Liverpool Street station
Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a major central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is the terminus of the West Anglia Main Line to Cambridge and Ely; the Great Eastern Main Line to Norwich; commuter trains serving east London and destinations in the East of England, including the Weaver line of the London Overground; and the Stansted Express service to Stansted Airport.
The station opened in 1874, as a replacement for Bishopsgate station as the Great Eastern Railway's main London terminus. By 1895, it had the most platforms of any London terminal station. During the First World War, an air raid on the station killed 16 on site, and 146 others in nearby areas. In the build-up to the Second World War, the station served as the entry point for thousands of child refugees arriving in London as part of the Kindertransport rescue mission. The station was damaged by the 1993 Bishopsgate bombing and, during the 7 July 2005 bombing, seven passengers were killed when a bomb exploded aboard an Underground train, just after it had departed from Liverpool Street. New platforms for the Elizabeth line opened in 2022 as part of the Crossrail project.
Liverpool Street was built as a dual-level station, with provision for the London Underground. A tube station opened in 1875 for the Metropolitan Railway; the tube station is now served by the Central, Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines. It is in London fare zone 1 and is managed directly by Network Rail. With 94.5 million passengers between April 2023 and March 2024, it was the busiest station in the United Kingdom, according to the Office of Rail and Road.
Main line station
History
New terminus (1875)
Liverpool Street station was built as the new London terminus of the Great Eastern Railway which served and. The GER had been formed from the merger of several railway companies, inheriting as its London terminus. Bishopsgate was inadequate for the company's passenger traffic; its Shoreditch location was in the heart of one of the poorest slums in London and hence badly situated for the City of London commuters the company wanted to attract. Consequently, the GER planned a more central station. The original intention was to build a terminus which reached as far south as the road London Wall, and which would be as tall as the Broad Street station which was being planned at the same time, however the city authorities did not permit the more southerly location.By 1865, plans changed to include a circa long line branching from the main line east of the company's existing terminus in Shoreditch, and a new station at Liverpool Street as the main terminus, with Bishopsgate station to be used for freight traffic. The station at Liverpool Street was to be built for the use of the GER and of the East London Railway on two levels, with the underground East London line around below this, and the GER tracks supported on brick arches. The station was planned to be around in area, with its main façade onto Liverpool Street and an additional entrance on Bishopsgate-Street. The main train shed was to be a two-span wood construction with a central void providing light and ventilation to the lower station, and the station buildings were to be in an Italianate style to the designs of the GER's architect.
The line and station construction were authorised by the Great Eastern Railway Act 1864. The station was built on a site previously occupied by the Bethlem Royal Hospital, adjacent to Broad Street station, west of Bishopsgate and facing onto Liverpool Street to the south. The development land was compulsorily purchased, displacing around 3,000 residents of the parish of St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate. Around 7,000 people living in tenements around Shoreditch were evicted to complete the line towards Liverpool Street, while the City of London Theatre and City of London Gasworks were both demolished. To manage the disruption caused by rehousing, the company was required by the 1864 Act to run daily low-cost workmen's trains from the station.
The station was designed by GER engineer Edward Wilson and built by Lucas Brothers; the roof was designed and constructed by the Fairburn Engineering Company. The overall design was approximately Gothic, built using stock bricks and bath stone dressings. The building incorporated booking offices as well as the company offices of the GER, including chairman's, board, committee, secretary and engineers' rooms. The roof was spanned by four wrought iron spans, two central spans of and outer spans of, in length over the eastern main lines, and long over the local platforms; the station had 10 platforms, two of which were used for main-line trains and the remainder for suburban trains.
The station was built with a connection to the sub-surface Metropolitan Railway, with the platform sunk below ground level; consequently there are considerable gradients leaving the station. The Metropolitan Railway used the station as a terminus from 1 February 1875 until 11 July 1875; their own underground station opened on 12 July 1875, and the Metropolitan Railway connection was closed in 1904.
Local trains began serving the partially completed station from 2 October 1874, and it was fully opened on 1 November 1875, at a final cost of over £2 million. The original City terminus at Bishopsgate closed to passengers and was converted for use as a goods station from 1881. This continued until it was destroyed by fire in 1964.
