Wood Green tube station
| Wood Green | |
 |
|
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Place | Wood Green |
| Local authority | Haringey |
| Operations | |
| Managed by | London Underground |
| Platforms in use | 2 |
| Transport for London | |
| Zone | 3 |
| 2006 annual usage | 10.183 million † |
| 2007 annual usage | 10.968 million † |
| History | |
| 1932 | Opened (Piccadilly Line) |
| Transport for London List of London stations: Underground | National Rail |
|
| † Data from Transport for London [1] | |
Wood Green is a London Underground station on the Piccadilly Line. The station is between Turnpike Lane and Bounds Green stations and is in Travelcard Zone 3. It is located at junction of Wood Green High Road and Lordship Lane. It serves Wood Green Shopping City and the nearby Haringey Council administrative complex as well as a densely populated residential area.
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History
The station opened on 19 September 1932 when the first section of the Cockfosters extension from Finsbury Park was brought into operation
Like all stations on the extension, Wood Green set new aesthetic standards, not previously seen on London's Underground. During the planning period of the extension to Cockfosters, alternate names for this station, "Lordship Lane" and "Wood Green Central", were considered but rejected. Architecturally, this station, designed by the Charles Holden, is a well-preserved example of the modernist house style Holden developed for London Transport in the 1930s. Located on a corner site, the main frontage is curved and is flanked by two ventilation towers, although these are later additions to the station. On the northern side, the structure also incorporates a shop which forms part of the parade in High Road. The other end of the parade features a large London Underground sub-station.
The below surface areas of the station are tiled in biscuit-coloured tiles lined with green friezes. The station tunnels have, in common with those of Manor House and Turnpike Lane, a diameter of 7 metres and were designed for the greater volume of traffic expected. In contrast, Bounds Green and Southgate have only 6.4 metre diameter platform tunnels. The construction of "suicide pits" between the rails was also innovative.
To the north of the station is a reversing siding. This was used for reversing northbound trains so that they could return back towards central London and Hounslow or Uxbridge. Until the 1990s trains were regularly turned back here. However, this was abandoned after Health & Safety laws were introduced which would have meant each train being checked before reversing via the siding[citation needed] - this was deemed to take too long to carry out and would delay the service. Trains now only reverse at Wood Green in times of service disruption, or to regain time after late running.
On 16 March 1976, the station was the site of a Provisional IRA bombing, when a device exploded on an empty train as it prepared to enter the reversing siding, before heading west to pick up football supporters at Arsenal. One passenger standing on the platform was injured by flying glass.[1]
The National Rail station now called Alexandra Palace was formerly called Wood Green; it was renamed in 1984.
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References
- ^ "1976: Tube driver shot dead", On This Day 15 March 1976, BBC News Online. Retrieved on 2007-02-11. "The day after this incident a man was injured when a bomb exploded on a tube train at Wood Green, in north London."
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External links
| Preceding station |  London Underground |
Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piccadilly line |
towards Cockfosters
|
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