Baker Street tube station

Baker Street
Station entrance
Baker Street Location of Baker Street in Central London
Location	Marylebone
Local authority	City of Westminster
Managed by	London Underground
Station code	ZBS
Number of platforms	10
Fare zone	1
OSI	Marylebone
London Underground annual entry and exit
2011	27.02 million
2012	27.74 million
2013	28.10 million
2014	32.18 million
Key dates
1863 (1863)	Opened (MR)
1868	Opened (MR platforms to north)
1906	Opened (BS&WR, as terminus)
1907	Extended (BSWR - Marylebone)
1939	Started (Bakerloo to Stanmore)
1961	Ended (Met to Aylesbury)
1979	Ended (Bakerloo to Stanmore)
1979	Started (Jubilee line)
1990	Ended (Met to H'smith/Barking)
1990	Started (Hammersmith & City)
Listed status
Listing grade	II* (since 28 June 2010)
Entry number	1239815
Added to list	26 March 1987
Other information
Lists of stations	DLR Underground National Rail Tramlink
External links	Departures Layout Facilities Buses
London Transport portal

Baker Street is a station on the London Underground at the junction of Baker Street and the Marylebone Road. The station lies in Travelcard Zone 1 and is served by five different lines. It is one of the original stations of the Metropolitan Railway (MR), the world's first underground railway, opened in 1863.

On the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines it is between Great Portland Street and Edgware Road. On the Metropolitan line it is between Great Portland Street and Finchley Road. On the Bakerloo line it is between Regent's Park and Marylebone, and on the Jubilee line it is between Bond Street and St. John's Wood.

Location

The station has entrances on Baker Street, Chiltern Street (ticket holders only) and Marylebone Road. Nearby attractions include Regent's Park, Lord's Cricket Ground, the Sherlock Holmes Museum and Madame Tussauds.

History

Metropolitan line

Route diagram which shows the original route between Paddington and Farringdon.

In the first half of the 19th century, the population and physical extent of London grew greatly. The congested streets and the distance to the City from the stations to the north and west prompted many attempts to get parliamentary approval to build new railway lines into the City. In 1852, Charles Pearson planned a railway from Farringdon to King's Cross. Although the plan was supported by the City, the railway companies were not interested and the company struggled to proceed. The Bayswater, Paddington, and Holborn Bridge Railway Company was established to connect the Great Western Railway (GWR)'s Paddington station to Pearson's route at King's Cross. A bill was published in November 1852 and in January 1853 the directors held their first meeting and appointed John Fowler as its engineer. Several bills were submitted for a route between Paddington and Farringdon. The company's name was also to be changed again, to Metropolitan Railway and the route was approved on 7 August 1854.

Baker Street station was opened by the MR on 10 January 1863 (these platforms are now served by the Circle and Hammersmith & City lines). On 13 April 1868, the MR opened the first section of Metropolitan and St John's Wood Railway as a branch from its existing route. This line, serving the open-air platforms, was steadily extended to Willesden Green and northwards, finally reaching Aylesbury Town and Verney Junction (some 50 miles/80 km from Baker Street) in 1892. The MR station mainly competed for traffic with Euston, where the LNWR provided local services to Middlesex and Watford, and later with Marylebone, where the GCR provided expresses to Aylesbury and beyond on the same line.

Over the next few decades this section of the station was extensively rebuilt to provide four platforms. The current Metropolitan line layout largely dates from 1925, and the bulk of the surface buildings, designed by architect Charles Walter Clark, also date from this period.

Bakerloo line and Jubilee line

Route diagram which shows the original route between Baker Street and Waterloo.

In November 1891, a private bill was presented to Parliament for the construction of the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway (BS&WR). The railway was planned to run entirely underground from Marylebone to Elephant & Castle via Baker Street and Waterloo and was approved in 1900. Construction commenced in August 1898 under the direction of Sir Benjamin Baker, W.R. Galbraith and R.F. Church with building work by Perry & Company of Tredegar Works, Bow. Test trains began running in 1905. The official opening of the BS&WR by Sir Edwin Cornwall took place on 10 March 1906. The first section of the BS&WR was between Baker Street and Lambeth North. Baker Street was the temporary northern terminus of the line until it was extended to Marylebone on 27 March 1907, a year after the rest of the line. The original station building stood on Baker Street and served the tube platforms with lifts, but these were supplemented with escalators in 1914, linking the Metropolitan line and the Bakerloo line platforms by a new concourse excavated under the Metropolitan line.

On 20 November 1939, following the construction of an additional southbound platform and connecting tube tunnels between Baker Street and Finchley Road stations, the Bakerloo line took over the Metropolitan line's stopping services between Finchley Road and Wembley Park and its Stanmore branch. The current Bakerloo ticket hall and escalators to the lower concourse were provided in conjunction with the new service. The Jubilee line added an extra northbound platform and replaced the Bakerloo line service to Stanmore from its opening on 1 May 1979.

