Gants Hill 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 ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...
station in the largely residential
Gants Hill
Gants Hill is an area of Ilford in East London, England, within the borough of Redbridge. It is a suburb east northeast of Charing Cross. It lends its name to a central roundabout where five roads meet.
History
The name likely originated f ...
district of
Ilford in East London. It is served by the
Central line and is between
Redbridge and
Newbury Park stations on the
Hainault loop
The Hainault Loop was originally opened as the Fairlop Loop, a branch line of the Great Eastern Railway (GER). It once connected Woodford on the Ongar (now Epping) branch to Ilford on the Main Line, with an eastward connection for goods, ex ...
. It is in
Travelcard Zone 4
Fare zone 4 is an outer zone of Transport for London's zonal fare system used for calculating the price of tickets for travel on the London Underground, London Overground, Docklands Light Railway and, since 2007, on National Rail services. It ...
. It is the easternmost station to be below ground on the London Underground network and the busiest on the Hainault loop.
[
The station ticket hall is located beneath Gants Hill ]roundabout
A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford En ...
and reached via pedestrian subways. It opened on 14 December 1947 as an extension of the Central line to form the new part of the Hainault loop
The Hainault Loop was originally opened as the Fairlop Loop, a branch line of the Great Eastern Railway (GER). It once connected Woodford on the Ongar (now Epping) branch to Ilford on the Main Line, with an eastward connection for goods, ex ...
. The station is known for its distinctive architecture featuring barrel-vaulted halls at platform level designed by Charles Holden
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...
.
Location
The station has taken its name from the Gants Hill roundabout, where the name Gants Hill could have originated from the le Gant family who were notable as stewards. The ticket hall is directly underneath the roundabout, located in the heart of Gants Hill district. The roundabout connects to Woodford Avenue, Eastern Avenue and Cranbrook Road. The station serves a mainly residential area, and is near Valentines Park, Valentines High School, and "Faces" Nightclub.
History
As part of the 1935–40 New Works Programme
The New Works Programme of 1935–1940 was the major investment programme delivered by the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB), commonly known as London Transport, which had been created in 1933 to coordinate underground train, tram, trolley ...
, the Central line was to be extended from Liverpool Street to south of Leyton
Leyton () is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the River L ...
where it would connect to and take over passenger operations on the London & North Eastern Railway
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...
's (LNER's) suburban branch to Epping Epping may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Epping, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
** Epping railway station, Sydney
* Electoral district of Epping, the corresponding seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
* Epping Forest, Kearns, a he ...
and Ongar in Essex. The section of the LNER's Fairlop Loop
The Hainault Loop was originally opened as the Fairlop Loop, a branch line of the Great Eastern Railway (GER). It once connected Woodford on the Ongar (now Epping) branch to Ilford on the Main Line, with an eastward connection for goods, ex ...
(now known as Hainault Loop) between Woodford Woodford may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Woodford, New South Wales
*Woodford, Queensland, a town in the Moreton Bay Region
*Woodford, Victoria
Canada
* Woodford, Ontario
England
*Woodford, Cornwall
* Woodford, Gloucestershire
*Woodford, Greate ...
and Newbury Park was also to be transferred, though not the section south from Newbury Park to Ilford and Seven Kings
Seven Kings is a district of Ilford in London, England, part of the borough of Redbridge. Situated approximately two miles from Ilford town centre, Seven Kings forms part of the Ilford post town. Historically part of Essex, it was part of the ...
on the Great Eastern Main Line
The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and t ...
. To replace the truncated route south from Newbury Park, a new underground section between Leytonstone
Leytonstone () is an area in east London, England, north-east of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest, a local authority district of Greater London. It adjoins Wanstead to the north-east, Forest Gate to the south-east, S ...
and Newbury Park was constructed, running mostly under Eastern Avenue. Three new stations, which include Gants Hill were built to serve the new suburbs of north Ilford and the Fairlop Loop. During planning, the names "Ilford North" and "Cranbrook" were considered for this station.
