The Liverpool Street signal box is a Grade II listed disused signal box at

Liverpool Street tube station 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 ...

in London. It was opened for operation in 1875 for an extension of the Metropolitan Railway. 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 junction (rail), junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and Track (rail transpor ...

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 counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...

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's extension from . The signal box was a non-standard design designed and built by McKenzie and Holland, 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

(IMR), and from 16 November 1956 it was closed and operated remotely from the signal box. Control was transferred to Baker Street 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 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, England, south-east of the county town of Aylesbury, north-west of central London, and part of the London commuter belt. It is in the Chess Valley, surrounded by farmla ...

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