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Broad Street station was a major railway station in the
City of LondonThe 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...
, the terminus for the
North London RailwayThe North London Railway was a railway company that opened various lines connecting the north of London to the East and West India Docks, the core route later becoming the basis of the North London Line...
. It closed in 1986 and was demolished. It is the only central London railway terminus to have closed without a direct replacement.
The station was opened in 1865 as the terminus of a network of commuter railways linking east and west London via the looping route of the
North London LineThe North London Line is a railway line which passes through the inner suburbs of London, England. Its route is a rough semicircle from the south west to the north east, avoiding central London. The line is owned and maintained by Network Rail...
.
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Broad Street station was a major railway station in the
City of LondonThe 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...
, the terminus for the
North London RailwayThe North London Railway was a railway company that opened various lines connecting the north of London to the East and West India Docks, the core route later becoming the basis of the North London Line...
. It closed in 1986 and was demolished. It is the only central London railway terminus to have closed without a direct replacement.
History
The station was opened in 1865 as the terminus of a network of commuter railways linking east and west London via the looping route of the
North London LineThe North London Line is a railway line which passes through the inner suburbs of London, England. Its route is a rough semicircle from the south west to the north east, avoiding central London. The line is owned and maintained by Network Rail...
. With nine platforms at its peak, it became the third busiest London station (after
Liverpool StreetLiverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a major railway station and connected London Underground station in the north eastern corner of the City of London in England...
, immediately adjacent, and Victoria). At the start of the
20th centuryThe 20th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1901 and ended on December 31, 2000, according to the Gregorian calendar.The British Empire, the Russian Empire, the German Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolved in the first half of the century, with all but the...
, more than one train a minute arrived or left the station during the morning
rush hourA rush hour or peak hour is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest...
, with over 27 million passengers in 1902. The
Great Northern RailwayThe Great Northern Railway was a British railway company established by the London & York Railway Act of 1846.The main line ran from London via Hitchin, Peterborough, and Grantham, to York, with a loop line from Peterborough to Bawtry via Boston and Lincoln, and branch lines to Sheffield and...
also used Broad Street, as a supplement to its
King's CrossKing's Cross station may refer to::* London King's Cross railway station in London, England** King's Cross St. Pancras tube station for London Underground lines.** King's Cross Thameslink, a disused railway station in London, England...
terminal some miles to the west.
However, the North London Line lost most of its passengers to the expansion of the
busThe London Bus is one of London's principal icons, the archetypal red rear-entrance double-deck Routemaster being recognised worldwide. Although the Routemaster has now been largely phased out of service, with only two heritage routes still using the vehicles, the majority of buses in London are...
,
tramThere have been two separate generations of trams in London, from 1860 to 1952 and from 2000. Between 1952 and 2000 no trams ran in London.- Horse trams :...
and
TubeThe London Underground, Underground or Tube is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and neighbouring areas of Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire in the UK. The first section opened in 1863, and was the first underground railway system in the world, and, starting in...
networks and the station became increasingly poorly used.
On 8 September 1915 the station was damaged by a
ZeppelinFor the English rock group, please see Led Zeppelin. For other meanings please see Zeppelin .A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893...
attack.
It was badly damaged in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and was never fully repaired, while local services to
PoplarPoplar is an area of the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Poplar is about east of Charing Cross.-History:During the development of the Isle of Dogs the street signs pointed to the new development , and Poplar was lost for a decade or more. St Matthias Old Church is...
were withdrawn and not reinstated.
Rundown and closure
The main station building closed in 1956, passengers being directed to a new concourse level building at the platform entrance to buy tickets. It was earmarked for closure under the
Beeching AxeThe Beeching Axe is an informal name for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard Beeching...
of 1963, but local opposition persuaded the government to give it a reprieve. However, the station was gradually run down and the level of service was steadily reduced.
In 1967 the major part of the
train shedA train shed is an adjacent building to a railway station where the tracks and platforms are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof...
roof was removed, having become unsafe, whilst four of the nine platforms were taken out of use in 1969, the same year that the goods yard closed. In 1976, peak hour services to the
Eastern RegionThe Eastern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s and was wound-up at the end of 1992...
were withdrawn with the opening of the
Northern City LineThe 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....
, and a further platform was disconnected. The station was now very dilapidated, with trees growing in between the disused platforms.
