Broad Street railway station (England)
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Broad Street was a major
The station was built as a joint venture by the NLR and the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) in order to have a station serving freight closer to the City. It was immediately successful for both goods and passenger services, and saw a significant increase in NLR traffic. Usage peaked in the early 20th century, after which it suffered from competition from London trams, buses and, especially, the London Underground network. Patronage gradually fell and services decreased, while the building became increasingly dilapidated.
Freight services were withdrawn towards the end of the 1960s and the station closed in 1986. The station building was replaced by Broadgate, an office and retail complex, while part of the connecting line to the station was reinstated in 2010 as part of the London Overground.
Location
The station was sited at the junction of Broad Street and Liverpool Street in the
History
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The station was proposed by the North London Railway (NLR). The line originally opened as the East & West India Docks & Birmingham Junction Railway in 1850, in order to transport freight between the London and Birmingham Railway and the London Docklands. By the time it had been renamed to the NLR in 1853, passenger traffic had grown in equal importance, so it was decided to build a station with direct access to the City.[3]
Opening
The London and North Western Railway (LNWR) was also keen to have a goods depot in the City, and agreed to help the NLR fund the new extension.
The station was opened on 1 November 1865 as the terminus of a network of commuter railways linking east and west London via the looping route of the NLR, originally with seven platforms and three approach tracks.[5] The main building was designed by William Baker and constructed in an Italianate style and a Second Empire style roof.[6] The frontage was 250 feet (76 m) long and 110 feet (34 m) wide, constructed from white Suffolk brick and Peterhead granite, with a 75-foot (23 m) clock tower as a centrepiece.[7]
Initial services were to
Expansion and development
Broad Street was an immediate success and caused NLR traffic to double in a short space of time. A fourth approach line was added in 1874, a further (eighth) platform in 1891,[9] and a final (ninth) platform in 1913.[10] Two covered footbridges were added at the front of the main building in 1890 in order to provide direct access from the street to the platforms.[6]
At its peak at the turn of the 20th century, Broad Street was the third-busiest station in London (after
Decline
In the early years of the 20th century, the North London Line suffered a reduction in passengers and, especially, revenue, owing to the expansion of the bus, tram and Underground networks.[11] In 1909, the NLR passed general handling of trains to the LNWR.[12] By 1913, numbers had dropped to 44.6 per cent compared to 1900, and by 1921 to only 23.3 per cent[13] and the patronage of Broad Street station declined accordingly. On 8 September 1915, the station was damaged by a Zeppelin attack.[14]
In the face of the competition, the governing board finally decided to electrify the NLR, on the two-conductor-rail at 600 V DC system, and electrified passenger services started on 1 October 1916, using Oerlikon rolling stock, though the Watford service was not electrified until 10 July 1922. At the terminus, only the western five lines were ever electrified.[15] Electrification appeared to stem the tide of passenger losses. Electric services to Richmond and Kew began on 1 October 1916, followed by peak services to Watford on 16 April 1917. The latter were increased to all-day services on 10 July 1922. By this time, there were four trains per hour to Richmond and two per hour to Watford.[11] Steam services continued to Poplar, with a peak service to Tring.[16] These latter trains continued to use old livery, without modern conveniences such as heating and electric light, and were unpopular.[11]
The station came under the ownership of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway as part of the Big Four grouping in 1923.[12] The former GNR services from Broad Street were stopped completely in 1939 in order to accommodate essential World War II traffic. Broad Street was badly damaged during the war. The lines leading to the station were taken out of action after an overnight raid on 3–4 October 1940, closing the station for a number of days. Similar disruption occurred on 13 October and 11 November. The service to Shoreditch closed in 1940, while the service to Poplar was withdrawn on 14 May 1944 and never reinstated. A number of peak-season mainline trains to Cambridge used Broad Street to take pressure off King's Cross in the early 1950s, but otherwise only a small number of local services remained.[14] The main station building was closed in 1957, after which passengers were directed to a new concourse-level hut at the platform entrance to buy tickets.[17][6]
Curving around the north of London before turning south into the City, the North London Line was, for most passengers, a slower route into the financial district than alternative options like taking the Underground or changing at Euston or King's Cross. By 1960, only 41 trains carrying 6,400 passengers arrived at Broad Street in the three morning peak hours.[18]
The line and station came in for criticism in the
Closure
In 1979,
It was agreed that Broad Street would be closed,[
Redevelopment
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Broad Street station was completely demolished and replaced by the
The Crossrail project, now called the Elizabeth Line, to construct a new underground railway line through central London, has one of its stations at Liverpool Street. A new ticket hall serving the Elizabeth Line station has been built within the old Underground ticket hall with its entrance at 100 Liverpool Street, the old entrance to the Underground that served Broad Street, with the platforms themselves under the Broadgate complex.[25]
A feature of the concourse was the 10-foot-tall (3.0 m)
Accidents and incidents
- On 3 April 1891, 11 people were injured when a train from Willesden Junction hit the hydraulic buffer stops at Broad Street.[28]
- On 20 September 1898, 15 people were injured when a service from Richmond approaching Broad Street at slightly excessive speed ran into the buffers at the end of platform six. A Board of Trade report on the incident stated: "Fifteen passengers are reported to have complained of bruises or shock, and a few others have claimed compensation for damage to their hats." The train's driver testified: "I committed an error of judgment in not applying the brake quite soon enough."[29]
- On 18 August 1904, a train arriving into a Broad Street platform from Poplar collided with a service waiting to depart for Chalk Farm. Both trains were full and 56 passengers were injured. The Board of Trade investigation reported that "three of the injured had to be taken to hospital, but they were all able to proceed to their homes the same day." Six train crew members also complained of injury. An error on the part of the signaller was determined to be the primary cause of the collision.[30]
- On 20 March 1923, two people were injured when a train was rear-ended at Broad Street.[31]
Cultural references
Paul McCartney's 1984 feature film and album of the same name, Give My Regards to Broad Street, makes reference to the station. In one of the last scenes of the film, McCartney walks into the station and sits alone on one of its benches.[32]
Broad Street is the target of an unsuccessful IRA bombing in the fictional series Spooks; although set in 2002, Broad Street had been closed 16 years prior. Shots of Marylebone station were used.[33]
References
Citations
- ^ a b Jackson 1984, p. 96.
