Wood Lane is a former station on the London Underground located in

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 ...

, west London. It was latterly served by the Central line and from 1908 to 1920 was the western terminus of the Central line's precursor, the Central London Railway (CLR). Wood Lane station was built to serve the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition and the

1908 Olympic Games 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 ...

. Its location was very confined and its configuration awkward, requiring alterations on a number of occasions to meet operational requirements. It closed in 1947 following the opening of the nearby White City station. In 2008, a new Wood Lane station was opened nearby 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 ...

History

Wood Lane depot

Prior to the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition, the western terminus of the Central London Railway (CLR) was at

. North of Shepherd's Bush was the CLR's power station and Wood Lane depot. Trains originally accessed the depot via a single, sharply-curved tunnel from the station's westbound platform, heading northwards under Caxton Street. Trains then exited the tunnel to the north of the depot and used a reversing siding to run into the depot in a southbound direction. Trains running from the depot reversed the process and entered the eastbound platform of Shepherd's Bush station via a junction to the west of the station.

Temporary exhibition station

When the exhibition opened, a temporary station was constructed within the northern perimeter of the depot on the site of the reversing siding. A new tunnel was bored to connect directly to the end of the eastbound tunnel at Shepherd's Bush station, forming a loop. As constructed for the exhibition, Wood Lane station had just a single track with platforms on each side: one for loading and the other for unloading. Trains entered the station anti-clockwise in a westbound direction from the tunnel under the depot, and exited heading south back into the tunnel in the direction of Shepherd's Bush station. Following the success of the exhibition a number of other entertainment venues, notably White City Stadium, grew up in the area and the temporary station at Wood Lane became a permanent fixture.

Permanent station expansion

Wood Lane became the western terminus of the CLR. Until the late 1920s, the railway used carriages that were accessed by gated entrances at the carriage ends. When new rolling stock was introduced with sliding pneumatic doors, Wood Lane's loop platforms had to be extended to provide access to all doors but it was not possible to extend the platform on the inside of the loop (the south side) as it interfered with an access track to the depot. A pivoting section of platform was constructed that could be moved to allow access to the depot to be made when required. CLR services began to operate to Ealing Broadway from August 1920 and Wood Lane was reconfigured to accommodate through-running from Ealing Broadway to the West End of London and the City of London, thereby losing its terminus status. A new sub-surface tunnel was constructed to the north of the existing loop platforms on which was located a new westbound platform for trains heading to Ealing Broadway. Another new sub-surface tunnel was constructed to the west (and below) the loop platforms, providing an eastbound platform for trains from Ealing Broadway. Trains terminating or starting at Wood Lane continued to use the loop platforms. The station thus had a triangular shape.

Closure

Due to its awkward configuration and unsatisfactory operation, Wood Lane was closed in 1947 when a replacement station called

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 ...

was opened on the Central line a short distance to the north. The Wood Lane platforms were abandoned and the depot became known as White City depot.

Demolition

Until the station's demolition between 2003 and 2005, the old eastbound platform could still be seen from passing trains heading from White City to Shepherd's Bush and the former eastbound platform was incorporated into the new depot's roads using the single track, which can clearly be seen when leaving White City station when travelling to Shepherd's Bush. The site of the station and the depot was redeveloped for the

Westfield London Westfield London is a large shopping centre in White City, west London, England, developed by the Westfield Group at a cost of £1.6bn, on a brownfield site formerly the home of the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition. The site is bounded by the We ...

shopping centre, and in summer 2005 the curving ramps to the original 1908 platforms and the platforms themselves, in the north-west corner of the site, were removed. A new depot was constructed completely below ground, underneath the

shopping centre. Elements of the original Wood Lane street level building facade were dismantled and moved to the

London Transport Museum The London Transport Museum (often abbreviated as the LTM) is a transport museum based in Covent Garden, London. The museum predominantly hosts exhibits relating to the heritage of London's transport, as well as conserving and explaining the h ...

's depot in

Acton Acton may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Acton Australia * Acton, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Acton, Tasmania, a suburb of Burnie * Acton Park, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, formerly known as Acton Canada ...

for reconstruction. The restoration works on the roundel pediment were completed by London Underground in 2009. The Underground roundel is now on display at the current Wood Lane station.

In popular culture

In '' The Tomorrow Peoples first serial, ''Slaves of Jedikiah'', the outdoor shots of the abandoned station where the lab was located showed it to be Wood Lane. Also, the dockland scenes in the ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

'' serial '' The Dalek Invasion of Earth'' were enacted there. A 1987 edition of the '' South Bank Show'' about the London Underground was introduced by

Melvyn Bragg Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg, (born 6 October 1939), is an English broadcaster, author and parliamentarian. He is best known for his work with ITV as editor and presenter of ''The South Bank Show'' (1978–2010), and for the BBC Radio 4 documenta ...

, who appeared out of the fog carrying a torch on the platform at Wood Lane station. In the 1988 animation movie '' Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' directed by

Robert Zemeckis Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) is an American filmmaker. He first came to public attention as the director of the action-adventure romantic comedy ''Romancing the Stone'' (1984), the science-fiction comedy ''Back to the Future'' film tr ...

, the scenes for the Acme factory were filmed in the former power house (later known as the

Dimco Buildings The Dimco Buildings are a pair of 19th-centry structures in White City, London, just north of Shepherd's Bush. Originally built in 1898 as an electric railway power station, they are now in use as a bus station. History The Dimco Buildings wer ...

) in the Wood Lane Depot (now part of the Westfield Shopping Centre). It is a Grade II listed building.

References

External links

London's Abandoned Tube Stations - Wood Lane

London Transport Museum Photographic Archive
** The large bridge over the station building carried pedestrians to the White City exhibitions. ** **
Underground History - Wood Lane Station
* ttp://www.la21.org.uk/whitecity/woodlane.html White City Development - Wood Lane Station {{Central line navbox Central line (London Underground) stations Disused London Underground stations Former Central London Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1908 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1947 Shepherd's Bush 1908 establishments in England Stanley Heaps railway stations