Liverpool Street    | |
|---|---|
| London Liverpool Street | |
.jpg) Main station entrance seen in 2024 | |
  Liverpool Street Location of Liverpool Street in Central London | |
| Location | Bishopsgate |
| Local authority | City of London |
| Managed by | Network Rail |
| Station code | LST |
| DfT category | A |
| Number of platforms | 19[1] |
| Accessible | Yes[2] |
| Fare zone | 1 |
| OSI | Bank Fenchurch Street Moorgate Liverpool Street [3] |
| London Underground annual entry and exit | |
| 2020 |  16.27 million[4] |
| 2021 |  26.60 million[5] |
| 2022 | 55.84 million[6] |
| 2023 | 57.23 million[7] |
| 2024 | 61.20 million[8] |
| National Rail annual entry and exit | |
| 2020–21 | 11.212 million[9] |
| – interchange | 1.131 million[9] |
| 2021–22 | 32.165 million[9] |
| – interchange | 3.016 million[9] |
| 2022–23 | 80.448 million[9] |
| – interchange | 5.663 million[9] |
| 2023–24 | 94.500 million[9] |
| – interchange | 8.699 million[9] |
| 2024–25 | 98.016 million[9] |
| – interchange | 6.535 million[9] |
| Railway companies | |
| Original company | Great Eastern Railway |
| Post-grouping | London & North Eastern Railway |
| Key dates | |
| 2 October 1874 (1874-10-02) | Opened |
| 12 July 1875 | Underground station opened |
| 24 May 2022 | Elizabeth line opened |
| Listed status | |
| Listed feature | Gothic style offices and two western bays of train sheds |
| Listing grade | II |
| Entry number | 1286133[10] |
| Added to list | 5 August 1975 |
| Other information | |
| External links | |
| Coordinates | 51°31′07″N0°04′53″W / 51.5186°N 0.0813°W /51.5186; -0.0813 |
 London transport portal | |
Liverpool Street station, also known asLondon Liverpool Street,[11][12] is a majorcentral London railway terminus and connectedLondon Underground station in the north-eastern corner of theCity of London, in theward ofBishopsgate Without. It is the terminus of theWest Anglia Main Line toCambridge and Ely; theGreat Eastern Main Line toNorwich; commuter trains serving east London and destinations in theEast of England, including theWeaver line of theLondon Overground; and theStansted Express service toStansted Airport.
The station opened in 1874, as a replacement forBishopsgate station as theGreat Eastern Railway's main London terminus. By 1895, it had the most platforms of any London terminal station. During theFirst World War, an air raid on the station killed 16 on site, and 146 others in nearby areas. In the build-up to theSecond World War, the station served as the entry point for thousands of child refugees arriving in London as part of theKindertransport rescue mission. The station was damaged by the1993 Bishopsgate bombing and, during the7 July 2005 bombing, seven passengers were killed when a bomb exploded aboard an Underground train, just after it had departed from Liverpool Street. New platforms for theElizabeth line opened in 2022 as part of theCrossrail project.[13]
Liverpool Street was built as a dual-level station, with provision for the London Underground. A tube station opened in 1875 for theMetropolitan Railway; the tube station is now served by theCentral,Circle,Hammersmith & City andMetropolitan lines. It is inLondon fare zone 1 and is managed directly byNetwork Rail.[14] With 94.5 million passengers between April 2023 and March 2024, it was the busiest station in the United Kingdom, according to the Office of Rail and Road.
