Caledonian Road Station was originally part of the Great Northern Piccadilly & Brompton Railway (GNP&BR), one of three tube lines opened 1906-7 by the Underground Electric Railways Co of London Ltd (UERL). The City & South London Railway - the world's first deep tube line - had opened in 1890 from the City to Stockwell, and although a flurry of proposals for further routes ensued, further progress was hampered by lack of capital until the Central London Railway (later the Central Line) opened in 1900. From 1901-02 the American transport entrepreneur, Charles Tyson Yerkes, acquired four dormant companies: the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway; the Brompton & Piccadilly Circus Railway and the Great Northern & Strand Railway, which he merged as the GNP&BR, and the BS&WR, the three were incorporated into the UERL in 1902.
While the ticket hall is much altered, there is an extensive survival of tiling at lower levels, including an unaltered stair flight with pomegranate frieze tiling, original examples of which are now rare, and extensive areas of original tiling at lower passageway and platform levels, including several of the distinctive aedicular platform signs. The station continues to use lifts, never having been upgraded to escalators. Unusually for stations of its era, the lifts descend directly to platform level with no secondary staircases. In recent times this has meant that the station is now advertised as "Step Free" on line maps without rebuilding work taking place. The station is close to Pentonville Prison and Caledonian Park, the site of the former Victorian Metropolitan Cattle Market, is a short distance away on Market Road. The station has payphones, wi-fi, boarding ramps, lifts and help points.
Connections: London Buses routes 17, 91 and 259 serve the station.
