Moorgate is a central London railway terminus and connected

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 ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...

station on

Moorgate Moorgate was one of the City of London's northern gates in its defensive wall, the last to be built. The gate took its name from the Moorfields, an area of marshy land that lay immediately north of the wall. The gate was demolished in 1762, b ...

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 fr ...

. Main line railway services for

Hertford Hertford ( ) is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The parish had a population of 26,783 at the 2011 census. The town grew around a ford on the River Lea, ne ...

Welwyn Garden City Welwyn Garden City ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London. It was the second garden city in England (founded 1920) and one of the first new towns (designated 1948). It is unique in being both a garden city and a new town and ...

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...

and

Letchworth Letchworth Garden City, commonly known as Letchworth, is a town in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. It is noted for being the first garden city. The population at the time of the 2011 census was 33,249. Letchworth ...

are operated by

Great Northern Great Northern may refer to: Transport * One of a number of railways; see Great Northern Railway (disambiguation). * Great Northern Railway (U.S.), a defunct American transcontinental railroad and major predecessor of the BNSF Railway. * Great ...

, while the Underground station is served by 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 const ...

, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan and

Northern line The Northern line is a London Underground line that runs from North London to South London. It is printed in black on the Tube map. The Northern line is unique on the Underground network in having two different routes through central London, two ...

s. The station was opened as Moorgate Street in 1865 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 ...

. In 1900, the

City & South London Railway The City and South London Railway (C&SLR) was the first successful deep-level underground "tube" railway in the world, and the first major railway to use electric traction. The railway was originally intended for cable-hauled trains, but owing ...

added the station to its network, and the Great Northern & City Railway began serving the station in 1904. In 1975, the

Northern City Line The Northern City Line is a commuter railway line in England, which runs from Moorgate station to Finsbury Park in London with services running beyond. It is part of the Great Northern Route services, and operates as the south-eastern branc ...

platforms were the site of the

Moorgate tube crash The Moorgate tube crash occurred on 28 February 1975 at 8:46 am on the London Underground's Northern City Line; 43 people died and 74 were injured after a train failed to stop at the line's southern terminus, Moorgate station, and crashed ...

– at the time, the worst peacetime accident in the history of the London Underground – in which 43 people were killed.

Thameslink Thameslink is a 24-hour main-line route in the British railway system, running from , , , and via central London to Sutton, , , Rainham, , , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying m ...

branch services were withdrawn in the early 21st century, and in 2022 a new ticket hall was built connected to the newly opened

Elizabeth line The Elizabeth line is a high-frequency hybrid Urban rail, urban–suburban rail service in London and its suburbs. It runs services on dedicated infrastructure in central London from the Great Western Main Line west of London Paddington statio ...

at , with through access to the rest of Liverpool Street Underground station.

Location and station layout

The station has entrances on both Moorgate itself and

Moorfields Moorfields was an open space, partly in the City of London, lying adjacent to – and outside – its northern wall, near the eponymous Moorgate. It was known for its marshy conditions, the result of the defensive wall acting like a dam, i ...

, which runs parallel. The public entrances from the street give access to all the train services at the station, there are three distinct levels. The

, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan underground lines use platforms 1 and 2, which are through platforms. For terminating trains at busy times, there are platforms 3 and 4 which are west-facing bays. Adjacent to these are platforms 5 and 6 of the former Thameslink trains service from via St Pancras. These are disused following the closure of the Moorgate branch from Farringdon junction as part of the

Thameslink Programme The Thameslink Programme, originally Thameslink 2000, was a £6billion project in south-east England to upgrade and expand the Thameslink rail network to provide new and longer trains between a wider range of stations to the north and to the s ...

and are now used for storage. The

of the Underground uses platforms 7 and 8, which are in a deep-level tube section of the station.

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the p ...

services on the

use platforms 9 and 10, which are terminal platforms. Train services run via the

East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running broa ...

to Welwyn Garden City, and to Hertford North, Stevenage. Because of this, Moorgate is part of the

London station group The London station group is a group of 18 railway stations served by the National Rail network in central London. The group contains all 14 terminal stations in central London, either serving major national services or local commuter routes, ...

and accepts tickets marked "London Terminals".

London Buses London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL) that manages most bus services in London, England. It was formed following the Greater London Authority Act 1999 that transferred control of London Regional Transport (LRT) bus se ...

routes 21, 43, 76, 100, 141 and

153 Year 153 ( CLIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rusticus and Rufinus (or, less frequently, year 906 '' Ab urbe cond ...

serve the station.

