Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street,
is a
central London railway terminus and connected
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 north-eastern corner of 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 ...
, in the
ward
Ward may refer to:
Division or unit
* Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward
* Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
of
Bishopsgate Without. It is the terminus of the
West Anglia Main Line
The West Anglia Main Line is one of the two main lines that operate out of , the other being the Great Eastern Main Line, which operates services to Ipswich and Norwich via Colchester. It runs generally north through Cheshunt, Broxbourne, Har ...
to
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, 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
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
, commuter trains serving east London and destinations in the
East of England
The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. This region was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics purposes from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire ...
, and the
Stansted Express
The Stansted Express is a direct train service linking London Liverpool Street to London Stansted Airport. It is a sub-brand of Greater Anglia, the current franchise operator of the East Anglia franchise.
History
In 1986, British Rail (BR) e ...
service to
Stansted Airport
London Stansted Airport is a tertiary international airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England, northeast of Central London.
London Stansted serves over 160 destinations acros ...
.
The station opened in 1874, as a replacement for
Bishopsgate station as the
Great Eastern Railway
The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...
's main London terminus. By 1895, it had the most platforms of any London terminal station. During the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, an air raid on the station killed 16 on site, and 146 others in nearby areas. In the build-up to 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 ...
, the station served as the entry point for thousands of child refugees arriving in London as part of the ''
Kindertransport
The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children (but not their parents) from Nazi-controlled territory that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World ...
'' rescue mission. The station was damaged by the
1993 Bishopsgate bombing
The Bishopsgate bombing occurred on 24 April 1993, when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated a powerful truck bomb on Bishopsgate, a major thoroughfare in London's financial district, the City of London. Telephoned warnings ...
and, during the
7 July 2005 bombing, seven passengers were killed when a bomb exploded aboard an Underground train, just after it had departed from Liverpool Street. New platforms for the
Elizabeth line
The Elizabeth line is a high-frequency hybrid Urban rail, urban–suburban rail service in London and its suburbs. It runs services on dedicated infrastructure in central London from the Great Western Main Line west of London Paddington statio ...
opened in 2022 as part of the
Crossrail
Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway ...
project.
Liverpool Street was built as a dual-level station, with provision for the
Underground
Underground most commonly refers to:
* Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth
Underground may also refer to:
Places
* The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston
* The Underground (S ...
. A tube station opened in 1875 for 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 ...
; the tube station is now served by the
Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
,
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 const ...
,
Hammersmith & City and
Metropolitan line
The Metropolitan line, colloquially known as the Met, is a London Underground line between in the City of London and and in Buckinghamshire, with branches to in Hertfordshire and in Hillingdon. Printed in magenta on the tube map, the line i ...
s. It is in
fare zone 1 and is managed directly by
Network Rail
Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...
.
Main line station
History
New terminus (1875)
![DISTRICT(1888) p139 - Liverpool Street and Broad Street stations (plan)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/DISTRICT%281888%29_p139_-_Liverpool_Street_and_Broad_Street_stations_%28plan%29.jpg)
Liverpool Street station was built as the new London terminus of the
Great Eastern Railway
The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...
(GER) which served and .
The GER had been formed from the merger of several railway companies, inheriting as its London terminus. Bishopsgate was inadequate for the company's passenger traffic; its
Shoreditch
Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area.
In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an impor ...
location was in the heart of one of the poorest slums in London and hence badly situated for 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 ...
commuters the company wanted to attract. Consequently, the GER planned a more central station.
The original intention was to build a terminus which reached as far south as the road ''London Wall'', and which would be as tall as the
Broad Street station which was being planned at the same time, however the city authorities did not permit the more southerly location.
By 1865, plans changed to include a circa long line branching from the main line east of the company's existing terminus in Shoreditch, and a new station at Liverpool Street as the main terminus, with Bishopsgate station to be used for freight traffic. The station at Liverpool Street (the street had been named after the
Tory
A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...
Prime Minister
Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool
Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, (7 June 1770 – 4 December 1828) was a British Tory statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1812 to 1827. He held many important cabinet offices such as Foreign Secret ...
in 1829) was to be built for the use of the GER and of the
East London Railway on two levels, with the underground East London line around below this, and the GER tracks supported on brick arches. The station was planned to be around in area, with its main façade onto Liverpool Street and an additional entrance on Bishopsgate-Street (now called
Bishopsgate
Bishopsgate was one of the eastern gates in London's former defensive wall. The gate gave its name to the Bishopsgate Ward of the City of London. The ward is traditionally divided into ''Bishopsgate Within'', inside the line wall, and ''Bishop ...
and forming part of the
A10). The main train shed was to be a two-span wood construction with a central void providing light and ventilation to the lower station, and the station buildings were to be in an
Italianate
The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...
style to the designs of the GER's architect.
The line and station construction were authorised by the Great Eastern Railway (Metropolitan Station and Railways) Act 1864. The station was built on a site previously occupied by the
Bethlem Royal Hospital
Bethlem Royal Hospital, also known as St Mary Bethlehem, Bethlehem Hospital and Bedlam, is a psychiatric hospital in London. Its famous history has inspired several horror books, films and TV series, most notably '' Bedlam'', a 1946 film with ...
