Highgate tube station

Highgate
Location	Highgate
Local authority	Haringey
Managed by	London Underground
Number of platforms	2
Other information
London transport portal

Highgate tube station is a London Underground station on Archway Road near to Highgate in north London. The station is on the High Barnet branch of the Northern Line, between Archway and East Finchley stations, and is in Travelcard Zone 3.

The present station (Low Level) was built in the late 1930s as part of London Underground's Northern Heights plan. It is only part of the planned station but the advent of the Second World War postponed parts of the project and eventually lead to its cancellation. For interchange purposes, the Low Level station was built directly below an existing London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) station (High Level).

High Level station

Highgate station was originally constructed by the Edgware, Highgate and London Railway in the 1860s on its line from Finsbury Park to Edgware. Before the line was opened it was purchased in July 1867 by the larger Great Northern Railway (GNR), whose main line from King's Cross ran through Finsbury Park on its way to Potters Bar and the north. The railway to Edgware opened as a single track line on 22 August 1867.

Because of the hilly terrain, the station was built in a deep cutting excavated from Highgate Hill adjacent to Archway Road. Tunnels penetrated the hillside at each end of the station leading to East Finchley to the north and Crouch End to the south.

A branch line was constructed from Highgate to Alexandra Palace by the Muswell Hill Railway (MHR) and opened on 22 May 1872. The new branch split from the original route north of the station in a wide arc around Highgate Wood. The next station on the branch line when it opened was Muswell Hill, but, in 1902, an intervening station was opened at Cranley Gardens.

In 1911, the MHR branch was taken over by the GNR. After the 1921 Railways Act created the Big Four railway companies, the GNR was, from 1923, part of the LNER.

Low Level station

The construction of the Northern Heights Project extended tube train services from the Northern Line's terminus at Archway (then called Highgate) through a new section of paired tunnels under the High Level station to emerge north west of Highgate station where connections to the LNER tracks on to East Finchley were made.

Services through the tunnel to East Finchley started operating on 3 July 1939 although the Low Level station and interchange with the High Level station did not open until 19 January 1941.

Wartime and after - Postponement & cancellation

Because of the war the full plan for the reconstruction of the station designed by Charles Holden was not completed and parts for escalators intended for Highgate were used in central London stations. Works to electricify the LNER tracks from Finsbury Park, through Highgate to East Finchley and on the Alexandra Palace branch had been well advanced when war started but were postponed.

LNER trains continued to serve the High Level station, with services to East Finchley continuing until 2 March 1941. After that date LNER trains operated between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace only. The start of Underground services between Finchley Central and Mill Hill East in May 1941 was the last part of the Northern Heights Project to be completed.

After the war, maintenance works and reconstruction of war damage on the existing network had the greatest call on London Underground funds. Funds for new works were severely limited and the priority was given to the completion of the Central Line extensions to West Rusilp, Epping and Hainault. The reminaining elements of the Northern Heights Project were cancelled in 1950.

After a temporary closure between October 1951 and January 1952, British Railways (the sucessor to the LNER) ended services between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace permanently on 3 July 1954.

The unfulfilled plans for the station involved a much more substantial station building than the inconsequental structures that were eventually built. A large building at the top of the hill would have been the main entrance with dual escalators in a stepped enclosure down to the level of the surface platforms where a secondary entrance would have provided access from the car park. The building would haven been topped by a statue of Dick Whittington and his cat by Eric Aumonier who created the Archer statue at East Finchley. The current buildings were built on a much more modest scale and the escalator link to the high level exit was not built until 1957.

The surface platforms and their buildings are still in place and are visible, where not obscured by trees on the sides of the cutting. A surviving station building from the GNR station, now a private house, may be seen from Priory Gardens.

Transport links

London bus routes 43, 134 and 263 serve the station.

The nearest station to Highgate Cemetery is Archway tube station.

External links

• Highgate station in its cutting on a 1870s Ordnance Survey map
• Location of the station on Multimap
• London's Transport Museum Photographic Archive
  • Entrance to LNER station in 1935
  • Shepherd's Hill entrance in 1955
  • Priory Gardens entrance in 1955. Buildings on Archway Road are visible beyond, showing depth of cutting in which the surface station was built.
  • New Archway Road exit in 1957 after escalator was installed.
• Disused Stations - Highgate (High Level)
• Images of Highgate station including Holden's proposals

Template:Start LUL box Template:LUL line |}