Kentish Town station

For the London Overground station, see Kentish Town West railway station.

Kentish Town
Kentish Town Location of Kentish Town in Greater London
Location	Kentish Town
Local authority	London Borough of Camden
Managed by	London Underground
Station code	KTN
DfT category	F1
Number of platforms	4 (3 in use) (National Rail) 2 (London Underground)
Fare zone	2
OSI	Kentish Town West
London Underground annual entry and exit
2018	7.62 million
2019	8.12 million
2020	3.26 million
2021	3.71 million
2022	6.30 million
National Rail annual entry and exit
2017–18	2.819 million
2018–19	2.697 million
2019–20	2.857 million
2020–21	0.779 million
2021–22	1.499 million
Key dates
1 October 1868	Opened (Midland)
22 June 1907	Opened (CCE&HR)
Other information
External links	TfL station info page Departures Layout Facilities Buses
Coordinates	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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

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 Midland main line, which are normally unused apart from a handful of Sunday morning services terminating at St Pancras high level using platform 3.
• The fast lines of 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, 1 for each Northern line 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 and St Pancras International stations on the main line.

Services

The National Rail station is operated by Thameslink, which operates all services calling here as well. The normal off-peak calling pattern is 4 trains per hour between St Albans City and Sutton, with 2 going via Mitcham Junction and 2 going via Wimbledon. Some peak-hour, late night or Sunday trains may serve other locations such as Luton, Bedford or Rainham.

East Midlands Railway services from Nottingham, Sheffield, Leicester and Corby, and the other Thameslink services apart from the above pass through but do not stop.

After the bay platforms at Blackfriars station closed in March 2009, Southeastern services which previously terminated at Blackfriars were extended to Kentish Town (off-peak), or St Albans, Luton or Bedford (peak hours).

A major upgrading of the whole Thameslink line infrastructure is underway, for expected completion by 2018. However, the four platforms at Kentish Town station are not being extended from eight to 12 carriages because of road bridges at each end which cannot be relocated, so only services that continue to be served by eight-car trains will be able to call there. The only other Thameslink stations north of the River Thames remaining with eight-car platform lengths will be Hendon and Cricklewood, which are sited either side of a new Thameslink station under construction at Brent Cross West.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
West Hampstead Thameslink		Thameslink Thameslink		St Pancras International
Preceding station	London Underground			Following station
Tufnell Park towards High Barnet or Mill Hill East		Northern line High Barnet branch		Camden Town towards Battersea Power Station, Morden or Kennington
Historical railways
Haverstock Hill Line open, station closed		Midland Railway Midland Main Line		Camden Road (Midland) Line open, station closed
Terminus		Great Eastern Railway Tottenham & Hampstead Junction Railway		Highgate Road Line open, station closed
Former service
Preceding station	London Underground			Following station
Tufnell Park towards Highgate		Northern line (1907–24)		South Kentish Town towards Charing Cross or Clapham Common

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 by a high-up sign that fell off Kentish Town station. The sign, with the logos of TfL and British Rail (visible in the image at the top of this page), had been reported as looking as if it was about to fall, but no action was taken at the time.

External links

• Train times and station information for Kentish Town station from National Rail
• London Transport Museum Photographic Archive Station building in 1925.