Green Park tube station

Green Park
Main entrance
Green Park Location of Green Park in Central London
Location	Piccadilly
Local authority	City of Westminster
Managed by	London Underground
Number of platforms	6
Accessible	Yes [1]
Fare zone	1
Cycle parking	No
Toilet facilities	Yes
London Underground annual entry and exit
2012	33.99 million[2]
2013	35.46 million[2]
2014	39.83 million[2]
2015	39.55 million[2]
Key dates
1906	Opened (GNP&BR)
1969	Opened (Victoria line)
1979	Opened (Jubilee line)
Listed status
Listed feature	Entrance within Devonshire House
Listing grade	II
Entry number	1226746
Added to list	30 May 1972
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR Underground National Rail Tramlink
London Transport portalCoordinates: 51°30′24″N 0°08′34″W / 51.5067°N 0.1428°W

Green Park tube station is a London Underground station located on the north side of Green Park, close to the intersection of Piccadilly and the pedestrian Queen's Walk. The station was originally named Dover Street due to its location in that street. It is in fare zone 1.

The station is served by the Jubilee line, between Bond Street and Westminster, the Piccadilly line, between Piccadilly Circus and Hyde Park Corner, and the Victoria line, between Victoria and Oxford Circus.

The station is one of two tube stations serving Buckingham Palace, the other being St James's Park on the Circle and District lines.

History and structure

The station was opened on 15 December 1906 by the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR), the precursor of the Piccadilly line. When the station was rebuilt in 1933 with escalator access to the platforms, a new sub-surface ticket hall was built to the west under the roadway and new station entrances were constructed on the corner of Piccadilly and Stratton Street and on the south side of Piccadilly. The station name was changed at this time.

With the rebuilding of the station and similar works at Hyde Park Corner, the little-used Piccadilly line station between the two at Down Street was taken out of use.

The Victoria line platforms opened on 7 March 1969; interchange between that line and the Piccadilly line was via the ticket hall (without having to pass through the exit barriers). Even today changing between the Jubilee and Victoria lines and the Piccadilly line involves a long walk.

The Jubilee line platforms opened on 1 May 1979, at which time the next station south on the Jubilee line was its then southern terminus, Charing Cross; those platforms were closed when the Jubilee line was extended on a new alignment towards Westminster, during the same time that interchange facilities at Green Park were improved. When travelling south from Green Park on the Jubilee line, Green Park Junction, where the new line diverges from the old, is visible from the train. While passenger services no longer operate to Charing Cross on the Jubilee line, the old line is used regularly to reverse trains when the eastern part of the line is closed due to engineering works.

On 9 October 1975, terrorists belonging to the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a bomb outside Green Park tube station, killing 23-year-old Graham Ronald Tuck. ^{[note 1]}

Step-free access project

In 2008 TfL proposed a project to provide step-free access to all three lines. The project was a TfL-funded Games-enabling project in its investment programme (and not a project specifically funded as a result of the success of the London 2012 Games bid).^[3] The project was included in the strategy on accessible transport published by the London 2012 Olympic Delivery Authority and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.^{[4][note 2]}

Work commenced in May 2009 to install two lifts from the ticket hall to the Victoria line platforms and an existing interchange passageway giving access to the Piccadilly and Jubilee lines platforms from the lower lift lobby. This work was completed ahead of schedule in August 2011 when the new lifts were brought into service, along with a third lift between street level on the south side of Piccadilly and the ticket hall. All platforms have level access to the trains, making the station fully accessible (the first one within the Circle line).

There is also a new ramp from the ticket hall into the park featuring green walls and a stunning canopy above the staircase and lift on the south side of Piccadilly, the new street structures featuring artwork within the Portland stone cladding designed by John Maine RA. The Diana Fountain was relocated from its original site in the centre of the park to form the centrepiece of the new entrance.^[5]

Platform level tiling

Remains of the original tiling on the Eastbound Piccadilly line platform

The stations along the central part of the Piccadilly line, as well as the Bakerloo and some sections of what is now the Northern line, were financed by Charles Yerkes,^[6] and are famous for the Leslie Green-designed deep red station buildings, and distinctive platform tiling. Each station had its own unique tile pattern and colours. The remains of the tile rings can still be seen at Green Park.

There is a unique pattern to the tiles between the Jubilee and Piccadilly line platforms - there are several silver tiles at the Jubilee line end of the tunnel, which are gradually replaced by dark blue tiles at the end of the tunnel with the Piccadilly line platforms.

In popular culture

The opening scene of the 1997 film version of Henry James's The Wings of the Dove was set on the east-bound platforms at both Dover Street and Knightsbridge stations, both represented by the same studio mock-up, complete with a working recreation of a 1906 Stock train.

Gallery

• 

  Jubilee line platform

• 

  Victoria line platform and train in 2007

Connections

London Buses routes 9, 14, 19, 22, 38 and C2 serve the station.

Notes

1. Similar attacks during The Troubles resulted in deaths at West Ham station in 1976 and Victoria station in 1991.
2. The other stations where Games-enabling step-free access projects were proposed were Baker Street (sub-surface lines) and Southfields.

References

1. "Step free Tube Guide" (PDF). Transport for London. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 June 2015.
2. "Multi-year station entry-and-exit figures" (XLS). London Underground station passenger usage data. Transport for London. April 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
3. "London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games - Quarter 2 2007/08" (PDF). Transport Portfolio Executive Report. TfL. 2008. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2012-04-25.
4. "Accessible Transport Strategy for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games" (PDF). London 2012. May 2008. p. 31. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2011-12-15.
5. "E J Clack to Move Centre Stage at Green Park Station". www.peterberthoud.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-05-05.
6. Bull, John (1 January 2010). "The Man Who Painted London Red". London Reconnections. Retrieved August 2014.

External links

• "October 9th". On this day. BBC. Archived from the original on 2003-02-13.
• "Photographic Archive". London Transport Museum. Archived from the original on 2008-03-18.
  • Dover Street station, 1911
  • Ticket office and lift lobby, 1927
  • New sub-surface ticket hall and Piccadilly line escalators, 1934
  • New station entrance on north side of Piccadilly, 1934
  • New station entrance and bus shelter on south side of Piccadilly, 1934