Highbury & Islington station

Highbury & Islington
Highbury & Islington Location of Highbury & Islington in Greater London
Location	Highbury & Islington
Local authority	London Borough of Islington
Managed by	London Underground[1]
Station code	HHY
DfT category	C2 (Great Northern platforms) F1 (London Overground)
Number of platforms	8
Accessible	Yes (Overground platforms only)
Fare zone	2
London Underground annual entry and exit
2011	16.26 million[2]
2012	16.77 million[2]
2013	18.13 million[2]
2014	18.28 million[2]
National Rail annual entry and exit
2009–10	5.668 million[3]
— interchange	0.174 million[3]
2010–11	7.625 million[3]
— interchange	0.319 million[3]
2011–12	11.801 million[3]
— interchange	1.963 million[3]
2012–13	14.700 million[3]
— interchange	1.766 million[3]
2013–14	15.840 million[3]
— interchange	2.037 million[3]
2014–15	19.976 million[3]
— interchange	2.893 million[3]
Key dates
1872	Opened (NLR)
1904	Opened (GN&CR)
1968	Opened (Victoria line)
1975	Closed (Northern line (Highbury Branch))
1976	Opened (Northern City Line)
Feb 2010	Overground Platforms closed for rebuilding
June 2010	North London Line Platforms re-open
March 2011	East London Line Platforms open
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR Underground National Rail Tramlink
External links	Departures Layout Facilities Buses
London Transport portal UK Railways portalCoordinates: 51°32′45″N 0°06′18″W / 51.5458°N 0.1050°W

Highbury & Islington station is a London Underground and National Rail station in the London Borough of Islington in north London. It is served by the Victoria line, London Overground's East and North London Lines and Great Northern's Northern City Line.^[4]

On the Underground Victoria line the station is between Finsbury Park and King's Cross St. Pancras stations. The station is in Travelcard Zone 2.^[5]

To allow new four-car trains to run on the London Overground network, the North London Line between Gospel Oak and Stratford was closed between February and May 2010 while a new signalling system was installed and 30 platforms were extended. During this closure, the Highbury & Islington station ticket hall was extended and step-free access installed to all of the London Overground platforms. The North London Line reopened on 1 June 2010; however, the East London Line platforms did not open until March 2011, whilst the Western Curve was reinstated, linking the station to Dalston Junction and the rest of the East London Line.^[6]

History

The current station derives from two earlier stations. The first, which was on the same site, was an impressive Victorian-gothic building, with a drive-in forecourt, built in 1872 by the North London Railway (NLR).

The second station, on the opposite side of Holloway Road, was opened on 28 June 1904 by the Great Northern & City Railway (GN&CR) on its underground line, between Finsbury Park and Moorgate. This line and stations were operated by the Metropolitan Railway and its successors from 1913 until 1975 when the line, by then called the Northern City Line, was transferred to British Rail. The route is now operated by Great Northern.

The NLR station was damaged by a V-1 flying bomb on 27 June 1944, however, its main building remained in use until it was demolished in the 1960s during the building of the Victoria line. The original westbound platform buildings remain, as does a small part of the original entrance to the left of the present station entrance.

Today's single-storey structure was built in the 1960s for the opening of the Victoria line on 1 September 1968 and is the entrance for all lines. When the escalators to the deep level platforms were opened the GN&CR station building was closed. Its disused entrance remains and was refurbished externally in 2006 – it houses signalling equipment for the Victoria line.^[7]

The Victoria line was built to give as many interchanges as possible with Underground and British Rail lines, with, wherever possible, cross-platform connection between different lines heading in the same direction. To this end at Highbury & Islington the northbound Northern City Line platform was reallocated to the southbound Victoria line to give a direct link between the two southbound platforms; a new northbound platform was constructed for each line; the northbound running NCL tunnel was diverted to its new platform; and the southbound Victoria tunnel was joined to the old northbound NCL tunnel.

Former train operating company Anglia Railways ran services known as London Crosslink from Norwich to Basingstoke via Stratford, which called at Highbury & Islington. This service operated from 2000 until 2002.

