Ladbroke Grove Platform

Ladbroke Grove Platform

Ladbroke Grove Entrance

Ladbroke Grove Entrance

Ladbroke Grove Platform

Ladbroke Grove Platform

 

Originally opened as part of the Metropolitan Railway on 13 June 1864, the station was originally named Notting Hill. With the extension of that line from Paddington to Hammersmith it was renamed Notting Hill & Ladbroke Grove in 1880 and Ladbroke Grove (North Kensington) on 1 June 1919 before acquiring the present name in 1938. The renamings were efforts to avoid confusion with the opening of Notting Hill Gate tube station, which had occurred in 1868. The station is the nearest to Portobello Road Market and market traders and shopkeepers in the market have started a campaign to have the station renamed Portobello Road in an effort to strengthen recognition of the market's proximity. It is also the main road on the annual Notting Hill Gate Carnival.

 

The street is named after James Weller Ladbroke, who developed the Ladbroke Estate in the mid nineteenth century, until then a largely rural area on the western edges of London. The Anglican church of St Michael and All Angels in the road was designed by James Edmeston and built in the Romanesque style in 1871. Hablot Knight Browne, the cartoonist who illustrated Charles Dickens' novels as "Phiz", lived at No. 99 in 1872-80. In 2009, because of financial constraints, TfL decided to stop work on a project to provide step-free access at Ladbroke Grove and five other stations, on the grounds that these are relatively quiet stations and some are already one or two stops away from an existing step-free station. The station has wi-fi, payphones, help points and a waiting room, and steps.

 

Connections: Circle Line. London Bus routes 7, 23, 52, 70, 228 and 452 and night routes N7 serve the station. In addition, bus routes 23 and 70 provide a 24-hour bus service.