History

1861–1950

The station was opened as Moorgate Street by the

as the first eastwards extension from the original terminus at . Parliamentary power had been obtained to build a station at Moorgate in 1861, two years before the initial section, and it was completed on 23 December 1865. Increased traffic from other companies, including goods traffic from the Great Northern Railway, led to the line between King's Cross and Moorgate being widened to four tracks; the route was called the ''

City Widened Lines The Widened Lines (also known as the City Widened Lines; formerly known as the Moorgate Line) is a double-track railway line forming part of the Thameslink route between St Pancras and within Central London. For most of their life the Widen ...

'' and included a new tunnel at

Clerkenwell Clerkenwell () is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an ancient parish from the mediaeval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The well after which it was named was redisco ...

which was lower than the original. The Widened Lines were open from Moorgate to Farringdon on 1 July 1866, and to King's Cross on 17 February 1868. Suburban services from the Midland Railway ran via Kentish Town and the Great Northern Railway ran via King's Cross. In 1874, director of the Metropolitan,

Edward Watkin Sir Edward William Watkin, 1st Baronet (26 September 1819 – 13 April 1901) was a British Member of Parliament and railway entrepreneur. He was an ambitious visionary, and presided over large-scale railway engineering projects to fulfil his b ...

, described Moorgate Street as "your great terminus" and recommended a 100-bedroom hotel should be built on top of the station. The now Northern line platforms were originally part of an extension of the

(C&SLR) beyond towards , forming the northern terminus of its services from south of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

. An act for the extension had been authorised in 1893 and included an eastern diversion of the original line underneath the Thames. The new station opened on 25 February 1900. The line was extended to Angel on 17 November the following year. The Northern City Line to Moorgate was opened by the Great Northern & City Railway (GN&CR) on 14 February 1904 offering a service to . It had an escalator connection to the other Moorgate platforms. The route was constructed in tube tunnels, but they were constructed at a diameter capable of accommodating main-line trains (in contrast to the majority of London tube tunnels which are much smaller). The line was the first to use automatic signalling throughout its length without any moving parts. Though a popular route, it went into decline after the Metropolitan Railway purchased the route on 1 July 1913. Consequently, the planned through services to the Great Northern Railway's main line were never implemented. The CS&LR line (taken over by the Underground Group in 1913) closed services between Moorgate and on 9 August 1922 in order to widen tunnels to . The section from Moorgate to Clapham Common was worked on during the night while daytime services remained running, but closed completely on 28 November 1923 following a roof collapse at Newington Causeway the day before. Services to Euston opened on 20 April 1924, along with a connection to and stations further north. Services to Clapham Common resumed on 1 December. The station was renamed from Moorgate Street to Moorgate on 24 October that year.

1950 – present

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

services to Moorgate were initially steam-operated. A commemorative service ran on 6 June 1971 from Moorgate to the depot at

Neasden Neasden is a suburban area in northwest London, England. It is located around the centre of the London Borough of Brent and is within the NW2 ( Cricklewood) and NW10 (Willesden) postal districts. Neasden is near Wembley Stadium, the Welsh Har ...

, powered by a 0-6-0

tank locomotive A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. Most tank engines also have bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a tender-tank locom ...

. Steam was replaced by Cravens-built diesel multiple units and

British Rail Class 31 The British Rail Class 31 diesel locomotives, also known as the Brush Type 2 and previously as Class 30, were built by Brush Traction from 1957-62. They were numbered in two series, D5500-D5699 and D5800-D5862. Construction of the first locomot ...

locomotives class hauling non-corridor stock which remained in operation until 1976, when it was replaced with

British Rail Class 313 The British Rail Class 313 is a dual-voltage electric multiple unit (EMU) train built by British Rail Engineering Limited's Holgate Road carriage works between February 1976 and April 1977. They were the first production units that were derived ...

electrics. The Northern City Line connection for Moorgate to Finsbury Park tube was closed beyond Drayton Park on 5 October 1964 to allow work on the

Victoria line The Victoria line is a London Underground line that runs between in south London and in the north-east, via the West End. It is printed in light blue on the Tube map and is one of the only two lines on the network to run completely undergr ...

