Leicester Square tube station

Leicester Square
Leicester Square
	Station entrance
	Leicester Square Location of Leicester Square in Central London
Location	Theatreland and Chinatown
Local authority	City of Westminster
Managed by	London Underground
Number of platforms	4
Fare zone	1
London Underground annual entry and exit
2019	34.56 million
2020	3.95 million
2021	16.35 million
2022	29.39 million
2023	27.38 million
Railway companies
Original company	Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway ; Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway
Key dates
15 December 1906	GNP&B station opened
22 June 1907	CCE&H station opened
Other information
External links	TfL station info page ;
Coordinates	51°30′41″N0°07′41″W / 51.51139°N 0.12806°W
	London transportportal

Last updated December 10, 2024

Leicester Square is a London Underground station in the West End of London, within walking distance of Theatreland and Chinatown, as well as the southern reaches of Soho. It is located on Charing Cross Road, a short distance to the east of Leicester Square itself.

History

On early Tube plans, the station was listed as Cranbourn Street, but the present name was used by the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway when the station opened on 15 December 1906.^[6]

Like other stations on the original sections of the Piccadilly and Northern lines, the station was originally constructed with lifts providing access to the platforms. The increase in passenger numbers in the 1920s as the Northern line was extended north (to Edgware) and south (to Morden) and the expected further increase from the 1930s extensions of the Piccadilly line led to the reconstruction of the station below ground in the early 1930s. New station entrances were constructed to a new sub-surface ticket hall. As with the similar sub-surface ticket hall previously built at Piccadilly Circus, this was excavated partially under the roadway. From there banks of escalators were provided down to both sets of platforms. The redundant lifts were removed but the lift shaft remains in use as a ventilation shaft hidden behind a small door on the first landing of the Cranbourn Street entrance stairs. The redeveloped station opened in 1935.^[7]

The escalators down to the Piccadilly line (the longest in the UK when opened in 1935) ^[8] were the longest on the entire Underground network, being 54 m (177 ft) in length, until the rebuilding and reopening of Angel in 1992, which overtook Leicester Square with its 60 m (197 ft) escalators.^[9]

Offices above the red terracotta station building on the east side of Charing Cross Road were once occupied by the Northern line management staff but now have other functions in addition to the Northern line management, with Piccadilly line management and support functions on the first floor including a training centre. The building, known as Transad House, was occupied in its early years by the publishers of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack and an image of cricket stumps appears above a doorway.

On all four platforms, film sprockets are painted down the entire length and on the top and bottom of the display area (blue on the Piccadilly line platforms, and black on the Northern line platforms), in reference to the four premiere cinemas in Leicester Square.

Connections

London Buses routes 24, 29, 176 and night routes N5, N20, N29, N41 and N279 serve the station.^[10]^[11]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knightsbridge tube station</span> London Underground station

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References

↑ "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.
↑ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2020. Transport for London. 16 April 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
↑ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2021. Transport for London. 12 July 2022. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
↑ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2022. Transport for London. 4 October 2023. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
↑ "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2023. Transport for London. 8 August 2024. Retrieved 16 September 2024.
↑ Follenfant, H. G. (1975). Reconstructing London's underground. London Transport Executive. p. 45. ISBN 9780853290391.
↑ "Underground Journeys: Leicester Square". Royal Institute of British Architects. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011.
↑ Lee, Charles (1973). The Piccadilly Line. London: London Regional Transport. p. 23. ISBN 0853290423.
↑ "Underground Journeys: Escalators". Royal Institute of British Architects. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011.
↑ "Buses from Leicester Square" (PDF). TfL. June 2022. Retrieved 1 August 2022.
↑ "Night buses from Leicester Square" (PDF). TfL. June 2022. Retrieved 1 August 2022.

External links

Preceding station	London Underground			Following station
Piccadilly Circus towards Uxbridge, Rayners Lane or Heathrow Airport (Terminal 4 or Terminal 5)		Piccadilly line		Covent Garden towards Cockfosters or Arnos Grove
Tottenham Court Road towards Edgware, Mill Hill East or High Barnet		Northern line Charing Cross Branch		Charing Cross towards Battersea Power Station, Morden or Kennington

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[infobox_stats_ref_tube_2019-1] "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.

[infobox_stats_ref_tube_2020-2] "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2020. Transport for London. 16 April 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2022.

[infobox_stats_ref_tube_2021-3] "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2021. Transport for London. 12 July 2022. Retrieved 7 September 2022.

[infobox_stats_ref_tube_2022-4] "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2022. Transport for London. 4 October 2023. Retrieved 10 October 2023.

[infobox_stats_ref_tube_2023-5] "Station Usage Data" (XLSX). Usage Statistics for London Stations, 2023. Transport for London. 8 August 2024. Retrieved 16 September 2024.

[Follenfant1975-6] Follenfant, H. G. (1975). Reconstructing London's underground. London Transport Executive. p. 45. ISBN 9780853290391.

[arch_leicsq-7] "Underground Journeys: Leicester Square". Royal Institute of British Architects. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011.

[8] Lee, Charles (1973). The Piccadilly Line. London: London Regional Transport. p. 23. ISBN 0853290423.

[arch_esc-9] "Underground Journeys: Escalators". Royal Institute of British Architects. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011.

[10] "Buses from Leicester Square" (PDF). TfL. June 2022. Retrieved 1 August 2022.

[11] "Night buses from Leicester Square" (PDF). TfL. June 2022. Retrieved 1 August 2022.

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