Finsbury Park station

From Freepedia

Image:Finsburypark3b.jpg Finsbury Park station is a busy and often chaotic transport interchange in north London, between two London Underground lines (the Piccadilly Line and the Victoria Line), National Rail and two bus stations, one on each side of the railway station. National Rail services are currently supplied by WAGN. The tube and rail stations are in Travelcard Zone 2.

It is close to Finsbury Park, one of the oldest of London's Victorian parks, and the Finsbury Park mosque. It is also used by many Arsenal supporters on matchdays, as the club's ground is just a short walk away, along Blackstock Road.

The underground station opened in February 1904 as the northern terminus of the Great Northern & City Railway. The Piccadilly tube opened its platforms just under three years later in December 1906. In 1964 the Northern City platforms closed and the southbound Piccadilly Line was diverted through one of the Northern City platforms. In 1968 the Victoria Line opened using the two remaining platforms, allowing cross-platform interchange between the two lines in both directions. The southbound platform tunnel is larger than the northbound, having been built for the larger trains of the Northern City.

Finsbury Park was also to have had a high level platform for the Northern Heights extension to the Northern City line - which was to have run to Alexandra Palace and Highgate but was never completed. The platform bridge for this extension was removed in the early 1970's

Although thought of as a 'deep-level' tube station, Finsbury Park has neither lifts nor escalators as its lines are less than 20' below street level. The access to the Piccadilly and Victoria line platforms is by staircase only, reached via two narrow passages that probably exclude the installation of automatic ticket barriers - remarkable, considering its Zone 2 location. manual ticket inspections do, however, occasionally take place.

External links

Train times and station information for Finsbury Park station from National Rail
Street map and aerial photo of Finsbury Park station from Multimap.com

Preceding station	Underground Lines		Following station
Arsenal		Piccadilly Line	Manor House
Highbury & Islington		Victoria Line	Seven Sisters
	Image:British Rail.gif National Rail
King's Cross		WAGN	Harringay
Drayton Park		WAGN	Harringay