Notting Hill Gate tube station

Notting Hill Gate

Entrance through a subway
Notting Hill Gate Location of Notting Hill Gate in Central London
Location	Notting Hill
Local authority	Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Managed by	London Underground
Number of platforms	4
Fare zone	1 and 2
London Underground annual entry and exit
2008	16.850 million
2009	17.365 million
2010	17.880 million
1868	Opened (MR)
1900	Opened (CLR)
Lists of stations	DLR · Underground · National Rail · Tramlink

Notting Hill Gate tube station is a London Underground station in the street known as Notting Hill Gate. On the Central Line, it is between Holland Park to the west and Queensway to the east. On the District Line and Circle Line it is between High Street Kensington and Bayswater stations. It is on the boundary of Travelcard Zone 1 and Zone 2.

History

The sub-surface Circle and District line platforms were opened on 1 October 1868 by the Metropolitan Railway (MR) as part of its extension from Paddington to Gloucester Road. The Central line platforms were opened on 30 July 1900 by the Central London Railway (CLR). Entrances to the two sets of platforms were originally via separate station buildings on opposite sides of the road and access to the CLR platforms was originally via lifts.

The station name Notting Hill Gate had potential for confusion with the MR station to the north in Ladbroke Grove which was known as "Notting Hill" when opened in 1864, and renamed "Notting Hill & Ladbroke Grove" in 1880. This latter station eventually, in 1919, dropped its reference to Notting Hill, becoming "Ladbroke Grove (North Kensington)" in 1919 and, simply, "Ladbroke Grove" in 1938 (see Ladbroke Grove tube station).

Redevelopment

The station was rebuilt in the late 1950s and reopened on 1 March 1959 linking the two 'Notting Hill Gate stations' on the Circle and District and Central lines, which had previously been accessed on either side of the street, with a shared sub-surface ticket hall with escalators down to the Central lines. The escalators were the first on the Underground to have metal side panels rather than wooden. The new entrance also acts as a pedestrian subway under the widened Notting Hill Gate. The mosaic columns at the Southern Entrance were created in 2006 by local public art organisation Urban Eye.

Modernisation

The station is currently, in 2010-11, undergoing modernisation that will see new ceramic tile finishes throughout the subway entrances, deep-level passageways and Central line tube platforms as well as a modified ticket hall layout.

During works a section of lift passageways, from the original 1900 CLR station and that was abandoned during the 1959 reconstruction, was rediscovered and found to contain a series of original posters. Images have been posted here Old posters at Notting Hill Gate station

A scheme was developed by the architects Weston Williamson to provide canopies over the entrances from the street, but this has not been implemented.

Nearby places

• Portobello Road, famous for Portobello Market
• Kensington Palace Gardens

Media appearances

In the 1968 film 'Otley', one of the Central Line platforms at Notting Hill Gate (or a station pretending to be it) is where assassin and coach driver Johnston, played by Leonard Rossiter, blows himself up opening a booby-trapped suitcase full of money.

Layout

The westbound Central Line platform is located above the eastbound platform because when the CLR was built it did not want to tunnel under buildings, and the street above was not wide enough for the two platforms to be side-by-side.

Transport links

London bus routes 27, 28, 31, 52, 70, 94, 148, 328, 390, 452, night routes N28, N31, N52, N207 and Oxford tube coaches.

Gallery

• 

  District & Circle line platforms (September 2006)

• 

  Roof over District & Circle line platforms (September 2006)

• 

  Eastbound Central line platform looking west before refurbishment

External links

• London Transport Museum Photographic Archive
  • Construction of Metropolitan Railway, 1867
  • Construction of Central London Railway platform, 1898
  • Central Line station, 1914
  • Central Line ticket hall, 1927
  • Metropolitan & District Line platforms, 1933
  • New ticket hall, 1959
• More photographs of this station

Preceding station		London Underground		Following station
Holland Park towards Ealing Broadway or West Ruislip		Central line		Queensway towards Epping, Hainault or Woodford (via Hainault)
High Street Kensington towards Hammersmith (via Tower Hill)		Circle line		Bayswater towards Edgware Road
High Street Kensington towards Wimbledon		District line