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

station in the

Notting Hill Notting Hill is a district of West London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Notting Hill is known for being a cosmopolitan and multicultural neighbourhood, hosting the annual Notting Hill Carnival and Portobello Road Ma ...

area of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is on the

Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is con ...

and Hammersmith and City lines, between

Ladbroke Grove Ladbroke Grove () is an area and a road in West London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, passing through Kensal Green and Notting Hill, running north–south between Harrow Road and Holland Park Avenue. It is also a name given ...

and

Royal Oak The Royal Oak is the English oak tree within which the future King Charles II of England hid to escape the Roundheads following the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The tree was in Boscobel Wood, which was part of the park of Boscobel House. C ...

stations, and 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 ...

History

Although the Metropolitan Railway (MR) had been extended to

and Hammersmith on 1 June 1864, the first station by this name did not open until 1 February 1866.Clive's Underground Line Guides – Hammersmith & City line
/ref> In 1867, with the companies on better terms, the MR bought a share of the Hammersmith & City Railway (H&CR) from the Great Western Railway (GWR), after which it eliminated the broad gauge track and operated almost all the trains (the H&CR's identity being effectively lost). The original station closed on 31 October 1871, and was replaced the following day by a new station, constructed to the west of the original. To remove this traffic from its own busy main line, the GWR built a new pair of tracks from

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...

to Westbourne Park, and on 12 May 1878 it opened a dive-under to remove conflicts where the service crossed the main line. A bomb planted by the Suffragettes was discovered at the station on 16 May 1913. The Circle line was extended to Hammersmith in 2009.Clive's Underground Line Guides – Circle line
/ref> The line now operates between Hammersmith and Edgware Road via a single complete circuit of the previous route. This was done with the aim of improving reliability by providing a place for trains to terminate after each trip rather than letting delays accumulate. However, it means that no trains through Notting Hill Gate go east of Edgware Road.

National Rail platforms

The GWR opened platforms on the Great Western Main Line on 30 October 1871, but these closed in March 1992. The Up line through the station had a speed limit, which was unacceptable for the planned

Heathrow Express Heathrow Express is a high-frequency airport rail link operating between London Heathrow Airport and . Opened in 1998, trains run non-stop, with a journey time of 15 minutes. The service is operated jointly by Great Western Railway and Heathrow ...

services; instead of modifying the station's platforms; British Rail decided that it would be more cost-effective to dispense with them, and closure notices were Retrieved 13 December 1990.

, another station on the Hammersmith & City line, was also once served by the GWR, but its services were withdrawn in 1934. Today, the first stop out of Paddington is at Acton Main Line. Industrial archaeologists have found the remains of buildings including a broad gauge train shed for Brunel's original lines, a turntable, and engine sheds in excavations east of the station as part of the land clearance work for the

Crossrail Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway l ...

project.

Connections

London Bus Buses have been used as a mode of public transport in London since 1829, when George Shillibeer started operating a horse-drawn ''omnibus'' service from Paddington to the City of London. In the decades since their introduction, the red London b ...

routes 7, 18, 23, 28, 31, 36, 70 and 328, and night routes N28 and N31 serve the station. In addition, bus route 23 provides a 24-hour bus service.

In popular culture

The station was featured in the video of the

Boris Gardiner Boris Gardiner (born 13 January 1943) is a Jamaican singer, songwriter and bass guitarist. He was a member of several groups during the 1960s before recording as a solo artist and having hit singles with " Elizabethan Reggae" (in 1970), " I Wann ...

song "

I Want to Wake Up with You "I Wanna Wake Up with You" is a song written by Nashville songwriter Ben Peters. It was first recorded by American country music artist and actor Mac Davis and released in March 1980, and then by American country music singer Con Hunley in Septem ...

".Westbourne Park tube station is seen in the video from 0:58 to 1:43.
/ref>

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Westbourne Park Tube Station Circle line (London Underground) stations Hammersmith & City line stations Great Western Main Line London Underground stations located above ground Tube stations in the City of Westminster Former Hammersmith and City Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1866 Former Great Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1871 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1992 1866 establishments in England Westbourne, London Tube stations in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea