Kentish Town London Underground National Rail
Kentish Town is located in Greater London
Kentish Town
Kentish Town
Location of Kentish Town in Greater London
LocationKentish Town
Local authorityLondon Borough of Camden
Managed byLondon Underground
Station codeKTN
DfT categoryF1
Number of platforms4 (3 in use) (National Rail) 2 (London Underground)
Fare zone2
OSIKentish Town West London Overground[1]
London Underground annual entry and exit
2018Decrease 7.62 million[2]
2019Increase 8.12 million[3]
2020Decrease 3.26 million[4]
2021Increase 3.71 million[5]
2022Increase 6.30 million[6]
National Rail annual entry and exit
2018–19Decrease 2.697 million[7]
2019–20Increase 2.857 million[7]
2020–21Decrease 0.779 million[7]
2021–22Increase 1.499 million[7]
2022–23Increase 1.992 million[7]
Key dates
1 October 1868Opened (Midland)
22 June 1907Opened (CCE&HR)
Other information
External links
WGS8451°33′01″N 0°08′26″W / 51.5504°N 0.1406°W / 51.5504; -0.1406
 London transport portal

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 Kentish Town West on the North London line is not charged as two separate journeys in electronic journey charging.

History

The entrance on Kentish Town Road in 1955

The first station was opened by the Midland Railway on 1 October 1868 on the extension to its new London terminal at St Pancras. Prior to that, Midland Railway trains used the London and North Western Railway lines to Euston 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 Victorian Super Outer Circle route, passing through Kentish Town station

The second largest motive power depot and repair facility on the Midland Rail was north of the station.[8] 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 Cricklewood and South Acton.[9] 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.[10] 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.[11] Gospel Oak 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 Kentish Town West. 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.[12][13] 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.[12][13]

The station's northbound Northern line platform
National Rail platforms at Kentish Town station

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, platform 1 for northbound Northern line and platform 2 for the southbound 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 West Hampstead Thameslink and St Pancras International stations on the main line.

Services

National Rail

National Rail services at Kentish Town are operated by Thameslink using Class 700 EMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:[14]

During the peak hours, the station is served by additional services to and from Luton, Orpington and Rainham, as well as some late evening services to and from Bedford.

The station is also served by a night service between Bedford and Three Bridges on Sunday to Friday nights.

London Underground

The typical off-peak London Underground service on the Northern Line in trains per hour is:[15]

The station is also served by a night service on Friday and Saturday nights as part of the Night Tube. The station is served by a train every 15 minutes between High Barnet and Morden via Charing Cross.

Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
Thameslink
London Underground
Tufnell Park
  Northern Line
High Barnet branch		   Camden Town
  Historical railways  
Line open, station closed
Midland Railway
Line open, station closed
TerminusGreat Eastern Railway
Line open, station closed
  Former services  
Preceding station   London Underground   Following station
Tufnell Park
towards Highgate
   Northern Line   South Kentish Town

Connections

First Capital Connect train with a southbound Thameslink service.

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.[16] 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.[17]

References

  1. ↑ "Out of Station Interchanges" (XLSX). Transport for London. 16 June 2020. Retrieved 5 November 2020.
  2. ↑ "Station Usage Data" (CSV). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2018. Transport for London. 23 September 2020. Archived from the original on 14 January 2023. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  3. ↑ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2019. Transport for London. 23 September 2020. Archived from the original on 9 November 2020. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
  4. ↑ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2020. Transport for London. 16 April 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  5. ↑ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2021. Transport for London. 12 July 2022. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  6. ↑ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2022. Transport for London. 4 October 2023. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 "Estimates of station usage". Rail statistics. Office of Rail Regulation. Please note: Some methodology may vary year on year.
  8. ↑ Radford, B., (1983) Midland Line Memories: a Pictorial History of the Midland Railway Main Line Between London (St Pancras) & Derby London: Bloomsbury Books
  9. ↑ "Circle Line, History". Clive's Underground Line Guides. Retrieved 13 February 2008.
  10. ↑ Rose, Douglas (1999). The London Underground, A Diagrammatic History. Douglas Rose/Capital Transport. ISBN 1-85414-219-4.
  11. ↑ Connor, J.E. (1999). "South Kentish Town". London's Disused Underground Stations. Capital Transport. p. 22. ISBN 1-85414-250-X.
  12. 1 2 Vickers, Noah (28 April 2023). "Kentish Town Tube station to be closed for a year". Evening Standard. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  13. 1 2 "Kentish Town Tube station to be closed for improvements, including essential replacement of both escalators". Transport for London. 28 April 2023. Retrieved 28 April 2023.
  14. ↑ Table 52, 195, 196 National Rail timetable, December 2023
  15. ↑ "Northern Line Timetable". Transport for London. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
  16. ↑ Tom Foot (22 August 2020). "Man knocked unconscious after tube sign fell in high winds". Camden New Journal.
  17. ↑ "Pub boss says he was forced to shut down bar due to tube station closure". Camden New Journal. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
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