- ^ 1:25,000 First / Provisional Edition Sheet TQ38 (Map). Ordnance Survey. 1960. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
- ^ a b c Jackson 1984, p. 95.
- ^ a b Catford, Nick. "Broad Street railway station". Subterranea Britannica. Archived from the original on 8 February 2014.
- ^ Jackson 1984, pp. 96–7.
- ^ a b c Minnis 2011, p. 50.
- ^ a b c Jackson 1984, p. 97.
- ^ Ball & Sunderland 2002, p. 249.
- ^ a b Jackson 1984, p. 98.
- ^ a b c Jackson 1984, p. 99.
- ^ a b c d Jackson 1984, p. 101.
- ^ a b Pike 2017, p. 112.
- ^ White 1987, p. 237.
- ^ a b Jackson 1984, p. 102.
- ^ Mitchell & Smith 1997, p. 96.
- ^ Welch 1999, p. 40.
- ^ a b Jackson 1984, p. 105.
- ^ Ball & Sunderland 2002, p. 243.
- ^ a b c Holland 2013, p. 61.
- ^ a b Jackson 1984, p. 350.
- ^ a b Jackson 1984, p. 351.
- ^ Butt 1995, p. 191.
- ^ Berk & Kolsky 2016, p. 139.
- ^ "Any old iron? Disused tube carriages being turned into studio space". Tube Lines. 3 August 2006. Archived from the original on 27 November 2006.
- ^ "Crossrail update". British Land. Archived from the original on 6 January 2009. Retrieved 9 December 2009.
- ^ "War Memorial : North London railway". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 10 August 2017.
- ^ "Blood and Custard". Modern Railways. Vol. 68, no. 754. Ian Allan. July 2011. p. 33.
- ^ "Accident Returns: Extract for the Accident at Broad Street on 3rd April 1891 :: The Railways Archive". www.railwaysarchive.co.uk.
- ^ "Accident at Broad Street on 20th September 1898 :: The Railways Archive". www.railwaysarchive.co.uk.
- ^ "Accident Returns: Extract for the Accident at Broad Street on 18th August 1904 :: The Railways Archive". www.railwaysarchive.co.uk.
- ^ "Accident at Broad Street on 20th March 1923 :: The Railways Archive". www.railwaysarchive.co.uk.
- ^ James 2007, p. 200.
- ^ "Spooks - Series 1: Episode 6". bbc.co.uk.
Sources
- Ball, Michael; Sunderland, David T (2002). An Economic History of London 1800–1914. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-54030-3.
- Berk, Lois; Kolsky, Rachel (2016). Whitechapel in 50 Buildings. Amberley Publishing Limited. ISBN 978-1-445-66191-9.
- OL 11956311M.
- Minnis, John (2011). Britain's Lost Railways. Quarto. ISBN 978-0-7112-6162-4.
- Jackson, Alan (1984) [1969]. London's Termini (New Revised ed.). London: David & Charles. ISBN 0-330-02747-6.
- James, Simon (2007). London Film Location Guide. Anova Books. ISBN 978-0-713-49062-6.
- Pike, S. N. (2017). Mile by Mile: An Illustrated Journey On Britain's Railways as they were in 1947. Aurum Press. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-781-31672-6.
- Holland, Julian (2013). Dr Beeching's Axe: 50 Years on : Illustrated Memories of Britain's Lost Railways. David & Charles. ISBN 978-1-446-30267-5.
- Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (1997). North London line : Broad Street to Willesden Jn. via Hampstead Heath. Midhurst: Middleton Press.
- Welch, Michael (1999). London steam: Scenes from the Fifties and Sixties. Capital Transport. ISBN 978-1-854-14214-6.
- White, Henry Patrick (1987). Volume 3 – Greater London. Newton Abbott: David St John Thomas.
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Further reading
- Wayne Asher. 2015. A very Political Railway – the rescue of the North London Line. ISBN 978-1-85414-378-5
- HP White. 1971. A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, Volume 3 – Greater London. ISBN 0-7153-5337-3
- "Broad St. goes". OCLC 49957965.
External links
- "Tribute to the demolished station". London Destruction. Archived from the original on 6 April 2010.
- "Broad Street railway station". Subterranea Britannica. Archived from the original on 8 February 2014.
Preceding station | Disused railways | Following station | ||
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Shoreditch Line and station closed |
London and North Western Railway North London Railway |
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Dalston Junction Line closed, station open |
British Rail London Midland Region North London Line (City Branch) |
Terminus |