Tower Gateway is a

Docklands Light Railway The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) is an automated light metro system serving the redeveloped Docklands area of London, England and provides a direct connection between London's two major financial districts, Canary Wharf and the City of Lo ...

(DLR) station in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

and is located near the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is sep ...

and

Tower Bridge Tower Bridge is a Grade I listed combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894, designed by Horace Jones and engineered by John Wolfe Barry with the help of Henry Marc Brunel. It crosses the River Thames clos ...

. It adjoins the tracks to

Fenchurch Street station Fenchurch Street railway station, also known as London Fenchurch Street, is a central London railway terminus in the southeastern corner of the City of London. It takes its name from its proximity to Fenchurch Street, a key thoroughfare in th ...

and is located on the site of a former station called Minories. Tower Gateway is within

London fare zone 1 Fare zone 1 is the central zone of Transport for London's zonal fare system used by the London Underground, London Overground, Docklands Light Railway and National Rail. For most tickets, travel through Zone 1 is more expensive than journeys ...

. It is a short walk from both Tower Hill Underground station and Fenchurch Street. Access at street level from the Minories is via escalator, stairs or lift at the western end of the station. A pedestrian crossing connects the station with Tower Hill station, its closest London Underground connection. A narrow secondary staircase entrance at the eastern end of the platform, improved considerably in the early 2000s, descends to

Mansell Street Mansell Street is a street in East London, which is part of the London Inner Ring Road. For most of its length from the north, this street marks the boundary between the City of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. However, the southern ...

. It serves the eastern edge of the City of London financial district and development around

St Katharine Docks St Katharine Docks is a former dock and now a mixed-used district in Central London, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and within the East End. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, immediately downstream of the Tower of London an ...

History

Entrance to Tower Gateway station, Docklands Light Railway - geograph

It was opened in 1987 as the western terminus of the initial DLR system and the station closest to central London. The underground extension to

Bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

, which opened in 1991, diverges from the original route between Tower Gateway and

Shadwell Shadwell is a district of East London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets , east of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the Thames between Wapping (to the west) and Ratcliff (to the east). This riverside location has mea ...

, the next station to the east. It dives down a steep ramp not far from the eastern end of the platforms, from which it is clearly visible. Tower Gateway is the terminus for the less busy service to

Beckton Beckton is a suburb in east London, England, located east of Charing Cross and part of the London Borough of Newham. Adjacent to the River Thames, the area consisted of unpopulated marshland known as the East Ham Levels in the parishes of Barki ...

. Journeys to other branches of the DLR normally require a change. Tower Gateway DLR stn departure platform look east2

In keeping with the DLR's original basic lightweight philosophy, Tower Gateway is a simple elevated terminus. As built it had two tracks and a cross-over. When the extension to Bank opened, its importance was substantially reduced. Before reconstruction it had a fairly narrow central platform, and a single track leading from the main route to a set of points immediately prior to the platforms. Further major alterations began on 30 June 2008. The station reopened on 2 March 2009, rebuilt as a single-track terminus to enable three-car trains with a platform on each side of the train, one for arriving passengers and the other for departures (the

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 ...

Future

A Transport Supporting Paper released by the office of the Mayor of London envisages the closure of Tower Gateway DLR station and the branch serving it, with a replacement interchange being provided via a new station on the Bank branch connected to Tower Hill station. The reasoning is given that currently, 90 per cent of DLR City passengers use Bank station, but only 75 per cent of services go there; this would increase service to Bank from 23tph to 30tph, thereby unlocking more capacity on the Bank branch.

Connections

London Buses routes 42, 78,

100 100 or one hundred ( Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...

343 __NOTOC__ Year 343 ( CCCXLIII) was a common 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 Memmius and Romulus (or, less frequently, year 1096 ...

and night route N551 serve the station.

References

External links

Docklands Light Railway website – Tower Gateway station page
{{Docklands Light Railway Docklands Light Railway stations in the City of London Tower of London Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1987