Liverpool Street

 

Liverpool Street station was built as the new London terminus of the Great Eastern Railway (GER) to serve its lines to Norwich and King's Lynn. From 1874 to 1875 the Metropolitan Railway used the Liverpool Street mainline station as a terminus; on 12 July 1875 the company opened their own station, initially called Bishopsgate. The station was renamed Liverpool Street in 1909. Subsurface platforms 1 and 2 were opened in 1875. A disused west-facing bay platform 3 was used by terminating Metropolitan and occasional District line trains running via Edgware Road is still extant. Thousands of Jewish refugee children arrived at Liverpool Street in the late 1930s as part of the Kindertransport rescue mission in the run up to the Second World War. In September 2003 the Für Das Kind Kindertransport Memorial sculpture by artist Flor Kent, who conceived the project, was installed at the station. It consisted of a specialised glass case with original objects and a bronze sculpture of a girl, a direct descendant of a child rescued by Nicholas Winton, who unveiled the work.

 

During the First World War, on 13 June 1917, a daylight air raid on London with 20 Gotha G.IV bombers took place, the first such attack on the capital. The raid struck a number of sites including Liverpool Street station. Seven tons of explosive were dropped which killed 162 people and injured 432. Three bombs hit the station, of which two exploded, having fallen through the train shed roof, near to two trains, causing multiple fatalities. This was the deadliest single raid on Britain during the war. Underground station is the sixth busiest station on the London Underground network. Only the eastbound/clockwise (Aldgate/Barking) platform of the Circle line is currently wheelchair-accessible. The station has a waiting rooom and wi-fi, cash machines, Euro cash machines, payphones, escalators, help points and a bridge.

 

Connections: National Rail. Circle, Metropolitan, Central Line. London Buses routes 8; 11; 23; 26; 35; 47; 48; 78; 133; 135; 141; 205; 242; 344; 388; and night routes N8; N11; N26; N133 and N205; serve the station.

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