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Bethnal Green
The station entrance in October 2008
Bethnal Green Location of Bethnal Green in Greater London
Location	Bethnal Green
Local authority	London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Managed by	London Overground
Owner	Network Rail
Station code(s)	BET
DfT category	F1
Number of platforms	2
Fare zone	2
National Rail annual entry and exit
2019–20	1.192 million[1]
2020–21	0.550 million[1]
2021–22	1.150 million[1]
2022–23	1.331 million[1]
2023–24	1.687 million[1]
Key dates
27 May 1872	Opened
8 December 1946	Great Eastern Main Line platforms closed
Other information
External links	Departures Facilities
Coordinates	51°31′23″N0°03′32″W / 51.523°N 0.059°W /51.523; -0.059
London transport portal

Bethnal Green is a station on theWeaver line of theLondon Overground, located in the southern part ofBethnal Green inEast London. The station is 1 mile 10 chains (1.8 kilometres) down the line fromLondon Liverpool Street; the next station is eitherHackney Downs (on theChingford branch) orCambridge Heath (on the route toCheshunt andEnfield Town). Its three-letter station code is BET and it is inTravelcard zone 2.

The station was opened in 1872 and was formerly called Bethnal Green Junction until 1946;^[2] it was also formerly served by trains on theGreat Eastern Main Line (GEML) viaStratford. The station is situated on Three Colts Lane and is within walking distance toBethnal Green Road via Wilmot Street. It is some distance from the otherBethnal Green station on theLondon Underground'sCentral line.

v t e London Overground
Cheshunt Theobalds Grove Enfield Town Turkey Street Romford Bush Hill Park Southbury Emerson Park Upminster Edmonton Green Silver Street Chingford White Hart Lane Highams Park Watford Junction Bruce Grove Wood Street Watford Seven Sisters Walthamstow Central High Street Harringay Blackhorse Road Walthamstow Queen's Road Bushey Green Lanes Carpenders Park Crouch Hill South Tottenham St. James Leyton Midland Road Hatch End Upper () Stamford Hill Street Leytonstone Headstone Lane Holloway Stoke Newington Clapton High Road Harrow & Kentish Town West Rectory Road Wanstead Park () Wealdstone Gospel Oak Camden Road () Hackney Woodgrange Park () Kenton () Caledonian Road Canonbury Downs Barking South Kenton & Barnsbury Barking Riverside () North Highbury & Islington Dalston Kingsland Hackney Central Wembley Hampstead Heath Dalston Wembley Finchley Road & Frognal () Junction London Fields Central West Hampstead () Haggerston Cambridge Homerton Stonebridge Brondesbury Hoxton Heath Hackney Wick Park Brondesbury Park Shoreditch High Street Bethnal Green Stratford Harlesden Kensal Rise Kensal Green Liverpool Whitechapel Willesden Queen's Park Street Shadwell () Junction Kilburn High Road Wapping South Hampstead Rotherhithe Shepherd's Bush () Euston () Canada Water Kensington (Olympia) Surrey Quays West Brompton Battersea Park Imperial Wharf () (limited service) New Cross Clapham Queens Road Peckham New Cross Gate Junction Peckham Rye Brockley Acton Central Wandsworth Road Denmark Hill Honor Oak Park South Acton ()Clapham Forest Hill Gunnersbury High Street Sydenham Kew Gardens Richmond Crystal Palace Penge West Anerley Norwood Junction West Croydon ()
Legend
Station National Rail Liberty line Accessible station Thameslink Lioness line Interchange station Elizabeth line Mildmay line Accessible interchange Docklands Light Railway Suffragette line Internal interchange London Underground Weaver line Out-of-station interchange London Trams Windrush line (   ) Nearby interchange London River Services The new London Overground line names and colours were introduced across the London rail network in November 2024

The first railway in the Bethnal Green area was opened by the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR). The ECR had opened its line from Romford to a temporary terminus at Devonshire Street. Their new terminus atSpitalfields was completed on 1 July 1840 and the line opened through Bethnal Green. As well as passenger facilities at Spitalfields, there were goods facilities adjacent to the line from the Bethnal Green site to the terminus.

By the 1860s the railways in East Anglia were in financial trouble, and most were leased to the ECR; they wished to amalgamate formally, but could not obtain government agreement for this until 1862, when theGreat Eastern Railway (GER) was formed by amalgamation. The main line past the site then became a GER line in 1862.^[3]

By the early to mid-1860s it was clear the original Bishopsgate terminus (renamed from Spitalfields in 1846) was not big enough to cope with the increasing suburban development north and east of the area. Hence, the GER decided to build a new terminus at Liverpool Street and extend the suburban network. A new line running north from the Bethnal Green site toEnfield Town was opened in May 1872 and a month later fromHackney Downs toChingford. Both these openings meant that trains from the north were no longer required to be routed viaStratford which was also becoming an increasingly congested location at the time.

It was as part of this expansion that Bethnal Green Junction was opened in May 1872. It replaced a nearby station calledMile End (not to be confused with the current Underground station of the same name) which was located on the eastern side of Cambridge Heath Road.^[4]

To the west of the station the newLiverpool Street terminus was being constructed, but this was not ready at the time; a new station atBishopsgate (Low Level) had been constructed and initial services towards London terminated there for a short period. On 2 October 1874 operations commenced through to Liverpool Street. At this time the terminus had a single pair of tracks ready for use, while two others were still being constructed. These were finally completed in May 1875 and the new terminus fully opened to traffic on 1 November 1875 with the old Bishopsgate station closing to passengers on the same day. The line towards Liverpool Street fell at a 1 in 70 gradient west of Bethnal Green whilst the lines towards Bishopsgate continued on a more or less level gradient.^[5]

Bethnal Green had four platforms; two each served the Enfield/Chingford lines and the Great Eastern Main Line towards Stratford respectively.The old Bishopsgate station was converted to a goods depot and some rearrangement of the original facilities took place in an area which became known as Spitalfields Depot. The depot included a wagon hoist that allowed wagons to be transferred to theEast London Line which operated at a lower level. A direct rail link had been planned here in the 1880s but was never developed.

By the 1880s it was clear that Liverpool Street required further extension and this included a third set of running lines between Bethnal Green and the terminus. Parliamentary approval was given in 1888 with work starting in 1890. The new lines were opened on 4 April 1891 and at Bethnal Green, the tracks were rearranged so trains from Enfield and Chingford could use these. The former tracks for the main line trains were now served by suburban trains to and from Stratford whilst two new lines through the area acted as the through lines for longer-distance trains.

In 1891 an additional two tracks were opened betweenGlobe Road & Devonshire Street and Bethnal Green where room for a further two tracks was provided.^[6] Then in 1894, an additional pair of tracks were opened between Bethnal Green and Hackney Downs.

DuringWorld War 1 the station was considered for closure along with some lesser used stations including Bishopsgate (Low Level), Globe Road & Devonshire Street andCambridge Heath. It was, however, reprieved, possibly because it was positioned centrally to the three named stations above, all of which were closed in 1916.

From 1920 Bethnal Green was served by the revamped suburban Jazz service.

After the Railways Act 1921 the country's railways were grouped into four companies, with effect from 1 January 1923. At Bethnal Green, theLondon & North Eastern Railway (LNER) took over operations of the GER services.

Little changed during the 1920s but by the 1930s thoughts were turning to electrify the Great Eastern Main Line and extending theCentral Line east from Liverpool Street to Stratford and then toOngar andFairlop. One of the first tasks was the construction of a flyover west ofIlford. The outbreak of theWorld War 2 brought the project to a temporary halt.

Trains on the Great Eastern Main Line between Liverpool Street and Stratford ceased calling at Bethnal Green on 8 December 1946 and two platforms were closed, though the remains of the eastbound platform are still in situ and visible from the main line trains.^[7] The London-bound platform was demolished and the tracks rearranged, coinciding with the swapping of services from the former "fast" tracks onto the former "slow" tracks, resulting in the arrangement utilised today.

Following the closure of the main line platforms in 1946 only Enfield Town, Chingford, and Seven Sisters services would have called at Bethnal Green. It was at this time that the suffix "Junction" was dropped from the station name.^[8]

Onnationalisation in 1948 responsibility for operating the station fell toBritish Railways (Eastern Region).

In 1949 electric services started operating between Liverpool Street andChadwell Heath, later extended toShenfield and in 1956 toChelmsford. The full opening of the Ilford flyover had led to a re-organisation of the lines through Bethnal Green with these services now operating on what were the main lines.

The lines through Hackney were electrified in the late 1950s with electric services commencing operation on 21 November 1960 to Chingford and Enfield Town.^[9]In 1964, a disastrous fire at the Bishopsgate goods depot resulted in the cessation of traffic, and by 1967, following a further decline in goods traffic, the Spitalfields Depot was closed.

The platform awnings were cut back in 1966. By the early 1980s, the original GER platform buildings were in poor condition and were demolished in 1985/1986, being replaced by spartan brick-built structures.^[10][11]

After privatisation in April 1994, the services calling at Bethnal Green were operated by a train operating unit before the franchise was won byWest Anglia Great Northern Railway. The table below shows how the franchises that served Bethnal Green have changed over the years:

Control of the infrastructure was passed to Railtrack but was then passed to Network Rail in 2002.

All services at Bethnal Green are operated as part of theWeaver line of theLondon Overground usingClass 710EMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:^[14]

• 8 tph toLondon Liverpool Street
• 4 tph toChingford
• 2 tph toCheshunt
• 2 tph toEnfield Town

Additional services call at the station during the peak hours.

Preceding station	London Overground			Following station
Liverpool Street Terminus		Weaver line Lea Valley lines		Cambridge Heath towardsCheshunt orEnfield Town
		Weaver line Weaver Lea Valley lines		Hackney Downs towardsCheshunt,Chingford orEnfield Town
Historical railways
Bishopsgate Line open, station closed		Great Eastern Railway Great Eastern Main Line		Globe Road & Devonshire Street Line open, station closed

By 1900 there were four signal boxes operating in the area:Middle Signal Box was located between East London Junction on the gradient up towards Bethnal Green. Bethnal Green West End box controlled the crossover and west end of the station whilst Bethnal Green East controlled the eastern and northern approaches to the area. Granary Junction was the main signal box controlling the approaches to Bishopsgate Goods Yard (as it was by then) and the sidings at Spitalfields. The first Granary Junction box was opened in 1872 and was replaced in 1880 with both structures being located on the south side of the goods lines. This second box lasted until 15 January when a third box was opened, this time on the north side of the line. The box had a pioneering electro-pneumatically operated table lever frame produced by McKenzie & Holland and this was preserved when the box closed on 9 October 1966. The frame is now (2021) at the UK National Railway Museum.^[15]

Bethnal Green West (built 1891) stood at the end of platforms 2 and 3. It was a McKenzie and Holland frame with 84 working levers.^[16]

Bethnal Green East (built 1891) stood in the area between the Hackney line and the Great Eastern Main line. The box lost its semaphores on 27 November 1935 when the line between Bethnal Green and Hackney Downs was converted toTrack Circuit Block and automatic colour light signalling.^[17]

The area was re-signalled after the war and Bethnal Green West (closed 13 April 1947) and Bethnal Green East (closed 5 February 1949) signal boxes were closed and replaced by a flat roofed brick build structure located in the V between the junction that operated from 6 February 1949 to 25 March 1989 when a further re-signalling scheme saw its control transferred to Liverpool Street signalling centre.

The station had another structure that was similar in appearance to the signal box but was in fact a timekeepers office. Here the planned train service was monitored and where trains were running late their performance was communicated to signallers down the line. The statistics would have also been used by the GER and later LNER to understand how the service was running.

The box opened in approximately 1891 and continued in use until after nationalisation. It was located on the up local platform which was demolished after closure in December 1946 (although the box had gone before closure). However two posts were transferred to the new box in 1949 and in the early years the function of the timekeepers there was:

• Lean out of the window and get the next working (as advised by the crew shouting the details) of any light engines (locomotive only) moves that were proceeding towards Liverpool Street. This was then telephoned through to the main panel at Liverpool Street station.
• The second was to input the Liverpool Street platform details into a train describer again to assist the operation of the terminus station.

^[18][19]

• On 4 September 1953, a passenger train, hauled by theLNER Thompson Class B14-6-0 No. 61046, derailed when a set of points moved underneath it.^[20]
• On 17 June 1962, a southbound passenger train was derailed due to a track fault. Seventeen passengers were injured.^[21]
• On 12 February 1964, a train of empty stock was derailed when a set of points moved underneath it. The location was similar to the 1962 accident site at the east end of the station.^[22]

There was a small single-track engine shed on the south side of the line as part of the Spitalfields Depot. The precise opening date is unknown but thought to be late 1860s/early 1870s with its earliest mention being in 1872. It housed shunting locomotives that worked Bishopsgate goods depot and the Spitalfields coal sidings which were in use 24 hours per day.

The locomotives stabled were generally Great Eastern classes such asGER Class C72 (LNE classification J68),GER Class R24 (LNE classification J67), andGER Class S56 (LNE classification J69) and allocated toStratford engine shed. In the late 1950s traffic declined and a single diesel shunter was considered able to deal with the traffic. As a result, the shed closedc. 1959/60.[23]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toBethnal Green railway station.

• Train times andstation information for Bethnal Green railway station fromNational Rail

• Rail transport stations in London fare zone 2
• DfT Category F1 stations
• Bethnal Green
• Former Great Eastern Railway stations
• Railway stations in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
• Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1872
• Railway stations served by London Overground
• Weaver line stations

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