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_p139_-_Liverpool_Street_and_Broad_Street_stations_(plan).jpg)
Liverpool Street station was built as the new London terminus of theGreat Eastern Railway (GER) which servedNorwich andKing's Lynn.[15] The GER had been formed from the merger of several railway companies, inheritingBishopsgate as its London terminus. Bishopsgate was inadequate for the company's passenger traffic; itsShoreditch location was in the heart of one of the poorest slums in London and hence badly situated for theCity of London commuters the company wanted to attract.[16] Consequently, the GER planned a more central station.[17][18] The original intention was to build a terminus which reached as far south as the roadLondon Wall, and which would be as tall as theBroad Street station which was being planned at the same time, however the city authorities did not permit the more southerly location.[19]
By 1865, plans changed to include a circa 1-mile (1.6 km) long line branching from the main line east of the company's existing terminus in Shoreditch, and a new station at Liverpool Street as the main terminus, with Bishopsgate station to be used for freight traffic. The station at Liverpool Street (the street had been named after theTory Prime MinisterRobert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool in 1829) was to be built for the use of the GER and of theEast London Railway on two levels, with the underground East London line around 37 ft (11 m) below this, and the GER tracks supported on brick arches. The station was planned to be around 630 by 200 ft (192 by 61 m) in area, with its main façade onto Liverpool Street and an additional entrance on Bishopsgate-Street (now calledBishopsgate and forming part of theA10). The main train shed was to be a two-span wood construction with a central void providing light and ventilation to the lower station, and the station buildings were to be in anItalianate style to the designs of the GER's architect.[17]
The line and station construction were authorised by the Great Eastern Railway (Metropolitan Station and Railways) Act 1864.[20][21] The station was built on a 10-acre (4.0 ha) site previously occupied by theBethlem Royal Hospital, adjacent toBroad Street station, west of Bishopsgate and facing onto Liverpool Street to the south. The development land wascompulsorily purchased, displacing around 3,000 residents of the parish ofSt Botolph-without-Bishopsgate.[22] Around 7,000 people living in tenements around Shoreditch were evicted to complete the line towards Liverpool Street, while the City of London Theatre and City of London Gasworks were both demolished.[23] To manage the disruption caused by rehousing, the company was required by the 1864 Act to run daily low-cost workmen's trains from the station.[20]
The station was designed by GER engineerEdward Wilson and built byLucas Brothers; the roof was designed and constructed by the Fairburn Engineering Company.[22] The overall design was approximatelyGothic, built using stock bricks andbath stone dressings. The building incorporated booking offices as well as the company offices of the GER, including chairman's, board, committee, secretary and engineers' rooms. The roof was spanned by fourwrought iron spans, two central spans of 109 ft (33 m) and outer spans of 46 and 44 ft (14 and 13 m), 730 ft (220 m) in length over the eastern main lines, and 450 ft (140 m) long over the local platforms;[24] the station had 10 platforms, two of which were used for main-line trains and the remainder for suburban trains.[25]
The station was built with a connection to the sub-surfaceMetropolitan Railway, with the platform sunk below ground level; consequently there are considerable gradients leaving the station.[26] The Metropolitan Railway used the station as a terminus from 1 February 1875 until 11 July 1875; their own underground station opened on 12 July 1875,[27][28] and the Metropolitan Railway connection was closed in 1904.[15]
Local trains began serving the partially completed station from 2 October 1874,[18] and it was fully opened on 1 November 1875,[29] at a final cost of over £2 million.[30] The original City terminus at Bishopsgate closed to passengers and was converted for use as a goods station from 1881. This continued until it was destroyed by fire in 1964.[31]
TheGreat Eastern Hotel adjoining the new Liverpool Street station opened in May 1884. It was designed byCharles Barry Jr. (son of the celebrated architectCharles Barry who designed theHouses of Parliament). Upon opening, it was the only hotel in the City of London. An extension called the Abercon Rooms was built in 1901, designed byColonel Robert William Edis. The hotel includes the Hamilton Rooms, named after former GER chairmanLord Claud Hamilton.[32]
_Liverpool_Street_Station_extension_(plan).jpg)
Although initially viewed as an expensivewhite elephant,[33] within 10 years the station was working at capacity (about 600 trains per day) and the GER was acquiring land to the east of the station for expansion.[30] An Act of Parliament was obtained in 1888 and work started in 1890 on the eastward expansion of Liverpool Street by adding eight new tracks and platforms.[29][34] This gave the station the most platforms of any London terminus untilVictoria station was expanded in 1908.[35]