. The line never re-opened fully, but instead the line was connected to the Finsbury Park

station, in order to provide a connection for suburban services into Moorgate. The new service opened on 1 September 1968. Moorgate station was completely modernised at platform level and street level in the 1960s, and the Widened Lines part of the station was extended to six platforms. The realignment of the platforms enabled about of the line to Barbican to be straightened and moved south to facilitate development of the

Barbican Estate The Barbican Estate, or Barbican, is a residential complex of around 2,000 flats, maisonettes, and houses in central London, England, within the City of London. It is in an area once devastated by World War II bombings and densely populated b ...

Metropolitan Railway E Class - Train (Moorgate)

British Rail (Eastern Region) took over control of the Northern City Line from London Underground in 1975, as part of the Great Northern lines suburban electrification. The Highbury Branch of the Northern line was terminated. Services from Finsbury Park to Moorgate were diverted to the Northern City Line from the

the following year. The City Widened Lines were renamed the Moorgate line (Retrieved 10 December 2011) when overhead electrification was installed in 1982, allowing the Midland City Line service to run from Bedford via the Midland Main Line to Moorgate on the Thameslink service. The Moorgate Thameslink branch was reduced to peak hours services only in 2003, and closed permanently on 20 March 2009 as part of the Thameslink Programme upgrades. The closure was required in order to lengthen the platforms at Farringdon to take the longer-carriage trains, which could only be done southward in the direction of Moorgate as there was too steep a gradient to the north. Under

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 ...

works, the western ticket hall of the scheme's station will be situated just east of Moorgate station. This linked the Northern line platforms at Moorgate to the Central line at Liverpool Street via the Elizabeth line platforms spanning the two. The refurbished entrance on Moorfields opened on 5 July 2021. This provides step-free access to Circle, Elizabeth, Metropolitan and Hammersmith and City line platforms.

Accidents and incidents

Moorgate Station memorial - Andy Mabbett

On 13 September 1905, a train derailed at the station. There were two injuries. On 28 February 1975, 43 people were killed and 74 seriously injured in the

, when a southbound Northern City Line train crashed into the end of the dead-end tunnel beyond the platform. The accident caused the most fatalities on the Underground during peacetime and has been considered the worst ever on the system. The cause was the unexplained failure of the driver to stop or even slow down at the platform, causing the train to run at speed into the dead-end tunnel, colliding with the buffers and then with the wall. Services were immediately suspended, resuming on 1 March from Drayton Park to Old Street only. The wreckage was not fully cleared until 6 March and the station fully re-opened four days later.

Infrastructure

Trains using the deep level Northern City Line platforms (9 and 10) are supplied with 750 V DC (Retrieved 12 April 2014) current via the

third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway t ...

, overseen by York Electrical Control Room. The signalling is

track circuit block Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

, colour light signals with TPWS, the tripcock mechanisms having been removed in May 2022, controlled by York

Rail Operating Centre A rail operating centre (ROC) is a building that houses all signallers, signalling equipment, ancillaries and operators for a specific region or route on the United Kingdom's main rail network. The ROC supplants the work of several other signal ...

. The former subsurface Thameslink bay platforms (5 and 6) were equipped with 25

kilovolt The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units (SI). It is named after the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745–1827). Defini ...

alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current which periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time in contrast to direct current (DC) which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in whic ...

overhead line equipment An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipmen ...

, overseen by York Electrical Control Room. Signalling was track circuit block, multiple aspect colour light signals, controlled by West Hampstead PSB. Abandoned Greathead tunnelling shield at Moorgate railway station

Abandoned Greathead tunnelling shield at Moorgate railway station

South of the Northern City platform 10 is a Greathead

tunnelling shield A tunnelling shield is a protective structure used during the excavation of large, man-made tunnels. When excavating through ground that is soft, liquid, or otherwise unstable, there is a potential health and safety hazard to workers and the proj ...

. The shield was used to dig part of a very short planned extension south to

Lothbury Lothbury is a short street in the City of London. It runs east–west with traffic flow in both directions, from Gresham Street's junction with Moorgate to the west, and Bartholomew Lane's junction with Throgmorton Street to the east. History ...

, quickly abandoned.

Services

London Underground

The Metropolitan, Hammersmith & City and Circle lines serve the station between

Barbican A barbican (from fro, barbacane) is a fortified outpost or fortified gateway, such as at an outer fortifications, defense perimeter of a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes. Europe ...

to the west and Liverpool Street to the east. All three lines share the same pair of tracks from

Baker Street Baker Street is a street in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster in London. It is named after builder William Baker, who laid out the street in the 18th century. The street is most famous for its connection to the fictional detec ...

