White City 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 on

Wood Lane Wood Lane (A219, formerly A40) is a street in London. It runs north from Shepherd's Bush, under the Westway (A40) past Wormwood Scrubs where it meets Scrubs Lane. The road is wholly in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham ( W12 postal ...

in White City, west

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

, England, on the Central line between Shepherds Bush and East Acton stations in

Travelcard Zone 2 Fare zone 2 is an inner 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. Ba ...

. The station is in a deep brick-sided cutting – and is designed in a similar way to

Harrow-on-the-Hill station Harrow-on-the-Hill is an interchange railway station in Harrow, served by suburban London Underground Metropolitan line services and commuter National Rail services on the London–Aylesbury line. It is down the line from . Harrow-on-the-Hil ...

History

The station was opened on 23 November 1947, replacing the earlier Wood Lane station. Its construction started after 1938 and had been scheduled for completion by 1940, but 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 opposi ...

delayed its opening for another seven years. The architectural design of the station won an award at the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: ...

and a commemorative plaque recording this is attached to the building to the left of the main entrance.

The station today

An interesting feature of the station is that the line adopts right-hand running through the station rather than the conventional left-hand running. This is a historical consequence of the reversal of the tracks in the tunnels of the anti-clockwise loop track built for the now-disused Wood Lane station, situated a short distance to the south of White City which was opened in 1908 as the then western terminus of the Central London Railway. The two tracks return to their normal left-hand orientation by a surface fly-over roughly halfway between White City and East Acton stations. The station's running layout has three tracks, with the centre track having platforms on each side meaning that it can handle trains running in either direction. A siding between the running lines to the north of the station allows trains from Central London to be reversed and run back eastwards. Trains going out of service can return to the below-ground White City depot to the south of the station via sidings between the running lines. The nearby

station 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 Hammersmith & City lines provides an interchange between the lines. This station is also directly opposite the

BBC Television Centre Television Centre (TVC) is a building complex in White City, West London, that was the headquarters of BBC Television between 1960 and 2013. After a refurbishment, the complex reopened in 2017 with three studios in use for TV production, opera ...

and is within walking distance of

Loftus Road Loftus Road is a football stadium in White City, London, England, which is home to Queens Park Rangers. In 1981, it became the first stadium in British professional football to have an artificial pitch of Omniturf installed. This remained in ...

, home of

Queens Park Rangers F.C. Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

and Westfield London. The station received a certificate of merit in the 2009 National Railway Heritage Awards, London Regional category, for the modernisation (completed in 2008) that took care to retain heritage and architectural features.

Similarly named station

An earlier

station on the Metropolitan line was located a short distance to the south and was also known as ''White City'' from 23 November 1947 until its closure in 1959.

Connections

London Buses routes 72, 95,

220 __NOTOC__ Year 220 ( CCXX) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Antonius and Eutychianus (or, less frequently, year 973 '' ...

228 Year 228 ( CCXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Modestus and Maecius (or, less frequently, year 981 ''Ab urbe co ...

, 272 and night route N72 serve the station directly. White City bus station is a few minutes walk south of the station.

References

External links

* White City Station in 1951.
Shepherd's Bush and White City development
{{Central line navbox Central line (London Underground) stations London Underground Night Tube stations London Underground stations located above ground Tube stations in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1947 1947 establishments in England

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 ...