Cockfosters 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 on the Piccadilly line, for which it is the northern

terminus Terminus may refer to: * Bus terminus, a bus station serving as an end destination * Terminal train station or terminus, a railway station serving as an end destination Geography *Terminus, the unofficial original name of Atlanta, Georgia, United ...

. The station is located on Cockfosters Road ( A111) approximately nine miles () from central

London 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 majo ...

and serves

Cockfosters Cockfosters is a suburb of north London to the east of Chipping Barnet, lying partly in the London Borough of Enfield and partly in the London Borough of Barnet. Before 1965, it was in the counties of Middlesex and Hertfordshire. Origins and ...

. It is on the boundary of the

London Borough of Barnet The London Borough of Barnet () is a suburban London boroughs, London borough in North London. The borough was formed in 1965 from parts of the ceremonial counties of Middlesex and Hertfordshire. It forms part of Outer London and is the largest ...

and the

London Borough of Enfield The London Borough of Enfield () is a London boroughs, London borough in North London. It borders the London boroughs of London Borough of Barnet, Barnet to the west, London Borough of Haringey, Haringey to the south, and London Borough of Walt ...

. The station is in

Travelcard Zone 5 Fare zone 5 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. The ...

and the next station towards

Central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteris ...

is Oakwood.

History

The station opened on 31 July 1933, the last of the stations on the

extension Extension, extend or extended may refer to: Mathematics Logic or set theory * Axiom of extensionality * Extensible cardinal * Extension (model theory) * Extension (predicate logic), the set of tuples of values that satisfy the predicate * E ...

of the line from

Finsbury Park Finsbury Park is a public park in the London neighbourhood of Harringay. It is in the area formerly covered by the historic parish of Hornsey, succeeded by the Municipal Borough of Hornsey. It was one of the first of the great London parks ...

to do so and four months after Oakwood station (then called Enfield West) opened. Prior to its opening, ''Trent Park'' and ''Cock Fosters'' (an early spelling of the area's name) were suggested as alternative station names. The original site

hoarding Hoarding is a behavior where people or animals accumulate food or other items. Animal behavior ''Hoarding'' and ''caching'' are common in many bird species as well as in rodents. Most animal caches are of food. However, some birds will a ...

displayed the name as a single word. The station was 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 " ...

in a modern

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an style using brick, glass and

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

. Compared with the other new stations Holden designed for the extension, Cockfosters' street buildings are modest in scale, lacking the mass of Oakwood or

Arnos Grove Arnos Grove () is an List of areas of London, area of north London, England, within the London Borough of Enfield. It is centred north of Charing Cross. It is adjacent to New Southgate. The natural grove (nature), grove, larger than today, ...

or the

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

flourish of

Southgate Southgate or South Gate may refer to: Places Australia *Southgate, Sylvania *Southgate Arts and Leisure Precinct, an area within Southbank, Victoria Canada *Southgate, Ontario, a township in Grey County * Southgate, Middlesex County, Ontario Ed ...

. Holden's early design sketches show the station with two towers. The most striking feature of the station is the tall concrete and glass

trainshed A train shed is a building adjacent to a station building where the tracks and platforms of a railway station are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof. Its primary purpose is to store and protect from the elements train car ...

roof and platform canopies, which are supported by

portal frame Portal frame is a construction technique where vertical supports are connected to horizontal beams or trusses via fixed joints with designed-in moment-resisting capacity. The result is wide spans and open floors. Portal frame structures can be ...

s of narrow blade-like concrete

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

s and beams rising from the platforms and spanning across the tracks. The trainshed roof constructed at

Uxbridge Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Situated west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxbrid ...

from 1937 to 1938 was built to a similar design. Cockfosters station is a Grade II

listed building 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 ...

. The station has three tracks with platforms numbered 1 to 4, the centre track being served from both sides by platforms 2 and 3. This is an example of the so-called

Spanish solution In railway and rapid transit parlance, the Spanish solution is a station layout with two railway platforms, one on each side of the track, which allows for separate platforms for boarding and alighting. Description This platform arrangement allo ...

. Most eastbound Piccadilly trains terminate here, although some terminate at

or Oakwood, particularly in peak hours or in the evenings. Some trains may even terminate at Wood Green; however, this is only used very early in the morning or in emergency situations. Cockfosters depot is located between Oakwood and Cockfosters and trains can enter or leave it from either direction. In September 2020, works to provide step-free access were completed with a lift providing access to the platform, making Cockfosters the 80th accessible Tube station.

Future

In the late 2010s, the station car park at Cockfosters was proposed by Transport for London (TfL) for

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 ...

, as part of TfL's plans to increase the amount of income generated from land in their ownership. , over 350 new homes (with 40% affordable homes) are currently planned to be built on the current car park at the station by TfL and Grainger. The proposals also include new public space, cycle parking and dedicated disabled car parking spaces. The proposal has been criticised by local residents, due to the loss of Tube car parking and the amount of new homes proposed on the site.

Services

Nearby attractions

Trent Park Trent Park is an English country house, together with its former extensive grounds, in north London. The original great house and a number of statues and other structures located within the grounds (such as the Orangery) are Grade II listed b ...

*The "

London LOOP The London Outer Orbital Path — more usually the "London LOOP" — is a 150-mile (242 km) signed walk along public footpaths, and through parks, woods and fields around the edge of Outer London, England, described as "the M25 ...

" walk uses the station's foot tunnel to cross Cockfosters Road.

In popular culture

Cockfosters tube station features prominently in the novel ''While England Sleeps'' by American author

David Leavitt David Leavitt (; born June 23, 1961) is an American novelist, short story writer, and biographer. Biography Leavitt was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Harold and Gloria Leavitt. Harold was a professor who taught at Stanford University and G ...

. One of the novel's protagonists is writing a book entitled ''The Train to Cockfosters''. A commercial for Foster's lager shown on UK television in the 1980s features

Paul Hogan Paul Hogan (born 8 October 1939) is an Australian actor and comedian. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance as ...

sitting in an Underground station near to a Japanese man who is looking at the Tube map on the wall. The man asks Hogan, "Can you tell me the way to Cockfosters?", to which Hogan replies, "Drink it warm, mate".

Connections

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 298,

299 __NOTOC__ Year 299 (Roman numerals, CCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Diocletian and Maximian (or, l ...

, 384, school routes

692 __NOTOC__ Year 692 (Roman numerals, DCXCII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 692 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini ...

699 __NOTOC__ Year 699 ( DCXCIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 699 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar e ...

and night bus N91 serve the station.

Gallery

File:CockfostersExterior better.jpg, Main entrance File:Cockfosters station bus stand.JPG, Western entrance File:Cockfosters interior.jpg, Concourse File:Cockfosters station platform 1 eastbound.JPG, Platforms 1 & 2 looking north (platforms 3 & 4 on the far right) File:Cockfosters station platform 1 looking westbound.JPG, Platforms 1 & 2 looking south (platforms 3 & 4 on the far left) File:Cockfosters_station_centre_track_platforms_2_(left)_3_look_eastbound.JPG, Platforms 3 & 4 looking north with a Piccadily line train on platform 4 File:Cockfosters station centre track platforms 2 and 3 westbound.JPG, Platforms 3 & 4 looking south (platforms 1 & 2 on the far right)

References

Citations Sources *

External links

London Transport Museum Photographic Archive
** ** ** ** **
Early sketch design by Charles Holden
1931,

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cockfosters Tube Station Piccadilly line stations London Underground Night Tube stations Tube stations in the London Borough of Enfield London Underground stations located above ground Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Enfield Grade II listed railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1933 Charles Holden railway stations London Underground depots Cockfosters