Bank and Monument stations

The Bank–Monument station complex was created by building links between several nearby stations constructed by different companies. The first station was opened by the Metropolitan Inner Circle Completion Railway. Metropolitan Inner Circle Completion Railway, 1884 The Metropolitan Railway (MR) and District Railway (DR) had, by 1876, built most of the Inner Circle (now the Circle line), reaching and respectively. The companies were in dispute over the completion of the route, for the DR was struggling financially and the MR was concerned that completion would affect its revenues through increased competition from the DR in the City area. City financiers who were keen to see the line completed established the Metropolitan Inner Circle Completion Railway in 1874 to link Mansion House to Aldgate. Forced into action, the MR bought out the company and with the DR began construction of the final section of the Inner Circle in 1879. The new section of railway included two new stations: Tower of London and another located close to the Monument. The station at Monument opened with the name "Eastcheap" on 6 October 1884, after the nearby street, and was renamed "The Monument" on 1 November 1884. Initially, trains from both companies served the station on the Inner Circle service, but other operational patterns have been used. In 1909, a new entrance was completed to a design by architect George Campbell Sherrin, which included a new entrance incorporating commercial space where the booking hall had previously been located. The Inner Circle service achieved a separate identity as the Circle line in 1949, although its trains were still provided by the District or Metropolitan lines. It remains one of the few sets of moving walkways on the whole Underground system, and the walls and ceilings of the sloped exits are often used for advertising. Monument link, 1933 , combined with the station roundel. The southern end of the C&SLR (which by then was part of the Edgware-Morden line) platforms was close to those of Monument station and, on 18 September 1933, a connecting escalator link was opened, connecting the two stations directly for the first time. Docklands Light Railway and station refurbishment, 1990s In 1991, the Docklands Light Railway was extended to Bank station, following criticism of the original, poorly connected terminus at Tower Gateway. The new platforms were built parallel to but deeper than those of the Northern line, with connections at one end to the Central line and Monument Station at the other. As part of the construction of the extension, a new link between the Waterloo & City and the Central line was excavated – uncovering part of one of the Greathead tunnelling shields used for the Waterloo & City line. This shield forms part of the new passageway, and passengers pass through when transferring between the two lines. As with all other DLR stations, the DLR platforms were made accessible to those in wheelchairs, however the route was indirect with the use of three different passenger lifts required to reach the DLR. The rest of the station was comprehensively refurbished, with decorative tiling panels based on the City's coat of arms, new lighting and replacement of escalators. This work was completed in 1997, partially funded by the City of London Corporation. New Bloomberg entrance, 2010s In the late 2010s, a new entrance was constructed at Bloomberg's new London headquarters on Walbrook, near station, providing direct access to the Waterloo & City line via four new escalators and two lifts – providing step-free access to that line for the first time. First announced in 2008, construction began in November 2015 following delays due to the financial crisis. The new entrance was opened on 30 November 2018, and was officially opened by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and former Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg in December 2018. The new entrance incorporates etched glass panels by artist John Hutton, depicting 66 figures based on the ancient Roman history of the area, including the Roman Temple of Mithras. The artwork was originally completed in 1962 on Bucklersbury House, the post war office building previously located on the site. == Station upgrade and expansion ==

Between 2003 and 2014, demand at the Bank–Monument station complex rose by over 50% to 337,000 customers per day. According to Transport for London, "areas of the station [were] close to 'saturation' point, where day-to-day demand overwhelms capacity". Unlike other congested stations such as Oxford Circus, passengers could not be held back at station entrances during peak times to avoid overwhelming the station, as around half of the passengers are interchanging between lines. The narrow passageways, pinch points, spiral staircases and indirect routes between lines exacerbated the high demand on the station. Some parts of the station operated "one way", with staff directing passengers on longer routes to increase the capacity of the station. • A new southbound platform for the Northern line and conversion of the existing southbound platform to passenger circulation space. • New direct passenger tunnel with moving walkways connecting the Northern line and Central line. • New escalators between the Northern line and the DLR • A new station entrance and ticket hall on Cannon Street, just east of St Mary Abchurch, with new escalators and step-free access to the Northern line and DLR. • Modernising the station to comply with contemporary fire and evacuation standards. between the train and the platform edge (delineated by the solid white line) Owing to the severe curvature of the Central line platforms, there is a substantial gap between the train and the platform. Because of this, no step-free access was included in the upgrade plan, as the cost would be prohibitive and the solution would be difficult for passengers to use. TfL described the construction of the project as "intricate and complicated", with over 30 listed buildings in the historic City of London located above the tunnels. The new southbound Northern line tunnel was dug from a worksite on King William Street, using the underground spaces left over from the closed King William Street tube station. Former running tunnels have previously been used as circulation space at Angel and London Bridge stations. As part of the development of the scheme, TfL worked with potential bidders to improve the design of the station from TfL's original design. The design proposed in the winning bid by Dragados was 9.7% cheaper than the original design (saving TfL £60million), took ten months less time to construct than the original design (the proposed closure of the Northern line was also five weeks shorter), and the layout of the station was more efficient. This improved the benefit–cost ratio by 45%, from 2.4:1 to 3.5:1. and a Transport and Works Act Order in 2015, construction of the new Northern line tunnel began in April 2016, and was estimated to take six years. By July 2019, the project had reached the halfway stage. By October 2020, the majority of tunnelling work, around , had been completed, with around 200,000 tonnes of material excavated from beneath the City. By July 2021, installation of escalators was underway, as well as preparation work to connect to the new Northern line tunnels in 2022. From January until mid May 2022, the Northern line through Bank was closed – this was required to allow the existing line to be connected to the new running tunnels, convert the previous southbound platform to a new passenger concourse, as well as final fit-out and integration works throughout the expanded station complex. On 15 May 2022, the new Northern line southbound platform and concourse was opened, the first part of the station expansion open to the public. On 13 October 2022, new escalators connecting the DLR and the Northern line opened. On 28 October 2022, a moving walkway between the Central and Northern lines was opened. These new connections cut the time taken to interchange between lines, as well as expanding the capacity of the station. The station has 27 escalators, the most of any station on the Underground. == Ticket halls and entrances ==

Following the opening of the Cannon Street entrance in 2023, the station complex has sixteen entrances and five ticket halls, • Bullring (Central line) ticket hall, located underneath Bank Junction. • Lombard Street (Northern line) ticket hall, located under Lombard Street. • Monument ticket hall, located under Monument Street adjacent to the Monument to the Great Fire of London, serving the District & Circle lines. • Walbrook ticket hall, at Bloomberg London, serving the Waterloo & City line. • Cannon Street ticket hall, on Cannon Street located just east of St Mary Abchurch. == Notable events ==

On 11 January 1941, during the Blitz, 56 people were killed and 69 were seriously injured when a German bomb hit the booking hall, with the blast travelling down the stairs and escalators to the platforms. The crater, measuring , was covered with a Bailey bridge for the traffic to pass over. The station itself was closed for two months. On 7 September 2003, Bank station was used for a disaster training exercise, Exercise Osiris, billed as "the most realistic live disaster exercise of its kind". The event, lasting several hours and involving about 500 police, fire brigade, ambulance and London Underground personnel, was intended to prepare the emergency services for mass decontamination in the event of a chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear attack. ==Connections==

A large number of London Buses routes serve the station complex day and night. ==References==