This article is about the Underground station that closed in 2006. For the main line railway station of the same name that closed in 1940, see Shoreditch railway station. For the nearby replacement Overground station that opened in 2010, see Shoreditch High Street railway station.
The station was the northern terminus of the East London Line, with latterly a single platform alongside a single track that ran next to the disused Bishopsgate goods yard. Until the late 1960s the East London Line connected with the main line railway to Liverpool Street just north of Shoreditch station. The site of the link was visible from the end of the platform and still is visible from main line trains travelling between Stratford and Liverpool Street. The station was one of only a handful on the network with a single platform and a single-track layout, though it originally had two tracks and two platforms. The preceding station was Whitechapel, which after Shoreditch's closure was the northern terminus of the East London Line until the line closed for extension in 2007.
History
Shoreditch station opened in April 1876 as a stop on the East London Railway from Liverpool Street to points south. The passenger service between Shoreditch and Liverpool Street was withdrawn in 1885. Shoreditch joined the Underground network on 31 March 1913 as part of the Metropolitan Railway in conjunction with an electrification of the line.
Goods services from Liverpool Street continued to pass through Shoreditch until April 1966; after then the track connection was severed in order to improve access to Liverpool Street for other trains. The station was closed from March 1995 to September 1998 during the renovation of the East London Line, reopening six months after the rest of the line.
Shoreditch station on a 1915 map of the East London Line
East London Line sign pictured before the closure of Shoreditch
East London Line map before the closure of Shoreditch
Before its closure, Shoreditch was one of the least-used stations on the network, with only about 1,100 passengers per day. On weekdays it was open only at rush hour; it was closed on Saturdays, and open for only a few hours on Sundays for the nearby Brick Lane Market. Prior to the 1990s the station was also closed on Sundays.
2006: 800,000 passenger entries and exits
2005: 748,000
2004: 415,000
2003: 380,000
Today
Shoreditch station closure notice in 2006
Shoreditch station closed permanently on 9 June 2006 to allow work to begin on the East London line extension. It has been replaced by a new station called Shoreditch High Street. The new line and station form part of the London Overground network, a suburban railway operated by Transport for London (TfL) but separate from the Underground network.
Unlike other closed stations, TfL provided a temporary service to Shoreditch until the new line fully opened in 2010 in the form of a non-stop bus service connecting Shoreditch with Whitechapel using the station's previous limited opening hours.
The cutting in and around the station area was filled in and partly reused for the line from Whitechapel (also in a cutting) to the replacement Shoreditch High Street station (on a viaduct). The station building still exists[2] and was put up for sale by TfL in February 2010.[3][4] In February 2011 the building was sold at auction for £665,000.[5] Current plans call for the station building to be demolished and the bricks to be reused for a six-storey block of flats.[6][7]
In 2014 the building was used as a "pop-up" cinema: in summer the auditorium was furnished with six-person hot tubs from which to watch the films while in winter the concept was "bring your own pillow" to use on bean bag style beds.[8]
In popular culture
The station was used for a segment in the 1999 film Tube Tales.
References
^Baker, Thomas, ed. (1998). "Stepney: Communications". A History of the County of Middlesex. Vol. 11. London: Victoria County History. pp. 7–13. Archived from the original on 12 January 2015. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
^"Shoreditch". Archived from the original on 25 September 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2008.
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