Westbourne Park tube station

Westbourne Park is a London Underground station. It is located in the Notting Hill area of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The station is on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines, between Ladbroke Grove and Royal Oak stations. It is in London fare zone 2.<ref>Template:Cite map/Standard Tube Map</ref>

History

Although the Metropolitan Railway (MR) had been extended to Notting Hill and Hammersmith on 1 June 1864, the first station by this name did not open until 1 February 1866.<ref name=culgh&c>Clive's Underground Line Guides – Hammersmith & City line</ref><ref name=Butt>Template:Harvnb</ref> In 1867, with the companies on better terms, the MR bought a share of the Hammersmith & City Railway (H&CR) from the Great Western Railway (GWR), after which it eliminated the broad gauge track and operated almost all the trains (the H&CR's identity being effectively lost).<ref name=culgh&c/>

The original station closed on 31 October 1871, and was replaced the following day by a new station,<ref name=culgh&c/> constructed to the west of the original.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> To remove this traffic from its own busy main line, the GWR built a new pair of tracks from Paddington to Westbourne Park, and on 12 May 1878 it opened a dive-under to remove conflicts where the service crossed the main line.<ref name=culgh&c/><ref group="note">These tracks were dedicated to Underground use, but they only came into LU control on 1 January 1948 and ownership on 1 January 1950.<ref name=culgh&c/></ref> A bomb planted by the Suffragettes was discovered at the station on 16 May 1913.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Circle line was extended to Hammersmith in 2009.<ref name=culgcircle>Clive's Underground Line Guides – Circle line</ref> The line now operates between Hammersmith and Edgware Road via a single complete circuit of the previous route.<ref name=culgcircle/><ref group="note">Hammersmith, Edgware Road, Liverpool Street, Tower Hill, South Kensington, High Street Kensington, Paddington, and Edgware Road (and vice versa).<ref name=culgcircle/></ref> This was done with the aim of improving reliability by providing a place for trains to terminate after each trip rather than letting delays accumulate.<ref name=culgcircle/> However, it means that no trains through Notting Hill Gate go east of Edgware Road.<ref name=culgcircle/>

National Rail platforms

Template:Stack The GWR opened platforms on the Great Western Main Line on 30 October 1871, but these closed in March 1992.<ref>"Westbourne Park Railway Station (site), 2009 Thompson, Nigel Geograph.org.uk; retrieved 25 April 2017</ref> The Up line through the station had a Template:Cvt speed limit, which was deemed unacceptable for the planned Heathrow Express services; instead of modifying the station's platforms; British Rail decided that it would be more cost-effective to permanently close and remove them, and closure notices were published on 13 December 1990.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Royal Oak, another station on the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines, was also once served by the GWR, but its services were withdrawn in 1934.<ref>Chronology of London Railways by H.V.Borley- page78/79</ref> Today, the first stop away from Paddington is at Acton Main Line. Industrial archaeologists have found the remains of buildings including a broad gauge train shed for Brunel's original lines, a turntable, and engine sheds in excavations east of the station as part of the land clearance work for the Crossrail project.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Connections

London Bus day and night routes serve the station.<ref name=busroute>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Westbourne Park Underground Station – Bus</ref>

In popular culture

Early railway buff Fanny Johnson, fourteen years old, recorded passing engines in her notebook ‘Names of Engines on the Great Western that I have Seen’ in 1861.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The station was featured in the video of the Boris Gardiner song "I Want to Wake Up with You".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Westbourne Park tube station is seen in the video from 0:58 to 1:43.</ref>

Notes and references

Bibliography

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book