The main station was extended about 230 ft (70 m) eastwards; additional shops and offices were constructed east of the new train shed up to the parish boundary with Bishopsgate-Street Without.[36] A new roof was built over the new construction.[37][38] The outer wall was constructed withStaffordshire blue brick andRuabon bricks.[39] The four train shed roofs were carried out by Messrs.Handyside and Co., supervised by a Mr Sherlock, the resident engineer; all the foundations, earthwork and brickwork were carried out byMowlem & Co. Electric power (for lighting) was supplied from an engine house north of the station.[40] Additional civil works included three iron bridges carrying road traffic over the railway on Skinner, Primrose and Worship Streets.[41] The bridge ironwork was supplied and erected by theHorseley Company.[42][43][44] John Wilson was chief engineer, withW. N. Ashbee as architect.[29] As part of the works, the GER was obliged by Parliament to rehouse all tenants displaced by the works, with 137 put into existing property and the remaining 600 into tenements constructed at the company's expense.[45]
By the turn of the 20th century, Liverpool Street had one of the most extensive suburban rail services in London, including branches toSouthend Victoria andWoodford, and was one of the busiest in the world. In 1912, around 200,000 passengers used the station daily on around 1,000 separate trains.[46]
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Operation Turkenkreuz, the initialFirst World War biplane air raid on London, took place on 13 June 1917, when 20Gotha G.IV bombers attacked the capital. The raid struck a number of sites including Liverpool Street. Seven tons of explosives were dropped on the capital, killing 162 people and injuring 432.[47][48] Three bombs hit the station, of which two exploded, having fallen through the train shed roof, near to two trains.[49] One of these hit a carriage on a train about to depart, another hit carriages used by army doctors; the death toll at the station itself was 16 dead and 15 injured.[50] It was the deadliest single raid on Britain during the war.[51]
Over 1,000 GER employees who died during the war were honoured on a large marble memorial installed in the booking hall, unveiled on 22 June 1922 bySir Henry Wilson. On his return home from the unveiling ceremony, Wilson was assassinated by twoIrish Republican Army members. He was commemorated by a memorial plaque adjoining the GER monument, unveiled one month after his death.[52][53] The GER memorial was relocated during the modification of the station and now incorporates both the Wilson and Fryatt memorials, as well as a number of railway related architectural elements salvaged from demolished buildings.[32]
The station also has a plaque commemorating marinerCharles Fryatt who was executed in 1916 for ramming a German U-boat with the GER steamerSS Brussels.[32][54]
By the early 1900s, the success of deep-bore electric trains on the Underground suggested that local services out of London could also be electrified. Following the war, the GER needed more capacity out of Liverpool Street as it was at capacity (serving almost 230,000 passengers daily in 1921), but they could not afford electrification.[46] They considered high-powered and high-tractive steam locomotives including theGER Class A55 as a possible alternative, but these were rejected because of high track loadings.[55]
An alternative scheme was introduced, using a combination of automatic signalling and modifications to the layout at Liverpool Street. The station introduced coaling, watering, and other maintenance facilities directly at the station, as well as separate engine bays and a modified track and station layout that reduced turnaround times and increased productivity.[55][56] Services began on 2 July 1920 with trains toChingford andEnfield running every 10 minutes. The cost of the modifications was £80,000 compared to an estimated £3 million for electrification.[57] The service was officially called the Intensive Service (as it allowed a 50% increase in capacity on peak services), but became popularly known as the Jazz Service.[46] It lasted until the General Strike of 1926, following which services generally declined.[58]
The GER amalgamated with several other railways to form theLondon and North Eastern Railway (LNER) as part of thereorganisation of railway companies in 1923. Liverpool Street came under ownership of the LNER, and suffered from a general lack of attention and neglect throughout the 1930s.[59]
The station master in 1935 was H C R Calver and he had 395 staff under him with his direct reports, including ticket office, parcels staff, signalmen, platform inspectors and porters. Of this number, 75 were passed for fogging duties for when additional staff were required for safe operation of trains infoggy conditions.
In addition to this there were many other staff employed at the station on a variety of duties including policemen (uniformed and plain clothes), locomotive staff, permanent way staff, carriage and wagon examiners, steam heat examiners, electric and gas examiners, telegraph staff, linemen, signal fitters, Goods Manager's Despatch Office staff, outside porters, hotel porters, staff from the continental office and GPO staff.
The former headquarters building of the GER (still a railway office in 1935) was adjacent to Liverpool Street and some departments in that building also had roles in the operation of the station.
