Kentish Town station

Kentish Town station
Kentish Town 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 the only station on the High Barnet branch with a direct interchange with a National Rail line; furthermore an Out of Station Interchange (OSI) with on the North London line is not charged as two separate journeys in electronic journey charging.
History
The first station was opened by the Midland Railway on 1 October 1868 on the extension to its new London terminal at . Prior to that, Midland Railway trains used the London and North Western Railway lines to 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. 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 and .
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. 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. 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 .
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.
In April 2023, Transport for London (TfL) announced that the Underground station would be closed for "up to a year" from 26 June 2023 to allow both escalators to be replaced. TfL noted that the current escalators were the most unreliable on the network, owing to their age and bespoke manufacture. During the closure, the Underground station will be refurbished.
Design
National Rail station
There are 6 tracks and 4 platforms at this station in northwest–southeast orientation.
Starting from the easternmost platform:
Platforms 1 and 2 are Thameslink platforms in regular use, where all Thameslink trains accessing the core pass through, although only a minority of them stop here.
Platforms 3 (which forms an island with platform 2) and 4 are on the slow lines of the Midland Main Line, which are normally used only by terminating services or a handful of Sunday morning services.
The fast lines of the Midland Main Line do not have platforms at this station in both directions.
The National Rail station entrance is normally locked, with access from the Underground station. It is only opened when the Underground station is closed.
London Underground station
There are 2 platforms in the underground station in north–south orientation, 1 for each Northern line direction. Ticket barriers control access to both London Underground and National Rail platforms.
Location
It is between Tufnell Park and Camden Town stations on the High Barnet branch of the Northern line and between and St Pancras International stations on the main line.
Services
Thameslink operate the National Rail station at Kentish Town, and all stopping services. The normal off-peak calling pattern is four trains per hour between St Albans City and Sutton, of which two go via Mitcham Junction and two via Wimbledon. Some peak-hour, late-night, or Sunday trains may be extended to locations such as Luton, Bedford, or Rainham.
Many other trains pass through the station without stopping, including East Midlands Railway services from Nottingham, Sheffield, Leicester, and Corby, as well as other Thameslink services.
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).
Connections
London Buses routes 88, 134, 214, 393 and night route N20 serve the station.
Incidents
On 21 August 2020 a man was badly injured after he was hit by a sign that fell off the façade of the entrance to Kentish Town station. The sign, with the logos of TfL and British Rail, had been reported as looking as if it was about to fall, but no action was taken at the time. In April 2023 it was announced that Kentish Town tube would close for one year from summer 2023, to allow for repair works, leading to fears for the impact on local business.
References
External links
London Transport Museum Photographic Archive
Northern line stations
Railway stations in the London Borough of Camden
DfT Category F1 stations
Tube stations in the London Borough of Camden
Former Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway stations
Former Midland Railway stations
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1868
Railway stations served by Govia Thameslink Railway
Station
Leslie Green railway stations
London Underground Night Tube stations