White City Depot

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White City Depot
Location
Location White City, London
Coordinates 51°30′26″N0°13′24″W / 51.507157°N 0.223453°W / 51.507157; -0.223453
Characteristics
Roads16
Rolling stock 1992 Stock
History
Opened1900 (depot)
2007 (sidings)

White City Depot is one of three traction maintenance depots on the Central line of the London Underground. [1] [2] [3] [4] It is between Shepherd's Bush and White City tube stations. A depot on the site first opened in 1900 by the Central London Railway when the line first went into operation. A new underground depot opened in 2007, as part of the Westfield London shopping centre development. [5] This makes it one of only two depots on the London Underground to be completely underground, the other being Waterloo Underground Depot on the Waterloo and City line.

Contents

History

1900 map showing the depot with the generating station Extract of 1900 map showing Shepherd's Bush Green.png
1900 map showing the depot with the generating station

Originally called Wood Lane depot, [6] the depot became operational on 1 March 1900 when the first trains were test-run to Queen's Road (now Queensway). [6] The CLR opened on 30 July 1900, [7] with a sharp curve west of Shepherd's Bush tube station to reach the depot, which was also used as a reversing siding. On 14 May 1908, [7] the line was extended to Wood Lane station at the north end of the site to serve the Franco-British Exhibition with an anti-clockwise loop back to Shepherd's Bush station. Wood Lane station was closed in 1947 when White City station was opened to the north. [7]

On the depot site was the CLR's power station which generated the electricity to run the railway's trains. The power station closed on 18 March 1928 when power began to be supplied from Lots Road Power Station. [8] Later used as a workshop by an engineering company, the power station buildings, now known as the Dimco Buildings, remain and now serve as part of White City bus station.

2000s rebuild of the depot

White City depot under construction in 2006, as part of the Westfield London development Westfield development1.jpg
White City depot under construction in 2006, as part of the Westfield London development

As part of the construction of the Westfield London shopping centre, the original depot along with the disused Wood Lane platforms and station building were demolished. A new depot was built in a slightly different location, located directly beneath the shopping centre - funded by Westfield. The new depot opened in January 2007, with 16 stabling sidings, one more than previously. [5] [9] The White City depot is the closest depot to Central London of any tube line. [10] Since the 1990s, all trains stabled at the depot are 1992 Stock.

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shepherd's Bush</span> Suburb of West London, England

Shepherd's Bush is a suburb of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham 4.9 miles (7.9 km) west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stations around Shepherd's Bush</span>

Shepherd's Bush is an area of west London, England, which has been served by a number of London Underground and commuter rail stations over the past 150 years, many of which have had similar names. The names Shepherd's Bush, Wood Lane and White City have each been used by several separate stations around the Shepherd's Bush district, following a number of station renamings and closures.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wood Lane</span>

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

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Wood Lane is a former station on the London Underground located in Shepherd's Bush, west London. It was latterly served by the Central line and from 1908 to 1920 was the western terminus of the Central line's precursor, the Central London Railway (CLR).

Wood Lane was a station on the London Underground that was located in Shepherd's Bush, west London. It was opened in 1908 on the Hammersmith branch of the Metropolitan Railway, on the viaduct adjacent to the bridge over Wood Lane and close to a station of the same name but on the Central London Railway.

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

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shepherd's Bush Market tube station</span> London Underground station

Shepherd's Bush Market is a London Underground station in the district of Shepherd's Bush in west London, England. It is on the Circle and Hammersmith & City Lines, between Goldhawk Road and Wood Lane stations, and it is in Travelcard Zone 2. Shepherd's Bush Market, from which the station takes its name, is an open-air market which runs parallel to the railway line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Bell Measures</span>

Harry Bell Measures (1862–1940) was an English architect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westfield London</span> Shopping centre in White City, London

Westfield London is a large shopping centre in White City, west London, England, developed by the Westfield Group at a cost of £1.6bn, on a brownfield site formerly the home of the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition. The site is bounded by the West Cross Route (A3220), the Westway (A40) and Wood Lane (A219). It opened on 30 October 2008 and became the largest covered shopping development in the capital; originally a retail floor area of 1,600,000 sq ft (150,000 m2), further investment and expansion led to it becoming the largest shopping centre in the UK and Europe by March 2018, an area of 2,600,000 sq ft (240,000 m2).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway</span> Underground railway company in London

The Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR), also known as the Piccadilly tube, was a railway company established in 1902 that constructed a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London, England. The GNP&BR was formed through a merger of two older companies, the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway (B&PCR) and the Great Northern and Strand Railway (GN&SR). It also incorporated part of a tube route planned by a third company, the District Railway (DR). The combined company was a subsidiary of the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL).

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shepherd's Bush railway station</span> London Overground station

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Shepherd's Bush</span>

Shepherd's Bush is a neighbourhood in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham centred on Shepherd's Bush Green. Originally a pasture for shepherds on their way to Smithfield market, it was largely developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1844 the West London Railway officially opened, followed in 1864 by the Metropolitan Railway who built the original Shepherd's Bush station, opening up the area to residential development. Businesses soon followed, and in 1903 the west side of Shepherd's Bush Green became the home of the Shepherd's Bush Empire, a music hall whose early performers included Charlie Chaplin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dimco Buildings</span> Historic structure in White City, London

The Dimco Buildings are a pair of 19th-century structures in White City, London, just north of Shepherd's Bush. Originally built in 1898 as an electric railway power station, they are now in use as a bus station.

References

  1. ↑ Jefford, Wg Cdr C. G. (19 May 2014). Observers and Navigators: And Other Non-Pilot Aircrew in the RFC, RNAS and RAF. Grub Street Publishing. ISBN   9781909808027 – via Google Books.
  2. ↑ Travers, Tony (24 November 2015). London Boroughs at 50. Biteback Publishing. ISBN   9781785900112 – via Google Books.
  3. ↑ "Railway Gazette International". Reed Business Pub. 30 July 1949 – via Google Books.
  4. ↑ Davies, Reginald; Grant, M. D. (30 April 1983). London and Its Railways. David & Charles. ISBN   9780715381076 – via Google Books.
  5. 1 2 "White City Central Line Sidings". Ian Ritchie Architects. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
  6. 1 2 Badsey-Ellis, Antony (2016). Building London's Underground: From Cut-and Cover to Crossrail. Capital Transport. p. 108. ISBN   978-1-8541-4397-6.
  7. 1 2 3 Rose, Douglas (2016) [1980]. The London Underground, A Diagrammatic History (9th ed.). Douglas Rose/Capital Transport. ISBN   978-1-85414-404-1.
  8. ↑ Day, John R; Reed, John (2010) [1963]. The Story of London's Underground (11th ed.). Capital Transport. p. 98. ISBN   978-1-85414-341-9.
  9. ↑ "White City Sidings". www.watermangroup.com. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
  10. ↑ Purley, Pedantic of (7 June 2012). "A Brief History of Sidings". London Reconnections. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
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