THE CITY EXTENSION OF THE NORTH LONDON RAILWAY.
The new branch of the North London Railway, opened for traffic several weeks will be of the greatest use to passengers wishing to reach Kingsland, Islington, Camden Town, or Hampstead, from the City, as they will be able to save a distance of four miles and twenty minutes in time. They can now book at the Liverpool-street station for the north of London, instead of having to make the long detour by way of Fenchurch-street. The line is about two miles long, and has three stations, the terminal one at Liverpool-street, City; one at Shoreditch, immediately opposite the church; and a junction at Dalston-lane, Kingsland. At this junction the lines form a fork, that on the west leading to Chalk Farm and other stations, and that on the east to Bow. The new line, which has been constructed under the superintendence of Mr. W. Baker, engineer to the London and North-Western Railway Company, has cost, including purchased property, no less a sum than £1,200,000. Our Illustration gives a view of the fine station in Liverpool-street, erected for the joint use of the London and North-Western Railway and the North London Railway. It is built in the mixed Italian style, and is rather more decorated than most stations of a similar kind. Each company has separate booking-offices and independent means of entrance and exit. The booking-offices form spacious halls, 60 ft. high, lighted from the roof, and communicating with the waiting-rooms, which are comfortably provided. The station is 250 ft. long by 110 ft. broad. The covered way beyond has two great spans of iron and glass, of very handsome a ice, 460 ft. long and 200 ft. wide, giving space for four lines of rails and very wide platforms. The principal of these, which runs along the entire length of the station, is 50 ft. in width. Nearly adjoining this station will be the future terminus of the Great Eastern, viâ Shoreditch. In the construction of this, provision will be made underneath for the terminus of the East London Railway — a line which commences at New Cross and uses the Thames Tunnel. This line also forms a part of that metropolitan system of railways which was recommended by the joint committee of both Houses last year. The new North London station has a clock-tower 75 ft. high, and an external staircase at the east end; white Suffolk brick has been judiciously preferred to stucco. The capitals, the modillions, and other ornaments are of terra-cotta, and the columns of polished Peterhead granite. At the rear, and near to Sun-street, will be the goods’ station of the London and North-Western, so that in a short time an enormous railway business will be carried on in this neighbourhood.
Commentary
Described by John Betjeman as being in "the best Town Hall style of 1866," this station "with its splendid roofs and chimney stacks and brickwork and ironwork" looked far more impressive than Liverpool Street Station, which opened close to it in 1874 (50). The two neighbouring stations were the termini for two different lines: whereas Broad Street was for the short North London Railway, Liverpool Street was the terminus for the Great Eastern Railway. The older station was so well used that it had to be expanded more than once, and the provision for goods did indeed prove useful and profitable: "that space must surely have yielded a revenue unmatched by any similar plot elsewhere on the Victorian railway system" (Simmons 44).
The line that the station served was popular with commuters for several decades. Nikolaus Pevsner could write in passing of "the railway crossing from Dalston Junction to Camden Road on the Broad-Street-Richmond line" (231). Well before his time, however, it had started losing out to the tube, buses and trams, and was already in decline. While Betjeman admired the terminus itself, not to mention the line's interesting route and "great individuality," he also reported its "fallen greatness" (50). He hoped that its fortunes could be reversed, ending his account of it with a plea: "May God save the old North London!" (51). But it finally closed in 1986, and the station area has since become part of the strikingly contemporary development of offices, shops and restaurants called Broadgate Circle.
Image scan, transcription, commentary and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee. [You may use the image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Bibliography
Betjeman, John. London's Historic Railway Stations. Photographer, John Gay. London: John Murray, 1972.
"The City Extension of the North London Railway." The Illustrated London News Vol. 48 (3 February 1866): 117-18. Internet Archive. Web. 15 June 2026.
Pevsner, Nikolaus. London, except the cities of London and Westminster. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1952.
Simmons, Jack. The Victorian Railway. Corrected ed. London: Thames and Hudson, 1995.
Created 16 June 2026