High Street Kensington tube station

High Street Kensington
Entrance is through Kensington Arcade
High Street Kensington Location of High Street Kensington in Central London
Location	Kensington High Street
Local authority	Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Managed by	London Underground
Number of platforms	4
Fare zone	1
London Underground annual entry and exit
2019	11.69 million [1]
2020	3.57 million [2]
2021	4.45 million [3]
2022	8.54 million [4]
2023	9.41 million [5]
Key dates
1 October 1868	Opened
25 November 1963	Goods yard closed [6]
Other information
External links	TfL station info page
Coordinates	51°30′03″N0°11′33″W / 51.5008°N 0.1925°W / 51.5008; -0.1925
London transportportal

High Street Kensington is a London Underground station on Kensington High Street, in Kensington. The station is on the Circle line between Notting Hill Gate and Gloucester Road stations, and on the District line between Earl's Court and Notting Hill Gate stations. It is located in Travelcard Zone 1. Kensington Arcade forms the entrance to the station.

Station layout

The station itself has four platforms─two through platforms and two bay platforms. Platform 1 is used for anticlockwise Circle line and westbound District line trains towards Gloucester Road and Earl's Court respectively. Platform 2 is for clockwise Circle line and eastbound District line trains towards Edgware Road. Platforms 3 and 4 are used for terminating District line trains from Earl's Court. Platform 3 is usually used for the Olympia service, which runs weekends and for special events, and platform 4 is usually only used at the start and end of the day. There used to be a waiting room between Platform 2 and 3 for customer use, but this was turned into a staff room for drivers shortly before the Circle line extension to Hammersmith was implemented in December 2009.

On Platform 3, westbound, there is one of the few surviving K8 telephone kiosks. Now used for the TfL internal system, the kiosk is Grade II listed. ^[7]

Just south of the station is the junction where the Circle and District lines diverge.

Services

The typical off-peak service from this station is:

• 12 tph (trains per hour) to Edgware Road via Paddington (6 tph District line, 6 tph Circle line)
• 6 tph to Wimbledon via Earl's Court (District line)
• 6 tph anticlockwise on the Circle line via Victoria and Embankment to Hammersmith

Weekends and Special Events only:

• 3 tph to Kensington (Olympia) via Earl's Court (District line)

Connections

London Buses routes 9, 23, 27, 28, 49, 52, 70, 328, 452 and C1, night routes N9, N27, N28 and N31 and Green Line route 702 serve the station. ^{[8] [9]}

Brief history

The station's platforms in 1892

The station was originally built by the Metropolitan Railway after parliament passed the Metropolitan Railway's and Metropolitan District Railway's Bill in 1864. Work started in 1865, and in 1867 a barrel roof enclosed the station designed by the Metropolitan Railway's engineer Sir John Fowler. ^[10] The station, originally titled Kensington Station, had four lines, two for the Metropolitan Railway and two for the Metropolitan District Railway. The station was further redeveloped under the plans of the Metropolitan Railway's consultant architect, George Campbell Sherrin, between 1906 and 1907. ^{[10] [11]} Sherrin's designs saw the barrel roof taken off with the platforms covered by plain wooden shelters on iron columns. The North end of the platforms saw a new superstructure built over them, which contained a new octagonal booking hall, and an arcade that lead to the High Street. The space in the arcade was taken by neighbouring department stores Pontings and Derry & Toms. ^{[10] [12] [13] [14]} The octagonal booking hall was rebuilt by London Transport in 1937-38 to increase its capacity. ^{[10] [13]}

Gallery

• 
  High Street Kensington Roundel
• 
  Entrance from Kensington Arcade
• 
  Detail above entranceway
• 
  A District line S7 Stock train on bay platform 3 for the shuttle service to Olympia.
• 
  The Grade II listed telephone kiosk on platform 3

See also

• Cromwell Curve

References

1. "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2019. Transport for London. 23 September 2020. Archived from the original on 9 November 2020. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
2. "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2020. Transport for London. 16 April 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
3. "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2021. Transport for London. 12 July 2022. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
4. "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2022. Transport for London. 4 October 2023. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
5. "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2023. Transport for London. 8 August 2024. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
6. Hardy, Brian, ed. (March 2011). "How it used to be – freight on The Underground 50 years ago". Underground News (591). London Underground Railway Society: 175–183. ISSN   0306-8617.
7. Historic England (31 May 2023). "K8 kiosk at Chalfont and Latimer Station (Grade II) (1484974)". National Heritage List for England .
8. "Buses from Kensington High Street" (PDF). TfL. 12 November 2022. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
9. "Night buses from Kensington High Street" (PDF). TfL. 10 July 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
10. London County Council, London (1986). Survey of London: Volume 42, Kensington Square To Earl's Court. pp. 77–98.
11. Jackson, Alan Arthur (1986). London's Metropolitan Railway. p. 197. ISBN   0715388398.
12. "B/W print; Exterior view of High Street Kensington Underground station by H K Nolan, 4 Feb 1959". London Transport Museum. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
13. "High Street Kensington". Heritage Gateway. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
14. "Company: Ponting Brothers". House of Fraser Archive at University of Glasgow. Retrieved 7 June 2024.

Preceding station	London Underground			Following station
Gloucester Road towards Hammersmith via  Tower Hill		Circle line		Notting Hill Gate towards Edgware Road
Earl's Court towards Wimbledon		District line Edgware Road branch
Earl's Court towards Ealing Broadway or Kensington (Olympia)		District line		Terminus