Whitechapel station

The East London Railway (ELR) opened their Whitechapel station on 10 April 1876. It coincided with the extension of the railway north from Wapping to Shoreditch and the extension of London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR) services to Liverpool Street and Croydon. The South Eastern Railway (SER) started running trains between Liverpool Street and Addiscombe Road on 1 April 1880. SER services ceased to call at the station from 3 March 1884 and were diverted to St Mary's (Whitechapel). The Great Eastern Railway (GER) took over running trains on the ELR from Liverpool Street in 1886. LBSCR trains from the south thereafter terminated at Whitechapel or Shoreditch. The District Railway (DR) opened their Whitechapel (Mile End) station adjacent to the ELR station on 6 October 1884. LBSCR services to Peckham Rye and south of New Cross were withdrawn on 30 June 1911. The ELR was fourth-rail electrified and electric service started at Whitechapel on 31 March 1913, with the Met providing trains between Shoreditch and the two New Cross stations. Met service was withdrawn from the W&B platforms. From 13 December 2009, off-peak Hammersmith & City line service was extended from Whitechapel to Barking with a daily all-day service at Whitechapel. In preparation for the extension of the East London line to and , the line north of Whitechapel to Shoreditch was closed on 9 June 2006. Services to Shoreditch had previously been run during peak hours and Sunday mornings only; these were replaced by a bus link. Work on the extension of the East London line commenced and the line was closed on 22 December 2007. It reopened on 27 April 2010 when tracks on a new alignment were connected to a disused North London line viaduct from Shoreditch to Dalston, making Whitechapel part of the London Overground network. Temporary bus services operated during the closure, of which rail replacement route ELW remained in service until the ELL fully opened on 23 May 2010. The southern extension of phase 1 from to and West Croydon was completed simultaneously with that to Dalston in 2010 and a full service began in May 2010. Owing to Crossrail work that took place at Whitechapel station, Night Overground services initially did not stop at that station until works were complete. From December 2019, Night Overground began to stop additionally at Whitechapel. When opened on 24 May 2022,services initially ran between Paddington and Abbey Wood only. Since 6 November 2022, the line splits into two branches just east of the station: one towards Shenfield, joining the Great Eastern Main Line just south of Stratford, and the other continuing to Abbey Wood The Elizabeth Line platforms lie to the north of the station, with access via escalators down from the intermediate concourse above the Overground tracks. ==Design==

The station entrance on Whitechapel Road is the original ELR facade from 1876. It is a three-storey building, and was unlike any other ELR station. The retaining walls of the London Overground platforms are also from 1876. The smaller, adjacent DR entrance from 1884 has been used as a retail unit since 1904. The District and Hammersmith & City line platforms are in the space that was occupied by the 1902 Cuthbert Arthur Brereton-designed W&BR station. This consisted of two island platforms with four platform faces. The earlier 1884 two-platform station had been built in a wide cutting. In the 2010s and early 2020s, the station was comprehensively rebuilt as part of the Crossrail project to a design by architects Building Design Partnership and Arcadis. The work was undertaken by a joint venture of Balfour Beatty, Morgan Sindall and Taylor Woodrow Construction. The work involved restoring the historic station entrance, building a new station concourse and ticket hall above the Underground and Overground tracks, widening the sub-surface line platforms, and providing an intermediate concourse above the Overground tracks – as well as platforms and other infrastructure for Elizabeth line services. Ten lifts provide step free access to all platforms, with three escalators providing access down to the Elizabeth line platforms. A new north-south, free public access route through the station is also provided, shortening journeys for local residents. Crossrail CEO Mark Wild stated that Whitechapel was “one of the most challenging Elizabeth Line stations to construct”, Artwork In 1997, vitreous enamel panels designed by Doug Patterson were installed on the East London line (now part of the London Overground) platforms. On the Elizabeth line platforms, colourful paper collages of local residents by Chantal Joffe have been recreated in aluminium. This work is titled "A Sunday afternoon in Whitechapel". The Crossrail ventilation shaft on Durward Street behind the station is decorated with dots in a pattern of a bell peel, referencing the nearby Whitechapel Bell Foundry. It is one of the relatively few stations in England to have bilingual signage. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan stated that he was "delighted" that the signage was installed ahead of Bangladesh Independence Day on 26 March. However, it has also faced opposition, such as from Susan Hall, the former Conservative mayoral candidate in 2024; critics argue that Bengali is not an official language of the United Kingdom, and that station signs should be limited to native languages. == Location ==

The station is located on Whitechapel Road in the Whitechapel neighbourhood of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is served by London Buses routes 25, 205, 254, D3 and night routes N25, N205 and N253. ==Services==

Services at Whitechapel are operated by the Elizabeth line; the Windrush line of the London Overground; and the District and Hammersmith & City lines of the London Underground. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour (tph) is: With 17.51 million entries and exits in 2024, it was ranked the 29th busiest London Underground station. ==Notes==