, adjacent to
Broad Street station, west of Bishopsgate and facing onto Liverpool Street to the south. The development land was
compulsorily purchased, displacing around 3,000 residents of the parish of
St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate
St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate is a Church of England church in the Bishopsgate Without area of the City of London, and also, by virtue of lying outside the city's (now demolished) eastern walls, part of London's East End.
Adjoining the buildi ...
. Around 7,000 people living in tenements around Shoreditch were evicted to complete the line towards Liverpool Street, while the City of London Theatre and City of London Gasworks were both demolished. To manage the disruption caused by rehousing, the company was required by the 1864 Act to run daily low-cost workmen's trains from the station.
![Engineer 1875-06-011 Liverpool street station, trainshed cross-section](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Engineer_1875-06-011_Liverpool_street_station%2C_trainshed_cross-section.jpg)
The station was designed by GER engineer
Edward Wilson Edward Wilson may refer to:
*Ed Wilson (artist) (1925–1996), African American sculptor
* Ed Wilson (baseball) (1875–?), American baseball player
* Ed Wilson (singer) (1945–2010), Brazilian singer-songwriter
*Ed Wilson, American television exe ...
and built by
Lucas Brothers; the roof was designed and constructed by the Fairburn Engineering Company. The overall design was approximately
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
, built using stock bricks and
bath stone
Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of ...
dressings. The building incorporated booking offices as well as the company offices of the GER, including chairman's, board, committee, secretary and engineers' rooms. The roof was spanned by four
wrought iron
Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...
spans, two central spans of and outer spans of 46 and 44 ft, in length over the eastern main lines, and long over the local platforms; the station had 10 platforms, two of which were used for main-line trains and the remainder for suburban trains.
![Liverpool Street Station 1896](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Liverpool_Street_Station_1896.jpg)
The station was built with a connection to the sub-surface
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 ...
, with the platform sunk below ground level; consequently there are considerable gradients leaving the station. The Metropolitan Railway used the station as a terminus from 1 February 1875 until 11 July 1875; their own underground station opened on 12 July 1875.
Local trains began serving the partially completed station from 2 October 1874,
and it was fully opened on 1 November 1875, at a final cost of over £2 million. The original City terminus at Bishopsgate closed to passengers and was converted for use as a goods station from 1881. This continued until it was destroyed by fire in 1964.
The
Great Eastern Hotel adjoining the new Liverpool Street station opened in May 1884. It was designed by
Charles Barry Jr.
Charles Barry Jr. (1823–1900) was an English architect of the mid-late 19th century, and eldest son of Sir Charles Barry. Like his younger brother and fellow architect Edward Middleton Barry, Charles Jr. designed numerous buildings in London. H ...
(son of the celebrated architect
Charles Barry
Sir Charles Barry (23 May 1795 – 12 May 1860) was a British architect, best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster (also known as the Houses of Parliament) in London during the mid-19th century, but also responsi ...
who designed the
Houses of Parliament
The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north bank ...
). Upon opening, it was the only hotel in the City of London. An extension called the Abercon Rooms was built in 1901, designed by
Colonel Robert William Edis. The hotel includes the Hamilton Rooms, named after former GER chairman
Lord Claud Hamilton.
Expansion (1895)
Although initially viewed as an expensive
white elephant
A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, construction project, sch ...
, within 10 years the station was working at capacity (about 600 trains per day) and the GER was acquiring land to the east of the station for expansion. An Act of Parliament was obtained in 1888 and work started in 1890 on the eastward expansion of Liverpool Street by adding eight new tracks and platforms. This gave the station the most platforms of any London terminus until
Victoria station was expanded in 1908.
The main station was extended about eastwards; additional shops and offices were constructed east of the new train shed up to the parish boundary with Bishopsgate-Street Without. A new roof was built over the new construction. The outer wall was constructed with
Staffordshire blue brick
Staffordshire blue brick is a strong type of construction brick, originally made in Staffordshire, England.
The brick is made from the local red clay, Etruria marl, which when fired at a high temperature in a low-oxygen reducing atmosphere ta ...
and
Ruabon bricks. The four train shed roofs were carried out by Messrs.
Handyside and Co.
Andrew Handyside and Company was an iron founder in Derby, England, in the nineteenth century.
Biography
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1805, Handyside worked in his uncle Charles Baird's engineering business in St. Petersburg before takin ...
, supervised by a Mr Sherlock, the resident engineer; all the foundations, earthwork and brickwork were carried out by
Mowlem & Co. Electric power (for lighting) was supplied from an engine house north of the station. Additional civil works included three iron bridges carrying road traffic over the railway on Skinner, Primrose and Worship Streets. The bridge ironwork was supplied and erected by the
Horseley Company. John Wilson was chief engineer, with
W. N. Ashbee
William Neville Ashbee (1852 – 30 April 1919) was an English railway architect notable for railway station, stations on the Great Eastern Railway, including the London terminus at Liverpool Street Station.
Career
The son of John Ashbee, w ...
as architect. As part of the works, the GER was obliged by Parliament to rehouse all tenants displaced by the works, with 137 put into existing property and the remaining 600 into tenements constructed at the company's expense.
