Kentish Town station

Kentish Town
Kentish Town Location of Kentish Town in Greater London
Location	Kentish Town
Local authority	London Borough of Camden
Managed by	London Underground
Station code	KTN
DfT category	F1
Number of platforms	4 (6 total)
Fare zone	2
OSI	Kentish Town West [1]
London Underground annual entry and exit
2012	7.58 million[2]
2013	6.45 million[2]
2014	7.72 million[2]
2015	10.49 million[2]
National Rail annual entry and exit
2009–10	1.137 million[3]
2010–11	1.377 million[3]
2011–12	1.506 million[3]
2012–13	1.695 million[3]
2013–14	1.869 million[3]
Key dates
1868	Opened (Midland)
1907	Opened (CCE&HR)
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR Underground National Rail Tramlink
External links	Departures Layout Facilities Buses
London Transport portal UK Railways portalCoordinates: 51°33′01″N 0°08′26″W / 51.5504°N 0.1406°W

Kentish Town station is a London Underground and National Rail station in Kentish Town in the London Borough of Camden. It is at the junction of Kentish Town Road (A400) and Leighton Road. It is in Travelcard Zone 2.

The station is served by the High Barnet branch of the London Underground Northern line, and by Thameslink trains on the National Rail Midland Main Line. It is between Camden Town and Tufnell Park on the Northern line and between West Hampstead and St Pancras International stations on the main line.

It is the only station on the High Barnet branch with a direct interchange with a National Rail line, additionally an Out of Station Interchange (OSI) with Kentish Town West on the North London Line is permitted.

There are four National Rail surface platforms and two London Underground underground platforms. National Rail trains are operated by Thameslink and Southeastern, with northbound trains running to Luton and southbound to Sutton, Orpington and Sevenoaks, via London St. Pancras and Blackfriars. East Midlands Trains express services from Nottingham, Sheffield and Leicester pass through but do not stop.

Ticket barriers control access to both London Underground and National Rail platforms.

History

The entrance on Kentish Town Road in 1955

The Victorian Super Outer Circle route, passing through Kentish Town station

The first station was opened by the Midland Railway in 1868 on the extension to its new London terminal at St Pancras. Prior to that, Midland Railway trains used the London and North Western Railway lines to Euston or the Great Northern Railway lines to King's Cross. Until the St. Pancras extension was complete, and for some time afterwards, some trains exchanged the locomotive at Kentish Town for one fitted with condensing apparatus and continued to Moorgate station, then named Moorgate Street station. For some years trains ran from Kentish Town to Victoria station on the South Eastern and Chatham Railway.

The second largest motive power depot and repair facility on the Midland Rail was north of the station.^[4] In 1861 a collision occurred at a siding near the station in which 16 people were killed and 317 were injured.

From May 1878 to September 1880 the MR Super Outer Circle service ran through the station, from St. Pancras to Earl's Court Underground station via Cricklewood and South Acton.^[5] The main line station was rebuilt in 1983, nothing of the original station building remains. The separate London Underground station was opened on 22 June 1907 by the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR), a precursor of the Northern line.^[6] The station was designed by Leslie Green with the ox-blood red glazed terracotta façade and the semi-circular windows at first floor level common to most of the original stations on the CCE&HR and its two associated railways, the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway and Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway which opened the previous year. When Kentish Town station opened the next CCE&HR station south was South Kentish Town but that station closed in 1924 due to low usage.^[7] Gospel Oak station on the North London Line opened in 1860 as "Kentish Town" but was given its present name in 1867 when the North London Railway opened Kentish Town West. It was the junction of services to Barking until 1981 when services were diverted to terminate and start from Gospel Oak. The spur line to Junction Road Junction was then closed, the track was removed and the trackbed has been sold for industrial use.

The station's northbound Northern line platform.

National Rail platforms at Kentish Town station.

Development

Trains from south of the River Thames on the extended Thameslink network may call at the station from 2018.^[8]

After the bay platforms at Blackfriars station closed in March 2009, Southeastern services which previously terminated at Blackfriars were extended to Kentish Town (off-peak), or St Albans, Luton or Bedford (peak hours).^[9]

A major upgrading of the whole Thameslink line infrastructure is underway, for expected completion by 2018. However, the four platforms at Kentish Town station are not being extended from eight to 12 carriages because of road bridges at each end which cannot be relocated,^[10] so only services that continue to be served by eight-car trains will be able to call there. The only other Thameslink stations north of the River Thames remaining with eight-car platform lengths will be Hendon and Cricklewood, which are sited either side of a possible new Thameslink station at Brent Cross.

Connections

First Capital Connect train with a southbound Thameslink service.

London Buses routes 134, 214, 393 and C2 and night route N20 serve the station.

References

1. "Out of Station Interchanges" (XLS). Transport for London. May 2011. Archived from the original on 20 October 2012.
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. "Station usage estimates". Rail statistics. Office of Rail Regulation. Please note: Some methodology may vary year on year.
4. Radford, B., (1983) Midland Line Memories: a Pictorial History of the Midland Railway Main Line Between London (St Pancras) & Derby London: Bloomsbury Books
5. "Circle Line, History". Clive's Underground Line Guides. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
6. Rose, Douglas (1999). The London Underground, A Diagrammatic History. Douglas Rose/Capital Transport. ISBN 1-85414-219-4.
7. Connor, J.E. (1999). "South Kentish Town". London's Disused Underground Stations. Capital Transport. p. 22. ISBN 1-85414-250-X.
8. "Thameslink Programme - FAQ". Retrieved 21 November 2008.
9. "Train times 22 March - 16 May 2009 Thameslink route" (PDF). First Capital Connect. Retrieved 20 March 2009.

External links

• Train times and station information for Kentish Town station from National Rail
• London Transport Museum Photographic Archive Station building in 1925.