Bayswater tube station

Bayswater

Entrance on Queensway
Bayswater Location of Bayswater in Central London
Location	Queensway
Local authority	City of Westminster
Managed by	London Underground
Number of platforms	2
Fare zone	1
London Underground annual entry and exit
2005	8.557 million
2006	6.855 million
2007	6.043 million
2008	5.980 million
2009	6.440 million
2010	5.520 million
1868	Opened (MR)
1926	Started (District)
1949	Started (Circle)
Lists of stations	DLR · Underground · National Rail · Tramlink

Bayswater is a London Underground station in the Bayswater area of the City of Westminster. It is served by the Circle and District lines. It's between Notting Hill Gate and Paddington stations, in Travelcard Zone 1. The station is located on Queensway and is close to Whiteleys shopping centre, Westbourne Grove, Queens ice rink and bowling centre, Kensington Gardens and St Sophia's Greek Orthodox Cathedral. Less than 100 metres (330 ft) away is the Central line's Queensway station.

History

Ordnance Survey map showing Bayswater station in 1869

The station was opened by the steam-operated Metropolitan Railway (MR) (now the Metropolitan line) on 1 October 1868, as part of the railway's southern extension to South Kensington where it connected to the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR). Construction of the railway line, through the already developed Bayswater area required the excavation of a tunnel using the cut and cover method: a trench 42 feet (13 m) deep was excavated between brick retaining walls which was then roofed-over with brick arches to allow building work above. Large compensation payments were made to landowners affected by the excavations and, in Leinster Gardens to the east, the frontages of two houses demolished to make way for the line were reconstructed to restore the appearance of a terrace of houses.

Station roof under construction

Completed station

Bayswater station, circa 1867

The platforms of Bayswater station were constructed in the trench and provided with a glazed roof. A short section of the trench was left unroofed to the west of the station to allow smoke and steam from the trains to escape from the tunnels. Even before the completion in 1884 of the continuous circuit of tracks which are now the Circle line, the MR and MDR operated services through Bayswater as the Inner Circle. The MR originally provided all of the trains, but from 1871, each company operated half of the service.

In 1905, to improve the conditions in the tunnels and stations and increase service frequencies, the MR electrified the tracks through Bayswater and, in conjunction with the MDR, around the whole of the Inner Circle and across most of their routes. Electric trains began running on 1 July 1905, but the MR's poor coordination of the installation work with the MDR's led to disruption for several months.

Exterior view in 1961

On 1 November 1926 the District line began a service between Edgware Road and Putney Bridge. From this date the MR operated all Inner Circle services apart from a few District line operated Sunday services. In 1949, the service was separately identified on the tube map as the Circle line for the first time.

Transport links

London bus route 70 serves the station.

Notes and references

Bibliography

• Day, John R; Reed, John (2008) [1963]. The Story of London's Underground. Capital Transport. ISBN 1-85414-316-6. 
• Rose, Douglas (1999) [1980]. The London Underground, A Diagrammatic History. Douglas Rose/Capital Transport. ISBN 1-85414-219-4. 
• Wolmar, Christian (2005) [2004]. The Subterranean Railway: How the London Underground Was Built and How It Changed the City Forever. Atlantic Books. ISBN 1-84354-023-1. 

External links

• London Transport Museum Photographic Archive
  • Bayswater station, 1868
  • Bayswater station, 1934

Preceding station		London Underground		Following station
Notting Hill Gate towards Hammersmith (via Tower Hill)		Circle line		Paddington towards Edgware Road
Notting Hill Gate towards Wimbledon		District line