By the turn of the 20th century, Liverpool Street had one of the most extensive suburban rail services in London, including branches to and
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 was one of the busiest in the world. In 1912, around 200,000 passengers used the station daily on around 1,000 separate trains.
First World War and memorials (1917–1922)
Operation Turkenkreuz
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* Operation (game), ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* Operations (magazine ...
, the initial
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
air raid on London, took place on 13 June 1917, when 20
Gotha G.IV
The Gotha G.IV was a heavy bomber used by the (Imperial German Air Service) during World War I. It was the first mass-produced large airplane.
Development
Experience with the earlier G.III showed that the rear gunner could not efficientl ...
bombers attacked the capital. The raid struck a number of sites including Liverpool Street. Seven tons of explosives were dropped on the capital, killing 162 people and injuring 432. Three bombs hit the station, of which two exploded, having fallen through the train shed roof, near to two trains. One of these hit a carriage on a train about to depart, another hit carriages used by army doctors; the death toll at the station itself was 16 dead and 15 injured. It was the deadliest single raid on Britain during the war.
Over 1,000 GER employees who died during the war were honoured on a large marble memorial installed in the booking hall, unveiled on 22 June 1922 by
Sir Henry Wilson
Field Marshal Sir Henry Hughes Wilson, 1st Baronet, (5 May 1864 – 22 June 1922) was one of the most senior British Army staff officers of the First World War and was briefly an Irish unionist politician.
Wilson served as Commandant of the St ...
. On his return home from the unveiling ceremony, Wilson was assassinated by two
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief tha ...
members. He was commemorated by a memorial plaque adjoining the GER monument, unveiled one month after his death.
The GER memorial was relocated during the modification of the station and now incorporates both the Wilson and Fryatt memorials, as well as a number of railway related architectural elements salvaged from demolished buildings.
The station also has a plaque commemorating mariner
Charles Fryatt
Charles Algernon Fryatt (2 December 1872 – 27 July 1916) was a British merchant seaman who was court martialled by the Imperial German Navy for attempting to ram a German U-boat in 1915. When his ship, the , was captured off occupied Belgium ...
who was executed in 1916 for ramming a German U-boat with the GER steamer ''
SS Brussels
''Brussels'' was a passenger ferry built in 1902 for the British Great Eastern Railway. In 1915, she tried to ram . The ship was captured by Germany in 1916 and her captain, Charles Fryatt was executed after the Germans discovered his attempted ...
''.
"Big Four" (1923–1945)
By the early 1900s, the success of deep-bore electric trains on the Underground suggested that local services out of London could also be electrified. Following the war, the GER needed more capacity out of Liverpool Street as it was at capacity (serving almost 230,000 passengers daily in 1921), but they could not afford electrification. They considered high-powered and high-tractive steam locomotives including the
GER Class A55
The GER Class A55 or ''Decapod'' was an experimental steam locomotive with an 0-10-0T wheel arrangement designed by James Holden for the Great Eastern Railway. It was the first ten-coupled steam locomotive in Great Britain.
Background
Th ...
as a possible alternative, but these were rejected because of high track loadings.
An alternative scheme was introduced, using a combination of automatic signalling and modifications to the layout at Liverpool Street. The station introduced coaling, watering, and other maintenance facilities directly at the station, as well as separate engine bays and a modified track and station layout that reduced turnaround times and increased productivity. Services began on 2 July 1920 with trains to
Chingford
Chingford is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The town is approximately north-east of Charing Cross, with Waltham Abbey to the north, Woodford Green and Buckhurst Hill to the east, Walthamstow to the ...
and
Enfield
Enfield may refer to:
Places Australia
* Enfield, New South Wales
* Enfield, South Australia
** Electoral district of Enfield, a state electoral district in South Australia, corresponding to the suburb
** Enfield High School (South Australia)
...
running every 10 minutes. The cost of the modifications was £80,000 compared to an estimated £3 million for electrification. The service was officially called the Intensive Service (as it allowed a 50% increase in capacity on peak services), but became popularly known as the Jazz Service. It lasted until the General Strike of 1926, following which services generally declined.
The GER amalgamated with several other railways to form the
London and North Eastern Railway
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...
(LNER) as part of the
reorganisation of railway companies in 1923. Liverpool Street came under ownership of the LNER, and suffered from a general lack of attention and neglect throughout the 1930s.
=Station staff 1935
=
The station master in 1935 was H C R Calver and he had 395 staff under him with his direct reports, including ticket office, parcels staff, signalmen, platform inspectors and porters. Of this number, 75 were passed for fogging duties for when additional staff were required for safe operation of trains in
foggy conditions.
In addition to this there were many other staff employed at the station on a variety of duties including policemen (uniformed and plain clothes), locomotive staff, permanent way staff, carriage and wagon examiners, steam heat examiners, electric and gas examiners, telegraph staff, linemen, signal fitters, Goods Manager's Despatch Office staff, outside porters, hotel porters, staff from the continental office and GPO staff.
The former headquarters building of the GER (still a railway office in 1935) was adjacent to Liverpool Street and some departments in that building also had roles in the operation of the station.
