City Road is a disused

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

station in Islington, central London. It was opened in 1901 as part of the City & South London Railway's extension from Moorgate Street to

Angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles inclu ...

. City Road was situated between

Old Street Old Street is a street in inner north-east Central London that runs west to east from Goswell Road in Clerkenwell, in the London Borough of Islington, via St Luke's and Old Street Roundabout, to the crossroads where it meets Shoreditch High ...

and Angel. The railway is now part of the

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, tw ...

. The station was closed in 1922 due to low passenger usage. The underground tunnels remain at track level, but the station remained derelict until the 1960s, when it was demolished except for the structure around the original lift shaft. This remained at

City Road City Road or The City Road is a road that runs through central London. The northwestern extremity of the road is at Angel where it forms a continuation of Pentonville Road. Pentonville Road itself is the modern name for the eastern part of Lon ...

's junction with Central Street and Moreland Street until the late 2010s, when it was replaced by the Bunhill 2 Energy Centre.

History

From the start, City Road station was little used, and discussions of its closure were held as early as 1908: less than seven years after it was opened. The station was close to both

and

, and was in a deprived area of Islington. However, City Road remained until 8 August 1922 when the City & South London Railway's northern section between Euston and Moorgate Street was closed to enable the diameter of the tunnels to be increased from to the Underground's standard diameter of , so that larger and longer Standard Stock trains could be operated. Low passenger usage meant that the required expansion of the platform tunnels and upgrading of the station could not be justified on financial grounds, and City Road remained closed when the line was reopened on 20 April 1924. The platforms were removed and the lift shaft was converted for use as a ventilation shaft. City Road was the only twin tunnel station on the line not to be reconstructed. During 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 ...

the station was converted for use as an air-raid shelter. The station building remained until the 1960s, when all but the structure immediately around the original lift shaft was demolished. At track level the temporary structures for the air-raid shelter were removed after the war and the site of the platforms can be seen from passing trains. Planning permission was granted in 2015 to demolish the remaining station structure for phase 2 of Islington Borough Council's scheme to heat the nearby King Square council estate. The Bunhill 2 Energy Centre opened on the site in 2020, capturing waste heat from the Northern Line tunnels to provide heat to additional residential buildings and a school.

Accidents

On 26 August 1916 a passenger was killed when a guard signalled for a train to depart before all of the passengers had alighted.

References

External links

London's Abandoned Tube Stations - City Road
Includes underground photos. * City Road station in 1915. {{closed london underground stations Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Islington Disused London Underground stations Disused railway stations in the London Borough of Islington Tube stations in the London Borough of Islington Former City and South London Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1901 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1922 Railway stations located underground in the United Kingdom