Shepherd's Bush is a

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or as the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent home counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Undergro ...

station. It is located in the district of

Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Bush is a suburb 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, its ...

in the

London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham () is a London boroughs, London borough in West London and which also forms part of Inner London. The borough was formed in 1965 as the London Borough of Hammersmith from the merger of the former Metr ...

. The station is on the Central line between White City and

Holland Park Holland Park is an area of Kensington, on the western edge of Central London, that lies within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and largely surrounds its namesake park, Holland Park. Colloquially referred to as 'Millionaire's Row', ...

stations, and is in Travelcard Zone 2. The station opened in 1900, but was closed for eight months in 2008 while the surface station building was replaced with a completely new structure and the underground station refurbished. A number of stations in the area both past and present have borne the name ''Shepherd's Bush''; today the Central line station shares its name with the adjacent

London Overground London Overground (also known simply as the Overground) is a Urban rail in the United Kingdom, suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, it now serves a large part of Greate ...

's station, with which it shares a surface-level interchange. An entirely separate London Underground station,

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 ...

, served by the

Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all point (geometry), points in a plane (mathematics), plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the Centre (geometry), centre. The distance between any point of the circle and the centre is cal ...

and Hammersmith & City lines, is located approximately West. Until 2008, it too was called ''Shepherd's Bush'' until it was renamed to avoid confusion.

History

The station opened on 30 July 1900 and was the original western terminus of the

Central London Railway The Central London Railway (CLR), also known as the Twopenny Tube, was a deep-level, underground "tube" railwayA "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a cylindrical tunnel by the use of a tunnelling shield, usually deep below g ...

(CLR). The original surface-level station building was a

terracotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic OED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used for earthenware obj ...

-clad ticket hall with its entrance on the

Uxbridge Road Uxbridge Road is the name of the A4020 road in West London. The route starts at Shepherd's Bush Green and goes west towards Uxbridge. It passes through Acton, Ealing, Hanwell, Southall, Hayes, and Hillingdon. Uxbridge Road is a major r ...

facing Shepherd's Bush Green. Like all CLR stations, the station building was designed by

Harry Bell Measures Harry Bell Measures (1862–1940) was an English architect. Career He had a varied career. In 1884 to 1892 he was in-house architect for William Willett, producing high-quality housing for the wealthy in London and South East England; these wer ...

. To the north of the station was located the CLR's

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

and Wood Lane depot which was originally accessed by a single track tunnel. The eastbound tunnel ended to the west of the station in a dead-end reversing siding with a cross-over junction connecting it to the westbound tunnel. When the now disused Wood Lane station was opened on 14 May 1908 to the north, a loop tunnel was created connecting to the eastbound tunnel. An extension to Richmond planned in 1920 would have started here with the next stop at the closed

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exete ...

station at Hammersmith (Grove Road); the work was never carried out. As part of London Transport's New Works Programme, 1935 - 1940, escalators were installed to replace the original lifts and in 1938, the platforms were lengthened along with those of the other existing Central line stations to accommodate eight cars instead of the previous seven. Some of the original 1900 features of the station were preserved in areas that are not open to the public. Since 2022,

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

has been running guided historical tours of the station through its "Hidden London" programme, which take visitors to the disused original station corridors and lift shafts to look at the history of the site.

Westfield redevelopment

A large-scale redevelopment began in 2005 to redevelop the White City area to the north of Shepherd's Bush Green and to construct the Westfield Shopping Centre. As part of this project, Shepherd's Bush Central line station was reconstructed in 2008 by Westfield as part of a Section 106 contribution. The Westfield redevelopment also included the construction of an integrated bus interchange and the new

station on the West London line. The new Overground station opened on 28 September that year and is close to the site of the former station which closed in 1940. During the reconstruction of the Central line station, Transport for London closed the station completely for eight months from 4 February 2008; TfL based their decision on the need to replace the

escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a Electric motor, motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the st ...

s at the same time as rebuilding work. This decision caused local controversy, and critics claimed that the works had been timed to benefit incoming businesses involved in the planned redevelopment of the area, at the cost of local residents and small business holders. The local MP for the Shepherd's Bush constituency, Andy Slaughter, investigated the project and obtained documents under the

Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act (United States) of 1966 * F ...

which showed that the contractor, Metronet, had advised that the work could be completed without closing the station. Shepherd's Bush station re-opened to passengers on 5 October that year. During the refurbishment, Transport for London did not add lifts to the station as originally planned, citing installation costs of £100 million due to the various underground utilities nearby which would have to be diverted. The

and disability pressure groups have been critical of the fact that the station remains

inaccessible Inaccessible Island is a volcanic island located in the South Atlantic Ocean, south-west of Tristan da Cunha. Its highest point, Swale's Fell, reaches , and the island is in area. The volcano was last active approximately one million years a ...

for those unable to use stairs.

Connections

* Shepherd's Bush station is an OSI for

and

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, a group representing passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the passenger services previously provided by ...

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 s ...

routes 31, 49, 72, 94, 95, 148,

207 Year 207 (Roman numerals, CCVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known in Rome as the Year of the Consulship of Maximus and Severus (or, less frequently, year 960 ''Ab urbe condita''). The deno ...

, 220,

228 Year 228 ( CCXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Modestus and Maecius (or, less frequently, year 981 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 228 for this ...

237 Year 237 (Roman numerals, CCXXXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Perpetuus and Felix (or, less frequently, year 990 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denominatio ...

260 __NOTOC__ Year 260 ( CCLX) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Saecularis and Donatus (or, less frequently, year 1013 ''Ab urbe condita ''Ab urbe condita' ...

, 272,

283 Year 283 ( CCLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Carus and Carinus (or, less frequently, year 1036 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 283 for this y ...

, 295, 316, C1 and SL8 and night routes N72 and N207 serve the station.

Gallery

References

External links