Further to that the newspaper companies provided their own staff to load newspaper trains.
=Signal box operation 1935
=
In 1935 the approaches to Liverpool Street and the station itself, were controlled by seven signal boxes, which fell under the responsibility of the Liverpool Street station master. The boxes were:
* East London Junction - this was primarily for traffic to and from the
East London Line and in 1935 a route onto the Southern Railway via
Whitechapel
Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...
* Bishopsgate North - this box controlled the suburban line only; it was situated on the former (closed 1916)
Bishopsgate Low Level down suburban platform.
* Bishopsgate South - stood on the former Down Local platform of
Bishopsgate Low Level and controlled traffic on the Local and Through lines.
* Liverpool Street West - was the controlling box for the station working. All trains were block signalled, irrespective of whether they were running into the west or east side of the station. The box had 203 active levers and 37 spare and during the busiest period of the day there were six signalmen on duty along with a telephone and booking lad. A train to Liverpool Street East Box would be block signalled from the West box.
* Liverpool Street East - situated at the country end of Platform 11; it had 127 active and 9 spare levers, and controlled traffic passing on or off the Local or Through lines, into or out of platforms 11 to 18. Departing trains would be despatched to the west box.
* The remaining two signal boxes were platform boxes whose purpose was to electrically lock a platform out when a train had arrived in it. The platform would not be freed (so other trains could not be routed into it) until all the vehicles brought into it were cleared and the platform was again ready for another train to be accepted. These boxes were located at the country ends of Platform 4/5 and 14/15.
=Second World War
=
Thousands of Jewish refugee children arrived at Liverpool Street in the late 1930s as part of the ''
Kindertransport
The ''Kindertransport'' (German for "children's transport") was an organised rescue effort of children (but not their parents) from Nazi-controlled territory that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World ...
'' rescue mission to save them in the run up to 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 ...
. The Für Das Kind Kindertransport Memorial sculpture by artist Flor Kent was installed at the station in September 2003 commemorating this event. It consisted of a specialised glass case with original objects and a bronze sculpture of a girl, a direct descendant of a child rescued by
Nicholas Winton
Sir Nicholas George Winton (born Wertheim; 19 May 1909 – 1 July 2015) was a British humanitarian who helped to rescue children who were at risk of being murdered by Nazi Germany. Born to German-Jewish parents who had emigrated to Britain at ...
, who unveiled the work. The objects included in the sculpture began to deteriorate in bad weather, and a replacement bronze memorial, ''
Kindertransport – The Arrival
''Kindertransport – The Arrival'' is an outdoor bronze memorial sculpture by Frank Meisler, located in the forecourt of Liverpool Street station in London, United Kingdom.
It commemorates the 10,000 orphaned Jewish children who escaped Nazi pe ...
'' by
Frank Meisler
Frank Meisler (30 December 1925 – 24 March 2018) was an Israeli architect and sculptor. Meisler was born in the Free City of Danzig and grew up in England, before moving to Israel in 1956. In 1953 he married Batya (Phillis) Hochman with whom he ...
was installed as a replacement at the main entrance in November 2006. The child statue from the Kent memorial was re-erected separately in 2011.
During the war, the station's structure sustained damage from a nearby bomb, particularly the Gothic tower at the main entrance on Liverpool Street and its glass roof.
As a precautionary measure the large and weighty West Side hanging clock was bought down to platform level and served as an enquiry office for the duration of the war.
Nationalisation (1946–91)
![Liverpool Street – 20180308 152347 (40650187682)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Liverpool_Street_%E2%80%93_20180308_152347_%2840650187682%29.jpg)
After the formation of 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 ...
in 1933, work to electrify the line from Liverpool Street to
Shenfield
Shenfield is a commuter suburb of Brentwood, in the borough of Brentwood, Essex, England. In 2020, the suburb was estimated to have a population of 5,396.
History
The old village (now town), by the church and Green Dragon pub, lies along the ...
began in association with the LNER. Progress had been halted by the war but work resumed after the end of hostilities. The line between Liverpool Street and
Stratford was electrified from 3 December 1946, and the full electrification of the Shenfield line at 1500 V DC was completed in September 1949.
At the same time, electrification of
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 ...
services in Essex and in northeast and east London led to the withdrawal of some services from Liverpool Street, being replaced with LU operations. Electrification continued with the line to
Chingford
Chingford is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The town is approximately north-east of Charing Cross, with Waltham Abbey to the north, Woodford Green and Buckhurst Hill to the east, Walthamstow to the ...
electrified by November 1960. In 1960-61 conversion of the 1,500 V DC route to Shenfield which had been extended to Southend and Chelmsford was converted to 6.25kV ac.
![LiverpoolStreetStation(ChristineMatthews)May2003](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/LiverpoolStreetStation%28ChristineMatthews%29May2003.jpg)
In 1973 the
British Railways Board
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
,
London Transport Executive
The London Transport Executive was the organisation responsible for public transport in Greater London, England between 1948 and 1962. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and operational brand of ...
