Liverpool Street Signal Box
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The Liverpool Street signal box is a
Grade II listed 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 Irel ...
disused
signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...
at
Liverpool Street tube station Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a London station group, central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the Wards of the City of ...
in London. It was opened for operation in 1875 for an extension of 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 ...
. It was converted to an
interlocking machine room In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and tracks are sometimes collectively re ...
in the 1950s. In 2013 it became the third signal box 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 to be listed. __NOTOC__


History

The signal box was built in 1875 on what is now the Metropolitan and Circle lines' platform at Liverpool Street 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 ...
's extension from . The signal box was a non-standard design designed and built by
McKenzie and Holland Vulcan Iron Works was the name of several iron foundries in both England and the United States during the Industrial Revolution and, in one case, lasting until the mid-20th century. Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and smithery, was a popular na ...
, built of yellow stock brick, with a weatherboarded timber framed upper storey. Originally fitted with a 40 lever frame, a second mechanical frame was installed in 1902, a 20-lever Railway Signal Company frame. On 21 February 1954 this was replaced by a 15-lever Westinghouse miniature power lever frame. The signal box was subsequently converted to an
interlocking machine room In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and tracks are sometimes collectively re ...
(IMR), and from 16 November 1956 it was closed and operated remotely from the signal box. Control was transferred to
Baker Street Baker Street is a street in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster in London. It is named after builder William Baker, who laid out the street in the 18th century. The street is most famous for its connection to the fictional detec ...
on 25 March 2001. As of 2020 the IMR is still in use.


Listing

In 2013 it was one of 26 signal boxes given
listed status 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 Irel ...
by
Ed Vaizey Edward Henry Butler Vaizey, Baron Vaizey of Didcot, (born 5 June 1968) is a British politician, media columnist, political commentator and barrister who was Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries from 2010 to 2016. A memb ...
, minister for the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport , type = Department , logo = Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport logo.svg , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = Gove ...
, after a joint initiative by
English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...
and
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 ...
. The structure was given Grade II listed status as an early example of an underground railway signal box, of a specific design for the Metropolitan Railway, and as being relatively unaltered. It was the third signal box on the London Underground network to gain listed status, after those at
Chesham Chesham (, , or ) is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordsh ...
and
Ruislip Ruislip ( ) is an area in the London Borough of Hillingdon in West London, and in the historic county of Middlesex. Ruislip lies west-north-west of Charing Cross, London. The manor of Ruislip appears in the Domesday Book, and some of the ear ...
stations.


References


Literature

* {{Coord, 51, 31, 3.40, N, 0, 4, 58.98, W, display=title Metropolitan Railway Rail transport in London Grade II listed buildings in the City of London Signal boxes in the United Kingdom