Finsbury Park station
The Television & Movie Wiki: for TV, celebrities, and movies.
| Image:Finsburypark3b.jpg | |
|---|---|
| Management | |
| Managed by | London Underground wagn |
| Location | |
| Place | Finsbury Park |
| Local authority | Islington |
| Statistics | |
| Annual entry/exit | Underground - 23.256 miliion National Rail - 3.006 million |
| Zone | 2 |
| Platforms in use | 8 |
| History | |
| Key dates | Opened 1861 (GNR, mainline) Opened 1867 (GNR, Edgware branch) Opened 1904 (GN&CR) Opened 1906 (GNP&BR) Closed 1954 (British Rail, Alexandra Palace branch) Closed 1964 (Northern City Line) Opened 1968 (Victoria Line) Reopened 1976 (Great Northern City Line) |
Finsbury Park station is a busy transport interchange in Finsbury Park, north London. The station is served by wagn trains on National Rail suburban routes, London Underground's Piccadilly and Victoria Lines and has two bus stations. The station is in Travelcard Zone 2.
Great North Eastern Railway and Hull Trains inter-city services to and from King's Cross station pass through Finsbury Park without stopping.
Although thought of as a 'deep-level' tube station, Finsbury Park has neither lifts nor escalators as its lines are less than 20' below street level. The access to the Piccadilly and Victoria line platforms is by staircase only, reached via two narrow passages that probably exclude the installation of automatic ticket barriers - remarkable, considering its Zone 2 location. Manual ticket inspections do, however, occasionally take place.
History
Finsbury Park station has a long and complex history involving the participation of many railway companies during its lifetime and has been subject to a number of operational changes and changes to the configuration of station infrastructure.
1861 - Great Northern Railway
Finsbury Park is on the route of the East Coast Mainline from King's Cross to the north of England and Scotland. The southern section of this was built in stages during the 1840s and early 1850s by the Great Northern Railway (GNR). Tracks were first laid through Finsbury Park at the end of the 1840s to the GNR's temporary terminus at Maiden Lane just north of the permanent terminus at King's Cross (which opened in 1852). The first station at Finsbury Park opened in 1861 and was originally named Seven Sisters Road (Holloway).
1867 - Edgware Branch
Soon after the first station opened, the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway (EH&LR) began construction of a line from Finsbury Park to Edgware in north-west Middlesex. The GNR took over the EH&LR shortly before its opening on 22 August 1867. The station was given its current name in 1869.
The Edgware branch platforms were on each side of the main tracks. The southbound ("up") track of the branch crossed over the main line by a bridge on its way south from the previous station at Crouch End. The terminal platform for southbound trains coming from the branch line was on the east side of the station. From 1881 the previous station was Stroud Green, which was opened between Finsbury Park and Crouch End in that year.
1904 - Great Northern & City Railway
The Great Northern & City Railway (GN&CR) was an underground railway planned to provide a tunnel link between Finsbury Park and Moorgate in the City of London as an alternative London terminus for GNR trains. The tunnels were constructed with a large diameter to accommodate this service but a dispute between the two companies prevented the GN&CR connecting its tunnels to the GNR platforms. The GN&CR tunnels, instead, terminated beneath the mainline station without a connection to the surface and the line operated as a shuttle between Finsbury Park and Moorgate. The line opened on 14 February 1904. Trains accessed the GN&CR at Drayton Park (which is a surface station located in a deep cutting) via a link tunnel under Highbury Fields to the North London Railway west of Canonbury.
1906 - Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway
The Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway (GNP&BR) (now London Underground's Piccadilly Line) opened on 15 December 1906 between Finsbury Park and Hammersmith in west London. Like the GN&CR, it was an underground railway but was constructed with the smaller diameter tube tunnels common to other underground railways being constructed in London at that time. Its platforms were constructed parallel with the GN&CR's platforms beneath the mainline station.
1932-1933 - Piccadilly Line Extension
On 19 September 1932 the first section of the northern extension of the Piccadilly Line opened to Arnos Grove. Up to this time, the area around the station was subject to serious congestion, due to passengers transfering from the Underground on to Tram and Bus services to the Tottenham, Edmonton, Wood Green & Palmers Green areas. Complaints were made to Paliament about the situation. There was also a proposal for a station between Manor House and Turnpike Lane at St Anns Rd but this idea was rejected by Frank Pick who felt that the Tram and Bus service at this point was adequate. Trains reached Oakwood on 13 March 1933 and Cockfosters on 31 July 1933.
1935 - "Northern Heights" Project
By 1935 the GNR had become part of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) and the GN&CR had become the Northern City branch of London Underground's Northern Line (having previously, in 1913, been bought by the Metropolitan Railway, the forerunner to London Underground's Metropolitan Line).