,
Greater London Council
The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...
and the
Department of the Environment
An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment, ...
produced a report examining the modernisation of London transport. It recommended high priority given to reconstructing Liverpool Street and Broad Street stations and recommended financing this through
property development
Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to others. R ...
on the site. Liverpool Street had a number of design and access issues, many of which derived from the 1890 extension which had effectively created two stations on one site, with two
concourse
A concourse is a place where pathways or roads meet, such as in a hotel, a convention center, a railway station, an airport terminal, a hall, or other space.
The term is not limited to places where there are literally pathways or roadways or t ...
s linked by walkways, booking halls, and inefficient traffic flows within the station. Additionally the rail infrastructure presented limitations; only seven of the platforms could accommodate 12-carriage trains, and the track exit layout was a bottleneck. In 1975 British Railways announced plans to demolish and redevelop both stations. The proposed demolition met considerable public opposition and prompted a campaign led by the
Poet Laureate
A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...
Sir John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...
, leading to a
public inquiry
A tribunal of inquiry is an official review of events or actions ordered by a government body. In many common law countries, such as the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, Australia and Canada, such a public inquiry differs from a royal ...
from November 1976 to February 1977.
In autumn 1980 conversion of the overhead electrification from 6.25kV
AC to the standard supply of 25kV AC. The inquiry recommended that the western (1875) train shed roof should be retained in new development; consequently it was repaired and reinforced between 1982 and 1984, followed by repairs to the main roof completed in 1987. Initial plans included adding two additional tracks, with 22 platforms in a layout similar to that of
Waterloo station
Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a central London terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Underground station of t ...
; the combined Broad Street and Liverpool Street station was to be at the level of the latter, with relatively low-rise office developments. The development was reassessed in 1983/4, when it was decided to retain the existing six-road exit throat and 18-platform layout, in combination with resignalling; this resulted in a station confined to the Liverpool Street site, with ground space released for development. British Railways signed an agreement with developers Rosehaugh Stanhope in 1985, and work on the office development, known as
Broadgate
Broadgate is a large, office and retail estate in the Bishopsgate Without area of the City of London. It is owned by British Land and GIC and managed by Savills.
The estate is in part of the eastern City fringe, outside the line of the no ...
, began.
Railway work included the construction of a short link from the
North London Line
The North London line (NLL) is a railway line which passes through the inner suburbs of west, north-west, north, and east London, England between Richmond in the south-west and Stratford in the east, avoiding central London. Its route is a rou ...
to the Cambridge main line, allowing trains that had previously used Broad Street to terminate at Liverpool Street. The station was reconstructed with a single concourse at the head of the station platforms, and entrances from Bishopsgate and Liverpool Street, as well as
a bus interchange in the south west corner. The Broadgate development was constructed between 1985 and 1991, with of office space on the site of the former Broad Street station and above the Liverpool Street tracks. Proceeds from the Broadgate development were used to help fund the station modernisation.
In 1988,
The Arcade above the underground station on the corner of Liverpool Street and Old Broad Street was due to be completely demolished by London Regional Transport and MEPC, who wanted to develop the site into a five-storey block of offices and shops. More than 6,000 people signed a petition to "Save the Arcade", and the historic Victorian building still stands today. The campaign against the development was led by Graham Horwood, who owned an employment agency within the Arcade at the time.
In 1989, the first visual display unit-controlled signalling operation on British Rail (known as an
Integrated Electronic Control Centre
The Integrated Electronic Control Centre (IECC) was developed in the late 1980s by the British Rail Research Division for UK-based railway signalling centres, although variations exist around the world. It is the most widely deployed VDU based s ...
) became operational at Liverpool Street.
![Rebuilt Liverpool Street station plaque](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Rebuilt_Liverpool_Street_station_plaque.jpg)
The redeveloped Liverpool Street was officially opened by
Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...
on 5 December 1991. At that time a giant departures board was installed above the concourse; it was one of the last remaining mechanical
'flapper' display boards at a British railway station until its replacement in November 2007.
Recent history and privatisation (1991–present)
![Twinning plaque at Liverpool Street station](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Twinning_plaque_at_Liverpool_Street_station.jpg)
In 1991, an additional entrance was constructed on the east side of
Bishopsgate
Bishopsgate was one of the eastern gates in London's former defensive wall. The gate gave its name to the Bishopsgate Ward of the City of London. The ward is traditionally divided into ''Bishopsgate Within'', inside the line wall, and ''Bishop ...
with a
subway under the road. The station was "twinned" with
Amsterdam Centraal railway station
Amsterdam Centraal Station ( nl, italic=no, Station Amsterdam Centraal ; abbreviation: Asd) is the largest railway station in Amsterdam, North Holland, the Netherlands. A major international railway hub, it is used by 192,000 passengers a day, m ...
on 2 December 1993, with a plaque marking this close to the entrance to the Underground station.
The station was badly damaged on 24 April 1993 by the
Bishopsgate bombing
The Bishopsgate bombing occurred on 24 April 1993, when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated a powerful truck bomb on Bishopsgate, a major thoroughfare in London's financial district, the City of London. Telephoned warning ...
and was temporarily closed as a result. About £250,000 of damage was caused to the station, primarily to the glass roof. The station re-opened on 26 April 1993.