The Great Eastern Hotel adjoining the new Liverpool Street station opened in May 1884. It was designed by Charles Barry Jr.. Upon opening, it was the only hotel in the City of London. An extension called the Abercon Rooms was built in 1901, designed by Colonel Robert William Edis. The hotel includes the Hamilton Rooms, named after former GER chairman Lord Claud Hamilton.
Expansion (1895)
Although initially viewed as an expensive white elephant, within 10 years the station was working at capacity and the GER was acquiring land to the east of the station for expansion. An Act of Parliament was obtained in 1888 and work started in 1890 on the eastward expansion of Liverpool Street by adding eight new tracks and platforms. This gave the station the most platforms of any London terminus until Victoria station was expanded in 1908.The main station was extended about eastwards; additional shops and offices were constructed east of the new train shed up to the parish boundary with Bishopsgate-Street Without. A new roof was built over the new construction. The outer wall was constructed with Staffordshire blue brick and Ruabon bricks. The four train shed roofs were carried out by Messrs. Handyside and Co., supervised by a Mr Sherlock, the resident engineer; all the foundations, earthwork and brickwork were carried out by Mowlem & Co. Electric power was supplied from an engine house north of the station. Additional civil works included three iron bridges carrying road traffic over the railway on Skinner, Primrose and Worship Streets. The bridge ironwork was supplied and erected by the Horseley Company. John Wilson was chief engineer, with W. N. Ashbee as architect. As part of the works, the GER was obliged by Parliament to rehouse all tenants displaced by the works, with 137 put into existing property and the remaining 600 into tenements constructed at the company's expense.
By the turn of the 20th century, Liverpool Street had one of the most extensive suburban rail services in London, including branches to and Woodford, and was one of the busiest in the world. In 1912, around 200,000 passengers used the station daily on around 1,000 separate trains.
First World War and memorials (1917–1922)
, the initial First World War biplane air raid on London, took place on 13 June 1917, when 20 Gotha G.IV bombers attacked the capital. The raid struck a number of sites including Liverpool Street. Seven tons of explosives were dropped on the capital, killing 162 people and injuring 432. Three bombs hit the station, of which two exploded, having fallen through the train shed roof, near to two trains. One of these hit a carriage on a train about to depart, another hit carriages used by army doctors; the death toll at the station itself was 16 dead and 15 injured. It was the deadliest single raid on Britain during the war.Over 1,000 GER employees who died during the war were honoured on a large marble memorial installed in the booking hall, unveiled on 22 June 1922 by Sir Henry Wilson. On his return home from the unveiling ceremony, Wilson was assassinated by two Irish Republican Army members. He was commemorated by a memorial plaque adjoining the GER monument, unveiled one month after his death. The GER memorial was relocated during the modification of the station and now incorporates both the Wilson and Fryatt memorials, as well as a number of railway related architectural elements salvaged from demolished buildings.
The station also has a plaque commemorating mariner Charles Fryatt who was executed in 1916 for ramming a German U-boat with the GER steamer SS Brussels.
"Big Four" (1923–1945)
By the early 1900s, the success of deep-bore electric trains on the Underground suggested that local services out of London could also be electrified. Following the war, the GER needed more capacity out of Liverpool Street as it was at capacity, but they could not afford electrification. They considered high-powered and high-tractive steam locomotives including the GER Class A55 as a possible alternative, but these were rejected because of high track loadings.An alternative scheme was introduced, using a combination of automatic signalling and modifications to the layout at Liverpool Street. The station introduced coaling, watering, and other maintenance facilities directly at the station, as well as separate engine bays and a modified track and station layout that reduced turnaround times and increased productivity. Services began on 2 July 1920 with trains to Chingford and Enfield running every 10 minutes. The cost of the modifications was £80,000 compared to an estimated £3 million for electrification. The service was officially called the Intensive Service, but became popularly known as the Jazz Service. It lasted until the General Strike of 1926, following which services generally declined.
The GER amalgamated with several other railways to form the London and North Eastern Railway as part of the reorganisation of railway companies in 1923. Liverpool Street came under ownership of the LNER, and suffered from a general lack of attention and neglect throughout the 1930s.