Bow Road tube station

Bow Road London Underground
Red brick building with rounded top windows and a large sign that reads "Bow Road Station".
Entrance to Bow Road
Bow Road is located in Greater London
Bow Road
Bow Road
Location of Bow Road in Greater London
LocationBow
Local authorityLondon Borough of Tower Hamlets
Managed byLondon Underground
Owner
Number of platforms2
Fare zone2
OSIBow Church Docklands Light Railway[1]
London Underground annual entry and exit
2020Decrease 2.66 million[2]
2021Decrease 2.26 million[3]
2022Increase 3.83 million[4]
2023Increase 4.16 million[5]
2024Increase 4.17 million[6]
Railway companies
Original companyWhitechapel and Bow Railway
Key dates
11 June 1902Opened
30 March 1936Metropolitan line started
23 January 1950Ownership transferred to London Transport
Listed status
Listing gradeII
Entry number1357787[7]
Added to list27 September 1973 (1973-09-27)
Other information
External links
Coordinates51°31′38″N 0°01′29″W / 51.52722°N 0.02472°W / 51.52722; -0.02472
London transport portal

Bow Road (/ˈboʊ ˈroʊd/) is a London Underground station located on Bow Road in the Bow neighbourhood of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, East London. It is on the District and Hammersmith & City lines, between Mile End to the west and Bromley-by-Bow to the east. The station was opened by the Whitechapel and Bow Railway on 11 June 1902 on a new route connecting the District Railway at Whitechapel with the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway to the east of the station. Steam trains were replaced by electric on 20 August 1905. Metropolitan line service commenced in 1936. It is in London fare zone 2.

History

Bow Road station was part of an unsuccessful 1883 proposal to connect the sub-surface Metropolitan Railway with the above ground London, Tilbury and Southend Railway (LTSR).[8] In 1897, the proposal was revived, this time with the District Railway (DR) as the sub-surface partner.[9] The Whitechapel and Bow Railway (W&BR) opened on 2 June 1902.[10] During planning for the station, the names "Wellington Road" and then "Bow" were considered.[11] Bow Road station was not ready for the first day of service and opened with temporary buildings on 11 June 1902.[12] The permanent structures were designed by the engineer Cuthbert Arthur Brereton.[13] Fourth-rail electric service replaced steam trains on 20 August 1905.[14] The station was owned by the W&BR and was initially run by a joint committee of the two companies. In 1920, the DR took over management on behalf of the owners.[15]

The eastern section of the District line was very overcrowded by the mid 1930s.[16] In order to relieve this, the Metropolitan line service was extended to Barking.[17][a] Bow Road was served by a single daily Metropolitan line train from Hammersmith from 30 March 1936.[19] This was expanded from 4 May 1936 with a service of eight trains per hour between Barking and Hammersmith at peak times.[19] This was increased to ten trains per hour at Bow Road from 8 May 1938.[b] The Hammersmith service was swapped for longer Uxbridge trains from 17 July 1939, with eight trains per hour at peak times. This service was suspended on 6 October 1941 with Hammersmith trains again running to Barking.[20]

The Transport Act 1947 provided for complete ownership of Bow Road station as part of the W&BR to pass to the London Transport Executive and this took place on 23 January 1950.[21] On 30 July 1990, the Hammersmith–Barking service of the Metropolitan line gained a separate identity as the Hammersmith & City line.[22] From 13 December 2009, off-peak Hammersmith & City line service was extended from Whitechapel to Barking with a daily all-day service at Bow Road.[23]

Design

The station consists of two side platforms—numbered 1 for westbound and 2 for eastbound—either side of the tracks.[24] The platforms are curved and partly underground, with the western section under Bow Road and the eastern section in cutting.[25] The open-air section has canopies held up by wall brackets and the underground part has jack-arched roofing held up by hexagonal columns, of a design also still seen at Stepney Green.[26] The 1902 Brereton-designed buildings are similar to the other new stations at Mile End and Stepney Green, but deviated from their layouts because of the constrained site.[27]

Platforms are 450 feet (140 m) long, built to accommodate longer LTSR trains.[28] The exterior has brown glazed bricks below the windowsills and red brick above. The windows and doors have terracotta surrounds. The interiors have white glazed bricks, except for the footbridge which is finished in brown glazed and red bricks. The original layout had now-disused exit stairways that led to an eastern footbridge and a separate doorway on Bow Road.[25] A room with a bay window onto the westbound platform was a waiting room.[25] East of the station, the tracks rise at 1 in 40 gradient.[29] The station building has been Grade II listed since 27 September 1973.[7]

Location

The station is located on Bow Road in the Bow neighbourhood of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The adjacent Wellington Buildings flats, accessed from Wellington Street, were built to house the 286 people displaced to build the railway.[30] Bow Church DLR station is nearby and an out of station interchange is permitted.[1] Day and nighttime London Buses routes serve the station.[31]

Bromley-by-Bow is 1.01 km (0.63 miles) to the east of the station and Mile End is 0.55 km (0.34 miles) to the west. It is 4.22 km (2.62 miles) along the line from Tower Hill in Central London and 20.46 km (12.71 miles) from the eastern terminus at Upminster.[32]