In 2013, during excavation work for the
Crossrail
Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway ...
project, a mass burial ground dating from the 17th century was uncovered a few feet beneath the surface at Liverpool Street, the so-called Bedlam burial ground or
New Churchyard
The New Churchyard was a municipal and non-parochial burial ground in London. Established in 1569, it was used for burial from 1570 until 1739, by which date approximately 25,000 interments were estimated to have taken place. It was created to ...
. It contained the remains of several hundred people and it is thought that the interments were of a wide variety of people, including plague victims, prisoners and unclaimed corpses. A 16th-century gold coin, thought to have been used as a sequin or pendant, was also found. In early 2015 full scale excavation of the burials began, then estimated at around 3,000 interments.
![Elizabeth line entrance, Liverpool Street station - 2022-06-03](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Elizabeth_line_entrance%2C_Liverpool_Street_station_-_2022-06-03.jpg)
In advance of the full opening of the
Elizabeth line
The Elizabeth line is a high-frequency hybrid Urban rail, urban–suburban rail service in London and its suburbs. It runs services on dedicated infrastructure in central London from the Great Western Main Line west of London Paddington statio ...
, precursor operator
TfL Rail
TfL Rail was the concession which operated commuter services on two separate railway lines in London, England and its environs whilst the Crossrail construction project linking these lines was underway. On 24 May 2022, upon the opening of the ...
took over from
Greater Anglia the Liverpool Street-Shenfield stopping "metro" service from 2015.
At the same time, services on the
Lea Valley Lines
The Lea Valley lines are two commuter lines and two branches in north-east London, so named because they run along the Lower Lea Valley of the River Lea. They were part of the Great Eastern Railway, now part of the ''Anglia Route'' of Networ ...
out of Liverpool Street to Enfield Town, Cheshunt (via Seven Sisters) and Chingford transferred to
London Overground
London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a ...
. The central section of the Elizabeth line opened on 24 May 2022 between Paddington and Abbey Wood. The Elizabeth line platforms are to the south-west of the existing tube station building.
A new ticket hall with
step-free access opened next to the Broadgate development, with links to the existing Underground station, and a pedestrian link via the new platforms to the ticket hall of , providing direct access to London Underground's
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 the National Rail
Northern City Line
The Northern City Line is a commuter railway line in England, which runs from Moorgate station to Finsbury Park in London with services running beyond. It is part of the Great Northern Route services, and operates as the south-eastern branc ...
at Moorgate. Thus, Liverpool Street appears on the
Tube map
The Tube map (sometimes called the London Underground map) is a schematic
A schematic, or schematic diagram, is a designed representation of the elements of a system using abstract, graphic symbols rather than realistic pictures. A schematic ...
as an interchange with Moorgate, similarly to and .
Services
In the year prior to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, Liverpool Street was the third-busiest railway station in the United Kingdom after
London Waterloo
Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a central London terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Underground station of ...
and
London Victoria
Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named after the nearby Victoria Street (not the Q ...
, with an estimated 66 million passenger entries/exits. Patronage fell 83% in 2020/21 to 11.2 million due to the pandemic.
Trains depart from the main line station for destinations across the
east of England
The East of England is one of the nine official regions of England. This region was created in 1994 and was adopted for statistics purposes from 1999. It includes the ceremonial counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire ...
, including , , , , , , , , , , and many suburban stations in north and east London,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
and
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
. A few daily express trains to provide a connection with the
Dutchflyer
''Dutchflyer'' is an integrated passenger service between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Formerly known as ''Amsterdam Express'', ''Dutchflyer'' is a rail/sea/rail service operated jointly by Stena Line, the Dutch state railway operator ...
ferry to
Hook of Holland
Hook of Holland ( nl, Hoek van Holland, ) is a town in the southwestern corner of Holland, hence the name; ''hoek'' means "corner" and was the word in use before the word ''kaap'' – "cape", from Portuguese ''cabo'' – became Dutch. The English t ...
.
Stansted Express
The Stansted Express is a direct train service linking London Liverpool Street to London Stansted Airport. It is a sub-brand of Greater Anglia, the current franchise operator of the East Anglia franchise.
History
In 1986, British Rail (BR) e ...
trains provide a link to and Southend Victoria-bound services stop at .
Most passenger services 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 ...
are operated by
Greater Anglia. Since 2015, the Shenfield stopping service has been operated by
Transport for London (first under the
TfL Rail
TfL Rail was the concession which operated commuter services on two separate railway lines in London, England and its environs whilst the Crossrail construction project linking these lines was underway. On 24 May 2022, upon the opening of the ...
brand, now the
Elizabeth line
The Elizabeth line is a high-frequency hybrid Urban rail, urban–suburban rail service in London and its suburbs. It runs services on dedicated infrastructure in central London from the Great Western Main Line west of London Paddington statio ...
), and the
Lea Valley Lines
The Lea Valley lines are two commuter lines and two branches in north-east London, so named because they run along the Lower Lea Valley of the River Lea. They were part of the Great Eastern Railway, now part of the ''Anglia Route'' of Networ ...
to Enfield Town, Cheshunt (via Seven Sisters) and Chingford are operated by
London Overground
London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a ...
