Barbican tube station

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox London station

Barbican is a London Underground station situated near the Barbican Estate, on the edge of the ward of Farringdon Within, City of London. It has been known by various names since its opening in 1865, mostly in reference to the neighbouring ward of Aldersgate.

The station is on the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines between Farringdon and Moorgate stations, and is located in Travelcard Zone 1.<ref>Template:Cite map/Standard Tube Map</ref> Platform 2, serving westbound trains, is connected by a single lift to Template:Rws station on the Elizabeth line. Until 2009, Barbican was additionally served by Thameslink services to and from Moorgate.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

LocationEdit

Barbican station lies in an east–west-aligned cutting with cut-and-cover tunnels at either end.<ref name=maps>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The modern entrance gives access from Aldersgate Street, through a 1990s building,<ref name=diamondgeezer /> to a much older footbridge leading to the eastern end of the platforms.<ref group="note">Aldersgate Street is where the station has always stood. The street itself took its name from Aldersgate, a gate in the old London Wall.<ref name=diamondgeezer>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref></ref> To the north of the station are the backs of buildings which face onto Charterhouse Street, Charterhouse Square and Carthusian Street.<ref name=maps /> To the south are the backs of buildings which face onto Long Lane, and to the west is Hayne Street.<ref name=maps /> The station is close to the Barbican Estate, Barbican Centre, City of London School for Girls, St Bartholomew-the-Great, and Smithfield.<ref name=maps /> The Eastern Ticket Hall entrance to Template:Rws 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.

HistoryEdit

The station was opened with the name Aldersgate Street on 23 December 1865<ref name=rename/> on the Moorgate extension from Farringdon.<ref name="Butt14" /><ref name=culgh&c>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> had its name shortened to Aldersgate on 1 November 1910<ref name="Butt14" /><ref name=rename/> and was renamed again on 24 October 1924 as Aldersgate & Barbican,<ref name="Butt14" /><ref name=rename/> although tube maps and London A to Zs continued to show it as Aldersgate.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On 1 December 1968 the station's name was simplified to Barbican.<ref name="Butt14" /><ref name=rename/><ref name="Butt26"/>

Train services were disrupted during the Second World War when the station suffered severe bomb damage during the Blitz, particularly in December 1940.<ref name="Air raid damage on Aldersgate Street">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This led to the removal of the upper floors,<ref name=diamondgeezer /> and in 1955 the remainder of the street-level building was also demolished and the glass roof was replaced with awnings.<ref name="The Underground at War">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":2">Template:Cite book</ref> This urged John Betjeman to write his poem Monody on the Death of Aldersgate Station.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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<ref name="nr_so">Template:Cite book (Retrieved 2011-12-10)</ref> 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 Template:Stl to have its main line platforms extended across Thameslink's Moorgate branch.<ref name=culgh&c/><ref name="thameslinkfaq">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As a result, Barbican now serves Underground lines only.

File:London Barbican station entrance on Aldersgate Street, 1981 geograph-3256175-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg

The old entrance in 1981

File:Barbican Station front 2020.jpg

Modern entrance to Barbican

The modern station is mostly open to the elements,<ref name=diamondgeezer /> though there are some short canopies. The remains of the supporting structure for a glass canopy over all four platforms (removed in the 1950s) may still be seen.<ref name=diamondgeezer /> At the west end of the platforms may be seen the beginnings of the complex of tunnels leading under Smithfield meat market.<ref name=dgeezerflickr>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} "The disused signal box, the tunnels beneath Smithfield, and the future Crossrail entrance."</ref> Livestock for the market was at one time delivered by rail and there was a substantial goods yard under the site of the market.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Platform 1 is the most northerly, serving eastbound London Underground services.<ref name=culgcircle>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=culgmetropolitan>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Platforms 2 and 3 form an island platform, with platform 2 serving westbound services.<ref name=culgcircle/><ref name=culgmetropolitan/> Platform 2 contains a lift to the Elizabeth line platforms; it is the only platform with step-free access.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Platforms 3 and 4 are out of use.<ref name=diamondgeezer /> 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.Template:Citation needed

The station has a commemorative plaque affixed to one of its walls in memory of the station's deceased cat Pebbles.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Incidents and accidentsEdit

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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 30Template:Nbspminutes afterwards.<ref name="LondonistNov14">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

ServicesEdit

File:Barbican tube station MMB 05.jpg

The Thameslink lines on the south side of the station are no longer in use. The signal box seen here (R) was demolished in January 2015 as part of the Crossrail redevelopment.

The station is served by the Metropolitan, Hammersmith & City and Circle lines. 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 lineEdit

The typical service in trains per hour (tph) is:<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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 lineEdit

The typical service in trains per hour (tph) is:<ref name=":0" />

6 tph Eastbound to Barking
6 tph Westbound to Hammersmith via Paddington

Metropolitan lineEdit

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour (tph) is:<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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:<ref name=":1" />

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 lineEdit

File:Crossrail platform at Farringdon.jpg

Elizabeth line platforms at Farringdon are connected to Barbican's westbound platform.

Template:Stl's Barbican ticket hall for the Elizabeth line is just to the west of Barbican station along Long Lane.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This construction involved significant changes at the western end of the station, including the demolition of the former signal box<ref name=diamondgeezer /> to construct a lift shaft from the Elizabeth line station to the westbound Underground platform only. The original plan of a new footbridge spanning the tracks to the eastbound platform was not proceeded with on the grounds of engineering difficulties.<ref name="CityOfLondonContextReport">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Work was anticipated to be completed in 2018, but was completed in May 2022.<ref name="crossrail">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Template:Adjacent stations