Hackney Downs railway station
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Hackney Downs is a
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 ...
and
National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the p ...
station in
Hackney Central Hackney Central is a sub-district of Hackney in the London Borough of Hackney in London, England and is four miles (6.4 km) northeast of Charing Cross. The Hackney Central area is focused on Mare Street and the retail areas to the north o ...
and serves the old
common land Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect Wood fuel, wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person ...
of
Hackney Downs Hackney Downs is a park and an area of historically common land in the Lower Clapton area of the London Borough of Hackney. The name is sometimes also used to apply to the neighbourhood around the park. Hackney Downs Park The Downs open space ...
in Lower Clapton in the
London Borough of Hackney 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 ...
, it is 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 Network ...
and
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 ...
. It is down the line from
London Liverpool Street Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the t ...
and has a direct passenger link to Hackney Central station, providing interchange with the North London line of the Overground network. On the London Overground, Lea Valley Lines the station is between and either (on the branch) or (on the / branch). Main line trains, operated by Greater Anglia, call at Hackney Downs between Liverpool Street and . Its three-letter station code is HAC and it is 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 was originally named Hackney Downs Junction until 1896.


History


Great Eastern Railway (1872-1922)

The station was opened on 27 May 1872 when 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 ...
opened the first part of its new line from Enfield Town to Stoke Newington. This was an exercise to provide new routes to the expanding suburbs of northeast London and to give a faster journey time to Enfield, whose trains at that time were routed via Stratford and Angel Road. Just under a month later, another line opened linking Hackney Downs to Coppermill Junction just south of
Tottenham Hale Tottenham Hale is a district of north London and part of the London Borough of Haringey, bounded by the River Lea and located to the south/south-east of Tottenham proper. From 1850 to 1965, it was part of the Municipal Borough of Tottenham, in Mi ...
on what was then the main line to Cambridge. This new route offered a reduction in journey time for Cambridge and Shern Hall Street station in Walthamstow on the Chingford line services but also relieved congestion at
Stratford railway station Stratford is a major multi-level railway station which rates as the 5th busiest station in Britain, serving the district of Stratford and the mixed-use development known as Stratford City, in the London Borough of Newham, east London. It is ...
. The route to Edmonton (on the existing Enfield branch line) fully opened on 1 August 1872 and the Chingford line was opened in November 1873. When the station opened it had two platforms and two centre roads. The station layout was changed in 1894 when the line between Bethnal Green and Hackney Downs was increased from two tracks to four tracks. The layout was changed to a four platformed station and had two signal boxes.


London & North Eastern Railway (1923-1947)

After the
Railways Act 1921 The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...
the country's railways were grouped into four companies, with effect from 1 January 1923. At Hackney Downs the
London & North Eastern Railway 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 major se ...
(LNER) took over operations of the GER services. The semaphore signalling was replaced by single searchlight signals which were able to display three-aspects (Green, Yellow or Red) through different a changeable lens arrangement, in 1935. It was also in 1935 that electrification of the lines through Hackney was suggested, although many years were to pass before these plans came to fruition. The 1935 re-signalling saw the closure of Hackney Downs South signal box with the North signal box (which dated from 1872) becoming plain Hackney Downs.


British Railways (1948-1994)

On
nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
in 1948 responsibility for operating the station fell to
British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...
( Eastern Region). The lines through Hackney were electrified in the late 1950s with electric services commencing operation on 21 November 1960. The original 1872 signal box was replaced by a new signal box located on platforms 2 and 3 in May of the same year. The ticket hall was rebuilt in the early 1980s along with changes to the roofs on the platforms. The
island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...
's wooden roof was replaced with steel sheeting on the existing frames whilst the side platforms were left unaltered other than the removal of their "dog-tooth" fascia boards. To coincide with the closure of Broad Street station in 1986 a new line linking the North London Line to the Slow Lines just south of Hackney Downs was opened to allow operation of Watford - Liverpool Street services. This occupied the site of the former Graham Road GER goods depot which was accessed from the North London line. Passenger services ceased circa 1992 although empty stock trains have used it since. The line is little used in 2017.


The privatisation era (1994-present day)

The
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'' ...
, installed in 1960 when the line was electrified, closed in May 2001 when signalling on the line was centralised at Liverpool Street.
Ticket barriers In rail transport, the paid area is a dedicated "inner" zone in a railway station or metro station, accessible via turnstiles or other barriers, to get into which, visitors or passengers require a valid ticket, checked smartcard or a pass. A sys ...
were installed in 2011. A pedestrian link between Hackney Downs and Hackney Central stations was opened in 2015 by
London Overground Rail Operations London Overground Rail Operations Limited was a train operating company contracted to operate the London Overground train service on the National Rail network, under the franchise control of Transport for London. The company was a 50/50 joint ...
. Until Hackney Central's closure in 1944, a passenger connection had linked the two stations. However, when Hackney Central re-opened in 1985, the footway was not reinstated and passengers transferring between the two stations were obliged to leave one and walk along the street to the other, until the link was rebuilt. 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 Network ...
were previously operated by
Abellio Greater Anglia Greater Anglia (legal name Abellio East Anglia Limited) is a train operating company in Great Britain owned as a joint venture by Abellio (transport company), Abellio, the international arm of the state-owned Dutch national rail operator Neder ...
as part of the
East Anglia franchise The East Anglia franchise is a railway franchise for passenger trains on the Great Eastern Main Line and West Anglia Main Lines in England. It commenced operating in April 2004 when the Anglia and Great Eastern franchises, together with the W ...
. In 2015 they 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 ...
operation.TfL count on LOROL for support
'' Rail Professional'' 28 May 2014 Some
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 ...
services continue to call at Hackney Downs.


Services

The typical off-peak service of trains per hour (tph) is as follows:


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 30, 56 and
276 __NOTOC__ Year 276 ( CCLXXVI) 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 Tacitus and Aemilianus (or, less frequently, year 1029 ...
serve the station.


References


External links

* {{London Overground navbox, Serving=y, Chingford=y, SevenSisters=y Former Great Eastern Railway stations Greater Anglia franchise railway stations Railway stations in the London Borough of Hackney Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1872 Railway stations served by London Overground Hackney, London Hackney Central