Angel tube station
 Entrance on Islington High Street |
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 Angel
Location of Angel in Central London |
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| Location | The Angel, Islington |
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| Local authority | London Borough of Islington |
| Managed by | London Underground |
| Number of platforms | 2 |
| Fare zone | 1 |
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| London Underground annual entry and exit | |
| 2008 |  17.820 million[1] |
| 2009 | 18.052 million[1] |
| 2010 |  17.820 million[1] |
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| 1901 | Opened |
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| Lists of stations | DLR · Underground · National Rail · Tramlink |
| Coordinates: 51°31′55″N 0°06′22″W / 51.532°N 0.106°W | |
Angel tube station is a London Underground station in The Angel, Islington. It is on the Bank branch of the Northern Line, between Old Street and King's Cross St. Pancras stations. It is in Travelcard Zone 1. The tube stop serves as a portal to several Off West End, or fringe theatre, venues, including The King's Head Theatre and Almeida Theatre. It is also the station for Chapel Market, a London street market. Between Angel and Old Street stations is the disused City Road station.
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[edit] History
Angel station was originally built by the City & South London Railway, and opened in 1901 as the northern terminus of a new extension from Moorgate. It is one of five stations on the London Underground named after a public house - in this case the once-famous Angel inn, which dates back to at least 1638. (The other stations are Elephant & Castle, Manor House, Royal Oak and Swiss Cottage.) As with many other stations on the line, it was originally built with a single central island platform serving two tracks – an arrangement still seen at Clapham North and Clapham Common – and access from street level was via lifts. The most recent lifts were of the Otis "drum hoist" design used throughout the rest of the tube system, but were of about half the size. For years, the station regularly suffered from congestion,overcrowding and genuine fear in passengers due to the incredibly narrow island platform (barely twelve feet in width), which therefore constituted a major safety issue. Consequently, the station was comprehensively rebuilt, re-opening in 1992.
A new section of tunnel was excavated for a new northbound platform and the southbound platform was rebuilt to completely occupy the original 30-foot tunnel, explaining why it is larger than most deep-level platforms. The lifts and the ground level building originally on the corner of Torrens Street and City Road were closed and a new station entrance was opened around the corner in Islington High Street. Because of the distance of the new entrance from the platforms, and their depth, two flights of escalators were required aligned approximately at a right-angle.
[edit] Escalators
Angel has the third longest escalators in Western Europe (after Västra skogen in the Stockholm Metro at 220 feet and Kamppi station in the Helsinki Metro at 210 feet), with a vertical rise of 27.4 m (90 ft) and a length of 60 m (197 ft). In 2007, Peter Olenick posted a video on Youtube of himself skiing down the escalator. The video has over 2.9 million views as of July 2011.
[edit] Future
Angel is a proposed station on the Chelsea-Hackney line project. It would be between King's Cross St Pancras and Essex Road. It was officially safeguarded as part of the route in 2007 although has been planned for some time; during the station's rebuild a mid-level concourse was built for this reason rather than having the escalators descend directly to the platform level.[2][3] This would therefore provide an interchange between the two London Underground lines.
[edit] Transports links
London Bus routes 4, 19, 30, 38, 43, 56, 73, 153, 205, 214, 274, 341, 394, 476 and Night routes N19, N38, N41 and N73.
[edit] In popular culture
The Angel tube station appears on Ed Sheeran's "The A-Team" music video.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c "Customer metrics: entries and exits". London Underground performance update. Transport for London. 2003-2010. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/corporate/modesoftransport/tube/performance/default.asp?onload=entryexit. Retrieved 8 May 2011.
- ^ Crossrail 2
- ^ http://www.crossrail.co.uk/80256B090053AF4C/Files/chelsea-hackneyline/$FILE/chelsea+hackney+line+safeguarding+leaflet+february+2008.pdf
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Angel tube station |
| Preceding station |  London Underground |
Following station | ||
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| Northern line
Bank branch
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| Former route (1901-1922) | ||||
| Preceding station | London Underground |
Following station | ||
| Northern line
Bank branch
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