. A small number of late-evening and weekend services operated by
run via
Barking
Barking may refer to:
Places
* Barking, London, a town in East London, England
** London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, a local government district covering the town of Barking
** Municipal Borough of Barking, a historical local government dist ...
. The station is split into two “halves”: the "west" side for the Lea Valley Lines services and the "east" side for services via Shenfield.
Trains on the central section of the Elizabeth line run west towards and east to in south-east London.
The typical off-peak weekday service pattern from Liverpool Street is:
Service table
Underground station
Services
Liverpool Street Underground station is served by the
Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
,
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 const ...
,
Hammersmith & City and
Metropolitan line
The Metropolitan line, colloquially known as the Met, is a London Underground line between in the City of London and and in Buckinghamshire, with branches to in Hertfordshire and in Hillingdon. Printed in magenta on the tube map, the line i ...
s, and is the sixth-busiest on the
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 ...
network. On the Central line it is between Bank and Bethnal Green stations, on Circle and Metropolitan lines between Aldgate and Moorgate and, on Hammersmith and City, between Aldgate East and Moorgate. In common with other tube stations serving Central London termini, it is in fare zone 1. There is no wheelchair access to the tube lines, except from the eastbound Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines, which have a ramp leading to the platform.
History
Liverpool Street had been designed to integrate with the expanding London Underground network, and served as a new terminus for 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) which extended east from
Moorgate
Moorgate was one of the City of London's northern gates in its defensive wall, the last to be built. The gate took its name from the Moorfields, an area of marshy land that lay immediately north of the wall.
The gate was demolished in 1762, b ...
. From 1874 to 1875, the MR used the Liverpool Street main line station as a terminus; the company opened its own station on 12 July 1875, initially named Bishopsgate. Subsurface platforms 1 and 2 were opened in 1875. A west-facing bay platform, platform 3, was formerly located to the south of platform 2; this was used by terminating Metropolitan line trains from the west.
It was in use by 1896, and was still in use in 1974, but was redundant by 1994.
The Metropolitan Railway connection was closed in 1904
and the station was renamed Liverpool Street on 1 November 1909.
In 1912, after the completion of
an extension project from
Bank
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Because ...
, Liverpool Street became a new 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).
The platforms that are now the deep-level Central line platforms 4 and 5 opened as the eastern terminus of the CLR on 28 July 1912. The tube station was one of the first to use the Moore Vacuum Tube, a new system of lighting that produced three times as much as a normal bulb.
The tube station became one of the principal shelters 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 ...
. The station was not initially open to the public as a shelter, but during heavy raids on the
East End
The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...
on 7 September 1940, many sought refuge at the station, which was the safest and most practical shelter for many. Some sources suggest that the local people forced entry, others that staff decided to open the gates to everyone without asking for tickets, something which would have been technically illegal.
On 4 December 1946, the passenger line was extended eastwards as part of the
war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
-delayed London Passenger Transport Board's
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 ...
. An Underground ticket hall was added in 1951.
During the
7 July 2005 terrorist attacks on London, a bomb was exploded aboard an Underground train that had departed Liverpool Street toward
Aldgate
Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate.
The area of Aldgate, the most common use of ...
. Seven passengers were killed.
London Post Office Railway station
The Liverpool Street Post Office Railway station is a disused station that was operated by
Royal Mail
, kw, Postya Riel, ga, An Post Ríoga
, logo = Royal Mail.svg
, logo_size = 250px
, type = Public limited company
, traded_as =
, foundation =
, founder = Henry VIII
, location = London, England, UK
, key_people = * Keith Williams ...
on the
London Post Office Railway
The Post Office Railway, is a narrow gauge, driverless underground railway in London that was built by the Post Office with assistance from the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, to transport mail between sorting offices. Inspire ...
system.
The station is between
Mount Pleasant Mail Centre
The Mount Pleasant Mail Centre (often shortened as Mount Pleasant, known internally as the Mount and officially known as the London Central Mail Centre) is a mail centre operated by Royal Mail in London, England. The site has previously operated ...
and Whitechapel Eastern District Post Office, and is situated at the south end of Liverpool Street under the
Great Eastern Hotel. It opened in December 1927; lifts on either side of the station as well as chutes enabled the transfer of mail to and from the main station. Two parcel and letter bag conveyors were connected to platforms 10 and 11 (currently used by
Greater Anglia); postal traffic reached 10,000 bags daily in the 1930s, with 690 Post Office services calling. The system was discontinued in 2003.
In 2014, a team from the
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
began conducting a study in a short, double track section of unused tunnel near the platforms where a newly built tunnel for
Crossrail
Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway ...
is situated almost two metres beneath. The study is to establish how the original
cast-iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
lining sections, which are similar to those used for many miles of railway under London, resist possible deformation and soil movement caused by the developments.
Future developments
Elizabeth line
In late 2022, the six off-peak trains per hour from Shenfield to the main Liverpool Street station will be doubled in frequency and diverted into the Crossrail tunnel west of . Four peak trains per hour will be retained on the "metro" service between and the main Liverpool Street station over 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 ...
between Stratford and Liverpool Street (omitting Whitechapel). To accommodate the nine car Crossrail trains, platform 18 at the main Liverpool Street station was decommissioned in December 2020 to allow platforms 16 and 17 to be extended.