By 1985, only 6,000
passengerA passenger is a term broadly used to describe any person who travels in a vehicle, but bears little or no responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination.There are two common contexts in which the term is used:...
s per week were using Broad Street station and only about 300 arrived daily in the morning peak. In May 1985 the service to Richmond was diverted away from Broad Street, leaving only the peak hour Watford Junction services. It was agreed that Broad Street would be closed with the last remaining trains diverted to Liverpool Street once a new connecting chord was built from the North London line. Until this was done, it was possible to accommodate this last service from the outer end of one platform, and therefore in
NovemberNovember is the 11th month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four Gregorian months with the length of 30 days. November retained its name when January and February were added to the Roman calendar....
that year demolition of the station began. The remaining single platform was used until 28 June 1986, when the station was finally closed along with
Dalston JunctionDalston Junction railway station is a railway station currently under construction in the Dalston area of the London Borough of Hackney. The station was first opened on 1 November 1865 on the North London Line as part of an extension to Broad Street in the City of London. The station has been...
, the other remaining station on the North London Line's City branch.
Broad Street station was replaced with the giant
BroadgateBroadgate is a large, office and retail estate in the City of London, owned by British Land and managed by Broadgate Estates. The original developer was Rosehaugh: it was built by a Bovis / Tarmac Construction joint venture and was the largest office development in London until the arrival of...
office and shopping complex, and nothing remains of the station. However, three giant girders which formerly supported a now demolished part of the
viaductA viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere to lead something. However, the Ancient Romans did not use that term per se; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early...
approaching Broad Street now form a feature at the Broadgate entrance to Liverpool Street (on the corner of Eldon Street and Blomfield Street). Nonetheless, most of this viaduct, leading to the North London Line, remains largely intact. It is currently in the process of being restored to carry the
East London LineThe East London line was a line of the London Underground, coloured orange on the Tube map. It ran north to south through the East End and Docklands areas of London, entirely in Travelcard Zone 2...
along the old trackbed as far as
Highbury & Islington stationHighbury & Islington station is a National Rail, London Overground, and London Underground station in the London Borough of Islington in north London. It serves the suburbs of Highbury and Islington....
.
Paul McCartneySir James Paul McCartney, MBE , is an English singer-songwriter, poet, composer, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, record and film producer, painter, and animal rights and peace activist. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings, McCartney is the most successful songwriter in the history of popular music...
's 1984 feature film and album of the same name,
Give My Regards to Broad StreetGive My Regards to Broad Street is the name of a film and soundtrack album, masterminded by Paul McCartney. They were both released in 1984, following the success of McCartney's previous albums Tug of War and Pipes of Peace. The film of Broad Street proved to be a financial disaster, but the...
, was inspired by the station. In one of the last scenes of the film, Paul walks into the station and sits alone on one of its benches.
The goods station
Broad Street
goods stationA goods station is, in the widest sense, a railway station which is exclusively or predominantly where goods of any description are loaded or unloaded from ships or road vehicles and/or where goods wagons are transferred to local sidings.A station where goods are not specifically received or...
was next to the passenger station. It was built on a
deckIn architecture, a deck is a flat surface capable of supporting weight, similar to a floor, but typically constructed outdoors, often elevated from the ground, and usually connected to a building...
, and a lift was provided to move wagons down to warehouses below. The deck was not strong enough to carry
locomotiveA locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
s, so
shuntingShunting, in railway operations, involves the process of sorting items of rolling stock into complete train sets or consists. The United States terminology is "switching"....
was done by rope and
capstanA capstan is a rotating machine used to apply force to ropes, cables, and hawsers, commonly, though not exclusively, in a maritime setting.- History :...
.
External links
See also
- Liverpool Street railway station station next door
- Shoreditch railway station
Shoreditch railway station was a station on the North London Railway in London, United Kingdom. It was situated on a viaduct between Haggerston and Broad Street stations....
- Haggerston railway station
Haggerston railway station is a railway station currently under construction in the London Borough of Hackney in London, United Kingdom. The station is located in the Haggerston district at the junction of Arbutus Street and Frederick Terrace...
- Dalston Junction railway station
Dalston Junction railway station is a railway station currently under construction in the Dalston area of the London Borough of Hackney. The station was first opened on 1 November 1865 on the North London Line as part of an extension to Broad Street in the City of London. The station has been...
- Holborn Viaduct railway station
Holborn Viaduct was a railway terminus in central London.- Holborn Viaduct :Holborn Viaduct opened on 2 March 1874 as an additional terminus for the London, Chatham and Dover Railway . The station was on a branch from the Ludgate-Farringdon line, with a hotel as part of its frontage opening onto...