St Mary's (Whitechapel Road)

The station building in 1916

St Mary's (Whitechapel Road) is the name of a closed station on the London Underground . It is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets between what is now Aldgate East and Whitechapel . It was in operation from 1884 to 1938.

history

The station building shortly after it was closed in 1938

Opened under the name of St Mary’s on March 3, 1884, the station was served by both the Metropolitan District Railway (now the District Line ) and the Metropolitan Railway (now the Metropolitan Line ). The station was very small and cramped from the start. It was very close to the Whitechapel and Aldgate stations on a tight bend just before the junction with the East London Line .

In 1921 a cinema was built around the previously free-standing station building. On January 26, 1923, the station name was given the addition of brackets. St Mary's Station (Whitechapel Road) was closed on April 30, 1938. The reason was the relocation of the Aldgate East station to the east; its eastern exit was only a few hundred yards away.

During the Second World War , the station was to serve as an air raid shelter . By erecting a brick wall, the platform was separated from the tracks that were still in use. Even before the adaptation work was finished, however, an aerial bomb hit the station building on the surface on October 22, 1940, severely damaging it. The remains had to be torn down, so that today there is little to remember this station. A new entrance to the air raid shelter was built, but it was also destroyed on April 19, 1941.

The walled-up platforms are still accessible to London Underground staff through an inconspicuous door on a side street off Whitechapel Road. While the train is in motion, the location of the former station can still be seen from the brick walls. The connecting curve to the East London Line is still called St Mary's Curve today . It has not been used in normal train services since October 6, 1941, but only for the exchange of rolling stock between the various lines. Since the East London Line has been part of the London Overground network since 2010 , there is no longer any need to exchange rolling stock; however, the tunnel remains.