Old Street station
Encyclopedia
Old Street station is a central London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 National Rail
National Rail
National Rail is a title used by the Association of Train Operating Companies as a generic term to define the passenger rail services operated in Great Britain...

 and London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...

 station located at the junction of Old Street
Old Street
Old Street is a street in east London that runs west to east from Goswell Road in Clerkenwell, in the London Borough of Islington, to the crossroads where it intersects with Shoreditch High Street , Kingsland Road and Hackney Road in Shoreditch in the London Borough of Hackney.The nearest...

 and City Road
City Road
City Road or The City Road is a road that runs through inner north and central London. The northwestern extremity of the road is at the Angel, Islington where it forms a continuation of Pentonville Road. Pentonville Road itself is the modern name for London's first bypass, the New Road from...

 just north of the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

. It lies close to the border between the boroughs of Islington
London Borough of Islington
The London Borough of Islington is a London borough in Inner London. It was formed in 1965 by merging the former metropolitan boroughs of Islington and Finsbury. The borough contains two Westminster parliamentary constituencies, Islington North and Islington South & Finsbury...

 and Hackney
London Borough of Hackney
The London Borough of Hackney is a London borough of North/North East London, and forms part of inner London. The local authority is Hackney London Borough Council....

. The station is in Travelcard Zone 1
Travelcard Zone 1
Fare zone 1 is the central 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. For most tickets, travel through the zone is charged...

.

The station is on the Bank branch of London Underground's Northern Line
Northern Line
The Northern line is a London Underground line. It is coloured black on the Tube map.For most of its length it is a deep-level tube line. The line carries 206,734,000 passengers per year. This is the highest number of any line on the London Underground system, but the Northern line is unique in...

, between Moorgate
Moorgate station
Moorgate station is a central London railway terminus and London Underground station on Moorgate in the City of London; it provides National Rail services by First Capital Connect for Hertford, Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth and also serves the Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan Lines and...

 and Angel
Angel tube station
Angel tube station is a London Underground station in The Angel, Islington. It is on the Bank branch of the Northern Line, between Old Street and King's Cross St. Pancras stations. It is in Travelcard Zone 1. The tube stop serves as a portal to several Off West End, or fringe theatre, venues,...

 stations. It is also between Moorgate and Essex Road
Essex Road station
Essex Road railway station is a National Rail station in Islington. It is on the Northern City Line between and and is in Travelcard Zone 2. The station is located at the junction of Essex Road, Canonbury Road and New North Road, with the present entrance on Canonbury Road. It is the only deep...

 stations on National Rail's Northern City Line
Northern City Line
The Northern City Line is a railway line from Moorgate to Finsbury Park in London, once part of the Great Northern Electrics line. It should not be confused with the City branch of the Northern line, nor with the North London Line...

, operated by First Capital Connect
First Capital Connect
First Capital Connect is a passenger train operating company in England that began operations on the National Rail network on 1 April 2006...

. Although a through station on this route, for ticketing purposes, it is considered a central London railway terminus.

At the surface, the station is situated under the eastern edge of the busy Old Street roundabout
Old Street Roundabout
Old Street Roundabout is located on the boundary of the London Borough of Hackney and the London Borough of Islington, and is an interchange system at the junction of Old Street and City Road...

, where Old Street crosses City Road. There is no ground-level station building, access being by ramps and stairs to a modern station entrance which is part of a small shopping parade beneath the roundabout. The original ground-level buildings were removed when the roundabout was constructed. The station has toilets, but they are not open late into the evening. On the Northern Line between Old Street and Angel stations is the disused tube station City Road
City Road tube station
City Road is a disused London Underground station in Islington. It was one of the stations built when the City & South London Railway opened its extension from Moorgate to Angel on 17 November 1901...

.

History

The station was originally opened in November 1901 by the first deep-level tube railway, the City & South London Railway
City & South London Railway
The City and South London Railway was the first deep-level underground "tube" railway in the world, and the first major railway to use electric traction...

, as part of an extension of its line from Moorgate to Angel. The Northern City Line platforms were opened in February 1904 by the Great Northern & City Railway which built its tunnels to a larger diameter capable of accommodating main line trains in the hope of carrying trains from its northern terminus at the Great Northern Railway's Finsbury Park station
Finsbury Park station
Finsbury Park Station is a busy transport interchange in North London. The interchange consists of an interconnected National Rail station, London Underground station and two bus stations. The main entrances are by the eastern bus station on Station Place...

 to Moorgate. This eventually happened in the 1970s, with the line becoming a BR
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...

 route, with through services to Hertford
Hertford
Hertford is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. Forming a civil parish, the 2001 census put the population of Hertford at about 24,180. Recent estimates are that it is now around 28,000...

 and Welwyn Garden City
Welwyn Garden City
-Economy:Ever since its inception as garden city, Welwyn Garden City has attracted a strong commercial base with several designated employment areas. Among the companies trading in the town are:*Air Link Systems*Baxter*British Lead Mills*Carl Zeiss...

. During the 1920s the station was rebuilt when escalators (1 & 2) replaced the lift shaft in accessing the platform tunnels. Between 1967 and 1969 the station was once again modified, the surface building was replaced with the current sub-surface structure situated in the centre of the roundabout and an additional escalator shaft (3) was added. During the 1990s the effects of corrosion caused by excessive soil acidity required a section of the cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...

 running tunnel lining in the Northern Line, south of Old Street, to be re-lined with stainless steel
Stainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....

 tunnel segments.

Transport links

London bus routes 21, 43, 55, 76, 135, 141, 205, 214, 243, 271 and 394 Night routes N35, N55, N76.

External links

for Old Street station from National Rail
National Rail
National Rail is a title used by the Association of Train Operating Companies as a generic term to define the passenger rail services operated in Great Britain...

  • London Transport Museum Photographic Archive

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