Platforms

Highbury & Islington has a total of eight platforms, divided between those that are on the surface and those that are deep level:

• Platform 1 – East London Line services to Crystal Palace
• Platform 2 – East London Line services to Clapham Junction
• Platform 3 – Northbound Victoria line
• Platform 4 – Northbound Northern City Line
• Platform 5 – Southbound Victoria line
• Platform 6 – Southbound Northern City Line
• Platform 7 – Westbound North London Line
• Platform 8 – Eastbound North London Line

Surface platforms

Platforms for North London Line (NLL) and East London Line (ELL) services are operated by London Overground. On 1 June 2010, following the temporary closure of the route from February 2010 to May 2010, NLL services were rerouted to the newly built platforms 7 and 8 for the AC lines, which replaced the old "special use" platform. Platforms 1 and 2, which previously served the NLL route on third rail lines were closed from February 2010 for reconstruction and reopened in 2011 for the ELL services. The change of platforms allows ELL services to operate without having to cross over NLL tracks.

Deep level platforms

Platforms 3 to 6 are deep-level platforms. Platforms 3 and 5 are used for services on the Victoria line; 4 and 6 are used for Great Northern services.

Services

London Overground East London Line
Legend
Highbury & Islington    Canonbury Dalston Junction Kingsland Viaduct ▼ Haggerston Hoxton Kingsland Viaduct ▲ Shoreditch High Street Whitechapel Shadwell Wapping Thames Tunnel under River Thames Rotherhithe Canada Water Surrey Quays Queens Road Peckham New Cross Peckham Rye New Cross Gate Denmark Hill Brockley Clapham High Street Honor Oak Park Wandsworth Road Forest Hill Clapham Junction Sydenham Crystal Palace Penge West Anerley Norwood Junction West Croydon

London Overground

All times below are correct as of May 2011.

East London Line

Mondays to Saturdays there is a service every 6–9 minutes throughout the day, while on Sundays before 13:00 there is a service every 15 minutes, changing to every 7–8 minutes until the end of service after that.^[8]

North London Line

Mondays to Fridays there is a service approximately every 7–8 minutes throughout the morning and evening peaks, changing to roughly every 10 minutes off-peak. On Saturdays the service is approximately every 10 minutes. Sunday services have now resumed and are similar in frequency to the services on Saturdays.^[9]

Finsbury Park to Highbury & Islington to Dalston
Legend
East Coast Main Line Finsbury Park Junctions with Canonbury Curve and Northern City Line towards King's Cross Bridge to Emirates Stadium Drayton Park Victoria line Canonbury Curve North London Line Highbury & Islington Victoria line Northern City Line Canonbury Dalston Junction Dalston Kingsland East London Line North London Line

Great Northern

Mondays to Fridays there is a service approximately every 4–15 minutes until 10:00, when the frequency is every 10 minutes until 16:00, when the frequency again changes to between every 4–15 minutes until the end of service. Prior to December 2015, weekend and evening services were diverted to Kings Cross from Finsbury Park.^[10]

London Underground

Victoria line

Westbound there is a service every 2–5 minutes all day, all week. Eastbound there are services every 2–8 minutes all day, all week.^[11][12]

Lines

Connections

London Buses routes 4, 19, 30, 43, 271, 277 and 393 and night routes N19 and N41 serve the station.

References

1. "Safety boost as London Underground to take control of 11 Silverlink stations". Transport for London. 5 December 2006. Archived from the original on 13 December 2014. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
2. "Multi-year station entry-and-exit figures" (XLS). London Underground station passenger usage data. Transport for London. June 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
3. "Station usage estimates". Rail statistics. Office of Rail Regulation. Please note: Some methodology may vary year on year.
4. "Home - Transport for London". www.tfl.gov.uk. Retrieved 2015-12-02.
5. TFL.gov.uk
6. "In Pictures: The East London Line Extension To Highbury & Islington". Londonist. Retrieved 2015-12-02.
7. Metronet News Issue 8 (page 7)
8. East London Line timetable from 22 May 2011
9. North London Line timetable from 22 May 2011.
10. "Seven-day-a-week service to the City better for late-returning commuters and weekend shoppers" (Press release). Govia Thameslink Railway. 5 November 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
11. Journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk
12. Journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk

External links

• Original NLR station
• London Transport Museum Photographic Archive
  • GN&CR station building, shortly after the Metropolitan Railway's absorption into the London Underground, 1933
  • Side entrance to GN&CR building on to Highbury Crescent, 1934
  • Ticket hall of GN&CR station, 1935
  • Combined ticket hall, 1970
  • Northern City Line southbound platform, 1975
  • Combined ticket hall, 2005
  • Entrance to station (note remnant of original NLR building on left), 2005
• Geoffrey Tribe's Railway Photo Halt
  • GN&CR station building, June 1968
  • New station entrance, June 1968
• More photographs of this station