Archway tube station
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox London station
Archway is a London Underground station. It is located at the intersection of Holloway Road, Highgate Hill, Junction Road and Archway Road in Archway, North London, directly underneath the Vantage Point building. The station is on the High Barnet branch of the Northern line, between Highgate and Tufnell Park stations. It is in both London fare zone 2 and zone 3.<ref name=tubemap>Template:Cite map/Standard Tube Map</ref>
Location
When constructed, the area was simply the northern end of Holloway Road and had no specific name but, in the hope of attracting patronage, the terminus was originally named Highgate after the village up the hill. At the time of the station's construction the first cable tramway in Europe operated non-stop up Highgate Hill to the village from outside the Archway Tavern,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and this name was also considered for the station. The main station entrance now lies beneath Archway Tower (now renamed Vantage Point) on Junction Road while the side entrance is on Highgate Hill.
History
The Leslie Green designed station opened on 22 June 1907, under the name Highgate<ref name=culgnorthern /><ref name=Rose>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=Butt>Template:Cite book</ref> faced in Green's standard ox-blood glazed brick.<ref name=LDP>Template:Cite web</ref> It was opened as one of the northern terminals of what was then the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR).<ref name=culgnorthern>Template:Cite web</ref>
The station was renamed Archway (Highgate) on 11 June 1939<ref name=Rose /><ref name=Butt /> (after the nearby road bridge over the deep cutting containing Archway Road). On 3 July 1939, the line was extended to the Great Northern Railway's station at Highgate and East Finchley station as part of the New Works Programme.<ref name=culgnorthern /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The station was renamed Highgate (Archway) on 19 January 1941,<ref name=Butt /> before becoming just Archway in December 1947<ref name=Rose /><ref name=Butt /> with the Highgate name being reassigned to the new station constructed beneath the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) high-level station of the same name.
On 2 June 2006, a train derailed while entering the reversing siding at the station.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 2007 plans to add step-free access to the station were consulted on<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and a Transport and Works Act Order was granted.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> These plans were subsequently shelved by incoming mayor Boris Johnson.
Design
In 1930 the station was upgraded with escalators<ref name=culgl&e>Template:Cite web</ref> to replace the original lifts and the secondary entrance was replaced with a modern design by Charles Holden,<ref name=LDP/> virtually identical to the one he built at the same time at Hammersmith. Holden's station was replaced in the 1970s.<ref name=LDP/>
The platform walls once featured the distinctive and elegantly simple tiling schemes used by Holden on the underground stations constructed at this time. Cream tiles were used throughout with the station name band formed of letter shaped tiles inset into a background of cream tiles incised to accept the lettering. Similar tiling schemes can be seen at the neighbouring Highgate station, as well as at Bethnal Green and the stations on the tunnelled section of the Hainault branch of the Central line (for example Gants Hill). All were built in the late 1930s/early 1940s. The tiles at Archway were replaced several years agoTemplate:When during retiling works.
Template:As of, the station has escalators descending to the platforms.<ref name=culgl&e /> Alternatively, passengers can use the 113 steps to get down to the platforms.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Dead link
An unusual feature for a Northern line station is that both platforms are long enough to accommodate nine car trains instead of the usual seven. This was an early attempt to solve overcrowding on the line. For many years after Archway opened the last two cars of each train were reserved exclusively for passengers travelling between Archway and Tottenham Court Road. At all other stations the last two cars remained in the running tunnel at each stop so that passengers using them had an uninterrupted journey. At Tottenham Court Road, the train stopped beyond the station such that the first two cars entered the running tunnel beyond the station allowing the passengers in the rear seven cars to embark or disembark. A consequence of this arrangement was: that the front two cars could not be used by passengers intending to disembark at Tottenham Court Road from either direction. The rear two cars ran empty south of Tottenham Court Road (Archway being the northern terminus at the time).<ref>Northern, Driver's Eye View:Video 125 DEVD 027</ref>
Following the success of this nine car arrangement, nine car operation was implemented between Kennington and Edgware, but with only a limited number of stations being accessible from the rear two cars. These were Kennington to Leicester Square inclusive and Golders Green to Colindale inclusive. Nine car trains did not stop at Mornington Crescent but this was because, at this time, all Edgeware trains did not stop there. Stations south of Tottenham Court Road operated with two cars in running tunnel. However, north of Hampstead, the stations were converted for nine car platforms as the stations are not in tunnel. The service was eventually extended to Edgware, but site constraints meant that only seven and a half cars could be accommodated on platform 1 only so either Edgware was a non nine car station or passengers were allowed to disembark via the communicating doors.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
All nine car operation was suspended on 6 September 1939 when the line was split into wo sections for the installation of flood gates just after World War II was declared. It was never reinstated.
Crossover and siding
When the original section of the Northern Line from Charing Cross to Golders Green and Archway (then Highgate) was opened in 1907, the terminus at Archway was provided with a scissors crossover just south of the station and the running lines beyond the north end of the platforms continued as separate dead-end sidings.<ref name=archway>Template:Cite web</ref> When the line was extended to Highgate and East Finchley in 1939, the 'northbound' siding was extended as the northbound road while the 'southbound' siding was retained as a dead-end siding, extended at the north end with the new southbound line from Highgate joining it just before the southbound platform and a new connection from the northbound line to the siding, thus turning the old 'southbound' siding into a central reversing siding.<ref name=archway /> The crossover south of the station was subsequently converted to a single trailing crossover but was decommissioned on 15 October 1967, when Archway was converted to programme-machine control from Cobourg Street. The signal box closed on 25 June 1961 when Archway became remote-controlled.<ref group="note">It was situated at the south end of the southbound platform and is now a relay room.<ref name=archway /></ref><ref name=archway />
The enlarged crossover tunnel remains although cable runs extend down its centre between the two tracks for most of its length.<ref name=archway /><ref group="note">Also of note is a surviving limit of shunt board for 7-car trains, a square white enamel plate with a black 7, on the right-hand tunnel wall of the southbound road south of the crossover that trains pulled up to in order to reverse northwards.<ref name=archway /></ref> The layout of the platforms and the underground passenger areas still reflect the station's former role as a terminus.
Services
Archway station is on the High Barnet branch of the Northern line between Highgate to the north and Tufnell Park to the south. Trains generally operate between Morden or Battersea Power Station to High Barnet or Mill Hill East via the Charing Cross or the Bank branch.<ref name=tubemap /> Occasionally and during disruptions or engineering works, trains can terminate at Archway. Train frequencies vary throughout the day, but generally operate every 3–7 minutes between 05:58 and 00:19 in both directions.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Connections
- London Buses routes 4, 17, 41, 43, 134, 143, 210, 234, 263, 390, C11, W5 and night routes N20, N41 and N263 serve the station.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- London Underground maps and maps in London Overground trains show the station as 450m from Upper Holloway station on the Gospel Oak to Barking line. Interchange within twenty minutes is allowed between the two stations.<ref>Template:Citation London station interchange January 2016/</ref>