Services

The station is managed by London Underground.[33] It is in London fare zone 2. The typical off-peak service from the station is twelve District line trains per hour to Upminster with a further three trains to Barking. There are fifteen trains westbound to Earl's Court, of which six continue to Ealing Broadway, six continue to Richmond, and three to Wimbledon.[32] At peak periods, the number of trains per hour increases.[32] There are six Hammersmith & City line trains an hour to Barking and six to Hammersmith at all times.[34]

Services towards central London operate from approximately 05:15 to 00:15 and services to Upminster operate from approximately 05:40 to 01:00.[35] The journey time to Upminster is approximately 30 minutes, to Barking 13 minutes, and to Tower Hill in central London 10 minutes.[32] With 4.17 million entries and exits in 2024, it was ranked 143rd busiest London Underground station.[6]

Notes

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  1. ^ This was achieved by diverting Metropolitan line trains that had previously been routed onto the East London Line at Whitechapel.[18]
  2. ^ The two extra trains terminated at East Ham.[20]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b "Out-of-Station Interchanges". Transport for London. 2 January 2016. Archived from the original (Microsoft Excel) on 3 June 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  2. ^ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2020. Transport for London. 16 April 2021. Archived from the original on 11 April 2025. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  3. ^ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2021. Transport for London. 12 July 2022. Archived from the original on 6 April 2025. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
  4. ^ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2022. Transport for London. 4 October 2023. Archived from the original on 19 March 2025. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
  5. ^ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2023. Transport for London. 8 August 2024. Archived from the original on 31 May 2025. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  6. ^ a b "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2024. Transport for London. 20 January 2026 [8 October 2025]. Archived from the original on 27 March 2026. Retrieved 27 March 2026.
  7. ^ a b Historic England. "Bow Road London Transport Underground Station (1357787)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
  8. ^ Kay 1997, p. 95.
  9. ^ Horne 2018, p. 163.
  10. ^ Horne 2018, p. 167.
  11. ^ Kay 1997, pp. 97–98.
  12. ^ Kay 1997, p. 98.
  13. ^ Kay 2012, p. 38.
  14. ^ Horne 2019, p. 108.
  15. ^ Horne 2018, p. 168.
  16. ^ Horne 2019, p. 353.
  17. ^ Horne 2019, pp. 353–354.
  18. ^ Horne 2006, p. 65.
  19. ^ a b Horne 2019, p. 354.
  20. ^ a b Horne 2006, p. 68.
  21. ^ Lee 1988, p. 53.
  22. ^ "Salmon pink for new LUL line". The Railway Magazine. Vol. 136, no. 1074. October 1990. p. 646.
  23. ^ "Review of the New Sub-Surface Railway Service Pattern Introduced on 13 December 2009" (PDF). Transport for London. 8 February 2011. Section 7.9. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 August 2019. Retrieved 11 June 2025.
  24. ^ Padgett, David; Kelman, Leanne (2024) [1994]. Munsey, Myles (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 5: Southern & TfL (5th ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. map 44B. ISBN 1-9996271-7-2.
  25. ^ a b c Kay 2012, p. 36.
  26. ^ Kay 2012, pp. 36, 42.
  27. ^ Kay 2012, pp. 36, 41.
  28. ^ Horne 2018, p. 165.
  29. ^ Kay 2012, pp. 36, 43.
  30. ^ Kay 1997, p. 96.
  31. ^ "Buses from Mile End" (PDF). Transport for London. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 April 2023. Retrieved 23 April 2026.
  32. ^ a b c d "District line working timetable 156" (PDF). Transport for London. 12 January 2026. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 January 2026. Retrieved 24 January 2026.
  33. ^ "Station list by line". Transport of London. Archived from the original on 8 May 2025. Retrieved 27 June 2025.
  34. ^ "Circle and Hammersmith & City line working timetable 39" (PDF). Transport for London. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 December 2025. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
  35. ^ "District line" (PDF). First and Last Trains. Transport for London. 12 January 2026. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 January 2026. Retrieved 24 January 2026.

Sources

  • Horne, Mike (2006). The District Line. Capital Transport. ISBN 1-85414-292-5.
  • Horne, Mike (2018). London's District Railway: A History of the Metropolitan District Railway Company. Twentieth Century. Volume one. Capital Transport Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85414-425-6.
  • Horne, Mike (2019). London's District Railway: A History of the Metropolitan District Railway Company. Twentieth Century. Volume two. Capital Transport Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85414-430-0.
  • Kay, Peter (1997). The London, Tilbury & Southend Railway: A History of the Company and Line Volume 2. Wivenhoe: P. Kay. ISBN 1-899890-19-X.
  • Kay, Peter (2012). London's Railway Heritage: Volume One: East. P. Kay. ISBN 978-1-899890-45-3.
  • Lee, Charles Edward (1988) [1956]. The Metropolitan District Railway. The Oakwood Library of Railway History (2nd ed.). Headington: Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-361-3.
Preceding station London Underground Following station
Mile End
towards Hammersmith
 Hammersmith & City line Bromley-by-Bow
towards Barking
Mile End
towards Wimbledon, Richmond or Ealing Broadway
 District line
 Bromley-by-Bow
towards Upminster
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