In 1935, London Underground announced its New Works Programme. This included plans to take over the steam-operated LNER branch lines from Finsbury Park to Edgware, High Barnet and Alexandra Palace - collectively known as the "Northern Heights" lines. These routes were to be joined to the Northern City Line by the construction of new tracks from Drayton Park to the surface at Finsbury Park as had originally been intended by the GN&CR. Trains would then have been able to run from any of the three LNER terminii to Moorgate. The Northern City Line tunnels from Drayton Park to Finsbury Park would have been taken out of use. A separate connection between Archway Underground station (then named Highgate) and East Finchley station was also planned.
Electrification and track improvement works were started and, by early 1939 London Underground was announcing that the LNER lines would transfer to London Underground operation in three stages: East Finchley to High Barnet (spring 1940), Drayton Park to Alexandra Palace (autumn 1940) and Finchley Central to Edgware (spring 1941).
1939-1954 - War and cancelled plans
The start of the Second World War caused the postponement of the majority of the plans. The section between East Finchley and High Barnet opened as scheduled as did the section between Finchley Central and Mill Hill East. After the war a shortage of funds and reducted passenger numbers on the branch line led to the cancellation of the integration of remaining parts of the LNER lines from Mill Hill East to Edgware and Finsbury Park to Alexandra Park.
The surface connection between Drayton Park and Finsbury Park was also abandoned. The Northern City Line continued to run between Moorgate and Finsbury Park in tunnel.
By 1954 passenger traffic on the Alexandra Palace branch had dwindled to such a low level that the line was closed by British Railways (the post nationalisation successor to the LNER). Freight services continued to use the line until 1 June 1964. London Underground continued to use the line occassionally for stock movements between its depot at Highgate and Finsbury Park until September 1970.
1964-1968 - Victoria Line
London Underground had for many years been planning a new route across central London to relieve pressure on the central sections of the Piccadilly and Northern Lines. in the early 1960s the plans were consolidated into a single plan for the Victoria Line. The route of the new line was designed to provide the maximum number of interchanges with other Underground and British Rail lines as possible and Finsbury Park was an ideal candidate for this. Image:Finsbury Park station Platfrorm Changes.png The plan for Finsbury Park called for the reconfiguration of the four underground platforms used by the Northern City Line and the Piccadilly line. To allow the construction works necessary for the provision of cross-platform interchanges between the Piccadilly and the Victoria Lines the Northern City service to Finsbury Park was ended on 3 October 1964. After this date trains from Moorgate ran only as far as Drayton Park.
The Northern City platforms became the southbound platforms for both the Piccadilly and Victoria Lines which were connected to the previously dead-end tunnels to the north on the platforms. Two new sections of tunnel were required to divert the southbound Piccadilly track into the Northern City platform and then back to its southbound tunnel towards Arsenal station and King's Cross. The old southbound Piccadilly Line platform then became the Victoria Line northbound platform.
Finally the remaining Northern City Line platform became the southbound Victoria Line platform. The former Northern City Line tunnels south towards Drayton Park were also taken over by the Victoria Line for part of their route.
The first section of the Victoria line, including Finsbury Park, opened between Walthamstow Central and Highbury & Islington on 1 September 1968.
1975-1976 - Transfer of Northern City Line
The truncated Northern City Line remained part of the London Underground network for another seven years. Plans were already in place to transfer the line to British Rail operation when on 28 February 1975 a southbound Nortern City Line train from Drayton Park crashed into the headwall at the end of the platform at Moorgate. The Moorgate crash caused part of the line to be temporarily closed. On 4 October 1975 the line was closed completely in preparation for its transfer to British Rail operation.
The unfinished link between Drayton Park and Finsbury Park begun as part of the "Northern Heights" project was completed to finally make it possible to bring trains to the surface at Finsbury Park and run through trains from Moorgate on to the north. The service reopened on 8 November 1976.
Present day
The tracks on the closed Edgware branch were removed in 1971 and the stations buildings and platforms have all also been demolished. The branch is now The Parkland Walk. The platforms at Finsbury Park station which served this line were demolished and their location is now the pedestrian access to the eastern station entrance. The bridge over Stroud Green Road which carried the tracks was removed. The abutment walls remain.
Transport links and local connections
London Buses routes 4, 19, 29, 106, 153, 210, 236, 253, 254, 259, 279, W3 and W7 and night bus routes N19, N29, N106, N236, N253 and N279 serve the station.
The station is close to Finsbury Park, one of the oldest of London's Victorian parks, and the Finsbury Park mosque. It is also used by many Arsenal supporters on matchdays, as the club's ground is just a short walk away, along Blackstock Road.
External links
- Train times and station information for Finsbury Park station from National Rail
- Street map and aerial photo of Finsbury Park station from Multimap.com
- London's Transport Museum Photographic Archive
- Seven Sisters Road entrance to underground station in 1909
- Wells Terrace entrance in 1925
- Ticket office in 1934. When the Northern City Line was still operated by Metropolitan Line.
- LNER Station in 1935
| Preceding station | Underground Lines | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arsenal | Piccadilly Line | Manor House | ||
| Highbury & Islington | Victoria Line | Seven Sisters | ||
| Image:British Rail.gif National Rail | ||||
| King's Cross | WAGN | Harringay | ||
| Drayton Park | WAGN | |||
| UK railway stations: |