Construction began before 1937[ and most of the tunnelled section was completed by 1940 but delayed due to the outbreak of the ]Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
and eventually came to a halt in June 1940. During the war, the station was used as an air raid shelter
Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but many ...
and the unused tunnels between the station and Redbridge were used as a munitions
Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weap ...
factory
A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...
for Plessey
The Plessey Company plc was a British electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after World War II by acquisition of companies and formed overseas compani ...
electronics. Construction restarted after the war ended, with the line extended to Stratford on 4 December 1946, and then to Leytonstone on 5 May 1947. Gants Hill station opened on 14 December 1947 as part of an extension to Newbury Park.
Design
The station, like the other two new stations on the branch, was designed by architect Charles Holden
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...
in the 1930s. During the 1930s the London Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for local public transport in London and its environs from 1933 to 1948. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and brand was Lond ...
had provided advice on the construction of the Moscow Metro
The Moscow Metro) is a metro system serving the Russian capital of Moscow as well as the neighbouring cities of Krasnogorsk, Reutov, Lyubertsy and Kotelniki in Moscow Oblast. Opened in 1935 with one line and 13 stations, it was the first unde ...
and an internal report in 1935 by the Underground's engineers on the Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
n capital's system led to the decision to construct a station in London to a similar design.
The station ticket hall is located beneath the roundabout at the centre of the road junction. It is accessed via a series of pedestrian subway
A subway, also known as an underpass, is a grade-separated pedestrian crossing which crosses underneath a road or railway in order to entirely separate pedestrians and cyclists from motor traffic or trains respectively.
Terminology
In the Un ...
s and has no street level buildings, although low structures on the roundabout sit above the ticket hall and provide daylight and ventilation. From the ticket hall, three escalator
An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the step tread horizo ...
s lead to the barrel-vaulted
A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...
lower concourse between the two platforms tunnels. The station also features miniature roundels on the tiles at platform level as well as the "roundel clocks".
Gants Hill is the only Underground station with a concourse designed by Holden that has no surface buildings. Unlike Redbridge, the station is not Grade II listed although its distinctive architectural qualities have gained public support for listing the station.
Services and connections
Services
Gants Hill is served by the Central line between Redbridge and Newbury Park stations. Train frequencies vary throughout the day, but generally operate every 3–4 minutes between 05:23 and 23:57 westbound and 06:25 and 01:03 eastbound.
Trains generally run between Hainault and Ealing Broadway
Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan.
Ealing was histor ...
via Newbury Park. The typical off-peak service, in trains per hour as of 2018 is:[
* 9tph eastbound to Hainault via Newbury Park
* 3tph eastbound to Newbury Park
* 9tph westbound to Ealing Broadway
* 3tph westbound to ]White City White City may refer to:
Places Australia
* White City, Perth, an amusement park on the Perth foreshore
* White City railway station, a former railway station
* White City Stadium (Sydney), a tennis centre in Sydney
* White City FC, a football clu ...
The typical Night Tube
The Night Tube and London Overground Night Service, often referred to simply as Night Tube, is a service pattern on the London Underground ("Tube") and London Overground systems which provides through-the-night services on Friday and Saturday ni ...
service, in trains per hour as of 2018 is:
* 3tph eastbound to Hainault via Newbury Park
* 3tph westbound to White City
Connections
A number of London Buses
London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages most bus services in London, England. It was formed following the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that transferred control of London Regional Transport (LRT) bus se ...
routes serve the station.
Notes and references
Notes
References
Books
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
* – Entrance to station in 1953, with low roof of ticket hall visible in background
{{Good article
Central line (London Underground) stations
London Underground Night Tube stations
Tube stations in the London Borough of Redbridge
London Underground stations located underground
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1947
Charles Holden railway stations
Art Deco architecture in London