Angel tube station

Angel tube station is a London Underground station in The Angel, Islington. It is on the Bank branch of the Northern Line, between Old Street and King's Cross St. Pancras stations. It is in Travelcard Zone 1. The tube stop serves as a portal to several Off West End, or fringe theatre, venues, including The King's Head Theatre and Almeida Theatre. Between Angel and Old Street stations is the disused City Road station.

History
Angel station was originally built by the City & South London Railway, and opened in 1901 as the northern terminus of a new extension from Moorgate. It is one of five stations on the London Underground named after a public house - in this case the once-famous Angel inn, which dates back to at least 1638. As with many other stations on the line, it was originally built with a single central island platform serving two tracks – an arrangement still seen at Clapham North and Clapham Common – and access from street level was via lifts. The most recent lifts were of the Otis "drum hoist" design used throughout the rest of the tube system, but were of about half the size. For years, the station regularly suffered from congestion and overcrowding which, especially with the incredibly narrow island platform (barely twelve feet in width), constituted a major safety issue. Consequently, the station was comprehensively rebuilt, re-opening in 1992. A new section of tunnel was excavated for a new northbound platform and the southbound platform was rebuilt to completely occupy the original 30-foot tunnel, explaining why it is larger than most deep-level platforms. The lifts and the ground level building originally on the corner of Torrens Street and City Road were closed and a new station entrance was opened around the corner in Islington High Street. Because of the distance of the new entrance from the platforms, and their depth, two flights of escalators were required aligned approximately at a right-angle.

Future
Angel is a proposed station on the Chelsea-Hackney line project. It would be between King's Cross St Pancras and Essex Road. It was officially safeguarded as part of the route in 2007 although has been planned for some time; during the station's rebuild a mid-level concourse was built for this reason rather than having the escalators descend directly to the platform level. This would therefore provide an interchange between the two London Underground lines.

Transports links
London Bus routes 4, 19, 30, 38, 43, 56, 73, 153, 205, 214, 274, 341, 394, 476 and Night routes N19, N38, N41 and N73.