Barbican tube station

Location

Barbican station lies in an east–west-aligned cutting with cut-and-cover tunnels at either end. The modern entrance gives access from Aldersgate Street, through a 1990s building,|group=note}} To the north of the station are the backs of buildings which face onto Charterhouse Street, Charterhouse Square and Carthusian Street. To the south are the backs of buildings which face onto Long Lane, and to the west is Hayne Street. The station is close to the Barbican Estate, Barbican Centre, City of London School for Girls, St Bartholomew-the-Great, and Smithfield. The Eastern Ticket Hall entrance to Elizabeth line station is one street west of the station entrance, on the corner of Long Lane and Lindsey Street. A single lift connects directly from the Elizabeth line onto the westbound platform at Barbican.

History

The station was opened with the name Aldersgate Street on 23 December 1865 It was built on the site of an earlier building at 134 Aldersgate Street, which for many years had a sign claiming "This was Shakespeare's House". The building was very close to the nearby Fortune Playhouse, and a subsidy roll from 1598 shows a "William Shakespeare" as the owner of the property, however, there is no documentary evidence indicating they and the playwright were the same person.

The station, which has no surface building, had its name shortened to Aldersgate on 1 November 1910 On 1 December 1968 the station's name was simplified to Barbican.

Train services were disrupted during the Second World War when the station suffered severe bomb damage during the Blitz, particularly in December 1940. This led to the removal of the upper floors, This urged John Betjeman to write his poem Monody on the Death of Aldersgate Station.

Increasing traffic by other companies, including goods traffic, led to the track between King's Cross and Moorgate being widened to four tracks in 1868; the route was called the 'City Widened Lines'. Suburban services from the Midland Railway ran via Kentish Town and the Great Northern Railway ran via Kings Cross. British Rail services to Moorgate were initially steam operated before being converted to Cravens-built diesel multiple units and British Rail Class 31 locomotives class hauling non-corridor stock which remained in operation until the mid-1970s.

Passenger trains from the Great Northern line, via the York Road and Hotel curves at King's Cross to the Widened Lines, ran until the Great Northern's electrification on 1976. The City Widened Lines were renamed the Moorgate line 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 Thameslink platforms at Barbican were closed again in March 2009 as part of the Thameslink Programme to allow to have its main line platforms extended across Thameslink's Moorgate branch. As a result, Barbican now serves Underground lines only.

The modern station is mostly open to the elements, Livestock for the market was at one time delivered by rail and there was a substantial goods yard under the site of the market.

Platform 1 is the most northerly, serving eastbound London Underground services. Platforms 2 and 3 form an island platform, with platform 2 serving westbound services.

Platform 2 contains a lift to the Elizabeth line platforms; it is the only platform with step-free access. Platforms 3 and 4 are out of use. A display on the history of the station, including text and photographs, is just inside the barriers, on the southern side of the main entrance corridor.

The station has a commemorative plaque affixed to one of its walls in memory of the station's deceased cat Pebbles.

Incidents and accidents

On 16 December 1866, three passengers were killed, a guard was seriously injured, and one other person suffered shock when a girder collapsed onto a passenger train in the station. The accident was the first to include multiple passengers on the underground network. Four people died during the accident, and a fifth (a workman involved in the accident) died while awaiting trial. Service on the line was running again only 30minutes afterwards.

On 26 April 1897, a bomb exploded under a seat in a first-class carriage in the station, injuring ten people of whom two died later. The perpetrators were never identified, but it was believed to have been part of a Fenian campaign following three other bombs in 1883–1885.

Services

Barbican station is on the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines in London fare zone 1. It is between Farringdon to the west and Moorgate to the east. All three lines share the same pair of tracks from Baker Street Junction to Aldgate Junction making this section of track one of the most intensely used on the London Underground network.

Circle line

The typical service in trains per hour (tph) is:

• 6 tph clockwise to Edgware Road via Liverpool Street and Victoria
• 6 tph anti-clockwise to Hammersmith via Kings Cross St Pancras and Paddington

Hammersmith & 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, though currently this is only during peak times (Eastbound 06:30–09:30 / Westbound 16:00–19:00). Fast services run non-stop between Wembley Park, Harrow-on-the-Hill 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)

Elizabeth line

's Barbican ticket hall for the Elizabeth line is just to the west of Barbican station along Long Lane. This construction involved significant changes at the western end of the station, including the demolition of the former signal box Work was anticipated to be completed in 2018, but was completed in May 2022.

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Connections

London Buses routes serve the station.

References

1. Butt (1995), page 14
2. Hywel, Williams. (2004). "Renamed Stations". Underground History.
3. Butt (1995), page 26
4. {{cite map/Standard Tube Map
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8. Winter, William. (1910). "Seeing Europe with Famous Authors: Literary Shrines of London". Moffat, Yard & Co.
9. "Tube Stations that have no surface buildings". Geofftech.
10. (1 January 1941). "Air raid damage on Aldersgate Street". London Transport Museum.
11. Martin, Andrew. (2013). "Underground Overground: A Passenger's History of the Tube". Profile Books.
12. Rhys. (2008-05-25). "It all started with a ghost: A Monody".
13. Network Rail. (April 2001). "South Zone Sectional Appendix".
14. "Thameslink Programme - FAQ". First Capital Connect.
15. Ian, Mansfield. (25 May 2012). "Photos – The railway tunnels underneath Smithfield Meat Market". IanVisits.
16. Lemmo. (25 June 2012). "Fulsome Farringdon: Part 1". London Reconnections.
17. Feather, Clive. "Circle line". Clive's Underground Line Guides.
18. Feather, Clive. "Metropolitan line". Clive's Underground Line Guides.
19. (December 2023). "Step-free Tube Guide". Transport for London.
20. "London remembers Pebbles the station cat".
21. (11 January 1867). "Accident Returns: Extract for the Accident at Aldersgate Street on 19th December 1866".
22. (12 November 2014). "Disaster at Barbican: The Tube's First Tragedy". Londonist.
23. Alan A Jackson. (1986). "London's Metropolitan Railway". David & Charles, Newton Abbot.
24. "Circle and Hammersmith & City line WTT".
25. "CULG - Metropolitan Line".
26. "Metropolitan line WTT".
27. (February 2005). "Crossrail - Farringdon (1)". [[Crossrail]].
28. (17 March 2020). "Taking a look inside Crossrail's Farringdon station".
29. "Stations – Farringdon". Crossrail.
30. "Elizabeth line opens and welcomes excited passengers". BBC News.
31. (May 2022). "Buses from Barbican".