Further to that the newspaper companies provided their own staff to load newspaper trains.[60][a]
In 1935 the approaches to Liverpool Street and the station itself, were controlled by seven signal boxes, which fell under the responsibility of the Liverpool Street station master. The boxes were:
Thousands of Jewish refugee children arrived at Liverpool Street in the late 1930s as part of theKindertransport rescue mission to save them in the run up to theSecond World War. The Für Das Kind Kindertransport Memorial sculpture by artist Flor Kent was installed at the station in September 2003 commemorating this event. It consisted of a specialised glass case with original objects and a bronze sculpture of a girl, a direct descendant of a child rescued byNicholas Winton, who unveiled the work.[62] The objects included in the sculpture began to deteriorate in bad weather,[63] and a replacement bronze memorial,Kindertransport – The Arrival byFrank Meisler was installed as a replacement at the main entrance in November 2006.[64] The child statue from the Kent memorial was re-erected separately in 2011.[65]
During the war, the station's structure sustained damage from a nearby bomb, particularly the Gothic tower at the main entrance on Liverpool Street and its glass roof.[66]
As a precautionary measure the large and weighty West Side hanging clock was brought down to platform level and served as an enquiry office for the duration of the war.[67]
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After the formation of theLondon Passenger Transport Board in 1933, work to electrify the line from Liverpool Street toShenfield began in association with the LNER.[68] Progress had been halted by the war but work resumed after the end of hostilities. The line between Liverpool Street andStratford was electrified from 3 December 1946, and the full electrification of the Shenfield line at 1500 V DC was completed in September 1949.[68][69] At the same time, electrification ofLondon Underground services in Essex and in northeast and east London led to the withdrawal of some services from Liverpool Street, being replaced with LU operations. Electrification continued with the line toChingford electrified by November 1960.[70] In 1960–61, the overhead electrification, which had been extended from Shenfield to Southend and Chelmsford, was converted from 1500 V DC to 6.25 kV AC.[69]
May2003.jpg)
In 1973 theBritish Railways Board,London Transport Executive,Greater London Council and theDepartment of the Environment produced a report examining the modernisation of London transport. It recommended high priority given to reconstructing Liverpool Street and Broad Street stations and recommended financing this throughproperty development on the site.[71] Liverpool Street had a number of design and access issues, many of which derived from the 1890 extension which had effectively created two stations on one site, with twoconcourses linked by walkways, booking halls, and inefficient traffic flows within the station. Additionally the rail infrastructure presented limitations; only seven of the platforms could accommodate 12-carriage trains, and the track exit layout was a bottleneck.[72] In 1975 British Railways announced plans to demolish and redevelop both stations.[73] The proposed demolition met considerable public opposition and prompted a campaign led by thePoet LaureateSir John Betjeman, leading to apublic inquiry from November 1976 to February 1977.[74]
In autumn 1980, the overhead electrification was converted from 6.25 kVAC to the standard supply of 25 kV AC.[75] The inquiry recommended that the western (1875) train shed roof should be retained in new development; consequently it was repaired and reinforced between 1982 and 1984, followed by repairs to the main roof completed in 1987.[76] Initial plans included adding two additional tracks, with 22 platforms in a layout similar to that ofWaterloo station; the combined Broad Street and Liverpool Street station was to be at the level of the latter, with relatively low-rise office developments.[77] The development was reassessed in 1983/4, when it was decided to retain the existing six-road exit throat and 18-platform layout, in combination with resignalling; this resulted in a station confined to the Liverpool Street site, with ground space released for development.[78] British Railways signed an agreement with developers Rosehaugh Stanhope in 1985, and work on the office development, known asBroadgate, began.[79]
Railway work included the construction of a short link from theNorth London Line to the Cambridge main line, allowing trains that had previously used Broad Street to terminate at Liverpool Street.[80] The station was reconstructed with a single concourse at the head of the station platforms, and entrances from Bishopsgate and Liverpool Street, as well asa bus interchange in the south west corner.[81] The Broadgate development was constructed between 1985 and 1991, with 330,000 m2 (3,600,000 sq ft) of office space on the site of the former Broad Street station and above the Liverpool Street tracks.[82] Proceeds from the Broadgate development were used to help fund the station modernisation.[83]