Incidents

On 18 June 1925, electric locomotive No.4 collided with a passenger train when a signal was changed from green to red just as the locomotive was passing it. Six people were injured.

On 23 August 1973, a bomb was found in a carrier bag in the ticket hall. The bomb was defused by the bomb squad. A week later, on 30 August, a member of staff found another bomb left on the overbridge. Again, it was defused without any injury.

The station today

Unique tile-work in this station, commemorates the fictional Sherlock Holmes's association with Baker Street

Of the MR's original stations, the sub-surface Circle and Hammersmith and City line platforms are the best preserved. Plaques along the platform show old plans and photographs of the station.

The station layout is rather complex. The sub-surface station is connected to the open-air Metropolitan line station. This is a terminus for some Metropolitan line trains, but there is also a connecting curve that joins to the Circle line just beyond the platforms that allows Metropolitan line trains to run to Aldgate in the City of London. Below this is a deep-level tube station for the Bakerloo and Jubilee lines. These are arranged in a cross-platform interchange layout and there are connections between the two lines just to the north of the station. Access to the Bakerloo and Jubilee lines is only via escalators.

A Hammersmith and City Line train to Barking arrives at Baker Street's oldest platforms built in 1863

Metropolitan line platforms

With ten platforms overall, Baker Street has the most London Underground platforms of any station on the network. Since Swiss Cottage and St. John's Wood have replaced the former three stations between Finchley Road and Baker Street on the Metropolitan line, it takes an average of five and a half minutes to travel between them.

Outside the Marylebone Road exits, a large statue of Sherlock Holmes commemorates the fictional detective's association with 221B Baker Street. A restoration in the 1980s on the oldest portion of the Baker Street station brought it back to something similar to its 1863 appearance.

The station is operated by the Metropolitan line management team. Offices of the line are within the vicinity of the station.

Station improvements

Step-free access project

In 2008 TfL proposed a project to provide step-free access to the sub-surface platforms. The project was a TfL-funded Games-enabling project in its investment programme (and not a project specifically funded as a result of the success of the London 2012 Games bid). The project was included in the strategy on accessible transport published by the London 2012 Olympic Delivery Authority and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Access to the Metropolitan line platforms 1-4 (serving trains to and from Finchley Road) would be provided by a bridge from the Bakerloo and Jubilee line ticket hall, with a lift from the bridge to each island platform. Through a passage from platforms 1-2, this would also give step-free access to platform 5 (Circle and Hammersmith & City line eastbound trains). Access to platform 6 (Circle and Hammersmith & City line westbound trains) would be provided by demolishing the triangular building outside the station, on the north side of Marylebone Road, and taking over the public pedestrian subway under Marylebone Road to provide a link between a lift up from platform 5 to the subway and a lift at the other end of the subway down to platform 6. The replacement for the triangular building would also act as an emergency exit for the station.

TfL applied for planning permission and listed building consent for providing access to platforms 5 and 6 on 1 October 2008, but the application was subsequently withdrawn. (The part of the proposed scheme to provide step-free access to platforms 1-4 is within TfL's permitted development rights, and so does not require planning permission.) TfL announced on 31 March 2009 that because of budgetary constraints the step-free scheme would be deferred.

Platform lengthening

In order to accommodate the new, longer S stock trains, which started operating certain Metropolitan line services in August 2010, platforms 1 and 4 have been extended.

Connections

London Bus routes 2, 13, 18, 27, 30, 74, 82, 113, 139, 189, 205, 274 and 453, and night routes N13, N18, N74, N113 and N205 serve the station. In addition, bus routes 27, 139, 189 and 453 have a 24-hour service.

Points of interest

• Royal Academy of Music
• Madame Tussauds
• Sherlock Holmes Museum

In popular culture

The excavation of Baker Street for the Underground can be seen in a scene of the 2011 film Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, set in 1891.

See also

• Baker Street (song) by Gerry Rafferty

External links

• Oldest Portion of Baker Street Station
  • (restoration)

Preceding station		London Underground		Following station
Marylebone towards Harrow & Wealdstone		Bakerloo line		Regent's Park towards Elephant & Castle
Edgware Road towards Hammersmith		Circle line		Great Portland Street towards Edgware Road (via Aldgate)
		Hammersmith & City line		Great Portland Street towards Barking
St. John's Wood towards Stanmore		Jubilee line		Bond Street towards Stratford
Finchley Road towards Amersham, Chesham, Uxbridge or Watford		Metropolitan line		Great Portland Street towards Aldgate
				Terminus
	Former services
Preceding station		London Underground		Following station
St. John's Wood towards Stanmore		Bakerloo line Stanmore branch (1939-1979)		Regent's Park towards Elephant & Castle
Lord's towards Amersham, Chesham, Uxbridge or Watford		Metropolitan line		Great Portland Street towards Aldgate
				Terminus