Leicester Square Underground Station

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Leicester Square Station
platform

Leicester Square is a London Underground station in the City of Westminster . It is not located on the famous Leicester Square itself, but about 100 meters further east at the junction of Charing Cross Road and Cranbourne Street. In 2013, 38.69 million passengers used the station.

The station, located in the Travelcard tariff zone 1 and designed by the architect Leslie Green , offers a transfer option between the Northern Line and the Piccadilly Line . It is marked as Cranbourne Street on early plans . However, when it was opened on December 15, 1906 by the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (predecessor of the Piccadilly Line), those responsible had already decided on the name of the much more famous square in the neighborhood. On June 22, 1907, the station of the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway (now the Charing Cross branch of the Northern Line) followed.

Like all stations on the first section of the Piccadilly Line, Leicester Square initially only had elevators down to the platforms. Since the passenger frequency rose sharply in the 1920s due to the extension of the Northern Line and a further increase was to be expected with the planned extensions of the Piccadilly Line, the underground part was completely rebuilt at the beginning of the 1930s. The plans for the new counter hall and the new additional entrances come from Charles Holden . The elevators were replaced by escalators , and the elevator shaft, which is no longer required, is now used for ventilation. Because of the terrorist attacks of July 7, 2005 , the station part of the Piccadilly Line was closed for a few weeks, on August 4 it was reopened.

The offices of the Northern Line administration are located on the upper floors of the terracotta building known as the Transad House . In the years after the opening, this was the editorial office of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack , and you can still see a painted wicket above one of the entrances .

Web links

Commons : Leicester Square (London Underground)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. 2013 annual entries and exits. (Excel, 228 kB) Transport for London, 2014, accessed on August 1, 2014 (English).
Previous station Transport for London Next station
Tottenham Court Road Northern line flag box.svg Charing Cross
Piccadilly Circus Piccadilly line flag box.svg Covent Garden

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 41 ″  N , 0 ° 7 ′ 41 ″  W.