In 1988,The Arcade above the underground station on the corner of Liverpool Street and Old Broad Street was due to be completely demolished by London Regional Transport and MEPC, who wanted to develop the site into a five-storey block of offices and shops. More than 6,000 people signed a petition to "Save the Arcade", and the historic Victorian building still stands today.[84] The campaign against the development was led by Graham Horwood, who owned an employment agency within the Arcade at the time.[85]
In 1989, the first visual display unit-controlled signalling operation on British Rail (known as anIntegrated Electronic Control Centre) became operational at Liverpool Street.[86]
The redeveloped Liverpool Street was officially opened byQueen Elizabeth II on 5 December 1991.[87] At that time a giant departures board was installed above the concourse; it was one of the last remaining mechanical'flapper' display boards at a British railway station until its replacement in November 2007.[88]
In 1991, an additional entrance was constructed on the east side ofBishopsgate with asubway under the road.[89] The station was "twinned" withAmsterdam Centraal railway station on 2 December 1993, with a plaque marking this close to the entrance to the Underground station.[90]
The station was badly damaged on 24 April 1993 by theBishopsgate bombing and was temporarily closed as a result.[91][92] About £250,000 of damage was caused to the station, primarily to the glass roof. The station re-opened on 26 April 1993.[93][94]
In 2013, during excavation work for theCrossrail project, a 2-acre (0.8 ha) mass burial ground dating from the 17th century was uncovered a few feet beneath the surface at Liverpool Street, the so-called Bedlam burial ground orNew Churchyard. It contained the remains of several hundred people and it is thought that the interments were of a wide variety of people, including plague victims, prisoners and unclaimed corpses.[95] A 16th-century gold coin, thought to have been used as a sequin or pendant, was also found.[96] In early 2015 full-scale excavation of the burials began, then estimated at 3,000 interments.[97]
In advance of the full opening of theElizabeth line, precursor operatorTfL Rail took over fromGreater Anglia the Liverpool Street-Shenfield stopping "metro" service from 2015.[98] At the same time, services on theLea Valley Lines out of Liverpool Street to Enfield Town, Cheshunt (via Seven Sisters) and Chingford transferred toLondon Overground.[99] The central section of the Elizabeth line opened on 24 May 2022 between Paddington and Abbey Wood.[100] The Elizabeth line platforms are to the south-west of the existing tube station building.[13] A new ticket hall withstep-free access opened next to the Broadgate development, with links to the existing Underground station, and a pedestrian link via the new platforms to the ticket hall ofMoorgate, providing direct access to London Underground'sNorthern line and the National RailNorthern City Line at Moorgate. Thus, Liverpool Street appears on theTube map as an interchange with Moorgate, similarly toBank andMonument.[101]
In the 12 months to 31 March 2020, immediately before travel restrictions were introduced as a result of theCOVID-19 pandemic, Liverpool Street was the third-busiest railway station in the United Kingdom, afterLondon Waterloo andLondon Victoria, with an estimated 66 million passenger entries and exits.[102] Patronage fell by 83% in the 12 months to 31 March 2021, to 11.2 million entries and exits, as a result of the pandemic.[103]
In 2022 / 2023, it was ranked as the busiest station in the UK, with 80.4 million entries and exits, the increase being attributed to the opening of the Elizabeth line in May 2022.[104]
Trains depart from the main line station for destinations across theeast of England, includingNorwich,Southminster,Ipswich,Clacton-on-Sea,Colchester,Chelmsford,Southend Victoria,Cambridge,Harlow Town,Hertford East,Broxbourne and many suburban stations in north and east London,Essex andHertfordshire. A few daily express trains toHarwich International provide a connection with theDutchflyer ferry toHook of Holland.Stansted Express trains provide a link toStansted Airport and Southend Victoria-bound services stop atSouthend Airport.[105]
Most passenger services on theGreat Eastern Main Line are operated byGreater Anglia. Since 2015, the Shenfield stopping service has been operated byTransport for London (first under theTfL Rail brand, now theElizabeth line), and theLea Valley Lines to Enfield Town, Cheshunt (via Seven Sisters) and Chingford are operated byLondon Overground (now under theWeaver line name). A small number of late-evening and weekend services operated byc2c run viaBarking.[106] The station is split into two “halves”: the "west" side for the Lea Valley Lines services and the "east" side for services via Shenfield.[107]
Trains on the central section of the Elizabeth line run west towardsPaddington and east toAbbey Wood in south-east London.[108]
The typical off-peak weekday service pattern from Liverpool Street is:
| Preceding station |  National Rail | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terminus | Greater Anglia | |||
| Greater Anglia | ||||
| Greater Anglia | ||||
| Stansted Express | Tottenham Hale | |||
| c2c Weekends only | ||||
| Preceding station | Elizabeth line | Following station | ||
| Farringdon | Elizabeth line | Whitechapel towardsAbbey Wood orShenfield | ||
| Terminus | Elizabeth line | Stratford towardsShenfield | ||
| Preceding station | London Overground | Following station | ||
| Terminus | Weaver line | Bethnal Green | ||
| Disused railways | ||||
| Terminus | Network SouthEast
| Dalston Kingsland Line disused, station open | ||
| Great Eastern Railway | Line open, station closed | |||
| Liverpool Street | |
|---|---|
 Entrance from the main concourse at Liverpool Street | |
| Location | Bishopsgate |
| Local authority | City of London |
| Managed by | London Underground |
| Owner | |
| Number of platforms | 4 |
| Accessible | Yes(Sub-surface eastbound platform only)[112] |
| Fare zone | 1 |
| Cycle parking | Yes (platform 10 & external)[113] |
| London Underground annual entry and exit | |
| 2020 | 16.27 million[4] |
| 2021 | 26.60 million[5] |
| 2022 | 55.84 million[6] |
| 2023 | 57.23 million[7] |
| 2024 | 61.20 million[8] |
| Key dates | |
| 1 February 1875[114] | Opened (using main line) |
| 12 July 1875[114] | Opened asBishopsgate |
| 1 November 1909[29] | RenamedLiverpool Street |
| 28 July 1912[115] | Central line (London Underground) opened (terminus) |
| 4 December 1946 | Central line extended (through) |
| Other information | |
| External links | |
| London transport portal | |
On the London Underground, Liverpool Street is on theCentral,Circle,Hammersmith & City andMetropolitan lines, and is the sixth-busiest station on the network.[116] On the Central line, the station is betweenBank andBethnal Green stations. On the Circle and Metropolitan lines, it is betweenMoorgate andAldgate stations. On the Hammersmith & City line, it is between Moorgate andAldgate East stations. In common with other tube stations serving Central London termini, this station is in fare zone 1. There is no wheelchair access to the tube lines,[117] except from the eastbound Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines, which have a ramp leading to the platform.[118]
| Preceding station | London Underground | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bank towardsEaling Broadway orWest Ruislip | Central line | Bethnal Green | ||
| Moorgate towardsHammersmith via King's Cross St Pancras | Circle line | Aldgate towardsEdgware Road via Victoria | ||
| Moorgate towardsHammersmith via King's Cross St. Pancras | Hammersmith & City line | Aldgate East towardsBarking | ||
| Moorgate | Metropolitan line | Aldgate Terminus | ||
| Former services | ||||
| Preceding station | London Underground | Following station | ||
| Moorgate towardsHammersmith | Metropolitan line Hammersmith branch (1864–1990) | Aldgate East towardsBarking | ||
Liverpool Street had been designed to integrate with the expanding London Underground network, and served as a new terminus for theMetropolitan Railway (MR) which extended east fromMoorgate.[119] From 1874 to 1875, the MR used the Liverpool Street main line station as a terminus; the company opened its own station on 12 July 1875, initially namedBishopsgate.[29] Subsurface platforms 1 and 2 were opened in 1875.[120] A west-facing bay platform, platform 3, was formerly located to the south of platform 2;[121] this was used by terminating Metropolitan line trains from the west.[122] It was in use by 1896,[123] and was still in use in 1974,[124] but was redundant by 1994.[125][122]
The underground station was renamedLiverpool Street on 1 November 1909.[29][b] In 1912, after the completion ofan extension project fromBank, the underground station became a new terminus of theCentral London Railway (CLR).[127] The platforms that are now the deep-level Central line platforms 4 and 5 opened as the eastern terminus of the CLR on 28 July 1912.[128][129] The tube station was one of the first to use the Moore Vacuum Tube, a new system of lighting that produced three times as much as a normal bulb.[130]
The tube station became one of the principal shelters duringthe Blitz. The station was not initially open to the public as a shelter, but during heavy raids on theEast End on 7 September 1940, many sought refuge at the station, which was the safest and most practical shelter for many. Some sources suggest that the local people forced entry, others that staff decided to open the gates to everyone without asking for tickets, something which would have been technically illegal.[131][132]
On 4 December 1946, the passenger line was extended eastwards as part of thewar-delayed London Passenger Transport Board'sNew Works Programme.[27][133][134] An Underground ticket hall was added in 1951.[127]
During the7 July 2005 terrorist attacks on London, a bomb was exploded aboard an Underground train that had departed Liverpool Street towardAldgate. Seven passengers were killed.[135]
TheLiverpool Street Post Office Railway station is a disused station that was operated byRoyal Mail on theLondon Post Office Railway system.
