Wood Lane station
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Wood Lane is a London Underground station in the
White City White City may refer to: Places Australia * White City, Perth, an amusement park on the Perth foreshore * White City railway station, a former railway station * White City Stadium (Sydney), a tennis centre in Sydney * White City FC, a football clu ...
area of west London, United Kingdom. It is on the Circle and
Hammersmith & City line The Hammersmith & City line is a London Underground line that runs between Hammersmith in west London and in east London. Printed in pink on the Tube map, it serves 29 stations over . Between and it skirts the City of London, the capital's fin ...
s, between
Latimer Road Latimer may refer to: Places England * Latimer, Buckinghamshire, a village ** Latimer and Ley Hill, a civil parish that until 2013 was just called "Latimer" * Latimer, Leicester, an electoral ward and administrative division of the city of Leicest ...
and
Shepherd's Bush Market Shepherd's Bush Market is a street market in Shepherd's Bush, London. The market is located on the east side of the railway viaduct for the Hammersmith and City Tube line, and is bordered on the north side by the Uxbridge Road, and on the south ...
stations, in Travelcard Zone 2. Although it is on a line which has been in operation since 1864, the station is new, having opened on 12 October 2008 – the first station to be built on an existing Tube line for over 70 years. It is near the site of a station of the same name that closed on 24 October 1959.


History

The Hammersmith and City line was opened on 13 June 1864 by the
Metropolitan Railway The Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex su ...
(MR) as the Hammersmith branch line. The railway became part of London Underground in 1933 and took on a separate identity as the Hammersmith and City line in 1990. In 1908 the Franco-British Exhibition and the
1908 Summer Olympics The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, England, United Kingdom, from 27 April to 31 October 1908. The 1908 Games were ori ...
came to London, the first of a number of major events in White City that attracted infrastructural investment by railway companies. Among others, the MR opened its Wood Lane station on the Hammersmith branch to serve the event. From 1927 it was used to transport the public to and from the greyhound racing at White City Stadium. The station opened and closed intermittently, and was renamed twice, to ''Wood Lane (White City)'' in 1920 and ''White City'' in 1947, before it closed on 24 October 1959 following fire damage. For the next 49 years, the Wood Lane area was served only by
White City White City may refer to: Places Australia * White City, Perth, an amusement park on the Perth foreshore * White City railway station, a former railway station * White City Stadium (Sydney), a tennis centre in Sydney * White City FC, a football clu ...
on the Central line; Hammersmith line trains passed through the area without stopping, the nearest station on that line approximately away at
Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Bush is a district of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Although primarily residential in character, i ...
. In the early 1970s, rebuilding a station on the site was considered as part of the plans for the new White City Channel Tunnel terminal located adjacent, however the plans were abandoned in January 1975. In 2005, work commenced on the large-scale Westfield Shopping Centre. As part of the work, £200m of transport improvements were made including rebuilding Shepherd's Bush Central line station, a new Shepherd's Bush railway station and two bus interchanges. It was decided to build a new station on the Hammersmith & City line, just north-east of the old Metropolitan station on Wood Lane. In 2006 Transport for London decided, after deliberating over various possibilities, on the name ''Wood Lane'', reviving an historical name. This was the first time that a new station on the Tube had been given the name of a former station that had been closed for several years. The station opened on 12 October 2008. On 13 December 2009 Wood Lane was added to the Circle line when the line was extended to Hammersmith.


Design and construction

Wood Lane Underground Station was designed by Ian Ritchie Architects and it is clad in shot-peened
stainless steel Stainless steel is an alloy of iron that is resistant to rusting and corrosion. It contains at least 11% chromium and may contain elements such as carbon, other nonmetals and metals to obtain other desired properties. Stainless steel's corros ...
, gold anodised aluminium and granite with a 25-metre-high glass screen façade. Construction was carried out by Costain. The station building occupies an irregularly-shaped site between Wood Lane and the railway viaduct, and presented particular challenges as it lies across the Central line. The lines remained operational during construction, which mostly took place at night. The structure encases the railway viaduct and platforms are accessed via stairs and lifts either side of the brick arches. During construction the bridge of the Hammersmith & City line over Wood Lane had to be widened to accommodate a new track on the Central line, providing access to the new depot below the Westfield site. A bridge pier was removed and a new steel bridge structure slid into place over a new pier. As with all new Underground stations since the 1990s, the station is fully accessible.


Location

The station is on Wood Lane, which runs north from Shepherd's Bush in the
White City White City may refer to: Places Australia * White City, Perth, an amusement park on the Perth foreshore * White City railway station, a former railway station * White City Stadium (Sydney), a tennis centre in Sydney * White City FC, a football clu ...
area. It serves the Westfield shopping centre and Television Centre (formerly occupied by the BBC) and Loftus Road stadium, the home of
Queen's Park Rangers FC Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional association football, football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home ...
, is a short distance away.


See also

*
Shepherd's Bush stations Shepherd's Bush is an area of west London, England, which has been served by a number of London Underground and commuter rail stations over the past 150 years, many of which have had similar names. The names ''Shepherd's Bush'', ''Wood Lane'' and ...
– other stations in the
Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Bush is a district of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Although primarily residential in character, i ...
area. * Wood Lane – a closed station on the Central line * Wood Lane – a closed station on the Metropolitan line


References


External links


Details of new transport infrastructureTfl.gov.uk – Underground map of future developments to 2010 showing Wood Lane station
{{Hammersmith & City line navbox Circle line (London Underground) stations Hammersmith & City line stations London Underground stations located above ground Tube stations in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 2008 White City, London