London Underground
The Central line runs directly below on the
London Overground
London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, (via archive.org). it now serves a ...
's
East London Line and an interchange has been desired locally in neighbouring Shoreditch since it opened in 2010. The new platforms would lie between Bethnal Green and Liverpool Street on one of the longest gaps between stations in inner London. Although there would be benefits to this interchange, it was ruled out on grounds of cost, the disruption it would cause to the Central line while being built, and because the platforms would be too close to sidings at Liverpool Street; the proposal will not be reconsidered until after Crossrail is fully operational.
Freight trial
A freight trial between Liverpool Street and London Gateway was planned to start in April or May 2020, using a
Class 769
The British Rail Class 769 ''Flex'' is a type of bi-mode multiple unit (BMU) and tri-mode multiple unit (TMU) which is currently being converted by Brush Traction, and running in service with Transport for Wales Rail and Northern Trains. The t ...
bi-mode train.
Cultural references
Liverpool Street is one of the four railway stations present on the British version of
Monopoly
A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...
, along with
King's Cross, and
Marylebone
Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary.
An Civil parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish and latterly a ...
. All four stations were termini of LNER services when
Victor Watson
Victor Hugo Watson (26 September 1928 – 25 February 2015) was a British businessman and philanthropist. He served as the Chairman of Waddingtons 1977 to 1993. Waddingtons employed over 3,000 people, mainly in Leeds, and were involved in ...
redesigned the game for the British market in 1936.
The station has been used several times as the site of fictionalised terrorist attacks: in
Andy McNab
Steven Billy Mitchell, (born 28 December 1959), usually known by the pseudonym and pen-name of Andy McNab, is a novelist and former British Army infantry soldier.
He came into public prominence in 1993 when he published a book entitled ''Brav ...
's novel ''
Dark Winter'' the station is the target of an attack; in ''London Under Attack'', a 2004 ''
Panorama
A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...
'' docu-drama portrayal of a terrorist attack on London using chlorine gas; and the drama ''
Dirty War
The Dirty War ( es, Guerra sucia) is the name used by the military junta or civic-military dictatorship of Argentina ( es, dictadura cívico-militar de Argentina, links=no) for the period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1974 to 1983 a ...
'' (2004) portrayed a suicide terrorist attack using a "
dirty bomb
A dirty bomb or radiological dispersal device is a radiological weapon that combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. The purpose of the weapon is to contaminate the area around the dispersal agent/conventional explosion with ...
" near the Underground station. The station has also been used as a backdrop for a number of other film and television productions, including espionage films ''
Stormbreaker
''Stormbreaker'' is a young adult fiction, young adult action-adventure book written by British author Anthony Horowitz, and is the first novel in the Alex Rider, ''Alex Rider'' series. The book was released in the United Kingdom on the 4th of ...
'' (2006) and ''
Mission: Impossible'' (1996), and crime drama ''
The Shadow Line
''The Shadow-Line'' is a short novel based at sea by Joseph Conrad; it is one of his later works, being written from February to December 1915. It was first published in 1916 as a serial in New York's ''Metropolitan Magazine'' (September—Oct ...
'' (2011), as well as the site for staged ''
flash mobs
A flash mob (or flashmob) is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform for a brief time, then quickly disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and artistic expression. Flash mobs may be organized via t ...
'' in the film ''
St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold'' (2009), and for a
T-Mobile
T-Mobile is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic (T-Mobile Czech Republic), Poland (T-Mobile Polska), the United States (T-Mobile ...
advert.
H. G. Wells' 1898 novel ''The War of The Worlds'' included a chaotic rush to board trains at Liverpool Street as the Martian machines overran military defences in the West End.
The station is the subject of the poem "Liverpool Street Station" by
John Davidson.
See also
*
Liverpool Street signal box
The Liverpool Street signal box is a Listed building, Grade II listed disused Signalling control, signal box at Liverpool Street station, Liverpool Street tube station in London.
It was opened for operation in 1875 for an extension of the Metrop ...
References
Notes
Citations
Periodicals
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Books
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Further reading
*
External links
Station informationon Liverpool Street station from
Network Rail
Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...
Liverpool Street 1977photos from 1977
London Landscape TV episode (7 mins) about Liverpool Street station
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liverpool Street Station
Central line (London Underground) stations
Circle line (London Underground) stations
Hammersmith & City line stations
Metropolitan line stations
London Underground Night Tube stations
Tube stations in the City of London
Former Metropolitan Railway stations
London Underground stations located underground
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1875
Former Central London Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1912
Railway stations in the City of London
Railway termini in London
Network Rail managed stations
Former Great Eastern Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1874
Railway stations served by c2c
Greater Anglia franchise railway stations
Railway stations served by the Elizabeth line
1874 establishments in England
William Neville Ashbee railway stations
Railway stations located underground in the United Kingdom
London station group
Grade II listed buildings in the City of London
Railway stations served by London Overground