Junction to

Aldgate Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate. The area of Aldgate, the most common use of ...

Junction.

Circle line

The typical service in trains per hour (tph) is: * 6 tph Clockwise via Liverpool Street and Tower Hill * 6 tph Anti-Clockwise via Kings Cross St Pancras and Paddington

Hammersmith and City line

The typical service in trains per hour (tph) is: * 6 tph Eastbound to Barking * 6 tph Westbound to Hammersmith via Paddington

Metropolitan line

The Metropolitan Line is the only line to operate express services from Moorgate, and then only at peak times. Fast services run non-stop between

Wembley Park Wembley Park is a district of the London Borough of Brent, England. It is roughly centred on Bridge Road, a mile northeast of Wembley town centre and northwest from Charing Cross. The name Wembley Park refers to the area that, at its broadest ...

, and Moor Park; semi-fast services run non-stop between Wembley Park and Harrow-on-the-Hill. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour (tph) is: * 12 tph Eastbound to Aldgate * 2 tph Westbound to Amersham (all stations) * 2 tph Westbound to Chesham (all stations) * 8 tph Westbound to Uxbridge (all stations) Off-peak services to/from Watford terminate at Baker Street The typical peak time service in trains per hour (tph) is: * 14 tph Eastbound to Aldgate * 2 tph Westbound to Amersham (fast in the evening peak only) * 2 tph Westbound to Chesham (fast in the evening peak only) * 4 tph Westbound to Watford (semi-fast in the evening peak only) * 6 tph Westbound to Uxbridge (all stations)

Northern line

The Northern line serves the station between

Old Street Old Street is a street in inner north-east Central London that runs west to east from Goswell Road in Clerkenwell, in the London Borough of Islington, via St Luke's and Old Street Roundabout, to the crossroads where it meets Shoreditch High ...

to the north and

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 ...

to the south being part of the City branch of the Northern line via Bank. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour (tph) are: *10 tph Northbound to

Edgware Edgware () is a suburban town in northern Greater London, mostly in the London Borough of Barnet but with small parts falling in the London Borough of Harrow and in the London Borough of Brent. Edgware is centred north-northwest of Charing Cros ...

*10 tph Northbound to

High Barnet Chipping Barnet or High Barnet is a suburban market town in north London, forming part of the London Borough of Barnet, England. It is a suburban development built around a 12th-century settlement, and is located north-northwest of Charing Cr ...

*20 tph Southbound to

Morden Morden is a district and town in south London, England, within the London Borough of Merton, in the ceremonial county of Greater London. It adjoins Merton Park and Wimbledon to the north, Mitcham to the east, Sutton to the south and Worcester Pa ...

The typical peak time service in trains per hour (tph) are: *12 tph Northbound to

*12 tph Northbound to

*24 tph Southbound to

Previously, typical off-peak services include terminating at Colindale to the north and Tooting Broadway to the south.

National Rail

Northern City Line

The

, formerly part of the London Underground as self-contained tube line between Moorgate and Finsbury Park that was operated as part as a branch of the Northern line, is part of the

Great Northern Route The Great Northern route (formerly known as Great Northern Electrics) is the name given to suburban rail services run on the southern end of Britain's East Coast Main Line and its associated branches. Services operate to or from and in Lon ...

(itself part of the East Coast Main Line). Typical services at Moorgate off-peak Monday-Friday (all operated by Great Northern): *2 tph to

via

Potters Bar Potters Bar is a town in Hertfordshire, England,in the historic County of Middlesex Hertsmere Borough Council – Community Strategy First Review (PDF) north of central London. In 2011, it had a population of 21,882. In 2022 the population was ...

*2 tph to

via Hertford North During Peak Hours, there are 4 tph to Welwyn Garden City, as well as an additional 2 tph that terminate at Gordon Hill and 2 tph that terminate at Hertford North. Great Northern introduced a weekend service from 13 December 2015.

References

Citations

Sources

* * * *

External links

* Moorgate station building in 1915. {{DEFAULTSORT:Moorgate Station Circle line (London Underground) stations Hammersmith & City line stations Metropolitan line stations Northern line stations Tube stations in the City of London Railway stations in the City of London Railway termini in London London Underground stations located underground Former Metropolitan Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1865 Former City and South London Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1900 Former Great Northern and City Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1904 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1975 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1976 Barbican Estate Unopened Northern Heights extension stations Railway stations located underground in the United Kingdom London station group Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway