York Road tube station

York Road

York Road tube station in 2008
Location King's Cross
Local authority Metropolitan Borough of Islington
Owner Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway
Number of platforms 2
Key dates
15 December 1906 (1906-12-15) Opened
19 September 1932 (1932-09-19) Closed
Other information
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York Road is a disused station on the London Underground, located between King's Cross and Caledonian Road, with its entrance at the corner of York Road (now York Way) and Bingfield Street. It opened on 15 December 1906 and was one of the original stations on the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR), the precursor to today's Piccadilly line.

Description

Unlike most other GNP&BR stations, the lifts descended directly to platform level. The platform layout is almost identical to that at Caledonian Road, but the two tracks form very gentle convex curves with respect to bases of the lift shafts between the tracks.

The platform tiling was carried out by G. Woolliscroft & Sons of Hanley, Staffordshire, and was made up of white with maroon and brick red patterning. Most of the tiling has since been painted over in grey, but a small section remains untouched and can be seen at the Finsbury Park end of the former eastbound platform.

A small signalling cabin stands near this section of tiling, and was used to operate a crossover immediately to the northeast of the station. This signal box remained operational until 25 April 1964, although by this time the crossover was little used, having been largely superseded by a new one built at King's Cross eight years previously. However, the disused cabin still stands and can be seen from passing trains.

Being sited in a poor industrial area, the station saw little use, and Sunday services were withdrawn entirely from 5 May 1918. The station remained open for weekday and Saturday traffic only until 19 September 1932, when it was permanently closed.

The surface station buildings are still clearly visible, on the left heading south down York Way towards King's Cross. The former platform area below is also visible from passing trains in both directions, although part of the eastbound platform is bricked off. As with most other disused Underground stations, the platform itself has been removed. As the site is currently used as an emergency exit from the tunnels, one of the passageways between the platforms is permanently lit by a series of lamps.

Proposed reopening

One of London's largest redevelopment projects, King's Cross Central, began construction in 2008 across the road from the station. Islington council and Transport for London commissioned a study in 2005 to consider the possible reopening of the station. At the same time, however, it was recognised that other transport priorities reduced the likelihood of such a project moving forward in the near future. The site would need extensive overhauls to bring the station up to modern day standards, at a cost estimated at £21 million in 2005. Local political groups have been keen to see the station reopened in order to reduce passenger congestion at King's Cross St. Pancras and to encourage development in the surrounding community. The Islington Liberal Democrats advocated the reopening of the station in their 2006 local election manifesto, and at least one candidate for the Islington Conservative Party similarly campaigned for the station to be reopened. However, to date, the reopening proposal has not been taken forward.[1][2][3][4]

References

  1. ↑ "Kings Cross Central" (PDF). London Borough of islington. December 2005. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2006-05-05.
  2. ↑ "Better Transport for Islington". Bridget Fox. Archived from the original on 2009-06-08.
  3. ↑ "Islington". Islington Conservatives. Archived from the original on 2007-12-12.
  4. ↑ "York Road Station Re-opening - Business Case Analysis" (PDF). 2005. Halcrow Group Limited. p. 6. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2011-07-13. The objective would be to ensure that public transport users travelling from the KCC development would benefit from travelling via York Road Station rather than using King’s Cross St Pancras Station. This in turn leads to the subobjective of providing congestion relief for King’s Cross St Pancras Station.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to York Road tube station.
Preceding station   London Underground   Following station
towards South Harrow
Piccadilly line
towards Finsbury Park

Coordinates: 51°32′18″N 0°07′21″W / 51.53833°N 0.12250°W / 51.53833; -0.12250

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