all of the trains, but from 1871, each company operated half of the service. In 1905, to improve the conditions in the tunnels and stations and increase service frequencies, the MR

electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...

the tracks through Bayswater and, in conjunction with the DR, around the whole of the ''Inner Circle'' and across most of their routes. Electric trains began running on 1 July 1905, but the MR's poor coordination of the installation work with the DR led to disruption for several months. Bayswater (Queensway) Station 1773229 93e608fe

Bayswater (Queensway) Station 1773229 93e608fe

On 1 November 1926 the District line began a service between

Edgware Road Edgware Road is a major road in London, England. The route originated as part of Roman Watling Street and, unusually in London, it runs for 10 miles in an almost perfectly straight line. Forming part of the modern A5 road, Edgware Road undergoes ...

and

Putney Bridge Putney Bridge is a Grade II listed bridge over the River Thames in west London, linking Putney on the south side with Fulham to the north. The bridge has medieval parish churches beside its abutments: St Mary's Church, Putney is built on the so ...

and the station was also renamed to Bayswater (Queen's Road) & Westbourne Grove. From this date the MR operated all ''Inner Circle'' services apart from a few District line operated Sunday services. The station was then renamed again to Bayswater (Queen's Road) in 1933. In 1946, it was renamed to Bayswater (Queensway) but the suffix was gradually dropped. In 1949, the service was separately identified on the tube map as the Circle line for the first time. The station was refurbished by Metronet in 2006.

Services and connections

Services

Circle line

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour (tph) is: *6tph clockwise to

via Paddington (Praed Street) *6tph anti-clockwise to Hammersmith via High Street Kensington and

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

District line

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour (tph) is: *6tph eastbound to

*6tph westbound to

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

There is also a morning service every day from Acton Town (Ealing Broadway on Saturdays) to

and a late evening service from Edgware Road to Ealing Broadway on Sundays only.

Connections

London Bus Buses have been used as a mode of public transport in London since 1829, when George Shillibeer started operating a horse-drawn ''omnibus'' service from Paddington to the City of London. In the decades since their introduction, the red London b ...

routes 7, 23, 27, 36 and 70, and night route N7 serve the station. Additionally, bus routes 23, 27 and 36 provide a 24-hour bus service.

Incidents

In November 2017, a 29-year-old man attempted to murder a 55-year-old man by pushing him in front of a District line train as it was pulling in to the platform. However, the victim survived by adopting a foetal position between the rails as the train passed over him.

In popular culture

Bayswater tube station is the subject of a painting by

Walter Sickert Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...

dating from 1916, showing the platform-sign reading 'Queen's Road (Bayswater)' beside a big advertisement for Whiteley's department store. The station was later renamed Bayswater, to avoid confusion with Queensway station, which was also named 'Queen's Road' until 1946. Whitely's had a mention in the 1964 film My Fair Lady starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison when Professor Higgins asked Col. Pickering where to go to dress a fashionable lady, "why to Whitely's of Bayswater of course".

Notes

References

Citations

Sources

* * *

External links

London Transport Museum Photographic Archive
** ** {{District line navbox Circle line (London Underground) stations District line stations Tube stations in the City of Westminster London Underground stations located underground Former Metropolitan Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1868

Tube station 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 counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Und ...