White City tube station
Encyclopedia
White City tube station is a 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 situated on Wood Lane
Wood Lane
Wood Lane is a street in London. It runs north from Shepherd's Bush, under the Westway past Wormwood Scrubs where it meets Scrubs Lane. The road is wholly in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham...

 in White City
White City, London
White City is a district in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, to the north of Shepherd's Bush. Today, White City is home to the BBC Television Centre and BBC White City, and Loftus Road stadium, the home of football club Queens Park Rangers FC....

 in west 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...

. The station is on the Central Line
Central Line
The Central line is a London Underground line, coloured red on the tube map. It is a deep-level "tube" line, running east-west across London, and, at , has the greatest total length of track of any line on the Underground. Of the 49 stations served, 20 are below ground...

, between Shepherds Bush
Shepherd's Bush tube station (Central Line)
Shepherd's Bush is a London Underground station in the district of Shepherd's Bush, which is located in west London, England, United Kingdom. The station is on the Central Line, between and stations, and it lies in Travelcard Zone 2....

 and East Acton
East Acton tube station
East Acton is a London Underground station in East Acton in west London. The station is on the Central Line, between White City and North Acton stations, and in Travelcard Zone 2...

 stations, in Travelcard Zone 2
Travelcard Zone 2
Fare zone 2 is an inner 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.-Background:...

.

History

The station was opened on 23 November 1947, replacing the earlier Wood Lane station
Wood Lane (Central Line) tube station
Wood Lane tube station is a disused station on the Central Line of the London Underground. It was built to serve the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908 and the 1908 Summer Olympics....

. Its construction started after 1938 and had been scheduled for completion by 1940, but World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 delayed its opening for another seven years. The architectural design of the station won an award at the Festival of Britain
Festival of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...

 and a commemorative plaque recording this is attached to the building to the left of the main entrance.

The station today

White City is the innermost surface station on the western leg of the Central line, and trains enter tube tunnels immediately to the south of the station. An interesting feature is that the line adopts right-hand running through the station rather than the conventional left-hand running. This is a historical consequence of the reversal of the tracks in the tunnels of the anti-clockwise loop track built for the now-disused Wood Lane
Wood Lane (Central Line) tube station
Wood Lane tube station is a disused station on the Central Line of the London Underground. It was built to serve the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908 and the 1908 Summer Olympics....

 station, situated a short distance to the south of White City which was opened in 1908 as the then western terminus of the Central London Railway. The two tracks return to their normal left-hand orientation by a surface fly-over roughly half way between White City and East Acton stations.

The station's running layout has three tracks, with the centre track having platforms on each side meaning that it can handle trains running in either direction. A siding between the running lines to the north of the station allows trains from Central London to be reversed and run back eastwards. Trains going out of service can return to the below ground White City depot to the south of the station via sidings between the running lines.

The nearby Wood Lane
Wood Lane tube station
Wood Lane is a London Underground station, located in the White City area of west London, England, UK. It is on the Circle and Hammersmith & City Lines, between Latimer Road and Shepherd's Bush Market stations. The station lies in Travelcard Zone 2....

 station on the Hammersmith & City line
Hammersmith & City Line
The Hammersmith & City line is a subsurface London Underground line. It connects Hammersmith in the west with Barking in the east, running through the northern part of central London. It is coloured salmon pink on the Tube map...

 provides a convenient interchange between the lines.

This station is also directly opposite the BBC Television Centre
BBC Television Centre
BBC Television Centre at White City in West London is the headquarters of BBC Television. Officially opened on 29 June 1960, it remains one of the largest to this day; having featured over the years as backdrop to many BBC programmes, it is one of the most readily recognisable such facilities...

 and is within walking distance of Loftus Road
Loftus Road
Loftus Road is a football stadium in Shepherd's Bush, London. It is home to the English football team Queens Park Rangers of the Premier League and has a capacity of around 18,500. The four stands are called the Loftus Road End , Ellerslie Road Stand, South Africa Road Stand and the School End,...

, home of Queens Park Rangers F.C.
Queens Park Rangers F.C.
Queens Park Rangers Football Club is an English professional football club, based in White City, Hammersmith and Fulham, west London. As the 2010-11 Football League Championship champions, they now play in the top tier of English football the Premier League, for the first time in 15 years...

 It is also within walking distance of Westfield London
Westfield London
Westfield London is a shopping centre in White City in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The centre was developed by the Westfield Group at a cost of £1.6bn,...

.

The station received a certificate of merit in the 2009 National Railway Heritage Awards, London Regional category, for the modernisation (completed in 2008) that took care to retain heritage and architectural features.

This is the last station above ground on the Central Line if you are heading Eastbound, before a tunnel commences and ends at Stratford.

See also

An earlier Wood Lane
Wood Lane (Metropolitan Line) tube station
Wood Lane was a station in west London on the Hammersmith branch of the Metropolitan Railway . It was located on the Hammersmith & City line viaduct adjacent to the bridge over Wood Lane and close to a similarly named station on the Central London Railway...

 station on the Hammersmith & City Line
Hammersmith & City Line
The Hammersmith & City line is a subsurface London Underground line. It connects Hammersmith in the west with Barking in the east, running through the northern part of central London. It is coloured salmon pink on the Tube map...

was located a short distance to the south and was also known as White City from 23 November 1947 until its closure in 1959.

Transport links

London bus route 31, 49, 72, 95, 148, 207, 220, 228, 237, 260, 272, 283, 316 and 607.

External links

White City Station in 1951.
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