Liverpool Street station
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Liverpool Street station, also called London Liverpool Street, is a mainline railway station in the north eastern corner of the City of London, in the heart of the financial district, with entrances on Bishopsgate and Liverpool Street itself. A small shopping mall on the west side of the station connects with Broadgate Circle. It is one of seventeen UK railway stations managed by Network Rail. The station is in Travelcard Zone 1.
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Destinations
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Liverpool Street serves destinations in eastern England including Stansted Airport, Cambridge, Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth, Norwich, Ipswich, Chelmsford, Colchester, Braintree, and the port of Harwich, as well as many suburban stations in north-eastern London. It is one of the busiest commuter stations in London. A daily express train to Harwich connects with the ferry from Harwich to Hoek van Holland. Trains from Liverpool Street do not go to Liverpool. For that city, Euston is the London terminus.
Almost all passenger services from Liverpool Street are operated by one. one operate local and suburban services on the Great Eastern and West Anglia lines, express services to Colchester, Ipswich and Norwich as well as local services in the East Anglia region. These routes are collectively known as the Greater Anglia network.
Two weekday evening services are operated by c2c to Southend and Shoeburyness. All other c2c services depart from Fenchurch Street station.
Both one and c2c are owned by National Express Group.
History
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The station was opened in 1874 by the Great Eastern Railway. It was designed by the Great Eastern's chief engineer, Edward Wilson and was built on the site of the original Bethlem Royal Hospital. A Corporation of London plaque commemorating the station's construction hangs on the wall of the adjoining former Great Eastern Hotel, which was designed by Charles Barry (junior) (son of Sir Charles Barry) and his brother Edward Middleton Barry. The station was named after the street on which it stands, which in turn was named in honour of British Prime Minister Lord Liverpool, having been built as part of an extension of the City of London towards the end of his term in office.
The station was the first place in London to be hit by German Gotha bomber aircraft during World War I. The May 1917 bombing, which saw the station take a direct hit from 1,000 pounds of bombs, killed 162 people.
The station was extensively modified between 1985 and 1992, including bringing all the platforms in the main shed up to the same end point and construcitong a new underground booking office, but its facade, steam age iron pillars and the honour roll for Great Eastern Railway employees that died in the Great War were retained. It was officially re-opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1991.
London Underground station
The connected London Underground station has sub-surface platforms (opened in 1875) on the Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines. The station to the west on all three lines is Moorgate, and the station to the east is Aldgate for the Circle and Metropolitan lines. The Hammersmith & City's next stop is Aldgate East.
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Below the main line and sub-suface station complex are deep level tube platforms for east and westbound Central Line services. The Central Line platforms opened on July 28, 1912, at which time it was the eastern end of what was then known as the Central London Railway. The station is now between Bethnal Green and Bank stations.
Current plans for the Crossrail service would see a new station at Liverpool Street with full mainline and underground connections.
In fiction
Recent fictional "docu-drama" portrayals of how a terrorist organisation might seek to attack London have frequently chosen Liverpool Street station as the specific target. London under attack, first shown by the BBC's Panorama programme in May 2004, saw a lorry containing chlorine gas deliberately exploded at the junction of Shoreditch High Street and Commercial Street, just north of Liverpool Street station. In the programme the gas cloud hung over the station, and eventually killed 3000 people. In a second programme, Dirty War, also produced by the BBC and first shown in October 2004, a suicide terrorist detonates a "dirty bomb" just ouside the station, killing 200 people and rendering the area uninhabitable for 30 years. Andy McNab's fictional novel Dark Winter also makes the station the target of a similar attack.
The programmers said that their programmes were backed by research and intended to be realistic imaginings. They said they chose Liverpool Street because of its unique position, on the border between the City of London and the East End. The British Government denounced both programmes as alarmist.
A CIA safehouse features above the entrance to Liverpool Street Underground station in the intentionally fictional movie version of Mission Impossible.
External links
- Station information (http://www.networkrail.co.uk/Stations/stations/liverpoolstreet/Default.aspx) on Liverpool Street station from Network Rail
- Webcams (http://www.vicinitee.com/docs/travel/webcams/index.cfa) of the station's departure boards, from vicinitee.com
- 'one' Railway (http://www.onerailway.com/)
- Stansted Express (http://www.stanstedexpress.co.uk)
- BBC Panorama programme featuring Liverpool Street station (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/3686201.stm)
- Daily Telegraph article about the furore following the "Dirty War" documentary featuring Liverpool St. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/03/ndirty03.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/10/03/ixhome.html)
References
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