The station is betweenMount Pleasant Mail Centre and Whitechapel Eastern District Post Office, and is situated at the south end of Liverpool Street under theGreat Eastern Hotel. It opened in December 1927;[136] lifts on either side of the station as well as chutes enabled the transfer of mail to and from the main station.[34] Two 315-foot (96 m) parcel and letter bag conveyors were connected to platforms 10 and 11 (currently used byGreater Anglia); postal traffic reached 10,000 bags daily in the 1930s, with 690 Post Office services calling.[136] The system was discontinued in 2003.[137]
In 2014, a team from theUniversity of Cambridge began conducting a study in a short, double track section of unused tunnel near the platforms where a newly built tunnel forCrossrail is situated almost two metres beneath. The study is to establish how the originalcast-iron lining sections, which are similar to those used for many miles of railway under London, resist possible deformation and soil movement caused by the developments.[138]
The Central line runs directly belowShoreditch High Street on theLondon Overground'sWindrush line and an interchange has been desired locally in neighbouring Shoreditch since it opened in 2010. The new platforms would lie between Bethnal Green and Liverpool Street on one of the longest gaps between stations in inner London. Although there would be benefits to this interchange, it was ruled out on grounds of cost, the disruption it would cause to the Central line while being built, and because the platforms would be too close to sidings at Liverpool Street; the proposal will not be reconsidered until after the Elizabeth line is fully operational.[139]
A freight trial between Liverpool Street and London Gateway was planned to start in April or May 2020, using aClass 769 bi-mode train.[140][needs update]
In 2023, controversial plans were unveiled byNetwork Rail and architectsHerzog & de Meuron to demolish large parts of the mainline station dating from the 1986-91 redevelopment, including the grade II listed extension to the trainshed and the rebuilt office building on 50 Liverpool Street.[141] Amid significant public outcry these plans were scaled back in 2025, but the revised proposal still entails the demolition of significant parts of the structure and replacement with a large office block over the top of the station, and is vociferously opposed by heritage groups.[142]
Liverpool Street is one of the four railway stations present on the British version ofMonopoly, along withKing's Cross,Fenchurch Street andMarylebone. All four stations were termini of LNER services whenVictor Watson redesigned the game for the British market in 1936.[143]
The station features in several fictional terrorist attacks: inAndy McNab's novelDark Winter the station is the target of an attack; inLondon Under Attack, a 2004Panorama docu-drama portrayal of a terrorist attack on London using chlorine gas;[144] and the dramaDirty War (2004) portrayed a suicide terrorist attack using a "dirty bomb" near the Underground station.[145]
The station has also been used as a backdrop for a number of other film and television productions, including espionage filmsStormbreaker (2006)[146] andMission: Impossible (1996),[147] and crime dramaThe Shadow Line (2011),[148] as well as the site for stagedflash mobs in the filmSt. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold (2009),[149] and for aT-Mobile advert.[150]
In the music video for "Taxloss" byMansun, directed byRoman Coppola, £25,000 in £5 notes was dropped onto commuters at the station.[151][152]
H. G. Wells's 1898 novelThe War of The Worlds included a chaotic rush to board trains at Liverpool Street as the Martian machines overran military defences in the West End.[153]
The station is the subject of the poem "Liverpool Street Station" byJohn Davidson.[154]
Through crystal roofs the sunlight fell,
And pencilled beams the gloss renewed
On iron rafters balanced well
On iron struts; though dimly hued.
With smoke o'erlaid, with dust endued.
The walls and beams like beryl shone;
And dappled light the platforms strewed
With yellow foliage of the dawn
That withered by the porch of day's divan.
— John Davidson, Fleet Street and Other Poems (Extract).[155]
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